The larger Sunda islands are four: Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Celebes. Java, one of the most beautiful and most productive countries in the world, has an area nearly equal to that of England without Wales, and its population is also nearly the same--about 30 millions. Sumatra, which the _Delhi_ has just left to starboard, is three times the size of Java, but has only one-seventh of its population. The curiously shaped island of Celebes, again, is about half the size of Sumatra, while Borneo is the third largest island on the globe not ranking as a continent, its area being about 300,000 square miles. The Sunda Islands are subject to Holland, only the north-eastern part of Borneo belonging to England. In the strait between Sumatra and Java lies a very small volcanic island, Krakatau, which in the summer of 1883 was the scene of one of the most violent eruptions that have taken place in historic times. The island was uninhabited, and was only visited occasionally by fishermen from Sumatra; but if it had been inhabited, not a soul would have survived to relate what took place, for on two other islands which lay a few miles distant the inhabitants were killed to the last man. The outburst proper began on August 26, and the fire-breathing mountain cast out such quantities of ashes that a layer three feet thick was deposited on the deck of a vessel which happened at the time to be a considerable distance off. It lightened and thundered, the sea was disturbed, and many boats were sunk or hurled up on land. The next day the island fell in and was swallowed up by the sea, only a few fragments of it being left. Thereupon a huge wave, 100 feet high, poured over the neighbouring coasts of Sumatra and Java, washing away towns and villages, woods and railway lines, and when it retreated the country was swept bare, and corpses of men and animals lay all around. This wave was so tremendous that it was propagated as far as the coasts of Africa and America, and it was thus possible to calculate the speed with which it had traversed the oceans. The noise produced by the eruption was so great that it was heard even in Ceylon and Australia, at a distance of 2000 miles. If this outburst had taken place in Vienna, it would have been heard all over Europe and a considerable distance beyond its limits. Loose ashes ejected from the volcano fell over the earth, covering an area considerably larger than France, and 40,000 persons perished. PENANG AND SINGAPORE The _Delhi_ holds her course for Penang, a town on a small island close to the coast of the Malay Peninsula. At length land is sighted straight ahead, and the letter-writers make haste to get their correspondence ready. We glide into a beautiful sound, the anchor rattles out, and we are at once surrounded by a swarm of curious boats which come to establish communication between the vessel and the town.