THE nine small, jewel-like volcanic islands of the Banda Group, 160 kilometers southeast of Ambon, became world famous from the 17th to 19th centuries as the original Spice Islands of the Dutch colonial history.

These were the islands Christopher Columbus was heading for in 1492 when the American continent got in his way. Thinking he had landed in the East Indies, he called the American natives he first encountered Indians.

For their size, populati