Parts of the Banda Islands had been rebuilt more than once after a seaquake or earthquake. However, the tsunami of violence in 1621 must have caused a far greater decimation. More of less the total population had gone: killed, deported or fled. Particularly on the island of Lontor most of the villages and buildings had been destroyed. The majority of the nutmeg trees, that had been the reason for the violence, were unscathed. Obviously, the trees and the soil in which they stood had to be prepared for new harvests, but the trees were still standing
In order to no longer be dependent on ‘unreliable’ nutmeg tree growers, the VOC had devised a plan for organised repopulation and exploitation of the Banda Islands. The idea of ‘planting a new population’ to grow products wasn’t new. Jan Pieterszoon Coen had suggested this earlier and it had already been implemented on the island of Ay in 1616, after the island had been conquered. The available land was divided into plantations, also called gardens and with a nice word ‘perken’. On these perken managers, called perkeniers, were appointed who had been recruited from the European and Indo-European population of the archipelago; mainly former VOC employees. In total 68 perken of equal size were created. In addition to the 31 perken on Ay, 33 were created on Lontor and 3 on Banda Neira, where the VOC had its headquarters. In 1628 all the perken had been laid out. From that time some parts of perken were added to adjacent perken, or these were split up, for example when a perkenier died and the land was divided among his sons.