dable. From among those who have been taken and received the king's pardon, the travelling guards are selected; and they are always faithful to thofe they engage to protect, though they rob and fometimes murder others.

Laft year, many people in this town and neighbourhood, died in a fudden and extraordinary manner; they were generally feized with vomiting, and expired in a few hours. The caufe of their death was difcovered in the following manner. A young woman went to an officer of juftice, to make fome complaints concerning her husband; he defired her to be reconciled, and refufed to proceed against him, upon which, fhe turned away in a rage, muttering, that she knew how to be revenged. The magiftrate paid attention to what the faid, and gave orders for her being ar refted; when, upon ftrict enquiry concerning the meaning of her words, the confeffed, that it was her intention to poifon her hufband, by purchasing a bottle of vinegar from an old woman, who' prepared it for that purpofe. In order to afcertain the truth of this story, another woman was fent to the old jade, to demand fome of the fame vinegar, which was fold for about ten pence a bottle. "What do you want with it ?" faid the vender, "why," (replied the other)" I have a very bad husband, and I want to get rid of him." Hereupon, the old woman, feventy-two years of age, produced the fatal dofe, upon which he was immediately feized, and conducted to prifon, where the confeffed that she had fold forty-five or forty-fix bottles. Many people were taken up, but as upon further enquiry it was difcovered that feveral of the nobility had been purchafers, the affair was dropt, and the old woman alone fuffered death. Fair and cool.'

The bay of Palermo is formed by two high rocks, and the plain on which it ftands extends eight or nine miles to the eaft and west. This plain has been evidently gained from the fea, fince the rocks confift almost wholly of fhells, agglutinated by the flime of their former inhabitants. Our author defcribes the fingular capricious ornaments of one of the neighbouring palaces, and the convent of the noble monks of St. Martino, more particularly than former travellers. They live in princely fplendor, but are unfortunately divided by party, 'by envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitablenefs.' There are but four brothers, and they are equally divided into two parties.

From Palermo our travellers go caftward to Meffina, and fouthward as far as Syracufe. The narrative of travels in Sicily prefents little variety. Nature offers fpontaneously her choiceft productions; and, if one spot appears to have been peculiarly favoured by providence, it is the prefent fcene of Mr. Hill's obfervations. The moft abject poverty and mifery,

the

the confequence of defpotifm, contrafts the scene, and the most difgufting filth, joined with every poffible inconveniency, is the lot of the wearied traveller who wishes for repofe. The inhabitants experience alfo dangers connected, in the opinion of fome philofophers, with their bleffings, viz. frequent earthquakes. The late dreadful one, by which Meffina was destroyed, is ftill within our memories. We remember obferving the thermometer fall remarkably, and hollow winds, with a gloomy fky of a very dreadful appearance, were observable even in this ifland, on the fatal and two fucceeding days. Let us add our author's particular account: it is the fulleft, and we believe the most accurate, that has appeared in our language.

'On the fifth day of the prefent February, (1783) an unpropitious day, and ever to be had in remembrance by the beautiful Meffina, about forty-eight minutes paft eleven in the morning, the earth began to shake, at first flightly, then with fuch force, fuch bellowing, and with fuch various and irregular shocks that the motion was fimilar to the rolling of the fea. The walls gave way on every fide, knocked together, and crumbled to pieces; the roofs were toft into the air, the floors hattered, the vaults broken, and the ftrongest arches divided. By the force of three or four fhocks, which fucceeded each other without a moment's intermiffion, many houfes were reduced to ruin, many palaces thrown down, and churches and steeples levelled with the ground. At the fame time a long fiffure was made in the earth upon the quay, and in an adjoining hill, while another part of the coaft was covered by waves. At that inftant a vaft cloud like afhes rofe furiously from the horizon in the north-weft, reached the zenith, and defcended in the oppofite quarter. It grew dark at the moment of the concuffion, extended its dimenfions, and almoft obfcured the whole hemifphere †. At the fame time alfo appeared upon the tops the houses and palaces that were falling to pieces, a fudden and tranfient flame, like thofe lightnings that glance from the fummer clouds, leaving behind it a fulphureous fmell ‡.

The wretched inhabitants now left their houses in the greatest terror and confufion, calling upon God with piteous cries for fuccour, and running to and fro about the ftreets, not knowing whi ther they should flee. In the mean while the buildings on each fide were falling upon them, and the earth almoft continually trembling under their feet, fo that in the short space of three minutes they were almost all collected together in the fquares and

• From this motion many perfons were feized with giddinefs and vomiting, and the very birds were fo affected, that they fuffered themselves to be taken by the hand.'

The fame phenomenon was observed in three fucceeding shocks, that completed the deftruction of the city.'

The fame was feen in feveral parts of Calabria, and has likewife been remarked in former earthquakes."

open places of the city, under the dreadful apprehenfions of inftant death. Every eye was bathed with tears, and every heart palpitated with fear, while they experienced an addition to their mifery by being expofed to the violence of a tempeftuous wind, attended with torrents of hail and rain. It is impoffible for the pencil of the most ingenious painter to delineate, or for the pen of the most able writer to defcribe the horror and confufion of these wretched people. Each one fought for fafety in flight, and many in feeking it met with death. Others were buried alive under the falling houfes, others hung upon the beams, others upon the thresholds of the windows and balconies, from whence by means of ropes and ladders they with difficulty efcaped with their lives,. and others miferably perished, either under the ftones and rubbish of their own dwellings, or from the buildings which fell upon them as they paffed through the streets.

They who escaped unhurt, fpent the reft of the day in prepar ing a place of shelter against the approaching night. Somey ill-built cabins, compofed of furniture taken from the ruins, raised in the space of a few hours, within which they lay together in promifcuous companies upon the bare ground.

The earth in the mean time continued to shake inceffinty, with a noife fimilar to a furious cannonading, which feemed to proceed from within its bowels. Sometimes the flocks were weak, fometimes frong, and fo continued till midnight, when with a most tremendous noise the shaking affumed a redoubled fury, and threw down all thofe edifices that had refifted the former fhocks. Then fell part of the walls of the cathedral, the magnificent fteeple, two hundred and twenty-five palms in height, part of the great hofpital, the feminary of the priests, the remainder of the ftudent's college †, the front of the palaces upon the quay, many churches, convents and monafteries, together with multitudes of private houfes. At the fame time the fea rofe with an extraordinary roaring to á vast height, overflowed a long tract of land near a little lake called Il Pantanello, and carried back with it fome poor cottages that were there erected, together with all the men, animals, and veffels it met with in its paffage, leaving upon the land, which had been overthrown, a great quantity of fish of various kinds.

From twelve o'clock of the aforefaid fifth of February to the midnight following, the fhocks were fo frequent, that they fuc ceeded each other without any interval longer than fifteen minutes,

Rofa Santagelo, aged ninety-feven, was dug out of the ruins at Catania, in the year 1693. She was again buried by this earthquake at Mellina, and again preferved alive.'

The greater part of the ftudents, who had been immured by the falling of the buildings at the first shock, were now fet at liberty, and escaped unhurt,'

and

and continued much in the fame manner till about three o'clock on the evening of the feventh, when the whole mine was fprung at once, and the laft ftroke given to the already-ruined Meffina. A cloud of duft that darkened the air rofe from the falling city, and in this, more than in any of the former earthquakes, was felt a variety of motions undulatory, vertical, &c. which fhattered the walls to pieces, deftroyed many buildings from their very foundations, and, as if pounded in a mortar, spread them over the furface of the earth *.

Some few edifices that were founded upon rocks in the upper part of the city, are ftill ftanding, but they are for the most part fo cracked and damaged, that it is dangerous to go near them.'

Several particular effects of the concuffion are afterwards mentioned, and the meteorological appearances, previous to the fhock, defcribed. The length of our former extracts prevents us from enlarging on thefe: they in general fhow a state of the air very highly electrical. The other appearances were halos and thick mifts; winds variable and inconftant, alternating with dead calms; the water of the wells turbid, and the fea rifing to an uncommon height, its billows roaring with an unusual found. The fatal figual, inftantaneously preceding the fhock, was the eruption of dense globes of smoke from Volcano and Stromboli. The brute creation were fenfible of fome horrible impending event: oxen placed their feet strongly against the earth, raised their heads, and bellowed most loudly: birds flew about confufed, fearing to perch on the trees or fight on the ground, and immenfe quantities of fea-geese were feen swimming on the waters of the Faro.

Whoever confiders the vaft powers of volcanoes may, in our author's opinion, credit the ftory related by Plato of the Atiantica, which Mr. Hill thinks was founded on the separation of America from Europe. But, in this folution, we do not find many parts of the Egyptian ftory accounted for, nor does it coincide with the circumftances of America. If we can ever enter into the difcuffion, we may render it more probable that a large country in the Atlantic has been actually overwhelmed by the fea.

Ætna has been often defcribed, and Mr. Hill enters the lifts with fome fuccefs against the tribe of philofophers, who, from fucceffive beds of lava covered with ftrata of a vegetable foil,

The whole number of persons that loft their lives at Messina, amounted to fix hundred and feventeen, befides which, many others were wounded in a terrible manner. Two children, a boy and a girl, continued feven days under the ruins, and were then found alive, and it is reported of another, that he recovered after having been confined a still longer time. Some Guineafowls subsisted without food seventeen days, and two mules twenty-four."

Gg 4

of

of different thickness, endeavour to prove the age of the world to be much beyond the æra defcribed by Mofes. We have often had occafion to join in the fame oppofition, and need not again renew the difpute. Our author's remarks deferve much attention. He gives fome account of the chevalier Gioeni's museum of the Vefuvian lavas, which we noticed in our laft Appendix, but ftyles him improperly Joenai. He defcribes too fome remains of ancient buildings, &c. discovered in this neighbourhood, covered, like Herculaneum and Pom peia, by the afhes of their destructive neighbours. We fhall extract the account of the caverns and catacombs near Syracufe.

Paffing from thence over a few fields, we came to fome small caverns, one of which is fimply ornamented over the entrance with Doric architecture cut in the folid rock. A little farther, we found a Gothic church under ground, faid to be the firft Chrif tian one in the island; it is very small, and still used for the celebration of mass. Above is another church, or rather chapel, of modern date, adjoining to which ftands an ancient Gothic wall, ornamented with an handfome Gothic window. From the lower church, we were conducted into the catacombs, which are faid to extend as far as the ancient city, and are not lefs curious than thofe at Naples. After traversing a long paffage, in the fides of which are niches for the dead, we came to a round hall, about twenty feet in diameter, and tapering like a cone to the top, which feems to have been formerly open. From the hall, are three or four paffages, leading to other halls of the fame kind, and fo on through labyrinths, that no mortal has the courage to explore, The tombs in the paffages are formed one behind another, and extend backwards into the rock, to the number of twenty-five in The halls, it is fuppofed, were intended for families of diftinction. In the midst of fome is a large tomb for the chief, and around are cavities for the rest of the family, There are a few ornaments remaining, and one or two Greek infcriptions."

a row.

Ætna, when viewed from Catanea, did not flame majestically its fire is defcribed as a dim red light, like the fun in a fog. A curious creature,' of the fish kind,' is alfo mentioned: it had a deep mouth, feveral rows of teeth, and four long tails. From its body was emitted a glue, by which it could attach itself to a man so strongly as to kill him.

Our travellers croffed over the narrow ftrait, and landed at Regio in Calabria: the mortality, from the earthquake, was much lefs dreadful here than in Meflina; only 120 perfons fuffering from the difafter: at Bagnara the number killed is faid to have been 4350.-In Calabria the accommodations were no

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