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TERNATE 146
THE TERNATESE LANGUAGE
III
The Earthquake of 1840
An Account of What Happened
During the time that the lord sovereign, the Sultan, the crown of the state, the head
of the religion, Iskandar, the blessed, Sah Putra 6 Mohamad Jain and his father, the
honored and distinguished Lord Dirk Frederik Hermanus Helbach, 7 ruled, it happened that
the Almighty brought down a disaster on the mountain of Ternate in the form of a severe
earthquake, the account of which is given below in detail.
In the year 1255 A.H., 8 at the end of the last [as corrected in Errata ⎯Trans.] year
of Dal, in the month of Dulhaji, the tenth night of the moon, on a Thursday night at ten
o’clock, the earthquake began with [p. 203] a continual rocking movement, which stopped
for a few moments and then started again; but it was not very severe. Moreover, there was
rain that night, it was pitch dark, and there was a strong wind blowing. Here in the village
it drizzled, but in the Christian and Chinese quarters, and also at the back of the mountain,
it rained very hard and the water poured down⎯in the brangka Togorara it turned into a
torrent. 9 The earth tremors continued and nobody in the town slept.
At one o’clock the Sultan ordered the Kali of Bangsa, named Ilham, to tell the
imams, khatibis, and modins to assemble in the mosque and start praying. At that time
the Commander, Mr. Le Bron, 10 fired the cannon once at Fort Oranje. The Sultan sent
down a guard to get news of the situation from the soldiers who stood guard at the gate of
the fort. The guard was informed by the soldiers that the Commander had fired the gun so
that people would not go to sleep, for once at Ambon during a severe earthquake the houses
had collapsed a second time and had fallen on the people, resulting in many deaths.
6 [p. 202, n. 1] The spelling is considered less correct, but is commonly used.
7 [p. 202, n. 2] When a new Resident takes office, his first names are asked. These are usually
written in full in addresses and in the heading of letters; the use of initials is less acceptable.
8 [p. 202, n. 3] The Christian system of dates is never followed in native writings; therefore,
although the local people do know the current year and the names of the months, they are always
rather slow about using them. As a matter of fact, the Moslem dating system is used even less here
than it is elsewhere in the Indies archipelago. The tenth of Dulhaji 1255 A.H. corresponds to
February 14, 1840
9 [p. 203, n. 1] Brangka or barangka is a word indicating ditch, canal, dried-up brook, or gully in
the Malay of the Moluccas. According to some it is of Portuguese or Spanish origin. In Ternatese,
the word nguai is used instead.
10 [p. 203, n. 2] Captain Le Bron de Vexela was military commander in the capital at that time.
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