Rudolf Erich Raspe: Gulliver revived, London 1786 (R5)

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MR. Bryboneʼs Travels to Sicily, which I had read with great pleasure, induced me to pay a visit to Mount Etna; my voyage to this place was not attended with any circumstances worth relating. One morning early I set out from a cottage where I had slept, within six miles of the foot of the mountain, determined to explore the internal parts, if I perished in the attempt. After three hours hard labour, I found myself at the top; it was then, and had been for upwards of three weeks, raging: its appearance in this state has been so frequently noticed by different travellers, that I will not tire you with descriptions of objects you are already acquainted with. I walked round the edge of the crater, which appeared to be fifty times at least as capacious as the Devilʼs Punch-Bowl near Petersfield, on the Portsmouth road, but not so broad at the bottom, as in that part it resembles the contracted part of a funnel more than a punch-bowl; at last, having made up my mind, in I sprang, feet foremost; I soon found myself in a warm birth, and my body bruised and burnt in various parts by the red-hot cinders, which, by their violent ascent, opposed my descent; however, my weight soon brought me to the bottom, where I found myself in the midst of noise and clamour, mixed with the most horrid imprecations; after recovering my senses, and feeling a reduction of my pain, I began to look about me.

R5, S. 178-180.

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