THE MOLUCCAS 
321 
have been as many as fourteen eruptions, many of them 
severe. A few miles to the east of the town a black, 
scoriaceous, rugged tract, called by the natives “ Batu- 
angas ” (burnt rock), marks the lava stream which 
descended to the sea during a great eruption about a 
century ago. The last great earthquake occurred on 2nd 
February, 1840, at midnight, during the festival of the 
Chinese New Tear, a circumstance which prevented 
much loss of life, since all the inhabitants were up feast¬ 
ing, and seeing the processions and amusements. The 
shocks continued all night and part of the next day, 
throwing down every stone building, and more or less 
wrecking almost all the rest, and they did not wholly 
cease for a fortnight. Earth-waves moved along the 
streets like rollers on the sea, the earth opening and 
closing again; but the line of disturbance was very 
narrow, the native town, a mile to the east, not suffering 
at all. It travelled from north to south through the 
islands of Tidor and Makian to Batjan, reaching the 
latter place, 100 miles distant, at four in the afternoon 
of the following day, so that the wave was propagated at 
the rate of only six miles an hour. Everywhere in the 
suburbs of the town may be seen ruined walls, and gate- 
pillars with the stones twisted on each other, and the 
remains of massive stone and brick buildings, gateways, 
and arches, showing the greater magnificence of the old 
town, till sad experience taught the superiority of wood 
and thatch as building materials in an earthquake- 
tortured country. 
Ternate is a free port, and is still a place of some im¬ 
portance. The population is about 9000, of whom 350 
are Europeans, 300 descendants of the Portuguese and 
natives, 500 Chinese, and 100 Arabs, the remainder 
being Malays of this and surrounding islands. There is 
Y 
