THE TIMOR GROUP 
355 
most violent on the 11th and 12 th, and did not entirely 
cease till the following July. The sound of the explo¬ 
sions was heard at Benknlen in Sumatra, a distance of 
over 1100 miles in one direction, and at Ternate, a dis¬ 
tance of over 900 in a nearly opposite direction. Violent 
whirlwinds carried up men, horses, cattle, and whatever 
else came within their influence, into the air; tore up 
the largest trees by the roots, and covered the sea with 
floating timber. Many streams of lava issued from the 
crater and flowed in different directions to the sea, 
destroying everything in their course. Even more 
destructive were the ashes, which fell in such quantities 
that they broke through the Kesident’s house at Bima, 
more than 60 miles to the eastward, and rendered most 
of the houses in that town uninhabitable. On the west 
towards Java, and on the north towards Celebes, the 
ashes darkened the air to a distance of 300 miles, while 
fine ashes fell in Amboina and Banda, more than 800 
miles distant, and in such quantity at Brunei, the capital 
of Borneo, more than 900 miles north, that the event is 
remembered and used as a date-reckoner to this day. 
To the west of Sumbawa the sea was covered with a 
floating mass of fine ashes two feet thick, through which 
ships forced their way with difficulty. The darkness 
caused by the ashes in the daytime was more profound 
than that of the darkest nights, and this horrid pitchy 
gloom extended a distance of 300 miles to the westward 
into Java. Along the sea-coast of Sumbawa and the 
neighbouring islands, the sea rose suddenly to the height 
of from 2 to 12 feet, so that every vessel was forced 
from its anchorage and driven on shore. The town of 
Tambora sank beneath the sea, and remained permanently 
18 feet deep where there had been dry land before. 
The noises, the tremors of the earth, and the fall of ashes 
