A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 9 | Page 4

_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 with five or six guns, which commands the road on the other side. Likewise at Tabalola, another town in Machian, they have two forts with eight cannons, this place being very strongly situated by nature. The natives of all these places are under their command. Those of Nofakia are not esteemed good soldiers, and are said always to side with the strongest; but those of Tabalola, who formerly resided at Cayoa, are accounted the best soldiers in the Moluccas, being deadly enemies to the Portuguese and Spaniards, and as weary now of the Dutch dominion. In these fortified stations in Machian, when I was there, the Dutch had 120 European soldiers; of whom eighty were at Tafasoa, thirty at Nofakia, and ten at Tabalola. The isle of Machian is the richest in cloves of all the Molucca islands; and, according to report, yields 1800 bahars in the great monsoon. The Dutch have one large fort in the island of Bachian, and four redoubts in the isle of Moteer. The civil wars have so wasted the population of these islands, that vast quantities of cloves perish yearly for want of hands to gather them; neither is there any likelihood of peace till one party or the other be utterly extirpated.
Leaving them to their wars, I now return to our traffic, and shall shew how we traded with the natives, which was mostly by exchanging or bartering the cotton cloths of Cambaya and Coromandel for cloves. The sorts in request and the prices we obtained being as follows: Candakeens of Baroach six cattees of cloves; candakeens of Papang, which are flat, three cattees; Selas, or small bastas, seven and eight cattees; Patta chere Malayo sixteen cattees; five cassas twelve cattees; coarse of that kind eight cattees; red Batellias, or Tancoulas, forty-four and forty-eight cattees; Sarassas chere Malayo forty-eight and fifty cattees; Sarampouri thirty cattees; _Chelles, Tapsiels_, and Matafons, twenty and twenty-four cattees; white Cassas, or Tancoulos, forty and forty-four cattees; the finest Donjerijus twelve, and coarser eight and ten cattees; Pouti Castella ten cattees; the finest Ballachios thirty cattees; Pata chere Malayo of two fathoms eight and ten cattees; great Potas, or long four fathoms, sixteen cattees; white Parcallas twelve cattees; Salalos Ytam twelve and fourteen cattees; Turias and Tape Turias one and two cattees; Patola of two fathoms, fifty and sixty cattees; those of four fathoms and of one fathom at proportional prices; for twenty-eight pounds of rice, a dollar; Sago, which is a root of which the natives make their bread, is sold in bunches, and was worth a quarter of a dollar the bunch; velvets, sattins, taffetics, and other silk goods of China were much in request. This may suffice for the trade of the Moluccas.
Proceeding on our voyage, it was calm all day on the 16th of April, but we, had a good breeze at night from the