BURU  (Buro, Dutch Boeroe or Dutch

East Indies, one of the Molucca Islands belonging to the residency of Amboyna, between 30 4' and 3° 50' S. and 125° 58' and 127° 15' E . Its extreme measurements are 87 m. by 50 m., and its area is 3400 sq. m . Its surface is for the most part mountainous, though the seaboard district is frequently alluvial and marshy from the deposits of the numerous rivers . Of these the largest, the Kajeli, discharging eastward, is in part navigable . The greatest elevations occur in the west, where the mountain Tomahu reaches 853o ft . In the middle of the western part of the island lies the large lake of Wakolo, at an altitude of 2200 ft., with a circumference of 37 M. and a depth of about loo ft . It has been considered a crater lake; but this is not the case . It is situated at the junction of the sandstone and slate, where the water, having worn away the former, has accumulated on the latter . The lake has no affluents and only one outlet, the Wai Nibe to the north . The chief geological formations of Burn are crystalline slate near the north coast, and more to the south Mesozoic sandstone and chalk, deposits of rare occurrence in the archipelago . By far the larger part of the country is covered with natural forest and prairie land, but such portions as have been brought into cultivation are highly fertile . Coffee, rice and a variety of fruits, such as the lemon, orange, banana, pine-apple and coco-nut are readily grown, as well as sago, red-pepper, tobacco and cotton .

The only important exports, however, are cajeput oil, a sudorific distilled from the leaves of the Melaleuca Cajuputi or

white-wood tree; and timber . The native flora is rich, and teak, ebony and canari trees are especially abundant; the fauna, which is similarly varied, includes the babirusa, which occurs in this island only of the Moluccas . The population is about 15,000 . The villages on the sea-coast are inhabited by a Malayan population, and the northern and western portions of the island are occupied by a light-coloured Malay folk akin to the natives of the eastern Celebes . In the interior is found a peculiar race which is held by some to be Papuan . They are described, however, as singularly un-Papuan in physique, being only 5 ft . 2 in. in average height, of a yellow-brown colour, of feeble build, and without the characteristic frizzly hair and prominent nose of the true Papuan . They are completely pagan, live in scattered hamlets, and have come very little in contact with any civilization . Among the maritime population a small number of Chinese, Arabs and other races are also found . The island is divided by the Dutch into two districts . The chief settlement is Kajeli on the east coast . A number of Mahommedan natives here are descended from tribes compelled in 1657 to gather together from the different parts of the island, while all the clove-trees were exterminated in an attempt by the Dutch to centralize the clove trade .

Before the arrival of the Dutch the islanders were under the dominion of the

sultan of Ternate; and it was their rebellion against him that gave the Europeans the opportunity of effecting their subjugation .