Ternate - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

TERNATE iv
CONTENTS
Preface
The literature concerning the residency of Ternate is already quite extensive, as a
glance at the bibliography of this book will show. When I consulted these works, however, I
repeatedly encountered incorrect descriptions and incomplete information which I often
found difficult to correct.
There are three reasons for this.
In the case of official reports, the authors too often took on faith information given to
them by people in the capital who were afraid of admitting their own lack of knowledge.
Often, in fact, the informants did not have correct information about matters which did not
interest them in the least.
In the case of travel reports, the travelers did not usually stay long enough in any
one place to explore matters properly. Often, too, they did not speak the local Malay
dialect, and supplemented their deficient understanding with the products of their own
imagination.
Finally, the enormous diversity of the area itself leads to inaccurate reporting. The
island groups differ greatly in ways which can be understood only after a long stay in
several of these places followed by a comparison of their differences.
Wherever the occasion arose and I had time at my disposal, I tried to fill the existing
gaps. The information collected in this way is presented here in the form of topographical
and travel descriptions, a short annotated historical overview, and a study of the Ternatese
language.
It goes without saying that the subject is still far from exhausted. After my travels
in New Guinea in 1887 and 1888, however, the compilation of my diary and classification of
an extensive collection of ethnological objects took all of my time, and I had to restrict the
task I had set myself within certain limits.*
I offer this work in the hope that it will be worthy of the reader’s attention. This
study is recommended to all students of the language, geography and ethnography of the
Indies.
[F.S.A.] de C[lercq].
*[Translator’s note: De Clercq later published the book on New Guinea he refers to here:
“Ethnographische beschrijving van de west- en noord-kust van Nederlandsch Nieuw-
Guinea” [Ethnographic Description of the West and North Coast of Dutch New Guinea]
(Leiden: P.W.M. Trap, 1893).]
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