A LOFTY MEETING-PLACE. 



275 



to return. On rocks near us were inscriptions, one of 

 which bore date in 1548 ; and on a cut stone were the 

 words, 



Alexandre Ldvert, 

 De San Petersbrgo ; 

 Edvardo Legh Page, 

 De Inglaterra ; 

 Jose Croskey, 

 Be Fyladelfye, 

 Bibymos aqui unas Boteas 

 De Champana, el dia 26 

 de Agosto de 1834. 



It seemed strange that three men from such distant 

 and different parts of the world, St. Petersburgh, Eng- 

 land, and Philadelphia^ had met to drink Champagne 

 on the top of this volcano. "While I was blowing my 

 fingers and copying the inscription, the vapour cleared 

 away a little, and gave me a view of the interior of the 

 crater. It was a large oval basin, the area level and 

 covered with grass. The sides were sloping, about one 

 hundred or one hundred and fifty feet high, and all 

 around were masses of rock piled up in magnificent 

 confusion, and rising to inaccessible peaks. There is no 

 tradition of this mountain having ever emitted fire, and 

 there is no calcined matter or other mark of volcanic 

 eruption anywhere in its vicinity. The historical account 

 is, that in 1541 an immense torrent, not of fire, but of 

 water and stones, was vomited from the crater, by which 

 the old city was destroyed. Father Remesal relates 

 that on this occasion the crown of the mountain fell 

 down. The height of this detached part was one league, 

 and from the remaining summit to the plain was a dis- 

 tance of three leagues, which he affirms he measured in 

 1615. The area, by my measurement, is eighty-three 

 paces long and sixty wide. According to Torquemada 

 (and such is the tradition according to Padre Alcantra, 



