Out of a population of 12,000, in the province of Tombora, only
twenty-six individuals escaped. "Violent whirlwinds carried up men,
horses, and cattle into the air, tore up the largest trees by the
roots, and covered the whole sea with floating timber." (Raffles's
"History of Java," vol. i., p. 28.) The ashes darkened the air; "the
floating cinders to the westward of Sumatra formed, on the 12th of
April, a mass two feet thick and several miles in extent, through which
ships with difficulty forced their way." The darkness in daytime was
more profound than the blackest night. "The town called Tomboro, on the
west side of Sumbawa, was overflowed by the sea, which encroached upon
the shore, so that the water remained permanently eighteen feet deep in
places where there was land before". The area covered by the convulsion
was 1000 English miles in circumference. "In the island of Amboyna, in
the same month and year, the ground opened, threw out water and then
closed again." (Raffles's "History of Java," vol. i., p. 25.)
VIEW OF THE FORT OF SINDREE FROM THE WEST IN MARCH, 1839.
But it is at that point of the European coast nearest to the site of
Atlantis at Lisbon that the most tremendous earthquake of modern times
has occurred.
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