DESCENT INTO THE CRATER. 257 
men who had preceded us, re-ascending. They 
dissuaded us most strenuously from proceed¬ 
ing farther: knowing that the crater had been 
crossed at this end, we hastened on, notwith¬ 
standing the refusal of the guide to return with 
us. The descent was as perilous as it had been 
represented; but, by proceeding with great cau¬ 
tion, testing well the safety of every step before 
committing our weight to it, and often stopping 
to select the course which seemed least hazard¬ 
ous, in the space of about twenty minutes, by a 
zigzag way, we reached the bottom, without any 
accident of greater amount than a few scratches 
on the hands, from the sharpness and roughness 
of the lava, by which we had occasionally been 
obliged to support ourselves. When about half 
way down, we were encouraged to persevere in 
our undertaking, by meeting a native, who had 
descended on the opposite side, and passed over. 
It was only, however, from the renewed assurance 
it gave of the practicability of the attempt; for, 
besides being greatly fatigued, he was much cut 
and bruised from a fall—said the bottom was 
“ inOy ino roa, ka waki 0 debelo /” excessively 
bad, the place of the devil!— and could be pre¬ 
vailed on to return with us only by the promise of 
a large reward. 
“ It is difficult to say, whether sensations of ad¬ 
miration or of terror predominated, on reaching 
the bottom of this tremendous spot. As I looked 
up at the gigantic wall, which on every side rose 
to the very clouds, I felt oppressed to a most 
unpleasant degree, by a sense of confinement. 
Either from the influence of imagination, or 
from the actual effect of the intense power of a 
noonday sun beating directly on us, in addition 
iv. s 
