It Was Said To Have Been As Lofty As Tidore
Before This Catastrophe.
[Soon after I' left the Archipelago, on
the 29th of December, 1862, another eruption of this mountain
suddenly took place, which caused great devastation in the
island.
All the villages and crops were destroyed, and numbers of
the inhabitants killed. The sand and ashes fell so thick that the
crops were partially destroyed fifty miles off, at Ternate, where
it was so dark the following day that lamps had to be lighted at
noon. For the position of this and the adjacent islands, see the
map in Chapter XXXVII.]
I stayed some time at a place where I saw a new clearing on a
very steep part of the mountain, and obtained a few interesting
insects. In the evening we went on to the extreme southern point,
to be ready to pass across the fifteen-mile strait to the island
of Kaiķa. At five the next morning we started, but the wind,
which had hitherto been westerly, now got to the south and
southwest, and we had to row almost all the way with a burning
sun overhead. As we approached land a fine breeze sprang up, and
we went along at a great pace; yet after an hour we were no
nearer, and found we were in a violent current carrying us out to
sea. At length we overcame it, and got on shore just as the sun
set, having been exactly thirteen hours coming fifteen miles. We
landed on a beach of hard coralline rock, with rugged cliffs of
the same, resembling those of the Ke Islands (Chap. XXIX.) It was
accompanied by a brilliancy and luxuriance of the vegetation,
very like what I had observed at those islands, which so much
pleased me that I resolved to stay a few days at the chief
village, and see if their animal productions were correspondingly
interesting. While searching for a secure anchorage for the night
we again saw the comet, still apparently as brilliant as at
first, but the tail had now risen to a higher angle.
October 14th. - All this day we coasted along the Kaiķa Islands,
which have much the appearance and outline of Ke on a small
scale, with the addition of flat swampy tracts along shore, and
outlying coral reefs. Contrary winds and currents had prevented
our taking the proper course to the west of them, and we had to
go by a circuitous route round the southern extremity of one
island, often having to go far out to sea on account of coral
reefs. On trying to pass a channel through one of these reefs we
were grounded, and all had to get out into the water, which in
this shallow strait had been so heated by the sun as to be
disagreeably warm, and drag our vessel a considerable distance
among weeds and sponges, corals and prickly corallines. It was
late at night when we reached the little village harbour, and we
were all pretty well knocked up by hard work, and having had
nothing but very brackish water to drink all day-the best we
could find at our last stopping-place.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 13 of 213
Words from 6267 to 6801
of 111511
