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TERNATE 151
THE TERNATESE LANGUAGE
On that day the Sultan, by the help of the Almighty, was strong in his belief and sat
calmly. If this had not been the case and the Sultan had gone from the palace or, by way of
the big square, to the sea, then all Moslems, Christians, and Chinese would certainly have
left Ternate and only the believers would have stayed behind in the village. Even an
important man like the Kali of Bangsa, Ilham, fled to Sidangoli. Of those who occupied a
post and were subordinate to the Sultan, or sat at his feet and had his affection and love,
only Jurtulis Kamah of Takome fled to Halmahera. Fathers and sons, children and their
mothers, husbands and wives suddenly forgot their relation to one another. It became
known that the clerk Kamah had fled leaving his mother and his own brothers and sisters
behind. The Khatibi of Ngofaudu, Jaronga, took his family with him and put them in
another proa; when his own father, the Imam of Takome, Abdul Aman, called to him to
come back, he answered: “Are you tired of life? I am not, although I know later I will be put
in irons.” The Soseba Ajahari fled leaving his father, a lieutenant of the Soah-Sangaji
named Batai. A goldsmith of Takofi named Bapu fled and got into a proa (a different one
from the one bearing his wife); a Sarjeti of the Soah-Ngofangare ran to the sea with nine
companions, and they pushed away a prahu-bangku of the Sultan’s with seven seats for
rowers until it drifted away into the sea. All of the above happened out of fear. And up
north at Hiku, women and small children without their husbands, more than thirty souls in
total, climbed into a prahu-cakalang which belonged to the Khatibi of Takome, named
Atimu. This proa had nine seats for oarsmen, and the Khatibi’s niece, a girl named
Rahimah, was at the helm, while many women paddled as far as Sidangoli. When the
earthquake came and jolts followed, the Khatibi Jawah Amil clutched the Imam of Moti,
Ismael, and screamed, since the jolts were very severe. [p. 212] Pushed by a jolt, Jogugu
Major-Prang Saptu and Jurtulis Sadang, who were sitting at the big gate, fell to the
ground.
Near the gate on the sea side of Fort Oranje, the road which runs from north to
south developed cracks. The road which runs seaward between the fort and the boundary
of Kampong Mangkasar also cracked. The earth split in the compound of the big mosque on
the north side, and the road cracked from the palace landward near the small gate behind
the office of the guards. The same was the case in the Soah-Limatahu, on the road which
runs up and down, but not in the village itself; and in the gardens and on the mountain
ridge there were cracks everywhere, with the edges not very far apart. Some of these
cracks were just wide enough for a finger to fit; others, from the feel of them, were bigger.
Some were as deep as an elbow’s length; others more than a fathom, while some were even
deeper.
When it was past ten o’clock, the order was given to call the Imam-Secretary and the
Imam of Bangsa, Said. They entered the palace via the small gate on the land side. The
Sultan ordered them to go around and read the salawati, starting from the guards’ gate and
proceeding southward, then turning seaward along the boundary of Ternate and the
Makassarese camp, then going back to the guards’ gate. It was found that a few lebes did
not follow them; but the Khatibi of Bangsa and the Khatibi of Moti, Maksudu, as well as
that of Tarangarah, Mahadum Samudin Abdul Karim, and Jurtulis Jamul Dabas were, by
the grace of the Almighty, not hurt by the earthquake during the tour.
The Resident then gave orders to allow the women and children to get into the
proas. The Sultan permitted this and had the prahu-bangku and the rumbai launched. He
instructed the bobatos to give the order everywhere that those who were in the [p. 213]
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