September 8, 1892] 



NATURE 



457 



Congress of Orientalists we have a right to claim what is due to 

 them, and I doubt whether anybody here present would deny 

 that it is due in the first place to Oriental scholars, such as Sir 

 \V. Jones, Colebrooke, Schlegel, Bopp, Burnouf, Grimm, and 

 Kuhn, if we now have a whole period added to the history of 

 the world, if we now can prove that long before we know any- 

 thing of Homeric Greece, of Vedic India, of Persia, Greece, 

 Italy, and all the rest of Europe, there was a real historical com- 

 munity formed by the speakers of Aryan tongues, that they were 

 closely held together by the bonds of a common speech and 

 common thoughts. It is equally due to the industry and genius 

 of Oriental scholars such as de Sacy, Gesenius, Ewald, and my 

 friend the late Prof. Wright, if it can no longer be doubted that 

 the ancestors of the speakers of Babylonian and Assyrian, 

 Syriac, Hebrew, Phenician, and Arabic formed once one con- 

 solidated brotherhood of Semitic speech, and that, however 

 different they are when they appear for the first time in their 

 national individuality on the stage of history, they could once 

 understand their common words and common thoughts, like 

 members of one and the same family. Surely this is an achieve- 

 ment in which Oriental scholarship has a right to take pride, 

 when it is challenged to produce its title to the gratitude of the 

 world at large." 



Turning to another field, Prof. Miiller showed that Oriental 

 scholars had inspired the oldest period in the history of the 

 world with a new life. Instead of learning by heart the un- 

 meaning names of kings and the dates of their battles, whether 

 in Egypt or Babylon, in Syria or Palestine, we had been enabled, 

 chiefly through the marvellous discoveries of Oriental scholars, 

 to watch their most secret thoughts, to comprehend their 

 motives, to listen to their prayers, to read even their private and 

 confidential letters. The ancient history of the world might be 

 said to have assumed, under the hands of Oriental scholars, the 

 character of a magnificent dramatic trilogy. The first drama 

 told u^ of the fates of the Aryan and Semitic races, as compact 

 confederacies before their separation into various languages and 

 historical nationalities. The second drama was formed by the 

 wars and conquests of the great Eastern Empires in Egypt, 

 Babylon, and Syria, but it showed us that besides these wars 

 and conquests, there was a constant progress of Eastern culture 

 towards ihe West, towards the shores and islands of the Medi- 

 terranean, and lastly towards Greece. The third drama repre- 

 sented the triumphant progress of Alexander, the Greek far 

 more than the Macedonian, from Europe through Persia, Pales- 

 tine, Phenicia, Egypt, Babylon, Hyrcania, and Bactria to 

 India, in fact through all the great empires of the ancient East. 

 Here we saw the first attempt at re-establishing the union 

 between East and the West. 



Prof. Miiller concluded his address with an eloquent and im- 

 pressive plea for the encouragement of Oriental studies in Eng- 

 land. "When," he said, "I accepted the honourable post of 

 president of this congress, it was chiefly because I hoped that 

 this congress would help to kindle more enthusiasm for Oriental 

 scholarship in Enjjland. But that enthusiasm must not be 

 allowed to pass away with our meeting. It should assume a 

 solid and lasting form in the shape of a permanent and powerful 

 association for the advancement of Oriental learning, having its 

 proper home in the Imperial Institute. If the members of this 

 congress and their friends will help to carry out this plan, then 

 our congress might hereafter mark an important epoch in the 

 history of this the greatest Eastern Empire, and I should feel 

 that, in spite of all my shortcomings, I had proved not quite 

 unworthy of the confidence which my friends and fellow- 

 labourers have reposed in me. " 



A vote of thanks to Prof. Miiller for his interesting address 

 was moved by Prof, von Blihler, seconded by Count de Guber- 

 natis, and carried with enthusiasm. 



On Tuesday the work of the sections was proceeded with. 

 Special interest was given to the proceedings on Wednesday by 

 the reading of an address written by Mr. Gladstone, for the 

 section dealing with Archaic Greece and the East. 



THE ERUPTION AT SANGIR. 



|N Friday last the Times printed some interesting extracts 

 from a letter (dated Labuan, July 1 1, 1892) by Mr. George 

 Ormsby, a magistrate in the British North Borneo Com- 

 pany's Service, containing an account of the recent eruption in 

 Sangir, and of a visit paid to the spot immediately afterwards. 



O' 



NO. II 93, VOL. 46] 



Mr. Ormsby left Sandakan on June 4 in the s.s. Normanby, and 

 arrived at Menado on the morning of the 7th. After a visit to 

 Govontalo the vessel returned to Menado on the loth, and here 

 Mr. Ormsby heard that there had been an eruption on some of 

 the islands to the north, and that the s.s. Hecuba, which had 

 arrived at Menado just after the Normanby had started for 

 Govontalo, had been chartered by the Dutch Government, and 

 had gone out to find the scene of the eruption and to render 

 assistance. On the 12th the Hecuba was sighted coming into 

 Menado, and Mr. Ormsby and ,the skipper of the Normanby 

 went on board as soon as she dropped anchor. " The captain," 

 says Mr. Ormsby, "told us that he first went to an island 

 called Slow, as the volcano there was known to be active. He 

 found the island covered with ashes, but was told that the erup- 

 tion had taken place at Sangir, an island about 30 miles further 

 north. He went on there, and found it buried in ashes ; they 

 were digging the houses out at Tarona, the port. The cocoanut 

 trees were all destroyed, and the loss of life was unknown. The 

 volcano was slightly in eruption when he arrived. He went 

 along the coast, stopping at the villages, and sending rice ashore, 

 as the people were without food. He said some of the people 

 were frightfully burned and maimed." 



When the Dutch official who was on board the Hecuba 

 reported the state of affairs to the Resident, the Normanby was 

 chartered to take rice to the island and land it at Tarona. She 

 left Menado at midnight, and arrived at Tarona next afternoon. 

 " As we steamed up the coast of Sangir we could see the cocoa- 

 nuts, with all the leaves broken and hanging downwards and 

 covered with ashes, although the southern end of the island is 

 sheltered from the volcano by hills. The harbour of Tarona is 

 a narrow inlet, about half-way up the western side of the island, 

 with steep hills on each side. The village is on the north side 

 of the harbour, and is sheltered from the volcano by the hills 

 behind it ; behind the hills a large plain stretches to the foot of 

 the volcano." 



The eruption took place on the 7th at 7 p.m., and there was 

 a slight eruption on the 9th, followed by heavy rain. The only 

 damage done in Tarona was by the weight of ashes ; many of 

 the lightly-built native houses were crushed, " The afternoon 

 we arrived," Mr. Ormsby says, " I went ashore, and followed 

 the road from Tarona along the harbour. On rounding the end 

 of the hills the road turned and ran along the northern slope of 

 the hill ; down below the road there was a deep ravine, with a 

 small stream at the bottom, which was warm and smelt strongly 

 of sulphur. The ravine was 40 ft. or 50 ft. deep, and had 

 evidently been partly cut out by a stream of mud, which had 

 rushed down it from the foot of the mountain and torn away the 

 road in places. Looking across the ravine towards the crater 

 the whole plain was burnt up, and near the foot of the mountain 

 there was a jet of steam and thick black smoke. On the slope 

 of the crater there was no sign of lava or mud. The three mud 

 rivers I saw started from the foot of the mountain. I followed 

 the road for some distance. About two miles from the sea it 

 crossed a small triangular plain, and then zigzagged up the 

 central range of hills. Where it crossed the plain it was entirely 

 washed away by mud and ashes, which had been hardened by 

 the rain after the eruption. The bridge across the stream was 

 also destroyed, only the butts of the piles remaining. I got up 

 to the top of the hills and a bit down the other side. I had a 

 fine view of the volcano from the top ; it was smoking, but 

 there were no fireworks while we were on the island. I noticed 

 a column of steam rising from the plain, close to the foot of the 

 volcano, and determined to try and reach it next morning." 



The column of steam was visited next day by Mr. Ormsby 

 and the chief engineer, but they reached it with difficulty. On 

 the way they had to jump a "stream which was steaming, and 

 must have been very hot." He says : — " We went up to where 

 the steam was blowing up through the mud. The mud was 

 quite firm, but so hot that we had to shift from one foot to the 

 other. The steam was puffing up through a lot of holes, but 

 not very strongly where we were. I poked up a lot of stohes 

 out of one of the holes with my stick ; they were so hot you 

 could not hold them. I let two of them cool a bit, and then 

 rolled them up in my handkerchief and put them in my pocket. 

 One of them was covered with sulphur crystals, but, unfortu- 

 nately, I lost it as we were returning. The whole place smelt 

 strongly of sulphur, and we soon decided we had had enough 

 of it, as it was about 9 a.m., and between the sun above and 

 the earth below we were both streaming with perspiration. We 

 got back to the ship pretty well fagged, and I stayed on board 



