Captain Tillard’s Narrative of the Eruption , &c. 153 
off from the city of Ponta del Gada on the morning of the 
14th, in company with Mr. Read, the Consul General of the 
Azores, and two other gentlemen. After riding about twenty 
miles across the NW. end of the island of St. Michael's, we 
came to the edge of a cliff from whence the volcano burst 
suddenly upon our view in the most terrific and awful gran- 
deur. It was only a short mile from the base of the cliff, 
which was nearly perpendicular, and formed the margin of the 
sea; this cliff being as nearly as I could judge from three to 
four hundred feet high. To give you an adequate idea of the 
scene by description is far beyond my powers ; but for your 
satisfaction I shall attempt it. 
Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, 
the surface of which was marked by the silvery ripling of the 
waves, occasioned by the light and steady breezes incidental 
to those climates in summer. In a quiescent state, it had the 
appearance of a circular cloud revolving on the water like an 
horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involutions, ex- 
panding itself gradually on the lee side, when suddenly a 
column of the blackest cinders, ashes, and stones would shoot 
up in form of a spire at an angle of from ten to twenty de- 
grees from a perpendicular line, the angle of inclination being 
universally to windward : this was rapidly succeeded by a se- 
cond, third, and fourth, each acquiring greater velocity, and 
overtopping the other till they had attained an altitude as much 
above the level of our eye, as the sea was below it. 
As the impetus with which the columns were severally 
propelled diminished, and their ascending motion had nearly 
ceased, they broke into various branches resembling a groupe 
of pines, these again forming themselves into festoons of white 
MDCCCXII. X 
