274 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



like olives. There is another kind of paos which is smaller ; they eat 

 them when ripe ; the skin and the flavor are like damson plums, but 

 they are juicier ; they have a hard stone. 



787. Piles are a fruit growing in clusters larger than pine nuts. 

 The rind is tough, and the kernel or almond inside is very juicy. 

 This is a delicious fruit ; they make salad oil out of it. There are 

 many more varieties of bananas and plantains, and pineapples, than 

 in New Spain and the Spanish Main ; they grow much larger and 

 sweeter to eat. 



788. They have royal tamarinds, which are the seeds of a tree ; 

 they come in pods like kidney beans, and are an excellent laxative. 

 In New Spain they put them up in a syrup to sweeten the dose for 

 invalids. They have many different kinds of excellent oranges, some 

 bigger than a man's head, very good eating ; others are red inside 

 like pomegranates ; others are tiny, just about like ours ; they have 

 very smooth, thin skins, and are very sweet. Others are imported 

 from Great China, tiny yellow ones with skins thin as paper ; these 

 are all good to eat and very refreshing. There are many other kinds 

 of fruit strange and unusual, and impossible to enumerate. 



Chapter V 



Of the Molucca Islands, Ternate and Tidore and the Others, and 

 the Unusual Things To Be Found There. 



789. The Molucca Spice Islands, Ternate, Tidore, and the rest, 

 lie 400 leagues from the city of Manila, on the Equator. The island 

 of Ternate is the most important of the Moluccas, though not the 

 largest. It is 10 leagues in circumference, all very mountainous and 

 heavily forested. In the center a lofty volcano overtops the rest ; 

 sometimes it emits flame, and sometimes smoke. There was a settle- 

 ment of Persian Moors here, who had their own king, and were 

 among the most warlike of the tribes on that island. They used to 

 gather very great quantities of cloves here, this island being the richest 

 in that spice ; but there is none at present, for on account of the 

 Dutch our men have cut down all the clove trees, although there are 

 some left on the slopes of the volcano. 



790. On this island of Ternate, which was conquered from its 

 king by Gov. Don Pedro de Acuna, we have established the city of 

 Rosario and a military force which is entitled that of Ternate, since 

 that is the chief stronghold and place of arms, where the Governor 

 and His Majesty's army have their headquarters. There are two 

 convents established there, one of Franciscans of the Province of 



