DISEASES CAUSED BY EARTHQUAKEa Igg 



There is u^^ually at least one earthquake — -that is, 

 one series of shocks — at Amboina every yeai-, and 

 when eight or ten months have passed without one, 

 a veiy heavy shock is always expected. 



On the 17th of February, 1674, according to 

 Valentyi], Amboina suflered from a heavy earth- 

 quake, and Mount Ateti, or Wawanu, on Hitu, west 

 of the village of Zyt, poured out a great quantity of 

 hot mud, which flowed down to the sea In 1822 

 Dr. S. Muller visited it and found a considerable 

 quantity of sublimed sulphur, and some sulphurous 

 acid gas rising from it. Again, in 1815, when tlie 

 volcano of Tomboro, or Sumbawa^ was suifering its 

 terrible eruption, an earthquake was felt at several 

 places on this Maud. Many people described to me 

 a series of shocks of great violence that began on the 

 1st of 'N'o member, 1835, and continued three weeks. 

 The whole population of the city were obliged to 

 leave their houses and live for all that time in tents 

 and bamboo huts in the large common back of the 

 forts. Up to that date iVmboina had been a re- 

 markably healthy place, but immediately afteiward 

 a gastric-bilious fever broke out and continued until 

 March, 1845. On the 20th of July of that year an- 

 other heavy earthquake was experienced, and this 

 disease at once began again, but had somewhat sub- 

 sided, when, on the 18th and 20th of Mai-ch, 1850, 

 another severe shock occurred, and again for the 

 third time it commenced anew. Tliis time both the 

 governor and the assistant resident died. At pres- 

 ent Amboina is one of the healthiest islands in these 

 seas. On the 4th and 5th of November, 1C99, a 



