full lading in a month, had not the Dutch overawed the
natives, imprisoning them, and threatening to put them to death, keeping
strict guard on all the coasts. Most of these islands produce abundance
of cloves; and those that are inhabited of any note, yield the following
quantities, one year with another. Ternate 1000 bahars, Machian 1090,
Tidore 900, Bachian 300, Moteer 600, Mean 50, Batta China 35; in all
3975 bahars, or 2,633,437 1/2 English pounds, being 1175 _tons_, twelve
_cwts._ three _qrs._ and nine and a half _libs._ Every third year is far
more fruitful than the two former, and is therefore termed the great
monsoon.

It is lamentable to see the destruction which has been brought upon
these islands by civil wars, which, as I learnt while there, began and
continued in the following manner: At the discovery of these islands by
the Portuguese, they found fierce war subsisting between the kings of
Ternate and Tidore, to which two all the other islands were either
subjected, or were confederated, with one or other of them. The
Portuguese, the better to establish themselves, took no part with
either, but politically kept friends with both, and fortified themselves
in the two principal islands of Ternate and Tidore, engrossing the whole
trade of cloves into their own hands. In this way they domineered till
the year 1605, when the Dutch dispossessed them by force, and took
possession for themselves. Yet so weakly did they provide for defending
the acquisition, that the Spaniards drove them out next year from both
islands, by a force sent from the Philippine islands, took the king of
Ternate prisoner, and sent him to the Philippines, and kept both Ternate
and Tidore for some time in their hands. Since then the Dutch have
recovered some footing in these, islands, and, at the time of my being
there, were in possession of the following forts.

On the island of Ternate they have a fort named: _Malayou_, having three
bulwarks or bastions, _Tolouco_ having two bastions and a round tower,
and _Tacome_ with four bastions. On Tidore they have a fort called
_Marieka_, with four bastions. On Machian, _Tufasoa_, the chief town of
the island, having four large bastions with sixteen pieces of cannon,
and inhabited by about 1000 natives: At _Nofakia_, another town on that
island, they have two forts or redoubts, and a third on the top of a
high hill with five or six guns, which commands the road on the other
side. Likewise at _Tabal