AMBOY'NA (Malay APON.or MAU. The most important of the :Moluccas, belonging to the Dutch. and lying southwest from Ceram. and northwest from Banda. The island cove's an area of 264 square miles and is divided by the bay of Amboyna into two unequal peninsulas (Slap: East India Islands, G 5), }Mu, the larger, and the smaller. The surface is highly mountainous,and traversed by numerous streams abounding in fish. The soil is fertile and pro duces coffee, pepper, indigo, and rice. But the main product of the island is the clove, which grows there in abundance, and constitutes the chief article of commerce. A great part of the island is covered with forests full of valuable woods. The inhabitants in 1891 numbered 30. 380. They are physically and linguistically :Malayan. although some Papuan admixture from Ceram has occurred. They have also some Portu guese blood. Their language contains a consider able Portuguese element. and their religion is Protestantism (introduced by the Dutch), with the addition of rites and ceremonies borrowed from the Portuguese Catholics. and inherited
from their aboriginal past. The residency of Am boyna comprises besides the Amboyna Island, the southern Moluccas. the Banda group (q.v.). Ceram, Burn. Kei islands (q.v.). Aru Islands, and a few other islands, with a total ' area of over 18.000 square miles and a popula tion of over 200.000. The capital of the island and of the residency is Amboyna (q.v.) The his tory of Amboyna is similar to that of the Moluc cas, except for the massacre of the British set tlers by the Dutch in 1623, for which the Dutch Governinent was compelled by Cromwell in 1654 to pay the sum of £300,000, in addition to a small island. as a compenAation to the families of the massacred. Consult: The Barbarous Proceed ings Against the English at Amboyna (London, Beaumont. Dutch Alliances (London. 7121 ; Verbeek, "Over de geologic van Ambon," in volumes 6 and 7, Koninlaijhe akademic ran teetenschappen (Am --te Edam, 1899).