In The Same Year 1521, Antonio De Brito Sailed For The Molucca Islands.
These Islands Are In The Middle Of A Great Number Of Others Under The
Equator, About 300 Leagues East From Malacca.
There are five principal
islands to which the general name of Moluccas is applied, about 25
leagues distant from each other, the largest not exceeding six leagues
in circumference.
The particular names of these are Ternate, Tidore,
Mousell, Macquein and Bacham[154]. They are covered with woods and
subject to fogs, and are consequently unhealthy. These five islands
produce cloves, but no kind of food; and the large island of
Batochina, which is 60 leagues long, produces food but no cloves. In
some of these islands, particularly Ternate, there are burning
mountains. Their chief subsistence is of a kind of meal made from the
bark of certain trees resembling the palm[155]. There are certain canes
that have a liquor in their hollows between the joints, which is
delightful to drink. Though the country abounds in animals, the natives
eat very little flesh, but live chiefly on fish which their seas produce
inexhaustibly. They are very warlike and by no means affable, and are
most expert both in running and swimming. Their religion is idolatrous,
but we have no account whatever respecting their original. The Moors had
possessed themselves of this country not long before the coming of the
Portuguese, as a Mahometan priest who had come along with the first of
the Moorish invaders was still alive at the arrival of Brito.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 291 of 809
Words from 79397 to 79653
of 221361
