Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
beneficial to the inhabitants, and that it was an act both wise in itself and morally and polit-
ically justifiable.
In the selection of the places in which to carry on the cultivation, the Dutch were not alto-
gether fortunate or wise. Banda was chosen for nutmegs, and was eminently successful,
since it continues to this day to produce a large supply of this spice, and to yield a consider-
able revenue. Amboyna was fixed upon for establishing the clove cultivation; but the soil
and climate, although apparently very similar to that of its native islands, is not favourable,
and for some years the Government have actually been paying to the cultivators a higher
rate than they could purchase cloves elsewhere, owing to a great fall in the price since the
rate of payment was fixed for a term of years by the Dutch Government, and which rate is
still most honourably paid.
In walking about the suburbs of Ternate, we find everywhere the ruins of massive stone
and brick buildings, gateways and arches, showing at once the superior wealth of the ancient
town and the destructive effects of earthquakes. It was during my second stay in the town,
after my return from New Guinea, that I first felt an earthquake. It was a very slight one,
scarcely more than has been felt in this country, but occurring in a place that had been many
times destroyed by them it was rather more exciting. I had just awoke at gun-fire (5
A.M.
),
when suddenly the thatch began to rustle and shake as if an army of cats were galloping
over it, and immediately afterwards my bed shook too, so that for an instant I imagined my-
self back in New Guinea, in my fragile house, which shook when an old cock went to roost
on the ridge; but remembering that I was now on a solid earthen floor, I said to myself,
'Why, it's an earthquake,' and lay still in the pleasing expectation of another shock; but
none came, and this was the only earthquake I ever felt in Ternate.
The last great one was in February 1840, when almost every house in the place was des-
troyed. It began about midnight on the Chinese New Year's festival, at which time every one
stays up nearly all night feasting at the Chinamen's houses and seeing the processions. This
prevented any lives being lost, as every one ran out of doors at the first shock, which was
not very severe. The second, a few minutes afterwards, threw down a great many houses,
and others, which continued all night and part of the next day, completed the devastation.
The line of disturbance was very narrow, so that the native town a mile to the east scarcely
suffered at all. The wave passed from north to south, through the islands of Tidore and
Makian, and terminated in Batchian, where it was not felt till four the following afternoon,
thus taking no less than sixteen hours to travel a hundred miles, or about six miles an hour.
It is singular that on this occasion there was no rushing up of the tide, or other commotion of
the sea, as is usually the case during great earthquakes.
