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Archiver > CARIBBEAN > 2003-06 > 1054498184


From: "Russ Campbell" <>
Subject: RE: Grenada Nutmegs
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2003 16:09:57 -0400
In-Reply-To: <MABBKAIOJGAMIENKJCPLGECLCEAA.david.watson@canada.com>


Giles Milton has written a fascinating history of the nutmeg
from an English viewpoint -- Nathaniel's Nutmeg, How One Man's
Courage Changed the Course of History. Hodder & Stoughton,
1999. ISBN 0 340 69676 1.

Cheers,

Russ
--------------------------------------
Persevere

Russell G. Campbell
Burlington, ON, Canada
My Home page: www.it4biz.com/omnibus
My Magazine: http://www.it4biz.com/omnibus/PortOfCall
My Blog: http://www.it4biz.com/omnibus/rantrave
My Genealogy: http://www.it4biz.com/omnibus/genealogy



-----Original Message-----
From: David Watson [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2003 7:04 PM
To:

I hope this gets through to the newsgroup. My last message on
place names
seem to have disappeared into the ether.

I've been following the discussion on nutmegs with some
interest and was
glad to see Edward dealing with the Bank-Wallen issue. He sent
me
transcripts of these letters some time ago, I dare say years,
and they were
most interesting.

The received wisdom you read on travel sites and in recent
histories of
Grenada seems to be based on a paper written by the late Dr
Groome in 1967.
Dr Groome was a zoologist who spent his working life in
Grenada. He may the
most eminent Grenadian natural historian of the 20th century -
not saying
much, you may say. Well, perhaps not, but he had many contacts
in the UK, at
Kew, and throughout the West Indies to home he sent sample and
with whom he
communicated regularly. I expect they enjoyed the odd holiday
at his home on
the south east west corner of the island. He was finally
imposed upon to
write a book, though I expect it was hell for those who wanted
it written -
I think for the visit to Grenada for UK royals. It's called
"The Natural
History of Grenada" and I have it beside me as I write. Dr
Groome was an
academic, a "character" and a colleague of mine when I taught
at the GBSS.
He has a beach named after him; if your from Grenada you've
probably heard
of him.

To get back to his paper, it's called "The nutmeg story" and
is re-published
in his book, which was published in 1970 (out of print now,
I'm afraid.)

I just want to point out some Groome "facts." He says the
French tried to
crack the Dutch nutmeg monopoly in 1769. An expedition to the
Moluccas
resulted in 400 nutmeg trees, 10,000 nutmegs, either growing
or ready to
grow, 70 clove trees and a chest of cloves which were planted
in Mauritius
in 1770, in a variety of soils. Everything failed.

According to Dr Groome, however, the British East India
Company sent someone
to the Moluccas to collect nutmeg for planting in Penning
Island in 1796,
where they flourished for many years. He says that other
planting were
attempted, with various degrees of success in Calcutta,
Madras, Brazil and
several West Indian islands.

Dr Groome makes many interesting points in his paper, which I
won't quote.
He identifies the individuals and estates associated with
Grenada nutmeg
from 1843. But he also points out that nutmegs had been
established in many
West Indian islands by 1824. Apparently one of the first trees
planted in
the Trinidad botanical gardens was a nutmeg brought from St
Vincent. He does
say, however, that at this point, nutmegs were of no
commercial
significance. George Brizan, in his history of the island,
notes that
commercial nutmeg production dates from 1860 - 1878 production
was 470 cwts,
by 1929 it had reached 22,666 cwts and accounted for 22% of
world exports.

I won't go into the esoteric details of estate ownership,
sugar's decline
and the rise and importance of the nutmeg. I just would like
to defend Dr
Groome and to say that I know that all his opinions were well
researched and
without bias, at least as much as any of ours are.

Sorry if this is off topic. Nutmegs have been a bone of
contention for
centuries.

By the way, I never heard of Banks visiting Grenada and it was
only through
Cindy's post that I heard of any connection between la Grenade
and nutmegs.
We learn a lot from this newsgroup. I do know the liqueur,
however. I
haven't had it since the days when the family used the
recycled green Mateus
Rose wine bottles - in those days it was what we now call
"home based." As I
remember, it tasted something like Cointreau or Grand Marnier.
I don't
remember a nutmeg taste. I have personally never understood
the attraction
to nutmeg flavour.

David

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