TOMBORO. 15 



having the greatest affinity with the best canal coal. 

 One great advantage it has over English coal for a hot 

 climate is, that it requires but little " stoking," as it 

 does not cake about the bars of the furnace, but burns 



been interred ; the villages almost entirely deserted and the 

 houses fallen down, the surviving inhabitants having dispersed in 

 search of food. The Rajah of Sang'ir came to wait on me at 

 Dompo, on the 3d instant. The suffering of the people there 

 appears, from his account, to be still greater than in Dompo. The 

 famine has been so severe that even one of his own daughters died 

 from hunger. I presented him with three coyangs of rice in your 

 name, for which he appeared most truly thankful. 



" ' As the rajah was himself a spectator of the late eruption, the 

 following account which he gave me is perhaps more to be de- 

 pended upon than any other I can possibly obtain. About 

 7 P.M. on the 10th of April, three distinct columns of flame burst 

 near the top of the Tomboro mountain (all of them apparently 

 within the verge of the crater), and after ascending separately to 

 a very great height, their tops united in the air in a troubled 

 confused manner. In a short time the whole mountain next 

 Sang'ir appeared like a body of liquid fire, extending itself in 

 every direction. The fire and columns of flame continued to rage 

 with unabated fury, until the darkness caused by the quantity of 

 falling matter obscured it at about 8 p. M. Stones, at this time, 

 fell very thick at Sang'ir ; some of them as large as two fists, but 

 generally not larger than walnuts. Between 9 and 10 P. M. ashes 

 began to fall, and soon after a violent whirlwind ensued, which 

 blew down nearly every house in the village of Sang'ir, carrying 

 the ataps, or roofs, and light parts away with it. In the 

 parts of Sang'ir adjoining Tomboro its effects were much more 

 violent, tearing up by the roots the largest trees and carrying 

 them into the air, together with men, horses, cattle, and what- 

 ever else came within its influence. (This will account for the 

 immense number of floating trees seen at sea.) The sea rose 

 nearly twelve feet higher than it had ever been known to do before, 

 and completely spoiled the only small spots of rice land in 

 Sang'ir, sweeping away houses and every thing within its reach. 



