We weighed on the 13th with the wind at N. and a current setting to the
S. In passing
The fort we saluted with five guns, which they returned.
Several Spaniards came off with complimentary messages, and among these
a messenger from the prince, saying we should have had plenty of cloves
if we had waited twenty-four hours longer. But we rather suspected that
some treachery was intended, by means of their gallies, frigates, and
curracurras, which we thus avoided by our sudden departure. On rounding
the western point of Tidore, we saw four Dutch ships at anchor before
their fort of Marieca; one of which, on our appearance, fired a gun,
which we supposed was to call their people aboard to follow us. We
steered directly for the Spanish fort on Ternate, and shortened sail on
coming near, and fired a gun without shot, which was immediately
answered. They sent us off a soldier of good fashion, but to as little
purpose as those of Tidore had done. Having little wind, our ship sagged
in, but we found no anchorage. Having a gale of wind at south in the
evening, we stood out to sea, but lost as much ground by the current as
we had gained by the wind. The 14th, with the wind at S.S.W. we steered
N.N.W. being at noon directly under the equinoctial. We had sight of a
galley this day, on which we put about to speak with her; but finding
she went away from us, we shaped our course for Japan.
Before leaving the Moluccas, it may be proper to acquaint the reader
with some circumstances respecting the trade and state of these islands.
Through the whole of the Moluccas, a bahar of cloves consists of 200
cattees, the cattee being three pounds five ounces haberdepoiz, so
that the bahar is 662 pounds eight ounces English averdupois weight. For
this bahar of cloves, the Dutch give fifty dollars, pursuant to what
they term their perpetual contract; but, for the more readily obtaining
some loading, I agreed to pay them sixty dollars. This increase of price
made the natives very desirous of furnishing me, so that I certainly had
procured a full lading in a month, had not the Dutch overawed the
natives, imprisoning them, and threatening to put them to death, keeping
strict guard on all the coasts. Most of these islands produce abundance
of cloves; and those that are inhabited of any note, yield the following
quantities, one year with another. Ternate 1000 bahars, Machian 1090,
Tidore 900, Bachian 300, Moteer 600, Mean 50, Batta China 35; in all
3975 bahars, or 2,633,437 1/2 English pounds, being 1175 tons, twelve
cwts. three qrs. and nine and a half libs. Every third year is far
more fruitful than the two former, and is therefore termed the great
monsoon.
It is lamentable to see the destruction which has been brought upon
these islands by civil wars, which, as I learnt while there, began and
continued in the following manner: At the discovery of these islands by
the Portuguese, they found fierce war subsisting between the kings of
Ternate and Tidore, to which two all the other islands were either
subjected, or were confederated, with one or other of them. The
Portuguese, the better to establish themselves, took no part with
either, but politically kept friends with both, and fortified themselves
in the two principal islands of Ternate and Tidore, engrossing the whole
trade of cloves into their own hands. In this way they domineered till
the year 1605, when the Dutch dispossessed them by force, and took
possession for themselves. Yet so weakly did they provide for defending
the acquisition, that the Spaniards drove them out next year from both
islands, by a force sent from the Philippine islands, took the king of
Ternate prisoner, and sent him to the Philippines, and kept both Ternate
and Tidore for some time in their hands. Since then the Dutch have
recovered some footing in these, islands, and, at the time of my being
there, were in possession of the following forts.
On the island of Ternate they have a fort named: Malayou, having three
bulwarks or bastions, Tolouco having two bastions and a round tower,
and Tacome with four bastions. On Tidore they have a fort called
Marieka, with four bastions. On Machian, Tufasoa, the chief town of
the island, having four large bastions with sixteen pieces of cannon,
and inhabited by about 1000 natives: At Nofakia, another town on that
island, they have two forts or redoubts, and a third on the top of a
high hill with five or six guns, which commands the road on the other
side. Likewise at Tabalola, another town in Machian, they have two
forts with eight cannons, this place being very strongly situated by
nature. The natives of all these places are under their command. Those
of Nofakia are not esteemed good soldiers, and are said always to side
with the strongest; but those of Tabalola, who formerly resided at
Cayoa, are accounted the best soldiers in the Moluccas, being deadly
enemies to the Portuguese and Spaniards, and as weary now of the Dutch
dominion. In these fortified stations in Machian, when I was there, the
Dutch had 120 European soldiers; of whom eighty were at Tafasoa,
thirty at Nofakia, and ten at Tabalola. The isle of Machian is the
richest in cloves of all the Molucca islands; and, according to report,
yields 1800 bahars in the great monsoon. The Dutch have one large fort
in the island of Bachian, and four redoubts in the isle of Moteer. The
civil wars have so wasted the population of these islands, that vast
quantities of cloves perish yearly for want of hands to gather them;
neither is there any likelihood of peace till one party or the other be
utterly extirpated.
Leaving them to their wars, I now return to our traffic, and shall shew
how we traded with the natives, which was mostly by exchanging or
bartering the cotton cloths of Cambaya and Coromandel for cloves.
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