Standing in one more time ;-) Here is an easy one for you:
It is a beautiful hardwood which is sometimes used in lutherie. It only grows on one series of islands in the Indian Ocean. It is the islands' only resource of any commercial interest. Years ago, when England had a worldwide empire, the British established a penal colony on these sweltering tropical islands, whose sole work was the logging and harvesting of this special wood. These islands have left a small footnote in literature as well as in woodwork, in that the villain in Arthur Conan Doyle�s Sherlock Holmes story The Sign Of The Four was an island native; in proper colonial fashion, he was described by the author as savage, brutish and ugly.
What is this wood and what islands does it grow on?
(can you answer without Google? Give it at least a couple of hours before you look it up ;-))