s.
In 1815 an earthquake, accompanied by an eruption of the volcano of
Timboro, in the island of Sumatra, destroyed more than 20,000 lives.

It is rare even in this archipelago that there occurs a cataclysm so
terrible as that of 1883. When the first eruption of Krakatoa occurred
on August 25, it seemed that it was a signal to the other volcanoes of
Java and Sumatra. By midday Maha-Meru, the greatest, if not the most
active of the Javanese volcanoes, was belching forth flame
continuously. The eruption soon extended to the Gunung-Guntus and
other volcanoes, until a third of the forty-five craters in Java were
either in full blast, or beginning to show signs of eruption. While
these eruptions were going on, the sea was in a state of tremendous
agitation. The clouds floating above the water were charged with
electricity, and at one moment there were fifteen large water-spouts
to be seen at the same time.

Men, women and children fled in terror from their crumbling
habitations, and filled the air with their cries of distress. Hundreds
of them who had not time to escape were buried beneath the ruins. On
Sunday evening the violence of the shocks and of the volcanic
eruptions increased, and the island of Java seemed likely to be
entirely submerged. Enormous waves dashed against the shore, and in
some cases forced their way inland, while enormous crevices opened in
the ground, threatening to engulf at one fell swoop all the
inhabitants and their houses.

Toward midnight there was a scene of horror passing the powers of
imagination. A luminous cloud gathered above the chain of the
Kandangs, which run along the southeastern coast of Java. This cloud
increased in size each minute, until at last it came to form a sort of
dome of a gray and blood-red color, which hung over the earth for a
considerable distance. In proportion as this cloud grew, the eruptions
gained fresh force, and the floods of lava poured down the mountain
sides without ceasing, and spread into the valleys, where they swept
all before them. On Monday morning, about two o'clock, the heavy cloud
suddenly broke up, and finally disappeared, but when the sun rose it
was found that a tract of country extending from Point Capucine to the
south as far as Negery Passoerang, to the north and west, and covering
an area of about fifty square miles, had entirely disappeared.

There stood the previous day the villages of Negery, and Negery
Babawang. Not one of the inhabita