S P I C Y I S L A N D S. 159 



fatisfadlion for their barbarities at Amboina. As to Poleroon, it was 

 kept but a very fliort time ; for in 1664, in the inglorious reign 

 of his profligate fuccelTor, it was taken from us by a lingle fliip. 



The Abbe Raynal gives the following defcription of thefe 

 iflands : " They feem," fays he*, " to have been thrown up by 

 *' the fea, and may with reafon be fuppofed to be the effedt of 

 " fome fubterraneous fire. Lofty mountains, the fummits of 

 " which are loft in the clouds, enormous rocks heaped one upon 

 " another, horrid and deep caverns, torrents which precipitate 

 " them-felves with extreme violence, volcanoes perpetually an- 

 " nouncing impending deftruaion ; fuch are the ph^enomena 

 " that give rife to this idea, or aflift in confirming it." By the 

 fequel of my account it will appear that the Abbe's defcription 

 and inference feem to have been very well founded. 



This is the general view of them. I colled: the following 

 particulars of thole of Banda (the Moluccas I referve till my ar- 

 rival on their coafts) : the firft called Gonnapo, or Goenong-api, GoENONc-AEr. 

 in 1 62 1 emitted fire, fmoke, and cinder ; and had, perhaps, long 

 before left neither woods, fruits, or water. The eruptions have 

 been at times fo violent as to carry defolation to part of the 

 neighboring ifland of Banda, overwhelming the woods and 

 greateft trees, and to fling ftones of three or four tons w^eight 

 from one illand to the other. Even in the laft year (1791) we 

 are informed, that it made a very confiderable eruption. In the 

 Phil. Tranf. Abridg.t is an account of a moft horrible eruption 

 of this mountain in November 1694, attended with noifes. like 

 the difcharge of artillery. It caft up fuch a quantity of ftones as 



* Vol. i. p. 139. f Vol. ii. p. 393. 



entirely 



