the stakes, which was effected after four hours' incessant labor, assisted by the natives, who flocked on board and around in great numbers after the firing had ceased, all apparently anxious to aid in destroying the stakes.

At 4 P. M., they arrived off a military station; a shot was fired into the principal building, which drove out the garrison, who had screened themselves in it; the boats were then sent on shore, and the whole establishment, together with a mandarin boat, mounting one nine-pounder and two ginjalls, were destroyed, and at 6, the steamer anchored for the night.

At daylight, on the 15th, the Nemesis continued her course upwards, and at 7-30, arrived off the large village Zamchow, under the banks of which, a number of soldiers with matchlocks were descried, endeavoring to conceal themselves, upon whom a fire of musketry was opened, which dispersed all those who were unhurt in less than a min

ute.

On moving up to Tsgnei, a large town on the left bank of the river, three forts were passed, all dismantled and abandoned: the Customhouse of the latter place was destroyed, as well as a war-junk mounting seven guns, which the crew had quitted on the approach of the steamer. On proceeding up to Whampoa, three more dismantled forts were observed, and at 4 P. M., the Nemesis came to in that anchorage, having (in conjunction with the boats) destroyed five forts, one battery, two military stations, and nine war-junks, in which were one hundred and fifteen guns and eight ginjalls.

CULTIVATION OF COFFEE IN LIBERIA.

We lately visited the coffee lots of the Hon. S. Benedict, of this place, and were much pleased to find that this gentleman is setting a praiseworthy example to all Liberians, in his successful labors at cultivating the coffee tree. The judge has in all, seven and a fourth acres of land devoted to a coffee plantation. He is the only person in this town or county, who has paid much attention to the subject; and we are heartily glad to find that he is likely to be crowned with abundant success. On one lot we counted seventy trees, averaging ten feet in height; on another, one hundred trees, averaging six feet in height; and on another, four hundred trees, averaging seven feet in height. The above trees are all bearing at this time; many of them are literally loaded down with coffee. There is also another lot of 5,460 younger trees, averaging two years old, which have been recently transplanted, and are doing well; these will commence to produce in about two years. This last lot of trees was not raised from the seed, but

gathered from the surrounding woods, where they grow wild, (for the coffee tree is indigenous here,) at an average expense of one cent for every tree.

The coffee tree is long-lived, and grows to the height of twenty feet and upward; and the coffee produced in Liberia, is decidedly superior to any that we have ever known produced in any other land. This climate and soil is the finest in the world for the cultivation of coffee. If others would go and do likewise, in a few years Monrovia would export annually her tens of thousands of coffee.-Liberia (Africa) Luminary.

GREAT ERUPTION OF THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA.

For several years past the great crater of Kilauea has been rapidly filling up, by the rising of the superincumbent crust, and by the frequent gushing forth of the molten sea below. In this manner the great basin below the black ledge, which has been computed from three to five hundred feet deep, was long since filled up by the ejection and cooling of successive masses of the fiery fluid. These silent eruptions continued to occur at intervals, until the black ledge was repeatedly overflowed, each cooling, and forming a new layer, from two feet thick and upwards, until the whole area of the crater was filled up, at least fifty feet above the original black ledge, and thus reducing the whole depth of the crater to less than nine hundred feet. This process of filling up continued till the latter part of May, 1840, when, as many natives testify, the whole area of the crater became one entire sea of ignifluous matter, raging like old ocean when lashed into fury by a tempest. For several days the fires raged with fearful intensity, exhibiting a scene awfully terrific. The infuriated waves sent up infernal sounds, and dashed with such maddening energy against the sides of the awful caldron, as to shake the solid earth above, and to detach huge masses of overhanging rocks, which, leaving their ancient beds, plunged into the fiery gulf below. So terrific was the scene, that no one dared to approach near it, and travellers on the main road, which lay along the verge of the crater, feeling the ground tremble beneath their feet, fled and passed by at a distance. Every appearance, however, of the crater, confirms these reports. Every thing within the caldron is new. Not a particle of lava remains as it was when I last visited it. All has been melted down and re-cast. All is new. The whole appears like a raging sea, whose waves had been suddenly solidified while in the most violent agitation.

On the 30th of May, the people of Puna observed the appearance of smoke and fire in the interior, a mountainous and desolate region of that district. Thinking that the fire might be the burning of some

jungle, they took little notice of it until the next day, Sabbath, when the meetings in the different villages were thrown into confusion by sudden and grand exhibitions of fire, on a scale so large and fearful, as to leave them no room to doubt the cause of the phenomenon. The fire augmented during the day and night; but it did not seem to flow off rapidly in any direction. All were in consternation, as it was expected that the molten flood would pour itself down from its height of 4,000 feet to the coast, and no one knew to what point it would flow, or what devastation would attend its fiery course. On Monday, June 1st, the stream began to flow off in a northeasterly direction, and on the following Wednesday, June 3d, at evening, the burning river reached the sea, having averaged about half a mile an hour in its progress. The rapidity of the flow was very unequal, being modified by the inequalities of the surface over which the stream passed. Sometimes it is supposed to have moved five miles an hour, and at other times, owing to obstructions, making no apparent progress, except in filling up deep valleys, and in swelling over or breaking away hills and precipices.

The eruption is first visible in an ancient wooded crater, about 400 feet deep, and probably 8 miles east from Kilauea. The region being uninhabited and covered with a thicket, it was some time before the place was discovered, and for a long time it was thought inaccessible. Foreigners have attempted it; no one except myself has reached the spot. From Kilauea to this place, the lava flows in a subterranean gallery, probably at the depth of a thousand feet, but its course can be distinctly traced all the way, by the rending of the crust of the earth into innumerable fissures, and by the emission of smoke, steam, and gases. The eruption in this old crater is small, and from this place the stream disappears again for the distance of a mile or two, when the lava again gushes up and spreads over an area of about 50 acres. Again it passes under ground for two or three miles, when it re-appears in another old wooded crater, consuming the forest, and partly filling up the basin. Once more it disappears, and flowing in a subterranean channel, cracks and breaks the earth, opening fissures from six inches to ten or twelve feet in width, and sometimes splitting the trunk of a tree so exactly, that its legs stand astride at the fissure. At some places it is impossible to trace the subterranean stream, on account of the impenetrable thicket under which it passes. After flowing under ground several miles, perhaps six or eight, it again broke out like an overwhelming flood, and sweeping forest, hamlet, plantation, and every thing before it, rolled down with resistless energy to the sea, where, leaping a precipice of 40 or 50 feet, it poured itself in one vast cataract of fire into the deep below, with loud detonations, fearful hissings, and a thousand unearthly and indescribable sounds. It appeared like a river of fused minerals, of the breadth and depth of Niagara, and of a deep gory red, falling, in one emblazoned sheet, one raging torrent, into the ocean! The scene, as described by eye-witnesses, was terribly sublime. The atmosphere in all directions was

filled with ashes, spray, gases, etc.; while the burning lava, as it fell into the water, was shivered into millions of minute particles, and, being thrown back into the air, fell in showers of sand on all the surrounding country. The coast was extended into the sea for a quarter of a mile, and a pretty sand-beach and a new cape were formed. Three hills of scoria and sand were also formed in the sea, the lowest about 200, and the highest about 300 feet.

For three weeks, this terrific river disgorged itself into the sea with little abatement. Multitudes of fishes were killed, and the waters of the ocean were heated for 20 miles along the coast. The breadth of the stream, where it fell into the sea, is about half a mile, but inland it varies from one to four or five miles in width, conforming itself, like a river, to the face of the country over which it flowed. The depth of the stream will probably vary from 10 to 200 feet, according to the inequalities of the surface over which it passed. During the flow, night was converted into day on all eastern Hawaii. The light rose and spread like the morning upon the mountains, and its glare was seen on the opposite side of the island It was also distinctly visible for more than 100 miles at sea; and at the distance of 40 miles, fine print could be read at midnight. The brilliancy of the light was like a blazing firmament, and the scene is said to have been one of unrivalled sublimity.

The whole course of the stream from Kilauea to the sea, is about 40 miles. Its mouth is about 25 miles from Hilo station. The ground over which it flowed descends at the rate of 100 feet to the mile. The crust is now cooled, and may be traversed with care, though scalding steam, pungent gases, and smoke, are still emitted in many places. In some places, the molten stream parted and flowed in separate channels for a considerable distance, and then reuniting, formed islands of various sizes, from one to fifty acres, with trees still standing, but seared and blighted by the intense heat. On the outer edges of the lava, where the stream was more shallow and the heat less vehement, and where of course the liquid mass cooled soonest, the trees were mowed down like grass before the scythe, and left charred, crisped, smouldering, and only half consumed. As the lava flowed around the trunks of large trees on the outskirts of the stream, the melted mass stiffened and consolidated before the trunk was consumed, and when this was effected, the top of the tree fell, and lay unconsumed on the crust, while the hole which marked the place of the trunk, remains almost as smooth and perfect as the calibre of a cannon. These holes are innumerable, and were found to measure from 10 to 40 feet deep; but as has been said, they are in the more shallow parts of the lava, the trees being entirely consumed where it was deeper. During the flow of this eruption, the great crater of Kilauea sunk about 300 feet, and her fires became nearly extinct, one lake only out of many being left active in this mighty caldron. This, with other facts which have been named, demonstrates that the eruption was the disgorgement of the fires of Kilauea. The open lake in the old crater is at present in

tensely active, and the fires are increasing, as is evident from the glare visible, and from the testimony of visiters.

During the early part of the eruption, slight and repeated shocks of earthquake were felt, for several successive days, near the scene of action. These shocks were not unnoticed at Hilo.

Through the directing hand of a kind Providence, no lives were lost, and but little property was consumed during this amazing flood of fiery ruin. The stream passed over an almost uninhabited desert. A few little hamlets were consumed, and a few plantations were destroyed; but the inhabitants, forewarned, fled and escaped.

While the stream was flowing, it might be approached within a few yards on the windward side, while at the leeward no one could live within the distance of many miles, on account of the smoke, the impregnation of the atmosphere with pungent and deadly gases, and the fiery showers which were constantly descending, and destroying all vegetable life. During the progress of the descending stream, it would often fall into some fissure, and forcing itself into apertures and under massive rocks, and even hillocks and extended plats of ground, and lifting them from their ancient beds, bear them, with all their superincumbent mass of soil, trees, etc., on its viscous and livid bosom, like a raft on the water. When the fused mass was sluggish, it had a gory appearance like clotted cloud, and when it was active, it resembled fresh and clotted blood, mingled and thrown into violent agitation. Sometimes the flowing lava would find a subterranean gallery, diverging at right angles from the main channel, and pressing into it, would flow off unobserved, till meeting with some obstruction in its dark passage, when, by its expansive force, it would raise the crust of the earth into a dome-like hill of 15 or 20 feet in height, and then bursting this shell, pour itself out in a fiery torrent around. -Missionary Herald.