whole villages, and doing more or less injury to life and
property, are sure to happen, in one part or another of this
district, almost every year. On many of the islands the years of
the great earthquakes form the chronological epochs of the native
inhabitants, by the aid of which the ages of their children are
remembered, and the dates of many important events are
determined.

I can only briefly allude to the many fearful eruptions that have
taken place in this region. In the amount of injury to life and
property, and in the magnitude of their effects, they have not
been surpassed by any upon record. Forty villages were destroyed
by the eruption of Papandayang in Java, in 1772, when the whole
mountain was blown up by repeated explosions, and a large lake
left in its place. By the great eruption of Tomboro in Sumbawa,
in 1815, 12,000 people were destroyed, and the ashes darkened the
air and fell thickly upon the earth and sea for 300 miles around.
Even quite recently, since I left the country, a mountain which
had been quiescent for more than 200 years suddenly burst into
activity. The island of Makian, one of the Moluccas, was rent
open in 1646 by a violent eruption which left a huge chasm on one
side, extending into the heart of the mountain. It was, when I
last visited it in 1860, clothed with vegetation to the summit,
and contained twelve populous Malay villages. On the 29th of
December, 1862, after 215 years of perfect inaction, it again
suddenly burst forth, blowing up and completely altering the
appearance of the mountain, destroying the greater part of the
inhabitants, and sending forth such volumes of ashes as to darken
the air at Ternate, forty miles off, and to almost entirely
destroy the growing crops on that and the surrounding islands.