AMBOINA is a Dutch Residency of the Government of the Moluccas, area 198,367 sq.km., and is the name of the capital and the island on which it is situated. Formerly a separate residency, in 1927 it was united with Ternate Residency to form the Govern ment of the Moluccas. Amboina includes the island of that name, Saparua (with Haruku, Oma, Melano and Nusa Laut—the Uliassers) ; Kajeli (Buru) ; Masareti (Buru) ; Kairatu (Ceram) ; Wahai (North mid-Ceram) ; Amahai (South mid-Ceram) ; the Banda Isles, with East Ceram, Ceram Laut and the Goram Archi pelago ; the islands of Aru, Ke, and Tenimber, or Timor Laut ; West and South New Guinea, and the South-Western Islands. Pop. (1930) 400,057, comprising 3,803 Europeans (including Eurasians), natives, and 7,50o foreign Asiatics, includ ing Chinese. The area is about 2o,000sq.m. Imports (1925) 3,717,778 guilders; exports 4,15 2,141. Amboina. lies S.W. of Ceram, N. of the Banda Sea. Two oblong peninsulas, Hitoe much larger than Leitimor, rise parallel from the sea, and are united by a narrow alluvial isthmus not more than a mile long. The total length of the island is 32m., and its area is 386sq.m. It is subject to damage from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as are the neighbouring isles to the east, the Uliassers (pop., 20,000, largely Christian) . Amboina is of Tertiary (Miocene) formation, and is traversed by mountain ranges (highest peaks Salhatu, 4,929ft., and Wawani) of fine-grained granite, with serpentine, magnesite, etc. The chalk cliffs round Amboina Bay have stalactite caves; the rivers are small and unnavigable, there are hot springs and solfaturas, but no active volcanoes. The cli mate is comparatively healthy and not unpleasant, the mean maxi mum temperature being 84.6° and the mean minimum whilst a minimum of 66.6° has been registered. The hottest time is in February, the wettest in June–July (during the east mon soon with very strong winds) and the average yearly rainfall is 135.63 in. The mammalian fauna of Amboina is very poor, but birds include a fine racquet-tailed kingfisher, Tanysiptera nais, described by A. R. Wallace as "the largest and handsomest" of this family. It has also a crimson Tory, Eos rubra, and a brush tongued parrot, of vivid crimson colour, and it is rich in insects, particularly Lepidoptera, and in shells. There are 700 varieties of fish in the Bay of Amboina, under which, at the eastern end, are very fine marine gardens. The profuse vegetation varies on different sides of the island. Spice trees are grown, principally clove and nutmeg, fruit trees, and coconut palms, maize, sugar cane, rice, also coffee and cocoa. Cloves and copra are the chief exports. The natives live largely on fruit and vegetables and sago —the sago being imported from Ceram. Amboina wood, very hard and knotty, and of great value for ornamental wood-work, is obtained from Ceram, and exported. Goats and sheep are kept, and pigs in the Christian villages, fishing provides a living for a numerous class, and shells and turtle-shells are collected. Pop. 114,297 (Europeans and Eurasians 2,290), almost entirely Christian in the south and Mohammedan in the north. The Amboinese are a strong and thick-set race, with dark skin, curly or wavy hair, flat nose and thick lips. The women are slender in build, but not good-looking. The men wear a cotton jacket and trousers ; the women a sarong and kabayah.
Amboina, the town, and residence of the Resident and Com mander of the forces in the Moluccas, is a clean and well-built place, with wide, straight streets, often tree-lined, and many houses and business premises of stone; Ft. Victoria, built in the early 17th century and restored later ; a church dating from the earliest settlement, a hospital, barracks (within the fort), and many Government buildings, a commodious club, and two good parks. In Amboina G. E. Rumph (Rumphius) the well-known naturalist, lived and died, and a monument commemorates the fact. The town is at the head of the bay, which, at its entrance, is 53m. in width and continues so for Iom., when it contracts and forms a narrow passage leading into an inner harbour 3m. long by I4 broad. The town and port is on the eastern side of the bay, a mile short of the entrance to the inner harbour and about 8m. from the outer entrance. The depths in the outer bay are very great and anchorages are few, but safe. The port is well equipped with wharves and warehouses, has a regular connection with Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes, as well as with the rest of the archipelago, and is the chief centre for the shipment of Moluccan produce and for the distribution of imports from Europe and America. Pop. 11,726-1,453 Europeans (and Eurasians), 8,804 natives, and 1,469 foreign Asiatics, including Chinese, engaged in agriculture, fisheries and trade. There are roads sufficient for local needs, a government wireless station and a telephone system. . The clove trade of Amboina led the Portuguese to the island, Antonio d'Abreu arriving there and departing with a cargo of cloves in the same year (I 510) as that in which Albuquerque captured Malacca. The Portuguese gave the place its name and founded a settlement (1521), but their policy of ruthless repression made it easy for the Dutch to arrange with the Sultan of Ternate, recognizing him as suzerain over Amboina and other Moluccan islands, and, in 160o, with the chiefs of Amboina. This enabled them first to dispossess the Portuguese and then to bring the Amboinese within their power. In 1615 a British settlement was formed on the other side of the island at Cambello (the Dutch were on the Amboina town site) and it remained there until 1623, when the Dutch, who aimed at establishing a clove monopoly, claimed to have discovered British participation in a native revolt in Ceram, and in the Bandanese island of Run, and massacred the settlers. The massacre was unnoticed by James I., but in 1654 Cromwell compelled the Dutch government to give the sum of L300,000, and the island of Run, as compensa tion to the descendants of those who had suffered. Dryden (1673) wrote a tragedy, Amboyna, or the Cruelties of the Dutch to the English Merchants. In 1683 the Dutch declared all con tracts with the Sultan of Ternate void, and took over his suze rainty of Moluccan islands, Amboina included. In 1796 the Brit ish, under Admiral Rainier captured the island, but it was restored in 1802, re-taken in 181o, during the Napoleonic War, and once again restored to the Dutch in 1814. (E. E. L.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-G. W. W. C. van Hoevell, Ambon, en meer bepaalBibliography.-G. W. W. C. van Hoevell, Ambon, en meer bepaal- delijk de Oeliassers (Dordrecht, 1875) ; A. R. Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, 189o; K. Martin, Reisen in den Molukken, in Ambon, den Uliassern, Seran, and Buru (Leyden, 1894) ; O. Beccari, Nuova Guinea, Selebes, e Molucche (Florence, 1924) .