i, 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
Serrao and Simao Affonso, in command of two of the vessels. The pilots
were Luis Botim, Goncalo 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 Agacai, which Valentijn identifies with Gresik, near
Sourabaya. At Agacai, 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. Galvao 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 Serrao, 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
Lutatao, 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 Molu