336 TILiTELS IN THE EAST INDUN AJICHIPELAGO, 



and that tlie natives who undertook tliis periloua 

 climbing were always careful to airay tliemselves in 

 white before setting out, so tbat if ttey did lose tlteir 

 lives in the attempt they would be th-essed in the 

 robes required by their creed, and at once be taken 

 to Paradise. The first European who reached its 

 summit, so far as I am aware, was Professor Rein- 

 wardtj in 1831; the second was Br. S. Miiller, in 

 1828 ; and from that time till the 13th of September, 

 1865, when we ascended it, only one party had at- 

 tempted this difficult undertaking, and that was 

 from the steamer ^tna, whose name we had found 

 on a large rock in the old crater. 



The height of this volcano we found to be only 

 two thousand three hundred and twenty-one English 

 feet. Its spreading base is considerably less than 

 two mUes square. In size, therefore, it is insignifi- 

 cant compared to the gigantic mountains on Lom- 

 bok, Java, and Sumatra ; but when we consider the 

 great amount of suffering and the immense destine- 

 tion of property that has been caused by its repeated 

 emptions, it becomes one of the most important vol 

 canoes in the archipelago.''^ In 1615 an eruption oc- 

 curred in Mai'ch, just as the Governor-General, Ge- 

 rai'd Keynst, arrived from Java with a lai'ge fleet to 

 complete the wai' of extermination that the Dutch 

 had been waging with the aborigines for nearly 

 twenty years. 



For some time previous to 1820, many people 



* From ValeiityiL and later writers we learn that emptiona have 

 occnrred in the followinpf years: 1586, 1598, 1609, 1615, 1632^ 1600, 

 1696, iriS, 1765, 1775, 1778, 1820, and 1824. 



