21(5 
MISSIONARY TOUR 
mountain air through the whole of the night. While 
we were clearing out the small stones between some of 
the blocks of lava that lay scattered around, a large 
fire was kindled near the entrance, which, throwing its 
glimmering light on the dark volcanic sides of the 
cavern, and illuminating one side of the huge masses 
of lava, exhibited to our view the strange features of 
our apartment, which resembled, in no small degree, 
scenes described in tales of romance. When we had 
cleared a sufficient space, we spread our beds of fern- 
leaves and grass on the rough floor of the cavern, and 
then mingled with the cheerful circle who were sitting- 
round the fire. We sung a hymn in the native lan¬ 
guage, and afterwards committed ourselves and fellow- 
travellers to the kind keeping of Him, whose wakeful 
eye and watchful care no dark cavern can exclude. 
While the natives were sitting round the fire, Mr. 
Thurston and I ascended to the upper region, and 
walked to a rising ground at a small distance from the 
mouth of the cavern, to try if we could discern the 
light of the volcano. The wind blew fresh from the 
mountains; the noise of the rolling surf, to which we 
had been accustomed on the shore, was not heard; 
and the stillness of the night was only disturbed by the 
chirping of the insects in the grass. The sky was 
clear, except in the eastern horizon, where a few light 
clouds arose, and slowly floated across the expanse of 
heaven. On looking towards the north-east, we saw a 
broad column of light rising to a considerable eleva¬ 
tion in the air, and immediately above it some bright 
clouds, or thin vapours, beautifully tinged with red 
on the under side. We had no doubt that the column 
of light arose from the large crater, and that its fires 
