Ternate is a small, cone-shaped volcanic island in North Maluku (present-day Indonesia), the most important of the several original homes of cloves, the highly sought-after spice. I took a domestic flight from Jakarta to Ternate on 14 September 2018 and stayed there for five nights, which included a one-day trip by speedboat to the neighbouring historically rival island of Tidore to the south. It took nearly four hours from Jakarta to get to Sultan Babullah Ternate, the island’s airport, named after its famous hero who evicted the Portuguese in 1575.

The purpose of my journey was to see for myself the two small islands about which I read so much. It was part of my personal studies into the early voyages of the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) and the English East India Company, and their efforts to access the most expensive spices sold in Europe – clove and nutmeg - directly from the sources, situated in the present-day Maluku province, Indonesia. These two tiny islands played a very important role in history, which I found fascinating and wanted to understand how that might have been possible. I thought becoming more familiar with the context in which the early Europeans arrived in that part of the world - the geography, climate, waters around the islands and the cultures of the people - and interacted with local powers would help open up more conceptual gates for me to navigate through the records and archives. 

Looking at Tidore from the slopes of Ternate

Ternate is part of a chain of several small clove islands that runs from south to north like a dotted line along the left side of the mid part of the larger island of Halmahera. Tidore, the similar-sized cone-shaped island that lies to its south, was the historical rival of the stronger Ternate, and, between them, they controlled most of what was called the Moluccas by the English, now forms part of the Indonesian province of Maluku. Ternate was ruled by a series of powerful Muslim sultans going back to the mid-fifteenth century. Although cloves grew in many nearby islands, the best and the most in-demand variety was grown in these islands.

The first Englishman to visit Ternate was Francis Drake, the Elizabethan privateer, in early November 1579, where he stayed for a few weeks. He was well-received by Sultan Babullah (Sultan Bolief), who gave him a golden ring as a gift for the Queen of England and offered some cloves. However, as Francis Drake’s ship, Golden Hind - whose replica stands near London Bridge Station - was filled to capacity with looted gold and silver from Spanish settlements on the west coast of South America, he could only accept a small amount. While in Ternate, Francis Drake saw many foreigners, including Turks.

Top Image: Replica of the Golden Hind, near London Bridge

Bottom Image: Francis Drake's visit to Sultan Babullah in 1579. Illustration by Theodor de Bry

Although Francis Drake was the first Englishman to arrive at Ternate, the Portuguese were the first Europeans to be brought to the island in 1512 by the emissaries of Sultan Bayan Sirrullah of Ternate (1500-1522). Soon after the Portuguese conquest of Melaka in August 1511, a small fleet was prepared and sent to the spice islands in the Malukus in early 1512. Although their main destinations in this voyage were the clove islands of Ternate and Tidore, difficult weather forced them to re-think and redirect to the Banda nutmeg islands. After loading nutmegs onto their ships, they planned to return to Melaka, but bad weather separated the three ships, and the shipwreck of one caused the crew to abandon their vessel and take refuge on a nearby island.

Some local pirates who tried to rob the Portuguese were overpowered and were forced to take them to Ambon. The news of the arrival of certain new people with superior weaponry and fighting skills spread and soon Sultan Bayan Sirrullah sent his brother with many cora-coras (boats), about three hundred miles south to Ambon to entice the newcomers to come to Ternate, which the Portuguese did, although they could have chosen a different sultanate, such as that of Tidore.

But very soon the Portuguese presence and their activities in Ternate became troublesome for the sultans and the local population. The Portuguese got increasingly involved and embroiled in local power struggles and conflicts within the royal family of Ternate and between Ternate and Tidore. They poisoned one of the sultans of Tidore and chopped off the head of the brother of a deceased sultan of Ternate, and tried, without full success, to impose a total clove monopoly on the islands, where everyone was required to hand over all the cloves harvested to the Portuguese. 

The book Turbulent Times Past in Ternate and Tidore provides details of an incident that took place during the late 1520s, which illustrates how things had deteriorated in Ternate by then. ‘A pig which belonged to Captain Menesez escaped from its pen in the castle and ran loose in the town. The Ternateans, being Muslims and abhorring contact with any such unclean creature caused it to be killed. Menesez accused the chief ulema of inspiring the act and had him imprisoned in the castle. The crowds of the townspeople protested, and Menesez, yielding graciously to public pressure, released the captive. First, however, he allowed one of his soldiers merrily to daub the face and beard of the venerable gentleman with copious quantities of pork fat. The infuriated ulema promptly set about stirring up a jehad, or holy war, against the infidel.’ Regular changes of Portuguese captains in Ternate by the authorities in Goa helped in dealing with deteriorating situations such as this.

However, it was not until 1570, fifty-eight years after the first arrival of the Portuguese in Ternate, that a point of no-return conflict developed when the Portuguese invited the long reigning Sultan Hairun Jamilu (1535-70) into their Fort and murdered him. His son Sultan Babullah (1570-83) was outraged and placed a seize around the Portuguese fort for five years until they were forced to surrender and allowed to leave the island peacefully on 31 December 1575.

 Ruins of Fort Kastela, South East, Ternate

The next Englishman to arrive in Ternate with a ship called Red Dragon was on 22 March 1605. He was Captain Henry Middleton, the commander of the second voyage of the East India Company. While near Tidore, Captain Middleton saw two small boats being chased by seven boats and some people in the former, waving at the English ship, thinking they were Dutch, and shouting for help. At that time, the English did not know who the people in the boats were. So, the captain ordered the ship's guns to be directed and fired at the seven boats chasing the two others but without any positive outcome. The chase continued.

Sultan Saidi Berkat (1583-1606) of Ternate, some noblemen and three Dutch merchants were in the two boats being chased. Men belonging to Sultan Mole Majimun (1599-1626) of Tidore were in the seven chasing boats. They caught up with and boarded one of the boats and killed all its men except for three who managed to jump into the sea. The sultan of Ternate, his accompanying noblemen and the three Dutch merchants were picked up, rescued from their enemies and brought to the Red Dragon.

Sultan Saidi Berkat was very appreciative and promised Captain Henry Middleton that he would make available to the English the cloves they needed, and that the English could establish a trading settlement. The sultan and others picked up by the English were then safely transported to Ternate. But before the English could make any real progress in procuring cloves for their ship, the Dutch arrived the next day with a larger force and forced the sultan of Ternate to go against his word, deny the English access to cloves and prevent them from establishing a base. While the English were still trying to procure cloves by going from island to island, the Dutch attacked and captured the Portuguese Fort in Tidore - the whole episode was witnessed by Captain Henry Middleton and his crew from the Red Dragon.

With the capture of Tidore from the Portuguese and the corresponding increase in Dutch power and influence in North Maluku, Captain Henry Middleton decided to leave the place in disappointment, after nearly three months of immense effort, without any hope of securing a trading base and procuring the quantity of cloves that they wanted for the return journey.

Dutch Fort: Fort Orange

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Sources:

Andaya, Leonard. Local Trade and Networks in Maluku in the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th Centuries.

Burnet, Ian. East Indies.

Hanna, William A. & Alvi, Des. Turbulent Times Past in Ternate and Tidore.

Keay, John. The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company.

 Lobato, Manuel. The Moluccan Archipelago and Eastern Indonesia in the Second Half of the 16th Century in the Light of Portuguese and Spanish Accounts.

Middleton, Henry. The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to Bantam and the Maluco Islands, Voyage to Bantam and the Maluco Islands, 1604-6.

Mostert, Tristan. Scramble for Spices.

Murteira, Andre. Dutch attacks against Portuguese shipping in Asia (1600-1625).

Pretty, Francis. Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, Narrative by Francis Pretty, one of Drake's gentlemen at arms, Voyages and travels; ancient and modern

Shngreiyo, A.S. The Beginning of Dutch and English Conflict in Banda and Moluccas in the Early Seventeenth Century

The King of Tarnate, to the King or England, Scotland, France and Ireland, & co., Voyage to Bantam and the Maluco Islands, 1604-6.

All photographs by M Ahmedullah

Muhammad Ahmedullah has lived in the UK since 1973 when he arrived there as a child from Bangladesh. He completed his early education in Newham, East London, further education in Hendon, North West London and higher education at the universities of Essex and Kent, from the latter gaining a PhD in 1998 on the relationship between theory of knowledge and political theory. Most of his career involved working for local councils in central government’s inner city regeneration programmes during 1990 and 2010. Since 2011, he has worked for several non-government organisations delivering projects on history and community cohesion. He also provides a fundraising service for small community and voluntary organisations. He is a founder member of Brick Lane Circle that runs a variety of projects and activities, one of which is the annual Bengal History Week. His personal blog website is www.imbuenomad.com, where he also writes a regular blog.