VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES. 377 



and messengers were sent from one place to the other to make 

 inquiries, and a similar impression prevailed in all the islands, 

 cities, and villages in a circuit of nine hundred leagues, within 

 which the noise was heard. Malacca was taken by the Dutch on 

 the 13th of January, and was already hard pressed on the 4th, and 

 many pious Spaniards believed, after the news had come of the 

 capture of the place, that Heaven had taken this volcanic means 

 of warning them of the great injury which would result to the 

 archipelago from the loss of so important a city. 



The missionaries in Cochin China gave January 5th as the 

 date of the outbreak, instead of the 4th, there being one day's 

 difference between the reckoning of the Portuguese, who sailed 

 from west to east, and that of the Spaniards, who sailed from east 

 to west, to their Eastern possessions. 



The volcano of Mayon, or Albay, in the province of Cama- 

 rines, has been in frequent eruption from 1616 down to within 

 thirty years. Some of the eruptions were very destructive to life 

 and property. After an activity in July, 1766, of six days' dura- 

 tion, accompanied by a great flow of lava, on October 23, 1766, 

 during a violent storm, which began at about 7 p. m. from 

 north-northwest and at 3 a. m. suddenly veered to the south and 

 blew down all the houses of one of the villages in the neigh- 

 borhood, the volcano ejected such a vast quantity of water that 

 several torrents of thirty varas (ninety feet) wide ran down to the 

 sea between the villages Tibog and Albay. Between Bacacay and 

 MaKnao the floods were over eighty varas (two hundred and forty 

 feet) wide, and the highways were obliterated. One village was 

 entirely destroyed, nearly all the houses of the region were swept 

 away, and the fields were covered with sand; another village was 

 partly destroyed, its remainder forming an island, or rather a hill, 

 surrounded by deep, broad ravines, through which the stream of 

 sand and water ran. In another place palms and other trees were 

 buried in sand to their tops. Some fifty persons lost their lives. 

 As far as could be judged, the account declares, this [cold?] water 

 came from the interior of the volcano, while we should be inclined 

 to regard it as a cloudburst. The outbreak of February 1, 1814, 

 however, was the most destructive of all. An eyewitness writes 

 that at about 8 a. m. the mountain suddenly threw out a thick 

 column of stones, sand, and ashes, which quickly rose to the highest 

 layers of the air. The sides of the volcano became veiled and 

 disappeared from the view of the spectators, while a stream of fire 

 ran down the mountain and threatened to annihilate them. Every 

 one fled to the highest attainable point for safety, while the roar 

 of the volcano struck terror into all. The darkness increased. 



