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9

China 35; in all 3975 bahars, or 2,633,437 1/2 English pounds, being 1175 tons, twelve _cwts._ three _qrs._ and nine and a half _libs._ Every third year is far more fruitful than the two former, and is therefore termed the great monsoon.

It is lamentable to see the destruction which has been brought upon these islands by civil wars, which, as I learnt while there, began and continued in the following manner: At the discovery of these islands by the Portuguese, they found fierce war subsisting between the kings of Ternate and Tidore, to which two all the other islands were either subjected, or were confederated, with one or other of them. The Portuguese, the better to establish themselves, took no part with either, but politically kept friends with both, and fortified themselves in the two principal islands of Ternate and Tidore, engrossing the whole trade of cloves into their own hands. In this way they domineered till the year 1605, when the Dutch dispossessed them by force, and took possession for themselves. Yet so weakly did they provide for defending the acquisition, that the Spaniards drove them out next year from both islands, by a force sent from the Philippine islands, took the king of Ternate prisoner, and sent him to the Philippines, and kept both Ternate and Tidore for some time in their hands. Since then the Dutch have recovered some footing in these, islands, and, at the time of my being there, were in possession of the following forts.

On the island of Ternate they have a fort named: Malayou, having three bulwarks or bastions, Tolouco having two bastions and a round tower, and Tacome with four bastions. On Tidore they have a fort called Marieka, with four bastions. On Machian, Tufasoa, the chief town of the island, having four large bastions with sixteen pieces of cannon, and inhabited by about 1000 natives: At Nofakia, another town on that island, they have two forts or redoubts, and a third on the top of a high hill wit

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