As a matter of fact, scarcely twenty years later the Sunda Strait was entirely altered by earthquake, and a volcanic eruption destroyed the island of Krakatoa. Java itself was also severely smitten, and some thirty thousand people killed; while even in England, thousands of miles away, the magnificent sunsets visible about that time were accounted for by the impalpable lava dust held in suspension and slowly spreading all over the world.
Jack listened to the story, and that night saw flames issuing from the two craters, and immediately determined to send his father a long account of his most interesting adventures, and also described how kind Captain Thorne and Mr. Sergeant had been.
After several days of most interesting experiences the party arrived at the end of their outward journey, and at a village of some size found suitable accommodation.
Next morning they again set out for a short drive, and presently reached a plain of considerable extent, where, almost in its centre, Jack Clewlin beheld a most wonderful spectacle.
Before him, and in terrace after terrace of pinnacles, spires, and domes, there rose to a height of about one hundred and fifty feet a most extraordinary combination of temples, shrines, and bas-reliefs of the life and manners of people long dead and forgotten, but who, in their eagerness to perpetuate their religion, had executed this marvellous work in honour of their heathen deity, Buddha.
'What do you think of it, captain?' Mr. Sergeant inquired.
'Think!' the old man exclaimed; 'why, it is simply astonishing. I have heard of it, but thought it was quite a small affair. It must be four or five miles round.'
'It is three miles in circumference. I have spent weeks at a time in examining its marvellous wonders, one of the most magnificent creations in the world. It covers nine acres; the great central dome which you see rising over all is fifty feet in diameter. There are no less than four hundred and forty-one images of Buddha, nearly all of them being seated within separate shrines of beautiful stone lattice work, and over fifteen hundred bas-relief pictures representing the life and manners of that distant period.'
'When was it done?' the captain inquired.
'The actual date is not known,' Mr. Sergeant replied; 'but from the most reliable sources it appears to have been executed somewhere about the eighth or ninth century of the Christian era.'