Nearly in a right line to the eastward of Java lies the Island of
Sumbawa, in which stands the volcano of Tomboro, the most violent
in its eruptions of any in the world. One of the most remarkable
occurred in the year 1815, beginning on the 5th of April and
continuing till the middle of July. Its effects were felt over an
immense tract of country, embracing the Molucca Islands, Java, and
portions of Celebes, Sumatra, and Borneo. The concussions produced
by its explosions were sensible at a distance of a thousand miles
all round; and their sound is said to have been heard even at so
great a distance as seventeen hundred miles. In Java the day was
darkened by clouds of ashes, thrown from the mountain to that great
distance (three hundred miles), and the houses, streets, and
fields, were covered to the depth of several inches with the ashes
that fell from the air. So great was the quantity of ashes ejected,
that the roofs of houses forty miles distant from the volcano were
broken in by their weight. The effects of the eruption extended
even to the western coasts of Sumatra, where masses of pumice were
seen floating on the surface of the sea, several feet in thickness
and many miles in extent.

From the crater itself there were seen to ascend three fiery
columns, which, after soaring to a great height, appeared to unite
in a confused manner at their tops. Ere long, the whole of the side
of the mountain next the village of Sang'ir seemed like one vast
body of liquid fire. The glare was terrific, until towards evening,
when it became partly obscured by the vast quantities of dust,
ashes, stones, and cinders thrown up from the crater. Between nine
and ten o'clock at night the ashes and stones began to fall upon
the village of Sang'ir, and all round the neighbourhood of the