Macassar, who had been taken prisoner near this place.
According to his report to the government, when he
returned, all his crew was seized and eaten one after
another, and the only thing that saved him from a
like fate was that he read parts of the Koran.
This led them to believe him a priest, and finally induced
them to allow him to depart on the next vessel
that came to their shores. East of Geelvink Bay
two Dutch expeditions have found that the whole
population, men, women, and children, always go
absolutely naked.
On our right, as we looked toward the east from
our lofty position, the steep, conical peak of Tidore
was seen rising about six thousand feet above the
sea. It is one of the sharpest peaks in all this part
of the archipelago. As it has no crater either at
the summit or on its sides, there is no vent by
which the gases beneath it can find a ready escape.
They must therefore remain confined until they
have accumulated sufficient power to hurl high
into the air the whole mass of ashes, sand, and rock
which presses them down. This is exactly what happened
at Makian. Professor Reinwardt, who examined
this peak in 1821, declared that it would be
blown up in twenty years, and, strange to say, it was
nineteen years afterward that the terrific eruption of
Makian, already described, occurred. As the islands
Ternate, Tidore, Motir, and Makian, are only cones
standing on the same great fissure in the earth’s
crust, Professor Reinwardt’s prediction was fulfilled
almost to the very letter.
The village of Tidore is situated on its southern
side, and is the residence of the sultan, whose territory
is no less extensive than that of the Sultan of
Ternate. It includes Tidore, Mari, the two eastern
peninsulas of Gilolo, Gebi, Misol, Salwatti, Battanta,
and the adjacent islands, the western and northern
shores of the western peninsula of New Guinea,
and the islands in Geelvink Bay. The population
of Tidore and Mari is about seven thousand five
hundred. The former cultivate the flanks of the
mountain up to a height of about three thousand
feet. Above this line is a dense wood, but the
pointed summit is quite bare. The income of this
sultan consists in his share of the produce obtained
on Gilolo, in the sago, massoi-bark, tortoise-shell,
tripang, and paradise-birds, which are yearly brought
from Papua, and the islands between it and Celebes,
and in twelve thousand eight hundred guilders (over
five thousand dollars) paid him by the Dutch Government,
in accordance with the promise made by
the East India Company, when they destroyed the
spice-trees in his territory. The extension of the
empire of Tidore eastward was probably effected by
Malays, who migrated in that direction; for it is
stated in regard to Misol that the Papuans, who are
' now driven back into the interior, occupied the
whole island when it was first visited by Europeans.
This tendency to push on toward the coast is the
more interesting, because it is generally supposed
that, ages and ages ago, the ancestors of the present
Polynesian race passed out from this part of the
Malay Archipelago into Micronesia, and thence into
the wide area they now occupy. From the noithern