tropical spices.
the cinnamon gardens of ceylon—immense profits of the dutch—decline of the trade—neglected state of the gardens—nutmegs and cloves—cruel monopoly of the dutch—a spice fire in amsterdam—the clove tree—beauty of an avenue of clove trees—the nutmeg tree—mace—the pepper vine—the pimento tree.
although the beautiful laurel whose bark furnishes the most exquisite of all the spices of the east, is indigenous to the forests of ceylon, yet, as no author previous to the fourteenth century mentions its aromatic rind among the productions of the island, there is every reason to believe that the cinnamon, which in the earlier ages was imported into europe through arabia, was obtained first from africa, and afterwards from india. that the portuguese, who had been mainly attracted to the east by the fame of its spices, were nearly twenty years in india before they took steps to obtain a footing at colombo, proves that there can have been nothing very remarkable in the quality of the spice at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and that the high reputation of the ceylon cinnamon is comparatively modern, and attributable to the attention bestowed upon its preparation for market by the portuguese, and afterwards on its cultivation by the dutch.
long after the appearance of europeans in ceylon, cinnamon was only found in the forests of the interior, where it was cut and brought away by the chalias, an emigrant tribe which, in consideration of its location in villages, was bound to go into198 the woods to cut and deliver, at certain prices, a given quantity of cinnamon properly peeled and ready for exportation.
this system remained unchanged so long as portugal was master of the country, but the forests in which the spice was found being exposed to constant incursions from the kandyans, the dutch were compelled to form enclosed plantations of their own within range of their fortresses. the native chieftains, fearful of losing the profits derived from the labour of the chalias, who were attached as serfs to their domains, and whose work they let out to the dutch, were at first extremely opposed to this innovation, and endeavoured to persuade the hollanders that the cinnamon would degenerate as soon as it was artificially planted. the withering of many of the young trees seemed to justify the assertion, but on a closer examination it was found that boiling water had been poured upon the roots. a law was now passed declaring the wilful injury of a cinnamon plant a crime punishable with death, and by this severity the project was saved.
the extent of the trade during the time of the dutch may be inferred from the fact, that the five principal cinnamon-gardens around nejombo, colombo, barberyn, galle, and maduro were each from fifteen to twenty miles in circumference. although they were only first planted in the year 1770, yet before 1796, when colombo was taken by the english, their annual produce amounted to more than 400,000 lbs. of cinnamon, as much as the demands of the market required.
the profits must have been enormous, for cinnamon was then at least ten times dearer than at present, the trade being exclusively in the hands of the dutch east indian company, which, in order to keep up the price, restricted the production to a certain quantity, and watched over its monopoly with the most jealous tyranny. no one was allowed to plant cinnamon or to peel it, and the selling or importing of a single stick was punished as a capital offence. since that time the cultivation of the cinnamon laurel having been introduced into many other tropical lands, competition has reduced prices, and the spice which was formerly the main product of ceylon is now of very inferior importance. the cinnamon-gardens, whose beauty and luxuriance has been so often vaunted by travellers, have partly been sold, partly leased to private individuals, and though less199 than a century has elapsed since they were formed by the dutch, they are already becoming a wilderness. those which surround colombo on the land side exhibit the effects of a quarter of a century of neglect, and produce a feeling of disappointment and melancholy. the beautiful shrubs which furnish this spice have been left to the wild growth of nature, and in some places are entirely supplanted by an undergrowth of jungle, while in others a thick cover of climbing plants and other parasites conceals them under masses of verdure and blossom. it would, however, be erroneous to suppose that the cinnamon-gardens have been universally doomed to the same neglect. thus professor schmarda, who visited mr. stewart’s plantation two miles to the south of colombo, admired the beautiful order in which it was kept. a reddish sandy clay and fine white quartz sand form the soil of the plantation. white sand is considered as the best ground for the cinnamon tree to grow on, but it requires an abundance of rain (which is never wanting in the south-western part of the island), much sun, and many termites. for these otherwise so destructive creatures do not injure the cinnamon trees, but render themselves useful by destroying many other insects. they consequently remain unmolested, and everywhere raise their high conical mounds in the midst of the plantation. the aspect of a well-conditioned cinnamon-garden is rather monotonous, for though the trees when left to their full growth attain a height of forty or fifty feet, yet, as the best spice is furnished by the shoots that spring from the roots after the chief stem has been removed, they are kept as a kind of coppice, and not allowed to rise higher than ten feet.
nutmegs and cloves, the costly productions of the remotest isles of the indian ocean, were known in europe for centuries before the countries where they grow had ever been heard of. arabian navigators brought them to egypt, where they were purchased by the venetians, and sold at an enormous profit to the nations of the west. but, as is well known, the commercial grandeur of the city of the lagunes was suddenly eclipsed after vasco de grama discovered the new maritime road to the east indies, round the cape of good hope (1498); and when, a few years later, the countrymen of the great navigator conquered the moluccas (1511), they for a short time monopolised200 the whole spice trade much more than their predecessors had ever done before. but here also, as in ceylon, the portuguese were soon obliged to yield to a stronger rival; for the dutch now appeared upon the scene, and by dint of enterprise and courage soon made themselves masters of the indian ocean. in 1605 they drove the portuguese from amboyna, and before 1621 had elapsed the whole of the moluccas were in their possession. five-and-twenty years later, ceylon also fell into their hands, and thus they became the sole purveyors of europe with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmegs. unfortunately, the scandalous manner in which they misused their power throws a dark shade over their exploits. for the better to secure the monopoly of the spice trade, they declared war against nature itself, allowed the trees to grow only in particular places, and extirpated them everywhere else. thus the planting of the nutmeg tree was confined to the small islands of banda, lonthoir, and pulo aij, and that of the clove to amboyna. wherever the trees were seen to grow in a wild state they were unsparingly rooted up, and the remainder of the moluccas were occupied and subjugated for no other reason. the natives were treated with unmerciful cruelty, and blood flowed in torrents to keep up the prices of cloves and nutmegs at an usurious height.
when the spices accumulated in too large a quantity for the market, they were thrown into the sea or destroyed by fire. thus m. beaumare, a french traveller, relates that on june 10, 1760, he beheld near the admiralty at amsterdam a blazing pile of cinnamons and cloves, valued at four millions of florins, and an equal quantity was to be burnt the next day. the air was perfumed with their delicious fragrance, the essential oils freed from their confinement distilled over, mixing in one spicy stream, which flowed at the feet of the spectators; but no one was suffered to collect any of this, or, on pain of heavy punishment, to rescue the smallest quantity of the spice from the flames.
fortunately these distressing scenes—for it is painful to see man, under the impulse of an insatiable greed, thus wilfully destroying the gifts of nature—belong to the history of the past. the reign of monopoly has ceased even in the remote moluccas, and their ports are now, at length, thrown open to201 the commerce of all nations; for the spice trees having been transplanted into countries beyond the control of the dutch, the ancient system could not possibly be maintained any longer.
the clove tree belongs to the far-spread family of the myrtles; the small lanceolate evergreen leaves resemble those of the laurel, the flowers growing in bunches at the extremity of the branches. when they first appear, which is at the beginning of the rainy season, they are in the form of elongated greenish buds, from the extremity of which the corolla is expanded, which is of a delicate peach-blossom colour. the corolla having fallen off, the calyx turns yellow, and then red; when it is beaten from the tree, and dried in the sun. if the fruit be allowed to remain longer on the tree the calyx or clove gradually swells, the embryo seed enlarges, and the pungent properties of the clove are in great part dissipated.
the whole tree is highly aromatic, and the foot-stalks of the leaves have nearly the same pungent quality as the calyx of the flowers. ‘clove trees,’ says sir stamford raffles, ‘as an avenue to a residence, are perhaps unrivalled—their noble height, the beauty of their form, the luxuriance of their foliage, and, above all, the spicy fragrance with which they perfume the air, produce, on driving through a long line of them, a degree of exquisite pleasure only to be enjoyed in the clear light atmosphere of the eastern archipelago.’
in spite of the endeavours of the dutch to confine the nutmeg tree to the narrow precincts of banda, it has likewise extended its range not only over sumatra, mauritius, bourbon, and ceylon, but even over the western hemisphere. it is of a more majestic growth than the clove, as it attains a height of fifty feet, and the leaves of a fine green on the upper surface, and grey beneath, are more handsome in the outline, and broader in proportion to the length. when the trees are about nine years old, they begin to bear. they are diœcious, having male or barren flowers upon one tree, and female or fertile upon another. the flowers of both are small, white, and bell-shaped; the embryo-fruit appearing at the bottom of the female flowers in the form of a little reddish knob. when ripe, it resembles in appearance and size a small peach, and then the outer rind, which is about half an inch thick, bursts202 at the side, and discloses a shining black nut, which seems the darker from the contrast of the leafy network of a fine red colour with which it is enveloped. the latter forms the mace of commerce, and having been laid to dry in the shade for a short time, is packed in bags and pressed together very tightly.
nutmeg.
the shell of the nut is larger and harder than that of the filbert, and could not, in the state in which it is gathered, be broken without injuring the nut. on that account the nuts are successively dried in the sun and then by fire-heat, till the kernel shrinks so much as to rattle in the shell, which is then easily broken.
although not so costly as cloves or cinnamon, pepper is of a much greater commercial value, as its consumption is at least a hundred times greater. it grows on a beautiful vine, which, incapable of supporting itself, twines round poles or mango and other trees of straight high stems. as these are stripped of the lower branches, the vine embraces the trunk, covering it with elegant festoons and rich bunches of fruit in the style of the italian vineyards.
pepper plant.
the leaf of the pepper plant is large, resembling that of the ivy, and of a bright green; the blossoms appear in june, soon after the commencement of the rains; they are small, of a greenish white, and are followed by the pungent berries, which hang in large bunches, resembling in shape those of grapes, but the fruit grows distinct on little stalks like currants.
this valuable spice grows chiefly on the malabar coast, in sumatra, borneo, java, singapore; its cultivation has also been introduced in cayenne and the west indies. the black and white sorts of pepper are both the produce of the same plant.
203 the best white peppers are supposed to be the finest berries, which drop from the tree, and, lying under it, become somewhat bleached by exposure to weather; the greater part of the white pepper used as a condiment is, however, the black merely steeped in water, and decorticated, by which means the pungency and real value of the spice are diminished; but having a fairer and more uniform appearance when thus prepared, it fetches a higher price.
jamaica is the chief seat of the magnificent myrtle (myrtus pimenta), which furnishes the pimento of commerce. this beautiful tree grows to the height of about thirty feet, with a smooth, brown trunk, and shining green leaves resembling those of the bay. in july and august a profusion of white flowers, filling the air with their delicious odours, forms a very pleasing contrast to the dark foliage of its wide-spreading branches. it grows spontaneously in many parts of the island, particularly on the northern side, in high spots near the coast.
when a new plantation is to be formed, no regular planting or sowing takes place, for, as edwards (‘history of jamaica’) observes, ‘the pimento tree is purely a child of nature, and seems to mock all the labours of man in his endeavours to extend or improve its growth; not one attempt in fifty to propagate the young plants, or to raise them from the seeds in parts of the country where it is not found growing spontaneously, having succeeded. for this reason, a piece of land is chosen, either in the neighbourhood of a plantation already formed, or in a part of the woodland where the pimento-myrtles are scattered in a native state. the land is then cleared of all wood but these trees, which are left standing, and the felled timber is allowed to remain, where it falls to decay, and perishes. in the course of a year, young pimento plants are found springing up on all parts of the land, produced, it is supposed, in consequence of the ripe berries having been scattered there by the birds, while the prostrate trees protect and shade the tender seedlings. at the end of two years the land is thoroughly cleared, and none but the most vigorous plants, which come to maturity in about seven years, are left standing.’
the berries are carefully picked while yet green, since, when suffered to ripen, they lose their pungency. one person on the tree gathers the small branches, and three others, usually women204 and children, find full employment in picking the berries from them. the produce is then exposed to the sun for about a week, when the berries lose their green hue and become of a reddish brown. when perfectly dry, they are in a fit state for exportation. in favourable seasons, which, however, seldom occur above once in five years, the pimento crop is enormous, a single tree having been known to yield one hundredweight of the dried spice. from its combining the flavour and properties of many of the oriental aromatics, pimento has derived its popular name of allspice, and, from its being cheaper than black pepper, its consumption is very great.
