Ternate - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

TERNATE 83 TOPOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL DESCRIPTIONS
coast of Taliabu, where they collect tripang, turtles, and agar-agar (a kind of seaweed); the
latter to a quantity of about five hundred piculs annually, which find a ready sale at f 5.- to
f 6.- per picul. For this right the fishermen have to pay the Sultan an annual tax of f 4.-,
usually payable in linen. To get their catch they use cast nets, ground nets, harpoons, and
lines. Every year about fifty smaller vessels are built for this type of fishing, having a value
of f 3.- to f 4.- each.
The birds’ nests at Lifumatola have to be collected every three months; otherwise
their quality declines.
We know little of the particular characteristics of the land and people. 20 [p. 122]
What has been reported above refers for the most part to the people living on the coast, who
have little contact with the mountain people, because of the difference in religion between
the two groups.
Nothing could be found at Ternate regarding the history of the Sula Islands.
According to Valentijn they came under the kingdom of Ternate in 1330 through Moloma
Tsyeya 21 and were placed under the governorship of Ambon. There used to be a garrison in
the fort but nowhere is it recorded when the garrison was withdrawn.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, Kimalaha Terbile was stationed here as
Salahakan. He rebelled against his king as well as against the East Indies Company. As a
20 [p. 121, n. 1] In an article in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut, 3rd series, X:395-405,
J.G.F. Riedel gives a description of some customs followed on the occasions of marriage and birth,
and also instances of body mutilation by the Sulanese. Which people follow these customs the writer
does not say. When I visited Sula some time ago I took this article with me, but as I was constantly
surrounded by numerous officials I could not decently bring up the subjects discussed in that article.
The writer does not seem to be aware of the existence of the sania which are found all around; nor is
he familiar with the language. For instance, bakai, a Ternatese word, has its equivalent bau fata in
Sulanese; the same is the case with the words juba and takwa, in Sulanese pabu nako and pabu
yota; the expressions hosa and hosa tubi, added to the names of plants, mean “leaf” and “young leaf,”
which cannot be concluded from the text, and the words given as kon and tuv are clearly koni and
tufi.
Nor is Wallace very successful in his conclusions about the Sula fauna. In Insulinde (1870-
1871, II:153), he finds it remarkable that there is a similarity between the birds found on Sula and
those of Buru, from which he concludes that in former times the islands were closer together or that
the land connecting the two has disappeared. Yet he should know that from Cape Waka the north
coast of Buru is clearly visible and that there is a lot of traffic between those islands because of the
people who produce oil, since on the next page he acknowledges the possibility that mice were
introduced by native proas. What he reports about the occurrence of babi rusa on Sula is incorrect.
In Part I, p. 477, he makes the same mistake, perhaps upon the authority of his assistant Charles
Allen.
These islands, together with the Banggai archipelago and the east coast of Celebes, were
visited in March 1850 [note continues, p. 122 bottom] by the corvette Argo and the steamer Bromo,
under the command of Captain C. van der Hart. Apart from a few paragraphs about piracy, the
report on this trip did not contain anything that would increase our knowledge of these regions.
21 [p. 122, n. 1] This ruler was called Ngolo Macayah at Ternate. He came to the throne only in
1350, says Valentijn (1724, Ib:138).
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES DIGITAL EDITION