ed of any former eruption. In July, 1822, the
waters of the river Kunir, one of those which flowed from its flanks,
became for a time hot and turbid. On the 8th of October following a loud
explosion was heard, the earth shook, and immense columns of hot water
and boiling mud, mixed with burning brimstone, ashes, and lapilli, of
the size of nuts, were projected from the mountain like a waterspout,
with such prodigious violence that large quantities fell beyond the
river Tandoi, which is forty miles distant. Every valley within the
range of this eruption became filled with a burning torrent, and the
rivers, swollen with hot water and mud, overflowed their banks, and
carried away great numbers of the people, who were endeavoring to
escape, and the bodies of cattle, wild beasts, and birds. A space of
twenty-four miles between the mountain and the river Tandoi was covered
to such a depth with bluish mud that people were buried in their houses,
and not a trace of the numerous villages and plantations throughout that
extent was visible. Within this space the bodies of those who perished
were buried in mud and concealed, but near the limits of the volcanic
action they were exposed, and strewed over the ground in great numbers,
partly boiled and partly burnt.

It was remarked, that the boiling mud and cinders were projected with
such violence from the mountain, that while many remote villages were
utterly destroyed and buried, others much nearer the volcano were
scarcely injured.

The first eruption lasted nearly five hours, and on the following days
the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers, densely charged with mud,
deluged the country far and wide. At the end of four days (October 12th)
a second eruption occurred more violent than the first, in which hot
water and mud were again vomited, and great blocks of basalt were thrown
to the distance of seven miles from the volcano. There was at the same
time a violent earthquake, and in one account it is stated that the face
of the mountain was utterly changed, its summits broken down, and one
side, which had been covered with trees, became an enormous gulf in the
form of a semicircle. This cavity was about midway between the summit
and the plain, and surrounded by steep rocks, said to be newly heaped up
during the eruption. New hills and valleys are said to have been formed,
and the rivers Banjarang and Wulan changed their course, and in one
night (October 12th) 2000 persons were k