218 THE MOLUCCAS. [chap. 



which devastated this pleasant Eden three centuries ago. Over- 

 grown with grass and rank vegetation, they lie unheeded, waiting 

 for entire obhteration at the hands of Xature. Even of the large 

 Chinese tombs little remains in many cases but the merest traces 

 of tlieir horseshoe-shaped walls. 



From these memorials of now happily bygone times a slightly- 

 rising stretch of smooth turf, dotted with fruit-trees of every descrip- 

 tion, leads up to jom the lower slopes of the momitain, which is 

 clothed with vegetation almost to its simamit, and scarred with 

 deep furrows. The actual apex of the volcano, from which floats a 

 light stream of smoke, appears blunt and iiTCgular from the town, 

 but seen from Sidangoli on the coast of Gilolo, we found it even 

 shai^per than the peak of Tidor. Eor all its seeming peacefulness, 

 however, Ternate has been the scene of many eruptions— of no less 

 than fourteen since the beginning of the seventeenth century, we 

 are told ; and earthquakes, slight though they may be, still keep its 

 presence constantly in mind. The Ternatians have a quamt legend 

 about it, — that whenever the number of the inhabitants of the island 

 exceeds the height of the volcano an eruption is not long in coming. 

 Such a condition existed at the time of our visit, but we were not 

 fortunate enough to be witnesses of what the Dutch expressively 

 term an uitlarsting. 



One of our first visits was to the Eesident, Mr. Van Bruijn 

 Morris. He had just returned from a voyage to New Guinea, in 

 the course of which he had been as far east as Humboldt Bay, the 

 extreme Imiit of the Dutch claim on the northern coast. The 

 Challenger, it will be remembered, touched at this spot on her 

 way to the Philippines, and, like the officers of that ship, the 

 Eesident had not met with a very pleasant reception, although no 

 actual fighting with the natives had ensued. "VYe obtamed from 

 him, and from the captain of his yacht — the Sing-Tjin — some 

 useful information on the localities we intended to visit, together 

 with some Dutch charts and hydrogi-aphical notes, which we after- 

 wards found of great assistance. Fonnal calls having been ex- 



