DISEASES CAUSED BY EARTHQUAKES. 169 



There is usually at least one earthquake — that is, 

 one series of shocks — -at Amboina every year, and 

 when eight or ten months have passed without one, 

 a very heavy shock is always expected. 



On the 17th of February, 1674, according to 

 Valentyu, Amboina suffered from a heavy earth- 

 quake, and Mount Ateti, or "Wawanu, on Hitu, west 

 of the village of Zyt, poiu'ed out a great quantity of 

 hot mud, which flowed down to the sea. In 1822 

 Dr. S. MuUer \dsited it and found a considerable 

 quantity of sublimed sulphur, and some sulphureous 

 acid 2:as risins; from it. Ao;ain, in 1815, when the 

 volcano of Tomboro, or Sumbawa, was suffering its 

 tenible eruption, an earthquake was felt at several 

 places on this island. Many people described to me 

 a series of shocks of o;reat violence that bes^an on the 

 1st of November, 1835, and continued three weeks. 

 The whole population of the city were obliged to 

 leave their houses and live for all that time in tents 

 and bamboo huts in the large common back of the 

 forts. Up to that date Amboina had been a re- 

 markably healthy place, but immediately afterward 

 a gastric-bilious fever broke out and continued until 

 March, 1845. On the 20tli of July of that year an- 

 other heavy earthquake was experienced, and this 

 disease at once began again, but had somewhat sub- 

 sided, when, on the 18th and 20th of March, 1850, 

 another severe shock occurred, and again for the 

 third time it commenced anew. This time both the 

 governor and the assistant resident died. At pres- 

 ent Amboina is one of the healthiest islands in these 

 seas. On the 4th and 5th of November, 1G90, a 



