which they lived, that it was a very unusual thing to have locks to their doors; and that when more strangers called upon them, than they had beds to accommodate them with, it was customary for the family to spread temporary beds upon the floor, on which they passed the night, leaving their own to the strangers.

An Indian Village, from the

same.

In the evening I came to an Indian village, called Brothertown. Here I was comfortably accommodated at the house of an Indian, whose name was Obadiah Scipio. His wife Elizabeth is the daughter of an Indian chief of the name of Fowler. She was a personable woman and of an expressive countenance, and was very industrious. Her dairy produced excellent cheese and butter, notwithstanding a great part of her time was employed in spinning for the family apparel, which was very decent. It was mostly prepared for the weaver by her own household; and, whilst I was in the house, a female weaver of the village brought in a piece of cloth made from yarn spun in this family, which was such as would have done credit to any female in England. This reputable Indian couple had four fine healthy children, who sat by the fire; and, though of a copper colour, their countenances were far from unpleasing. Their names were Denis, Calvin, Cinthia, and Celinda.

The schoolmaster of this Indian village, who is paid by friends, introduced me to a chief of the name of Hendricks, with whom I had some conversation; and we sat

about an hour by the fire-side of a pretty large family of Indians, where it was pleasant to see the spinning-wheel go briskly round. There were 16 or 18 Indians round the fire; the older part of the family sat on a bench in front, and the little Indians on the ground on each side. The fire was made at the end of the building, and the smoke found its way through the roof, without the aid of a chimney. The walls and roof were hung with ears of Indian corn, and other winter provisions. It is difficult to describe my feelings, on sitting down with an Indian family in this way.

I spent the remainder of this evening by Scipio's fire-side, and was accommodated with a good bed at night, on which I slept comfortably. Both the sides and ceiling of that part of the building in which I lodged, were covered with ears of Indian corn in the husk; which, to me, had a novel but not an unpleasant appearance.

From the Indian village of Brothertown, I came to another settlement of theirs, called the Orchard. Many of their habitations are formed principally of the bark of trees, attached to posts, which are fixed in the ground; the roofs being also of bark; but as it is taken off the trees in broad pieces, they contrive to make a pretty warm dwelling. A few chiefs, and others, have good houses of wood, well furnished; and some of the Indians, being very good workmen, and having complete sets of tools, I have seen houses of their building superior to many in England.

As the whole of this day's jour ney lay amongst the Indians, 212 whose

whose habitations are pretty nu merous in this quarter,.I had a fair opportunity of forming some judgment of the progress they have made in the useful arts of civilized life; and I confess it is my opinion, that many in these villages are further advanced in this respect, and enjoy more of the comforts of lif, than many of the inhabitants of the remote parts of Great Britain and Ireland.

In passing by one of their habitations, I noticed the Indian manner of preparing deer skins for use. After taking off the hair, they sew up the skin like a bag; and one end being suspended by a support, the lower end is brought close over a vessel, containing a small fire, of green wood, at the bottom. The pyroligneus acid ascend ing with the smoke, so impregnates the skin, that it becomes a durable and elastic leather; very suitable for their shoes, or moccasons, and other useful purposes. This operation was going forward under the piazza of a very good framehouse; and, from the appearance of the inhabitants, I suppose the master was a chief of the first order. Upon his head he had a very grotesque kind of cap, much

resembling a lofty antique helmet. His daughter, who appeared to be a girl about 13 years old, had a very pleasing Indian countenance; and her arms were o namented with silver bracelets of consider able breadth, both above and below the elbow. Though her dress was entirely in the Indian fashion with moccasons, leggins, blanket, &c.; yet being neat, clen, and of finer materials than usua, she had not an in legant appearance. These people understood a little English; but, at several of their habitations, where I cal ed in the course of the day, they either could not or would not understand what I said. Some of the younger boys and girls laughed immoderately, on my inquiring of them the road, but without being able, seemingly, to give me any other answer. As I went along, I met with two cleverlooking Indian young men, carpenters, having their tools with them. And under the piazza of a commodious Indian dwelling, I saw, hung up in neat order, the harness and yokes of horses and oxen. There was also a good farm yard surrounded with barns and stables, the whole having every appearance of good management,

NATURAL

A NARRATIVE OF THE ERUPTION OF A VOLCANO IN THE SEA OFF THE ISLAND OF ST. MICHAEL. By S. Tillard, Esq. Captain in the Royal Navy. Philos. Trans.

A

PPROACHING the island of St. Michael's, on Sunday the 12th of June, 1811, in his majesty's sloop Sabrina, under my command, we occasionally observed, rising in the horizon, two or three columns of smoke, such as would have been occasioned by an action between two ships, to which cause we universally attributed its origin. This opinion was, however, in a very short time changed, from the smoke increasing and ascending in much larger bodies than could possibly have been produced by such an event; and having heard an account prior to our sailing from Lisbon, that in the preceding January or February a volcano had burst out within the sea near St. Michael's, we immediately concluded, that the smoke we saw proceeded from this cause, and on our anchoring the next morning in the road of Ponta del Gada, we found this conjecture correct as to the cause, but not to the time; the eruption of January having totally subsided, and the present

one having only burst forth two days prior to our approach, and about three miles distant from the one before alluded to.

Desirous of examining as minutely as possible a contention so extraordinary between two such powerful elements, I set off from the city of Ponta del Gada on the morning of the 14th, in company with Mr. Read, the consul general of the Azores, and two other gentlemen. After riding about twenty miles across the N. W. end of the island of St. Michael's, we came to the edge of a cliff, whence the volcano burst suddenly upon our view in the most terrific and awful grandeur. It was only a short mile from the base of the cliff, which was nearly perpendicular, and formed the margin of the sea; this cliff being as nearly as I could judge from three to four hundred feet high. To give you an adequate idea of the scene by description is far beyond my powers; but for your satisfaction I shall attempt it.

Imagine an immense body of smoke rising from the sea, the surface of which was marked by the silvery ripling of the waves, occasioned by the light and steady breezes incidental to those climates

in summer. In a quiescent state, it had the appearance of a circular cloud revolving on the water like a horizontal wheel, in various and irregular involutions, expanding itself gradually on the lee side; when suddenly a column of the blackest cinders, ashes, and stones would shoot up in form of a spire at an angle of from ten to twenty degrees from a perpendicular line, the angle of inclination being universally to windward: this was rapidly succeeded by a second, third, and fourth, each acquiring greater velocity, and overtopping the other till they had attained an altitude as much above the level of our eye, as the sea was below it. As the impetus with which the columns were severally propelled diminished, and their ascending motion had nearly ceased, they broke into various branches resembling a group of pines, these again forming themselves into festoons of white feathery smoke in the most fanciful manner imaginable, intermixed with the finest particles of falling ashes, which at one time assumed the appearance of innumerable plumes of black and white ostrich feathers sur mounting each other; at another, that of the light wavy branches of a weeping willow.

During these bursts, the most vivid flashes of lightning continually issued from the densest part of the volcano; and the cloud of smoke now ascending to an altitude much above the highest point to which the ashes were projected, rolled off in large masses of fleecy clouds, gradually expanding themselves before the wind in a direction nearly horizontal, and drawing up to them a quantity of waterspouts,

which formed a most beautiful and striking addition to the general appearance of the scene.

That part of the sea, where the volcano was situate, was upwards of thirty fathoms deep, and at the time of our viewing it the volcano was only four days old. Soon after our arrival on the cliff, a peasant observed he could discern a peak above the water: we looked, but could not see it; however, in less than half an hour it was plainly visible, and before we quitted the place, which was about three hours from the time of our arrival, a complete crater was formed above the water, not less than twenty feet high on the side where the greatest quantity of ashes fell; the diameter of the crater being apparently about four or five hundred feet.

The great eruptions were generally attended with a noise like the continued firing of cannon and musquetry intermixed, as also with slight shocks of earthquakes, several of which having been felt by my companions, but none by my. self, I had become half sceptical, and thought their opinion arose merely from the force of imagination; but while we were sitting within five or six yards of the edge of the cliff, partaking of a slight repast which had been brought with us, and were all busily engaged, one of the most magnificent bursts took place which we had yet witnessed, accompanied by a very severe shock of an earthquake. The instantaneous and involuntary movement of each was to spring upon his feet, and I said "this admits of no doubt." The words had scarce passed my lips, before we observed a large portion of the

face

face of the cliff, about fifty yards on our left, falling, which it did with a violent crash. So soon as our first consternation had a little subsided, we removed about ten or a dozen yards farther from the edge of the cliff, and finished our dinner.

On the succeeding day, June 15th, having the consul and some other friends on board, I weighed, and proceeded with the ship towards the volcano, with the intention of witnessing a night view; but in this expectation we were greatly disappointed, from the wind freshening and the weather becoming thick and hazy, and also from the volcano itself being clearly more quiescent than it was the preceding day. It seldom emitted any lightning, but occasionally as much flame as may be seen to issue from the top of a glass-house, or foundery chimney.

On passing directly under the great cloud of smoke, about three or four miles distant from the volcano, the decks of the ship were covered with fine black ashes, which fell intermixed with small rain. We returned the next morning, and late on the evening of the same day, I took my leave of St. Michael's to complete my craize.

On opening the volcano clear of the NW. part of the island, after dark on the 16th, we witnessed one or two eruptions that, bad the ship been near enough, would have been awfully grand. It appeared one continued blaze of lightning; but the distance which it was at from the ship, upwards of twenty miles, prevented our seeing it with effect.

Returning again towards St. Mi

chael's on the 4th of July, I was obliged, by the state of the wind, to pass with the ship very close to the island, which was now completely formed by the volcano, being nearly the height of Matlock High Tor, about eighty yards above the sea. At this time it was perfectly tranquil, which circumstance determined me to land, and explore it more narrowly.

I left the ship in one of the boats, accompanied by some of the officers. As we approached, we perceived it was still smoking in many parts, and upon our reaching the island found the surf on the beach very high. Rowing round to the lee side, with some little difficulty, by the aid of an oar, as a pole, I jumped on shore, and was followed by the other officers. We found a narrow beach of black ashes, from which the side of the island rose in general too steep to admit of our ascending; and where we could have clambered up, the mass of matter was much too hot to allow our proceeding more than a few yards in the ascent.

The declivity below the surface of the sea was equally steep, having seven fathoms water, scarce the boat's length from the shore, and at the distance of twenty or thirty yards we sounded twenty-five fathoms.

From walking round it, in about twelve minutes, I should judge that it was something less than a mile in circumference; but the most extraordinary part was the crater, the mouth of which, on the side facing St Michael's, was nearly level with the sea. It was filled with water, at that time boiling, and was emptying itself into the sea, by a small stream about six

yard