looked upon as the best kind. Next to the litchi and the mango, it appeared to me the best fruit in Amboyna. They have several species of the litchi, among which ought to be reckoned the nephelium lappaceum, or the ramb-outan of the Malays. Those celebrated botanists, Linnæus, Jussieu and Gærtner, were mistaken in the classification of that genus; doubtless, because they had not an opportunity of examining its parts of fructification, in a state of perfection.
Linnæus has classed it among the euphorbia, Jussieu among the composites, and Gærtner among the amentaceæ; but it evidently belongs to the tribe of soap-berry trees (Sapindus saponaria, Linn.).
The same restrictive system, which we experienced at the Cape of Good Hope, also prevails at Amboyna. In order to prevent any augmentation in the price of commodities, the Company undertook to furnish us with provisions; and gave the natives a trifling price, for articles which they sold to us at a very great advance.
The Dutch have transformed a custom still more pernicious into a law, which authorizes the chiefs employed by the Company to take from the natives, without any payment, the provisions necessary for their daily consumption. Nothing can be imagined more oppressive than
this
