CHAP. XXI.] EARTHQUAKES. 9 



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 build- 

 ings, 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 

 had been many times destroyed by them it was rather 

 more exciting. I had just awoke at gun-fire (5 A.M.), 

 v.hen 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 ; 

 Ijut 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 



