NARRATIVE OF THE C'RFISE. 
595 
Ternate. 
A small Dutch gunboat was lying here, the officer in command of which supplied a 
plan of the anchorage, and furnished every information. 
On the loth, in the morning, the Dutch flag was saluted, and the salute was returned 
by the gunboat, the echo from the high mountains giving a very peculiar ringing report to 
the guns. In the afternoon the Resident or Governor came on board and was saluted on 
leaving with thirteen guns. The usual salute allowed by the Dutch authorities is eleven 
guns, but as the Sultan of Ternate is entitled to that number, the Resident at this station 
is allowed thirteen. 
The Moluccas consist of the islands of Ternate, Tidore, Metir, Makyan, and Batian, 
with the adjacent islets. The first European to visit them was Bartema of Bologna in 
150G. He was followed in 1512 by Francisco Serrao, who commanded an expedition 
despatched by the Portuguese from Malacca. 
In November 1521 the Moluccas were visited by the ships of Magellan’s squadron 
after Magellan had been killed at Zebu. They anchored off Tidore Island, where they 
were honourably entertained by the King, who entered into a league of friendship with 
them. At that time the islands were rich in productions of all kinds: cloves, ginger, sago, 
rice, figs, almonds, oranges, lemons, and sugar cane. Neither was there any want of 
goats and fowls, the ships being furnished with provisions in such quantities, that, to 
use their own expression, “it was marvellous to behold.” 
Shortly after the visit of Magellan’s squadron in the same year (1521), the Portuguese 
appeared in force in the Moluccas, with nine ships, commanded by Antonio de Britto. 
The simple sovereigns of the Moluccas received their guests with caresses, and 
contended for the honour of entertaining them, and even allowed them to establish a 
military settlement in their country. For this purpose the island of Ternate was 
selected, and here, in the kingdom of the most powerful chieftain of the islands, the 
Portuguese Commander established himself. De Britto, to his astonishment, found in the 
Moluccas some of the companions of Magellan ; these he seized and imprisoned. 
After the Portuguese had established themselves at the Moluccas, disputes arose 
between them and the Spaniards fespecting the ownership of the islands, and a com- 
mission met near Badajos to decide the question, but like a great many other conferences 
it ended in talk, each side maintaining their own view of the question. In 1529, however, 
the Emperor Charles V. relinquished to the Portuguese all the countries lying west of a 
meridian 17° east of the Moluccas. Notwithstanding this treaty, in 1545 a Spanish 
expedition under Villalobos visited the islands, and entered into an offensive and defensive 
treaty with the King of Tidore against the Portuguese, but this only lasted until their 
differences were for a time patched up with that nation, when Villalobos abandoned the 
Tidore Islanders to the Portuguese. 
