Bartholomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama, and the Spanish-backed explorers such as
Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan, were an attempt to find a new route to
the Indies and the Spice Islands, and it was these epic voyages of the Age of Discovery
that allowed mankind to put a definite shape to the oceans and continents of our planet
for the first time.
The Portuguese explorer Francisco Serrao became the first European to reach
Ternate after sailing from Malacca in 1512. Another expedition followed in 1515, and
in 1518 the Portuguese reached an agreement with Sultan Bolief to supply him with
arms and to build a fortress on Ternate, in exchange for what the Portuguese expected
would be a monopoly on the clove trade. The Portuguese finished building the fort in
February 1523 and in the opening ceremony its governor, Antonio de Brito, declared
Sultan Bolief to be the greatest servant of His Highness the King of Portugal, and that
he would become the ‘Lord of all the Isles’. Under successive Portuguese governors
the fort, which became known as Fort Gamalama, grew to include a walled town
with facilities for the storage of cloves and other goods, as well as residences for the
governor, soldiers, sailors, merchants, artisans, wives and children. At first the islands
might have seemed to be a peaceful and idyllic tropical paradise fanned by a gentle
sea breeze scented by exotic spices and with a compliant population that could easily
be controlled by a powerful colonial master. However, the Portuguese quickly found
themselves embroiled in the rivalry and intrigues from within the Sultan’s court and
after sixty years Fort Gamalama was captured by the Sultan of Ternate. The Dutch
East India Company defeated the Portuguese in 1606 when they captured the fort on
the adjacent island of Tidore. They later occupied an abandoned Portuguese fort on
the east coast of Ternate and after rebuilding the fort and reinforcing its garrison they
renamed it Fort Oranje, and this is the fort that stands in the centre of Ternate today.
In the 1670s the naturalist Georg Rumphius described the clove tree as the most
beautiful, the most elegant and the most precious of all known trees. Like most under-
storey trees, it is unable to regenerate under the full tropical sun and its seed is only
viable for a short period, which may explain why its worldwide distribution was
limited to these few tiny islands.
A member of the Myrtaceae family, the clove tree grows to a height of ten metres
and is covered with glossy and powerfully aromatic leaves, but it is the flower bud
that is valued. The clove buds grow in clusters and change colour as they mature, from
green through yellow to pink and finally a deep russet red. To retain the maximum
amount of their aromatic oil, the buds are harvested before they flower, then spread
out on mats to dry. The buds harden and blacken as the heat of the sun seals in their
fragrant oil. As the clove bud and stem dries, it takes on the characteristic nail-like
appearance that gives the spice its name, which is derived from the Latin word clavus
for nail. Cloves were used by the ancients not just for their unique flavour and aroma,
but also for their antibacterial and analgesic properties, which made them highly
Alfred Russel Wallace – The ‘Letter from Ternate’ 161