CH. vn TO SANGIB AND TALAUT 173 



that when I had secured the sticks I thought I had also 

 secured the method, but I soon found out my mistake, and 

 notwithstanding long and dUigent practice with those two 

 bamboo sticks, I have never yet succeeded in producing a 

 spark by rubbing them together. 



By the time we had finished our inspection of Beo the 

 sun was sinking on to the horizon, and as we rowed back 

 to the ' Ternate ' the whole sea and sky was illumined by 

 one of those brilhant rosy-red sunsets so frequently seen in 

 tropical lands. The long coast-line of Karkelang and its 

 undulating plains and hiU ranges were hghted up by the 

 briUiant colours of the sunset. The whole scene was as 

 gorgeous and beautiful as could be well imagined, and 

 everything seemed to speak of peace, of quietness and 

 beauty. It was hard to believe we were leaving a district 

 haunted with deadly miasmas, and that the elements were 

 shedding a pall of colour and beauty, as it were, over a 

 scene of human suffering and death but rarely paralleled 

 even in these fever- stricken climes. 



We left Beo at about half-past six in the evening of 

 Saturday, November 21, and steamed half-speed all night 

 towards Great Sangir. At dayhght the next morning we 

 were close to the northern shore of that island, and in sight 

 of the great Awu volcano, whose slopes are broken up by 

 magnificent ravines and gorges. This volcano has been, 

 perhaps, more destructive than any in the Moluccas. We 

 have records of a most terrible eruption which lasted from 

 December 10 to December 16 in the year 1711. Sjamsialam 

 and his son, the Princess Lorolabo and her daughter Sara- 

 banong, and over two thousand people of the kingdom of 

 Kandahar were kUled (42). 



On March 2, 1856, there was another fearful eruption, 

 which lasted until March 17, and nearly three thousand 

 human lives were lost (14) . The streams of boiling water 



