On the 12th, some of the officers accompanied Mr Forster to the hot places he had been at the preceding day.  A thermometer placed in a little hole made in one of them, rose from 80, at which it stood in the open air, to 170.  Several other parts of the hill emitted smoke or steam all the day, and the volcano was unusually furious, insomuch that the air was loaded with its ashes.  The rain which fell at this time was a compound of water, sand, and earth; so that it properly might be called showers of mire.  Whichever way the wind was, we were plagued with the ashes; unless it blew very strong indeed from the opposite direction.  Notwithstanding the natives seemed well enough satisfied with the few expeditions we had made in the neighbourhood, they were unwilling we should extend them farther.  As a proof of this, some undertook to guide the gentlemen when they were in the country, to a place where they might see the mouth of the volcano.  They very readily embraced the offer; and were conducted down to the harbour, before they perceived the cheat.

The 13th, wind at N.E., gloomy weather.  The only thing worthy of note this day was, that Paowang being at dinner with us on board, I took the opportunity to shew him several parts of the ship, and various articles, in hopes of finding out something which they might value, and be induced to take from us in exchange for refreshments; for what we got of this kind was trifling.  But he looked on every thing that was shewn him with the utmost indifference; nor did he take notice of any one thing, except a wooden sand-box, 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 and better view of the volcano.  We went by the way of one of those hot smoking places before mentioned, and dug a hole in the hottest part, into which a thermometer of Fahrenheit’s construction was put; and the mercury presently rose to 100 deg..  It remained in the hole two minutes and a half without either rising or falling.  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 a vitriolic substance, tasting like alum.  The place affected by the heat was not above eight or ten yards square; and near it were some fig-trees, which spread their branches over part of it, and seemed to like their situation.  We thought that this extraordinary heat was caused by the steam of boiling water, strongly impregnated with sulphur.  I was told that some of the other places were larger than this; though we did not go 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 by nature, were, in a manner, choaked