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