The islands of the Banda Sea, with the exception of Letti, Kisser, and
Wetter, constitute the Ceram sub-group or the Moluccan group; the
principal units are Buru, Amboyna, Great Banda, Ceram, Ceram Laut,
Goram, Kur, Babar, and Dama. The Matabela Islands, the Tiandu Islands,
the Ké Islands, and the Tenimber Islands also belong to the Ceram
sub-group. We are only concerned with the Banda Islands, which are eight
in number, and consist of four central islands in close proximity to one
another, inclosing a little inland sea, and four outlying islets. The
central islands are Lonthoir, or Great Banda, Banda Neira, Gounong Api,
which is an active volcano, and Pisang. The remaining Banda Islands are
Rozengain, which lies about ten miles distant to the south-east of Great
Banda; Wai, at an equal distance to the west; Rhun, about eight miles
west by south from Wai; and Suangi or Manukan, about seventeen miles
north by east from Rhun.
The Banda Islands are well known as the principal centre of the
cultivation of the nutmeg. When the Dutch East India Company became the
possessors of the islands in the beginning of the seventeenth century,
they destroyed the nutmeg trees in all the islands under their
jurisdiction, with the exception of those in Amboyna and the Banda
Islands. By doing so they hoped to maintain the high value of these
natural products.
The Banda Islands may have been visited by Varthema, but our first
reliable account of them connects the discovery of them with an
expedition dispatched by order of Alfonso de Albuquerque from Malacca.
Shortly after Albuquerque had defeated the Malays and taken possession
of that city, he sent three vessels, under the command of Antonio de
Abreu, to explore the Archipelago and to inaugurate a trade with the
islanders. A junk, commanded by a native merchant captain, Ismael by
name, preceded the other vessels for the purpose of announcing their
approaching advent to the traders of the Archipelago, so that they might
have their spices ready for shipment. With De Abreu went Francisco
Serrão and Simão Affonso, in command of two of the vessels. The pilots
were Luis Botim, Gonçalo de Oliveira, and Francisco Rodriguez or Roiz.
Abreu left Malacca in November, 1511, at which season the westerly
monsoon begins to blow. He steered a south-easterly course, passed
through the Strait of Sabong, and having arrived at the coast of Java,
he cast anchor at Agaçai, which Valentijn identifies with Gresik, near
Sourabaya. At Agaçai, Javan pilots were engaged for the voyage thence to
the Banda Islands. Banda was, however, not the first port of call. The
course was first to Buru, and thence to Amboyna. Galvão relates that
Abreu landed at Guli Guli, which is in Ceram. Barros, however, in his
account of the voyage, makes no mention of Ceram. At Amboyna the ship
commanded by Francisco Serrão, an Indian vessel which had been captured
at Goa, was burnt, for, says Barros, 'she was old,' and the ship's
company was divided between the two other ships, which then proceeded to
Lutatão, which is perhaps identical with Ortattan, a trading station on
the north coast of Great Banda. Here Abreu obtained a cargo of nutmegs
and mace and of cloves, which had been brought hither from the Moluccas.
At Lutatão Abreu erected a pillar in token of annexation to the
dominions of the King of Portugal. He had done this at Agaçai and in
Amboyna also.
The return voyage to Malacca was marked by disaster. A junk, which now
was bought to replace the Indian vessel, was wrecked, and the crew, who
had taken refuge on a small island, was attacked by pirates. The
pirates, however, were worsted and their craft was captured. Serrão, who
had been in command of the junk, sailed in the pirate vessel to Amboyna,
and thence eventually reached Ternate, where he remained at the
invitation of Boleife, the Sultan of that island. The junk, of which
Ismael was the skipper, was also wrecked near Tuban, but the cargo,
consisting of cloves, was recovered in 1513 from the Javans, who had
taken possession of it.
Zoologically the Banda Islands lie within Wallace's Australian Region,
and their avifauna has a great affinity with that of Australia. Wallace
visited these islands in December 1857, May 1859, and April 1861, and
collected eight species of birds, namely, _Rhipidura squamata_, a
fan-tailed Flycatcher; _Pachycephala phæonota_, a thickhead; _Myzomela
boiei_, a small scarlet-headed honey-eater; _Zosterops chloris_, a
white-eye; _Pitta vigorsi_, one of the brightly-coloured ground thrushes
of the Malayan region; _Halcyon chloris_, a kingfisher with a somewhat
extensive range; _Ptilopus xanthogaster_, a fruit-eating pigeon, and the
nutmeg pigeon, _Carpophaga concinna_. The islands were visited by the
members of the _Challenger_ expedition in September and October, 1874,
but the only additional species then obtained was _Monarcha
cinerascens_, also a Flycatcher.
These birds may be regarded as the resident birds of the Banda Islands,
but there are others which are occasional visitants or migrants. Indeed,
in seas so full of islands, it is inevitable that wanderers from other
islands should occasionally visit the group.
To those which I have already mentioned there may therefore be added, as
of less frequency, the accipitrine bird, _Astur polionotus_, the
Hoary-backed Goshawk; the Passeres _Edoliisoma dispar_, a Caterpillar
Shrike, the skin of a male of which from Great Banda is in the Leyden
Museum, and _Motacilla melanope_, the Grey Wagtail. Of picarian birds
there have been found _Cuculus intermedius_, the Oriental Cuckoo;
_Eudynamis cyanocephala_ sub-species _everetti_, a small form of the
Koel, and _Eurystomus australis_, the Australian Roller. João de Barros,
in his _Asia_, mentions the parrots of the Banda Islands,[5] and we find
accordingly that one of the Psittaci is recorded from Banda in modern
times, namely, _Eos rubra_, a red, or rather a crimson lory. The
ornithologist Müller saw many of these birds in Great Banda, on the
Kanary trees. Additional pigeons are the seed-eating _Chalcophaps
chrysochlora_ and the fruit-eating _Ptilonopus wallacei_, and finally
there is one gallinaceous bird which is probably resident, but the shy
and retiring habits of which have enabled it to escape observation until
recently. This is a Scrub Fowl (_Megapodius duperreyi_).
[5] III. v. 6. 'Muitos papagayos & passaros diversos.'