"All reports concur in stating, that so violent and extensive an eruption has not happened within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, nor within tradition. They speak of similar effects, in a lesser degree, when an eruption took place from the volcano of Karang Asam in Bali, about seven years ago, and it was at first supposed that this mountain was the seat of the eruption. The Balinese on Java attributed the event to a recent dispute between the two Rajahs of Bali Baliling, which terminated in the death of the younger Rajah by order of his brother.
"The haziness and heat of the atmosphere, and occasional fall of volcanic ashes, continued until the 14th, and in some parts of the island until the 17th of April. They were cleared away universally by a heavy fall of rain, after which the atmosphere became clear and more cool; and it would seem that this seasonable relief prevented much injury to the crops, and removed an appearance of epidemic disease which was beginning to prevail. This was especially the case at Batavia, where, for two or three days preceding the rain, many persons were attacked with fever. As it was, however, no material injury was felt beyond the districts of Banyuwángi. The cultivators every where took precaution to shake off the ashes from the growing paddy as they fell, and the timely rain removed an apprehension very generally entertained, that insects would have been generated by the long continuance of the ashes at the root of the plant. In Rembang, where the rain did not fall till the 17th, and the ashes had been considerable, the crops were somewhat injured; but in Banyuwángi, the part of the island on which the cloud of ashes spent its force, the injury was more extensive. A large quantity of paddy was totally destroyed, and all the plantations more or less injured. One hundred and twenty-six horses and eighty-six head of cattle also perished, chiefly for want of forage, during a month from the time of the eruption.
"From Sumbawa to the part of Sumatra where the sound was noticed, is about nine hundred and seventy geographical miles in a direct line. From Sumbawa to Ternate is a distance of about seven hundred and twenty miles. The distance also to which the cloud of ashes was carried, so quickly as to produce utter darkness, was clearly pointed out to have been the island of Celebes and the districts of Grésik on Java: the former is two hundred and seventeen nautical miles distant from the seat of the volcano; the latter, in a direct line, more than three hundred geographical miles."