x] PALACE OF THE SULTAN. 225 



here in 1521. Now the jungle has left it nothing but a picturesque 

 ruin, almost invisible at a little distance amid the confused mass 

 of greenery. Trees grow within the walls, and, with the rank 

 tropical undergrowth, have almost choked the old chambers. It 

 was a snake-suggesting place, and its exploration did not appear 

 to us particularly tempting. Nor were we repaid for our trouble, 

 for neither date nor inscription nor anythmg else of interest 

 was to be found. In the blockhouse, of which I give an illustra- 

 tion, two coats of arms were cut in the masonry just within the 

 doorway. 



The Sultan's palace, a dilapidated-looking house in the European 

 style, is the most conspicuous building in Ternate. It is perched 

 on the summit of a small hill, and overlooks an expanse of 

 thoroughly English -looking grassy common reaching to the sea, 

 on whose shore, hauled up beneath a large open shed, lay the 

 imperial prau. This boat, which was canoe -like in form with a 

 cabin amidships, and about sixty feet in length, was a most 

 shapely craft. It was provided with double -banked outriggers 

 on either side, thus permitting the paddlers to be seated out- 

 board. This form of prau is common enough in various parts of 

 the arcliipelago, but we had never seen one of finer lines. Just 

 below the palace is a guard-house, where, hanging up on the walls, 

 we found some quaint old hats which had belonged, no doubt, to 

 the Dutch troops in bygone days. They were of two kinds ; one 

 of much the same shape as the hat worn by some of our own 

 soldiers at the beginning of this century — like our own " stove- 

 pipe " shorn of its brim, provided with a peak, and of considerably 

 larger diameter at the top than at the bottom. The other may 

 perhaps be best described as a flat-topped "pot -hat," brimless at 

 the side, but cocked back and front. Both of these head-coverings, 

 leaving the nape of the neck entirely unprotected, must have ex- 

 posed their wearers to every chance of sunstroke. We were told 

 that they were still worn on grand occasions by the Sultan's guard. 



Although eight years' meteorological observations taken by the 

 VOL. II. Q 



