146 SUM BA IF A. [chap. 



What that eruption was can best be gathered from Mr. Wallace's 

 account : — 



"The great eruption began on April 5th, 1815, was most violent on the 

 11th and 12th, and did not entirely cease until the following July. The 

 sound of the explosions was heard at Bencoolen in Sumatra, a distance of 

 over 1100 miles in one direction, and at Ternate, a distance of over 900 

 miles in a nearly opposite direction. Violent whirlwinds carried up men, 

 horses, cattle, and whatever else came within their influence, into the air ; 

 tore up the largest trees by the roots, and covered the sea with floating 

 timber. Many streams of lava issued from the crater, and flowed in different 

 directions to the sea, destroying everything in their course. Even more 

 destructive were the ashes, which fell in such quantities that they broke into 

 the Resident's house at Bima, more than sixty miles to the eastward, and 

 rendered most of the houses in that tovm. uninhabitable. On the west 

 towards Java, and on the north towards Celebes, the ashes darkened the air 

 to a distance of 300 miles, while fine ashes fell in Amboina and Banda, 

 more than 800 miles distant ; and in such cj^uantity at Bruni, the capital of 

 Borneo, more than 900 miles north, that the event is remembered and used 

 as a date-reckoner to this day. To the west of Sumbawa the sea was covered 

 with a floating mass of fine ashes 2 feet thick, through which ships forced 

 their way with difficulty. The darkness caused by the ashes in the day- 

 time was more profoimd than that of the darkest nights, and this horrid 

 pitchy gloom extended a distance of 300 miles to the westward into Java. 

 Along the sea-coast of Sumbawa and the neighbouring islands the sea rose 

 suddenly to the height of from 2 to 12 feet, so that every vessel was forced 

 from its anchorage and driven on shore. The town of Tambora sank beneath 

 the sea, and remained permanently 18 feet deep where there had been dry 

 land before. The noises, the tremors of the earth, and the fall of ashes from 

 this eruption extended over a circle of more than 2000 miles in diameter, 

 and out of a population of 12,000 persons who inhabited the province of 

 Tambora previous to the eruption, it is said that only 26 individuals 

 survived.^ 



Bima Bay, a narrow inlet running north and south, and nearly 

 fifteen miles in length, has been a settlement of the Dutch since 

 1660, if indeed that term can be applied to a post where one 

 European and a handful of coloured soldiers drag out a miserable 

 existence. The bay forms an excellent harbour, protected from 



1 "Australasia," Stanford's Compendium, p. 425. 



