The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

238 THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. [chap.Bandation, the Dutch were not altogether fortunate or wise.was chosen for nutmegs, and was eminently successful, since itcontinues to this day to produce a lai'ge supj^ly of this spice, andto yield a considerable revenue. Amboyna was fixed upon forestablishing the clove cultivation ; but the soil and climate,although apparently ^very similar to those of its native island.s,are not favourable, and for some years the Government haveactually been paying to the cultivators a higher rate than theycould purchase cloves for elsewhere, owing to a great fall in theprice since the rate of payment was fixed for a term of years bythe Dutch Government, and w^hich rate is still most honourablypaid.In walking about the suburbs of Ternate, we find everywherethe ruins of massive stone and brick buildings, gateways andarches, showing at once the sujDerior wealth of the ancient townand tlie destructive effects of earthquakes. It was during mysecond stay in the town, after my return from New Guinea, thatI first felt an earthquake. It was a very slight one, scarcelymore than has been felt in this country, but occurring in a placethat had been many times destroyed by them it was rather moreexciting. I had just awoke at gun-fire (5 a.m.), when suddenlythe thatch began to rustle and shake as if an army of cats weregalloping over it, and immediately afterwards my bed shook too,.so that for an instant I imagined myself back in New Guinea,in my fragile house, wdiich shook when an old cock went toroost on tlie ridge ;but remembering that I was now on a solidearthen floor, I said to myself, " Why, it's an earthquake," andlay still in the pleasing expectation of another shock ; butnone came, and this was the only earthquake I ever felt inTernate.The last great one was in February 1840, when almost everyhouse in the place was destroyed. It began about midnight onthe Chinese New Year's festival, at which time every one staysup nearly all night feasting at the Chinamen's houses and seeingthe processions. This prevented any lives being lost, as everyone ran out of doors at tlie first shock, which was not very severe.The second, a few minutes afterwards, threw down a great manyhouses, and others, which continued all night and part of thenext day, completed the devastation. The line of distui'bancewas very narrow, so that the native town a mile to the eastscarcely suffered at all. The wave passed from north to south,through the islands of Tidore and Makian, and terminated inBatchian, where it was not felt till four the following afternoon,thus taking no less than sixteen hours to travel a hundredmiles, or about six miles an liour. It is singular that on thisoccasion there was no rushing up of the tide, or other commotionof the sea, as is usually the case during great earthquakes.The people of Ternate are of three well-marked races : theTernate Malays, the Orang Sirani, and the Dutch. The first