Ternate - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

TERNATE 93 TOPOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS
good quality tobacco, which, at a weight of one-half catty, is twisted into rope and usually
sold at f 0.50 per fathom. This district is also the only one in which sago trees abound and
can, therefore, rightly be called the storeroom of the whole of Banggai. The Banggai
Islands are also known for their wealth in durable kinds of timber, among which ebony 13
[p. 134] takes an important place; while at a place named Mambulusan, which belongs to
Liang on Peleng, antimony or mica, with which one decorates the outside of plaited boxes
and hats, 14 is dug up from a depth of four to five fathoms. Other export articles are damar,
sold at f 10 to f 15 per picul; thin rattan; wax, especially from Batui and Kentong, which
costs up to f 80 per picul; 15 coffee, which is grown on a few hills on Peleng; a small amount
of birds’ nests from the island of Salui; and musk or timpaus 16 brought to market in small
pieces costing ten farthings each.
Money is not generally sought after; they prefer old brass farthings of which there
are one hundred and twenty in a guilder, and in the interior of Celebes the old cockfarthings
of which there are three hundred and sixty in a guilder; besides the normal real of
four sukus (of forty cents each) the Makassarese real has a figurative value of f 2. Mostly
barter is used for linens such as kain blacu.
Horses and sapi utan (dwarf buffalo) on Celebes, as well as tinggalu (palm civet),
watersnakes, and a great number of fish species form a much favored food for Moslems and
Alfurus. The Bajorese like to hunt sawfish, the meat of which they eat and the saw of
which is thrown away unutilized; they also harpoon tripang and turtles, even at a depth of
ten fathoms. The small harpoons are called sosowat, the bigger ones kalai.
Trade in slaves stopped completely after its abolition in 1879. When it occurs,
however, as it sometimes still does, the culprits are brought before the State Council at
Ternate and punished severely. [p. 135]
Valentijn, 1724, Ib:80, who already mentions that Balanta produces a lot of paddy and rice, and says
that Mandono is fairly fertile.)
13 [p. 133, n. 2] Ebony is called kau mopok in the Banggai language; the word mologotu given by
Bosscher and Matthijsen is Ternatese.
14 [p. 134, n. 1] This mica is called batu Banggai in Malayan and mare gapi in Ternatese.
Matthes (Makassarese Dictionary, under “Banggai”) describes the pieces of mica as small shells,
which, however, they do not resemble at all.
15 [p. 134, n. 2] Of the total wax production, which amounts to approximately three hundred
piculs, one-eighth is given to the Sultan.
16 [p. 134, n. 3] Timpaus comes from the testes of the tinggalu (palm civet), Viverra Zibetha. The
dedes, which has a milder smell, comes from the female. At some places in the Indies archipelago, it
seems that the scent is obtained from bone marrow.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES DIGITAL EDITION