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 myself 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 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 8 of 412
Words from 1909 to 2177
of 111511
