310 



fJBBKATJB, 



[CHAF. XXI 



eartliquakes. It was during my second stay in the town, 

 after my retu^i from New Guinea, that I first felt an 

 earthquake. It was a veiT sli<;lit one, st-arcely more than 

 has been felt in this country, but occurring in a ]>hice tltat 

 had been many times destroyed by them it was rather 

 more excitiniL^. I had just awoke at gim-hre (5 a,m.), 

 wlien suddenly the thatch began to rustle and shake as if 

 an army of cats were gallopinj^ over it, and immediate)}' 

 afterwards my bed shook tfjo, so that fi)r an instant 1 

 ima<;ined myself back in New Guinea, in my fra<,nle house, 

 which shook wlien an old cock went tu roos^t on the ridge ; 

 but rememberinfj that I was now on a solid earthen 

 ihm\ I said to myself, *' Why, it's an earthquake/' and lay 

 still in the pleasing expectation of another shock ; bur 

 none ciune, and this was the only eai'thquake I ever felt 

 in Ternate. 



The lost gi'eat one was in February 1840, when almopt 

 every house in the place was destroyed. It began about 

 midnight on the Chinese New Years festival, at wbirh 

 time every one stays up nearly all night feasting at tlu' 

 Chinamen's houses and seeing the processions. This pr*.- 

 vented any lives being lost, as every one ran out <"f 

 doors at the iirat shock, which was not very severe. Tin- 

 second, a few minutes afterwards, threw down a greut 

 many houses, and others, which continued all night ami 

 part of the next day, completed the devastation. The line 

 of distm'bance was very narrow, so that the native town a 

 mile to the east scarcely suflered at all The wave passed 

 from north to south, through the islands of Tidore and 

 Makian, and terminat*xl in Datchian, where it was not felt 

 till four the following aftemoon, thus taking no less than 

 sixteen hours to travel a hundred miles, or about six miles 

 an hour. It is singular that on tliis occasion there was no 

 rushing up of the tide, or other commotion of the sea, as is 

 usually the case during great earthquakes. 



The people of Ternate are of three welhmarked races : 

 the Ternate Malays, the Orang Sirani, and the Dutch. 

 The first are an intrusive Malay race somewhat allied to 

 the Macassar people, who settled in the country at a very 

 early epoch, drove out the indigenes, who were no doubt 

 the same as those of the adjacent maiuland of Gilolo, and 



