The Last Great One Was In February 1840, When Almost Every House
In The Place Was Destroyed.
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.
The people of Ternate are of three well-marked races the Ternate
Malays, the Orang Sirani, and the Dutch. The first are an
intrusive Malay race somewhat allied to the Macassar people, who
settled in the country at a very early epoch, drove out the
indigenes, who were no doubt the same as those of the adjacent
mainland of Gilolo, and established a monarchy. They perhaps
obtained many of their wives from the natives, which will account
for the extraordinary language they speak - in some respects
closely allied to that of the natives of Gilolo, while it
contains much that points to a Malayan origin. To most of these
people the Malay language is quite unintelligible, although such
as are engaged in trade are obliged to acquire it. "Orang
Sirani," or Nazarenes, is the name given by the Malays to the
Christian descendants of the Portuguese, who resemble those of
Amboyna, and, like them, speak only Malay. There are also a
number of Chinese merchants, many of them natives of the place, a
few Arabs, and a number of half-breeds between all these races
and native women. Besides these there are some Papuan slaves, and
a few natives of other islands settled here, making up a motley
and very puzzling population, till inquiry and observation have
shown the distinct origin of its component parts.
Soon after my first arrival in Ternate I went to the island of
Gilolo, accompanied by two sons of Mr. Duivenboden, and by a
young Chinaman, a brother of my landlord, who lent us the boat
and crew. These latter were all slaves, mostly Papuans, and at
starting I saw something of the relation of master and slave in
this part of the world. The crew had been ordered to be ready at
three in the morning, instead of which none appeared till five,
we having all been kept waiting in the dark and cold for two
hours. When at length they came they were scolded by their
master, but only in a bantering manner, and laughed and joked
with him in reply. Then, just as we were starting, one of the
strongest men refused to go at all, and his master had to beg and
persuade him to go, and only succeeded by assuring him that I
would give him something; so with this promise, and knowing that
there would be plenty to eat and drink and little to do, the
black gentleman was induced to favour us with his company and
assistance. In three hours' rowing and sailing we reached our
destination, Sedingole, where there is a house belonging to the
Sultan of Tidore, who sometimes goes there hunting. It was a
dirty ruinous shed, with no furniture but a few bamboo bedsteads.
On taking a walk into the country, I saw at once that it was no
place for me. For many miles extends a plain covered with coarse
high grass, thickly dotted here and there with trees, the forest
country only commencing at the hills a good way in the interior.
Such a place would produce few birds and no insects, and we
therefore arranged to stay only two days, and then go on to
Dodinga, at the narrow central isthmus of Gilolo, whence my
friends would return to Ternate. We amused ourselves shooting
parrots, lories, and pigeons, and trying to shoot deer, of which
we saw plenty, but could not get one; and our crew went out
fishing with a net, so we did not want for provisions. When the
time came for us to continue our journey, a fresh difficulty
presented itself, for our gentlemen slaves refused in a body to
go with us; saying very determinedly that they would return to
Ternate. So their masters were obliged to submit, and I was left
behind to get to Dodinga as I could. Luckily I succeeded in
hiring a small boat, which took me there the same night, with my
two men and my baggage.
Two or three years after this, and about the same length of time
before I left the East, the Dutch emancipated all their slaves,
paying their owners a small compensation. No ill results
followed. Owing to the amicable relations which had always
existed between them and their masters, due no doubt in part to
the Government having long accorded them legal rights and
protection against cruelty and ill-usage, many continued in the
same service, and after a little temporary difficulty in some
cases, almost all returned to work either for their old or for
new, masters. The Government took the very proper step of placing
every emancipated slave under the surveillance of the police-
magistrate. They were obliged to show that they were working for
a living, and had some honestly-acquired means of existence. All
who could not do so were placed upon public works at low wages,
and thus were kept from the temptation to peculation or other
crimes, which the excitement of newly-acquired freedom, and
disinclination to labour, might have led them into.
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