236 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



aud that the natives who undertook this perilous 

 climbing were always careful to array themselves in 

 white before setting out, so that if they did lose their 

 lives in the attempt they would be dressed in the 

 robes requii'ed by their creed, and at once be taken 

 to Paradise. The first European who reached its 

 summit, so far as I am aware, was Professor Rein- 

 wardt, in 1821 ; the second was Dr. S. Mliller, in 

 1828 ; and from that time till the 13th of September, 

 1865, when we ascended it, only one party had at- 

 tempted this difficult undertaking, and that was 

 from the steamer JEtna, whose name we had found 

 on a large rock in the old crater. 



The height of this volcano we found to l3e only 

 two thousand three hundred and twenty-one English 

 feet. Its spreading base is considerably less than 

 two miles square. In size, therefore, it is insignifi- 

 cant compared to the gigantic mountains on Lom- 

 bok, Java, and Sumatra ; but when we consider the 

 great amount of suffering and the immense destruc- 

 tion of property that has been caused by its repeated 

 eruptions, it becomes one of the most important vol 

 canoes in the archipelago."^ In 1615 an eruption oc- 

 curred in March, just as the Governor-General, Ge- 

 rard Reynst, arrived from Java with a large fleet to 

 complete the war of extermination that the Dutch 

 had been waging with the aborigines for nearly 

 twenty years. 



For some time previous to 1820, many people 



* From Valentyn and later writers we learn that eruptions have 

 occurred in the following years: 1586, 1598, 1609, 1615, 1632, 1690, 

 1696, 1712, 1765, 1775, 1778, 1820, and 1824. 



