The descent was as perilous as it had been represented, but by proceeding with great caution, testing well the safety of every step before committing our weight to it, and often stopping to select the course which seemed least hazardous, in the space of about twenty minutes, by a zigzag way, we reached the bottom without any accident of greater amount than a few scratches on the hands from the sharpness and roughness of the lava, by which we had occasionally been obliged to support ourselves. When we were about half way down we were encouraged to persevere in our undertaking, by meeting a native who had descended on the opposite side and passed over. It was only however from the renewed assurance it gave of the practicability of the attempt, for besides being greatly fatigued, he was much cut and bruised from a fall; said the bottom was "ino-ino loaka wahi O debelo!"—"excessively bad the place of the devil!"—and could be prevailed on to return with us only by the promise of a large reward. It is difficult to say whether sensations of admiration or of terror predominated, on reaching the bottom of this tremendous spot. As I looked up at the gigantic wall, which on every side rose to the very clouds, I felt oppressed to a most unpleasant degree, by a sense of confinement. Either from the influence of imagination, or from the actual effect of the immense power of a noonday sun beating directly on us, in addition to the heated and[75] sulphureous atmosphere of the volcano itself, I for some moments experienced an agitation of spirits, and difficulty of respiration, that made me cast a look of wishful anxiety towards our little hut, which, at an elevation of near fifteen hundred feet seemed only like a bird's nest on the opposite cliff. These emotions, however, soon passed off, and we began with great spirit and activity, the enterprise before us. I can compare the general aspect of the bottom of the crater, to nothing that will give a livelier image of it to the mind than the appearance of a lake would present, if the ice with which it was covered in the winter was suddenly broken up by a heavy storm, and as suddenly frozen again, while large slabs and blocks were still toppling and dashing and heaping against each other with the motion of the waves. Just so rough and distorted was the black mass under our feet, only a hundred fold more terrific, independently of the innumerable cracks, fissures, deep chasms and holes, from which sulphureous vapor, steam and smoke were exhaled, with a degree of heat that testified to the near vicinity of fire.