726 ON THE VOLCANO OP TAAL, 



points in this chronicle are the facts given as to its actual state 

 in 1680. Padre Alburquerque, parish priest of Taal, states that 

 he went to the edge of the volcano, which had within its crater 

 two principal mouths — one of sulphur ami one of green water, 

 which was always simmering, to which many wild deer came for 

 the sake of the salt which was found on the edge of the lake. This 

 testimony is inipoi'tant as showing what was the state of the 

 volcano at that time, and how comparatively tranquil it was. 

 Since then, it would appear, there has been very little alteration in 

 its features, except that it has grown more active. At that time 

 also we learn that the slopes of the island were cultivated in places 

 by the natives, the crops being algodon or cotton, and camote or 

 sweet potatoes. The chronicle further relates how the minister of 

 Taal, Padre Fray Tomas de Abreu, with the assistance of 400 

 Indians, erected upon the summit of the crater a large wooden 

 cross formed of a haixl wood named Anobing (Artocarpus), and 

 that afterwards the fields, which had become quite sterile, retui'ned 

 to their former fertility, and that the volcano was not for a long 

 time known to cause any disaster amongst the inhabitants. 



Our author states that he has not been able to meet with any 

 other notices, except those indicated, anterior to the eighteenth 

 century. During this it appears to have been the custom for the 

 parish priests of the neighbouring towns to register in a manner 

 more or less detailed and exact, the principal eruptions of the 

 volcano. Thus, in the " Relation of that which happened in the 

 volcano of the Laguna of Boinhong" written in Bauan, on the 

 22nd December, 1754, Padre Fray Francisco Bencuchilo speaks of 

 two eruptions which took place in 1709 and 1715, accompanied by 

 loud subterraneous thunders, and a casting forth of red hot stones, 

 and a great fire, which, like a river, flowed all over the island, 

 destroying everything in its course and yet not causing any damage 

 to the towns situated on the margins of the lake, but limiting its 

 action entirely to the small volcanic island. 



This statement, if it be taken to mean that lava streams flowed 

 from the volcano during the eruption, has nothing to confirm it in 

 the island. None of the craters seem to have given rise to anything 



