uld be grown, more sago made, more fish caught, and more
tortoise-shell, rattan, gum-dammer, and other valuable products of the
seas and the forests would be obtained. I believe, therefore, that this
abolition of the spice trade in the Moluccas was actually beneficial to
the inhabitants, and that it was an act both wise in itself and morally
and politically justifiable.

In the selection of the places in which to carry on the cultivation,
the Dutch were not altogether fortunate or wise. Banda was chosen for
nutmegs, and was eminently successful, since it continues to this day
to produce a large supply of this spice, and to yield a considerable
revenue. Amboyna was fixed upon for establishing the clove cultivation;
but the soil and climate, although apparently very similar to that of
its native islands, is not favourable, and for some years the Government
have actually been paying to the cultivators a higher rate than they
could purchase cloves elsewhere, owing to a great fall in the price
since the rate of payment was fixed for a term of years by the Dutch
Government, and which rate is still most honourably paid.

In walking about the suburbs of Ternate, we find everywhere the ruins of
massive stone and brick buildings, gateways and arches, showing at once
the superior wealth of the ancient town and the destructive effects of
earthquakes. It was during my second stay in the town, after my return
from New Guinea, that I first felt an earthquake. It was a very slight
one, scarcely more than has been felt in this country, but occurring in
a place that lad been many times destroyed by them it was rather more
exciting. 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.