240 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



commotion in tlie 023en ocean, and certainly tliere 

 was no higli wave or bore, or it would liave risen on 

 the shores of tlie neighboring islands. There are 

 three entrances or straits which lead from the road 

 out to the open sea. Two of these are wide and one 

 is narrow. When the whole top of the old volcano, 

 that is, Banda Neira, Gunong Api, Lontar, and the 

 area they enclose, was raised for a moment, the 

 water steamed out from the crater through these 

 straits, causing only strong currents, but as the land 

 instantly sank to its former level, the water poured 

 in, and the streams of the two wider straits, meeting 

 and uniting, rolled on toward the inner end of the 

 narrow strait. Here they all met, and, piling up, 

 spread out over the adjoining low village, causing a 

 great destruction of life. At the Resident's house, a 

 few hundi^d yards east of Fort Nassau, the water only 

 rose some ten or fifteen feet above high- water level, 

 and farther east still less. The cause assigned above, 

 though the princij^al one, may therefore not have 

 been sufficient in itself to have made the sea rise 

 so high over the southwestern part of Banda Neii'a 

 and the opposite part of Gunong Api, and I sus- 

 pect that an additional cause was that the land 

 there sank for a moment below its proper level. 

 Valentyn thus describes another less destructive 

 earthquake wave : " In the year 1629 there was a 

 great earthquake, and half an hour afterward a flood 

 which was very great, and came in calm weather. 

 The sea between Neira and Selam " (on the western 

 part of Lontar) " rose up like a high mountain and 

 struck on the right side of Fort Nassau, where the 



