144 SUMBATFA. [chap. 



planned was consequently a failure, and we got neither deer nor pig, 

 altliough both are said to be fairly abundant in the neighbourhood. 

 The low jungle wliich we beat looked quite dead, but the natives 

 told us that in the rainy season it would soon be in full leaf. It 

 was ankle-deep in powdery dust, which iloated round us in little 

 clovids as we walked. After sundown nightjars of two species 

 (C. macrurus and G. affinis) hawked over the dried -up padi fields 

 in hundreds. In no other part of the world have I ever seen birds 

 of this genus in such extraordinary abundance. 



On the 12th of August we sailed at daybreak for the coast to 

 the eastward, as it was our intention, if possible, to ascend the 

 great Tambora volcano. We passed to the south of Majo Island, 

 and crossed the mouth of the Salee Giilf, which divides Sumbawa 

 almost in half. The land to the south is low, and the monsoon, 

 crossing it, blew strong from the south-east. Majo, like the country 

 round the town of Sumbawa, looked dried up and withered to the 

 last degree. The gulf is even now the haunt of pirates, and its 

 shores are more or less deserted for some distance inland, where 

 the natives live in fear and trembhng within stockaded towns. 

 The first sight of Tambora — one of the most tremendous volcanoes 

 in the world, witli a crater eight miles in diameter — is not a 

 very striking one, omng perhaps to the very breadth of its 

 summit, but the forests on its slopes were beautifully green 

 and fresh -looking, contrasting strongly with what we had until 

 then seen of Sumbawan vegetation. We slowly approached the 

 land, and passing to the south of the little island of Setonda, wdiich 

 is what the Sicilians would call a son of Tambora, and merely a 

 crater sticking up from the sea, we anchored to the east of a 

 small bay, with the centre of the great volcano bearing about S.E. 



This place — known to the natives as Labuan Penakan — had 

 been spoken of by the Sultan as being a possible locality for 

 obtaining help in the ascent of the mountain. A few huts were 

 visible on the beach, and soon after our arrival a dug-out canoe 

 came off, manned by two men, who brought the carcase of a deer 



