mountain. Then arose a dreadful whirlwind, which blew down nearly
every house in the village, tossing the roofs and lighter parts
high into the air. In the neighbouring sea-port the effects were
even more violent, the largest trees having been torn up by the
roots and whirled aloft. Before such a furious tempest no living
thing could stand. Men, horses, and cattle were whirled into the
air like so much chaff, and then dashed violently down on the
ground. The sea rose nearly twelve feet above the highest tide-
mark, sweeping away houses, trees, everything within its reach.

This whirlwind lasted about an hour, and then commenced the awful
internal thunderings of the mountain. These continued with scarcely
any intermission until the 11th of July, when they became more
moderate, the intervals between them gradually increasing till the
15th of July, when they ceased. Almost all the villages for a long
distance round the mountain were destroyed; and it is computed that
nearly twelve thousand persons perished. By far the greatest part
of this destruction was wrought by the violence of the whirlwind
which accompanied the eruption.

Considerably to the eastward of Sumbawa lies the Island of Timor,
in which there was for a long time a volcanic peak, whose perpetual
fires served as a lighthouse to mariners navigating those seas. But
in the year 1637 there took place a great eruption of the mountain,
which ended in its being gobbled up whole and entire, leaving
nothing behind it but a lake, in which its fires were quenched, and
which now occupies its place.

To the north of Timor lie the Molucca Islands, several of which are
volcanic. In one of them, named Machian, there occurred in the year