Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra17181886roya).pdf/237

 a great quantity of gold they were said to contain. ANTONIO was now left by ALBUQUERQUE in the command of the new fort of Pisang, with three ships, which were afterwards of great service against a Moor who infested the coast. On his return to Malacca, of which he had the command, ALBUQUERQUE pre- pared to make war upon the king of Bintang. That island, about 40 leagues from Malacca, is 10 leagues in circum- ference, having two strong castles, and its rivers staked to prevent the access of ships, so that it was considered as almost impregnable. ALBUQUERQUE went from Malacca with 18 ves- sels and 600 men, and finding it impossible to get his ships up, he endeavoured to land his men from boats to attack one of the forts; but the water being up to their middles, and the enemy making a brave resistance, they were forced to retire, after losing twenty men, besides a great number wounded.

In the same year, 1521, ANTONIO DE BRITO sailed for the Molucca islands. These islands are in the middle of a great number of others under the equator, about 300 leagues east from Malacca. There are five principal islands to which the general name of Moluccas is applied, about 25 leagues distant from each other, the largest not exceeding six leagues in cir- cumference. The particular names of these are Ternate, Tidore, Mousell, Macquein, and Bacham. They are covered with woods and subject to fogs, and are consequently unheal- thy. These five islands produce cloves, but no kind of food; and the large island of Batochina, which is 60 leagues long, produces food but no cloves. In some of these islands, particularly Ternate, there are burning mountains. The chief subsistence of the people is of a kind of meal made from the bark of certain trees resembling the palm. There are certain canes that have a liquor in their hollows between the joints,