A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

air, to 170. Several other parts of the hill emitted smoke or steam all the day, and the volcano wasunusually furious, insomuch that the air was loaded with its ashes. The rain which fell at this time was acompound of water, sand, and earth; so that it properly might be called showers of mire. Whichever waythe wind was, we were plagued with the ashes; unless it blew very strong indeed from the oppositedirection. Notwithstanding the natives seemed well enough satisfied with the few expeditions we had madein the neighbourhood, they were unwilling we should extend them farther. As a proof of this, someundertook to guide the gentlemen when they were in the country, to a place where they might see themouth of the volcano. They very readily embraced the offer; and were conducted down to the harbour,before they perceived the cheat.[6][6] "We took the opportunity of the absence of the natives, to walk out upon the plain, behind thewatering-place. We met with several ponds of stagnant water, in which the natives had planted greatquantities of eddoes. The coco-palms formed spacious groves, full of different shrubberies, where agreat number of birds of different sorts, chiefly fly-catchers, creepers, and parroquets, resided. Wesaw likewise many lofty trees, covered with nuts, which are common at Otaheite, (isrocarpus Nov.Gen.). These trees were commonly the resort of pigeons of different kinds, and chiefly of the sortwhich are to be met with at the Friendly Islands, where the natives catch and tame them. We passedby some plantations of bananas and sugar- canes, but saw no houses, the greatest part of the groundbeing uncultivated, and covered with shady forests, or low shrubberies. At the east end of the plainwe observed a long and spacious valley, from whence we saw a great number of smokes rising, andheard the promiscuous voices of many men, women and children. We stood in a path, on both sidesof which were thick shrubberies; and the vale itself was so full of groves, that we neither saw thepeople, whose voices we heard, nor any of their dwellings. It being late in the evening, weproceeded no farther, and without discovering ourselves, retreated to the beach."--G.F.The 13th, wind at N.E., gloomy weather. The only thing worthy of note this day was, that Paowang beingat dinner with us on board, I took the opportunity to shew him several parts of the ship, and variousarticles, in hopes of finding out something which they might value, and be induced to take from us inexchange for refreshments; for what we got of this kind was trifling. But he looked on every thing that wasshewn him with the utmost indifference; nor did he take notice of any one thing, except a wooden sandbox,which he seemed to admire, and turned it two or three times over in his hand.Next morning after breakfast, a party of us set out for the country, to try if we could not get a nearer andbetter view of the volcano. We went by the way of one of those hot smoking places before mentioned, anddug a hole in the hottest part, into which a thermometer of Fahrenheit's construction was put; and themercury presently rose to 100°. It remained in the hole two minutes and a half without either rising orfalling. The earth about this place was a kind of white clay, had a sulphureous smell, and was soft and wet,the surface only excepted, over which was spread a thin dry crust, that had upon it some sulphur, and avitriolic substance, tasting like alum. The place affected by the heat was not above eight or ten yardssquare; and near it were some fig-trees, which spread their branches over part of it, and seemed to like theirsituation. We thought that this extraordinary heat was caused by the steam of boiling water, stronglyimpregnated with sulphur. I was told that some of the other places were larger than this; though we did notgo out of the road to look at them, but proceeded up the hill through a country so covered with trees,shrubs, and plants, that the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees, which, seem to have been planted here bynature, were, in a manner, choaked up. Here and there we met with a house, some few people, andplantations. These latter we found in different states, some of long standing, others lately cleared, and someonly clearing, and before any thing had been planted. The clearing of a piece of ground for plantation,seemed to be a work of much labour, considering the tools they had to work with, which, though muchinferior to those at the Society Isles, are of the same kind. Their method is, however, judicious, and as