HALMAHEIRA ("great land"; also Jilolo or Gilolo), an island of the Dutch East Indies, belonging to the residency of Ternate, lying under the equator and about 128° E. Its shape is extremely irregular, resembling that of the island of Celebes. It consists of four peninsulas so arranged as to enclose three great bays (Kayu, Bicholi, Weda), all opening towards the east, the northern peninsula being connected with the others by an isthmus only 5 m. wide. On the western side of the isthmus lies another bay, that of Dodinga, in the mouth of which are situated the two islands Ternate and Tidore, whose political importance exceeds that of the larger island (see these articles). Of the four peninsulas of Halmaheira the northern and the southern are reckoned to the sultanate of Ternate, the north-eastern and south eastern to that of Tidore; the former having 11, the latter three districts. The distance between the extremities of the northern and southern peninsulas, measured along the curve of the west coast, is about 240 m. ; and the total area of the island is 6,500 sq.m. Knowledge of the island is very incomplete. It appears that the four peninsulas are traversed in the direction of their longitudinal axis by mountain chains 3,00o to 4,00o ft. high, cov ered with forests rich in a great variety of trees, without a central chain at the nucleus of the island whence the peninsulas diverge. The mountain chains, from which spurs extend to the coast, are frequently interrupted by plains, such as those of Weda and Kobi. The northern part of the mountain chain of the northern penin sula is volcanic, its volcanoes continuing the line of those of Makian, Ternate and Tidore. The mountains along the western coast are volcanic, and at least one, Gam Kenora (4,922 ft.), is active. Coral formations on heights in the interior would indi Cate oscillations of the land in several periods, but a detailed geology of the island is wanting. There are numerous rivers, of which the chief are the Taliabu and the Kaii, but none are of great importance, and there are several lakes. Near Weda is a beautiful stalactite grotto—the Grotto of Sagea—which has been likened to the famous Blue Grotto of Capri. To the north-east of the northern peninsula is the considerable island of Morotai (635 sq.m.), which is more than 5o m. long and from 13 to 26 m. wide, with mountains reaching 3,00o ft. (the Sabotai range), and several rivers, and to the west of the southern peninsula the more important island of Bachian (q.v.) among others. Galela is a considerable settlement, situated on a bay of the same name on the north-east coast, in a well-cultivated plain which extends southward and inland. Vegetation is prolific. Rice is grown by the natives, but the sago tree is of far greater importance to them. Damsar is collected and coconuts are also grown, and the forests yield wild nutmeg and ironwood (Nania vera) . The sea yields trepang and pearl shells. A little trade is carried on by the Chinese and Macassars of Ternate, who, crossing the narrow Isthmus of Dodinga, enter the Bay of Kayu on the east coast. The chief town is Patani, with probably not more than 2,000 in habitants, and ports of call for vessels of the Royal Mail Packet Company are Galela, Tobela, Kayu, Weda and Patani, together with Wajibula in Morotai. The total population with Morotai is 102,340.
The inhabitants are mostly of immigrant Malayan stock. In the northern peninsula, which is the most thickly populated, are found people akin to the Papuan-Malay type, and a tribe around Galela who are Polynesian in physique, possibly remnants, much mixed by subsequent crossings with the Papuan indigenes, of the Caucasian hordes emigrating in prehistoric times across the Pa cific. M. Achille Raffray gives a description of them in Tour du Monde (1879) where photographs will be found. "They are as unlike the Malays as we are, excelling them in tallness of stature and elegance of shape, and being perfectly distinguished by their oval face, with a fairly high and open brow, their aquiline nose and their horizontally placed eyes. Their beards are sometimes thick; their limbs are muscular; the colour of their skins is cinnamon brown. Spears of iron-wood, abundantly barbed, and small bows and bamboo arrows free from poison are their principal weapons." They are further described as having temples (sabuas) in which they suspend images of serpents and other monsters, as well as the trophies procured by war. They believe in a better life here after, but have no idea of a hell or a devil, their evil spirits only tormenting them in the present state.
The people in the Tidore part of the island, as the result of keen propaganda of the sultans of Tidore, are all Mohammedans, but in the Ternate division the aborigines are largely pagan. These people have crisp, wavy hair, a skin even lighter than that of the average Malay, and the men are strongly built and well made, though the women are thick-set and ugly. They are true forest people, some nomads, living only in shelters. A loin-cloth, with headdress, is their only covering. The sago and areca palm give them food and drink. They fish, hunt and cultivate the land in a simple style. Head-hunters in the past, they are a gentle and willing race now, but prone to violence from motives of revenge. Many indigenous dialects are spoken and on the coast Ternatan is largely used. Morotai has several Mohammedans and a few Christians among its population. The pagan people collect forest products and natives of Galelo in Halmaheira visit Morotai to seek sago, and to fish.
The Portuguese and Spaniards were better acquainted with Halmaheira than with many other parts of the archipelago ; they sometimes called it Batu China, and sometimes Moro. It was circumnavigated by one of their vessels in 1525, and the general outline of the coasts is correctly given in their maps at a time when separate portions of Celebes, such as Macassar and Menado, are represented as distinct islands. The name (Jilolo) was really that of a native State, the sultan of which had the chief rank among the princes of the Moluccas before he was supplanted by the sultan of Ternate about 1380. His capital, Jilolo, lay on the west coast, on the first bay to the north of that of Dodinga. The Dutch obtained a footing in Halmaheira with the aid of their ally, the sultan of Ternate, and when they severed relations with this chief in 1683, the lands in Halmaheira under the suzerainty of Ternate, came under Dutch influence, and by their treaty of 166o with the sultan of Tidore, they had become overlords of all Tidorese fiefs, which opened up to them that part of Halma heira under Tidorese influence. In 1876 Danu Hassan, a de scendant of the sultans of Jilolo, raised an insurrection in the island for the purpose of throwing off the authority of the sul tans of Tidore and Ternate; and his efforts would probably have been successful but for the intervention of the Dutch. In 1878 a Dutch expedition was directed against the pirates in Tobolai, who were virtually extirpated.