raifed the fatal wave, which I have above described to have broken on the neck of land, called the Punta del Faro, in the ifland of Scilla, with fuch fury; which returning with great noife and celerity directly upon the beach, where the prince and the unfortunate inhabitants of Scilla had taken refuge, either dafhed them, with their boats and richeft effects, against the rocks, or whirled them into the fea those who had escaped the first and greatest wave, were carried off by a fecond and third, which were lefs confiderable, and immediately followed the first. I spoke to several men, women, and children here, who had been cruelly maimed, and fome of whom had been carried into the fea by this unforeseen accident. "Here (faid one) my head was forced through the door of the cellar," which he fhewed me was broken. "There (faid another) was I drove into a barrel." Then a woman would fhew me her child, all over deep wounds from the ftones and timber, &c. that were mixed with the water, and dafhing about in this narrow port; but all affured me, they had not perceived the leaft fymptom of heat in the water; though I dare fay, Sir, you will read many well attefted accounts of this water having been hot; of many dead bodies thrown up, which appeared to have been par-boiled by it; and of many living perfons, who had evidently been fcalded by this hot wave: fo difficult is it to arrive at truth. Had I been fatisfied with the first answer of the prieft at the Punta del Faro, and fet it down in my journal, who could have doubted but that this wave had been of hot water? Now, that we are all well acquainted with the cause of this fatal wave, we know that it could not have been hot; but the teftimony of fo many unfortunate fufferers from it is decifive. A fact which I was told, and which was attefted by many here, is very extraordinary indeed : a woman of Scilla, four months gone with child, and swept into the fea by the wave, was taken up alive, floating on her back at fome distance, nine hours after. She did not even mifcarry, and is now perfectly well; and, had fhe not been gone up into the country, they would have fhewn her to me. They told me, she had been used to fwim, as do moft of the women in this part of Calabria. Her anxiety and fufferings, however, had arrived at fo great a pitch, that juft at the time the boat which took her up, appeared, he was trying to force her head under water, to put a period to her miferable existence. The Padre Minafi told me another curious circumftance that happened in this neighbourhood, which, to his knowledge, was ftrictly true. A girl of about eighteen years of age, was buried under the ruins of a houfe fix days, having had her foot, at the ancle, almost cut off by the edge of a barrel that fell upon it: the dust and mortar

stopped

ftopped the blood; the never had the affiftance of a furgeon; but the foot of itself dropped off, and the wound is perfectly healed, without any other affiftance but that of nature. If, of fach extraordinary circumftances, and of hair-breadth efcapes, an account was to be taken in all the deftroyed towns of Calabria Ultra and Sicily, they would, as I faid before, compofe a large volume. I have only recorded a few of the most extraor dinary, and fuch as I had from the moft undoubted authority, In my way back to Naples, (where I arrived the 23d of May,) along the coaft of the two Calabrias and the Principato Citra, I' only went on fhore at Tropea, Paula, and in the bay of Palingrus. I found Tropea (beautifully fituated on a rock overhang. ing the fea) but little damaged however, all the inhabitants were in barracks at Paula the fame. The fishermen here told' me, they continued to take a great abundance of fish, as they had done ever fince the commencement of the prefent calamity. At Tropea, the 15th of May, there was a fevere fhock of an earthquake, but of a very fhort duration. There were five fhocks during my ftay in Calabria and Sicily, three of them rather alarming; and at Meffina, in the night time, I conftantly" felt a little tremor of the earth, which has been obferved by many of the Mellinefe.

I am really ashamed, Sir, of fending fuch an unconnected hafty extract of my journal; but when I reflect, that unless I fend it off directly, the Royal Society will be broken up for the fummer feafon, and the fubject will become ftale before its next meeting; of two evils, I prefer to chofe the leaft. Such rough draughts, however, (though ever fo imperfect and incorrect,) have, as in paintings, the merit of a first sketch, and a kind of fpirit, that is often loft when the picture is completely finished. If you confider the fatigue and hurry of the journey I have juft been taking, and that in the midst of the preparations for my other journey to England, which I propofe to begin to morrow, I have been writing this account, I fhall hope then to be entitled to your indulgence for all its imperfections. But before 1 také my leave, I will juft fum up the refult of my obfervations in Calabria and Sicily, and give you my reafons for believing that the prefent earthquakes are occafioned by the operation of a volcano, the feat of which feems to lie deep, either under the bottom of the fea, between the island of Stromboli and the coaft of Calabria, or under the parts of the plain towards Oppido and Terra

Quæramus ergo quid fi quod rerram ab infimo moveat, quid, &c. Hæc ex quibus caufis accidant digna r ́s excuti.-See the whole paffage ! very applicable here. Seneca, Nat. Queft. lib. VI. cap. 4.

Terra Nuova. If, on a map of Italy, and with your compass on the scale of Italian miles, you were to measure off twentytwo, and then fixing your central point in the city of Oppido, (which appeared to me to be the fpot on which the earthquake had exerted its greatest force,) form a circle, (the radii of which will be, as I juft faid, twenty-two miles,) you will then include all the towns and villages that have been utterly ruined, and the Spots where the greatest mortality has happened, and where there have been the most vifible alterations on the face of the earth. Then extend your compafs on the fame scale seventytwo miles, preferving the fame centre, and form another circle, you will include the whole of the country that has any mark of having been affected by the earthquake. I plainly obferved a gradation in the damage done to the buildings, as alfo in the degree of mortality, in proportion as the countries were more or lefs diftant from the fuppofed centre of the evil. One circum. ftance I particularly remarked; if two towns were fituated at an equal distance from this centre, the one on a hill, the other on a plain, or in a bottom, the latter had always fuffered greatly more by the fhocks of the earthquakes than the former; a fufs ficient proof to me of the cause coming from beneath, as this mult naturally have been productive of fuch an effect. And I have reason to believe, that the bottom of the fea, being still nearer the volcanic cause, would be found (could it be seen) to have fuffered even more than the plain itself; as you will find in most of the accounts of the earthquake that are in the prefs, and which are numerous.-The philofophers, who do not easily abandon their antient fyftems, make the prefent earthquakes to proceed from the high mountains of the Appenines that divide Calabria Ultra, fuch as Monte Dejo, Monte Caulone, and Afpramonte. I would ask them this fimple question, did the Eolian or Lipari iflands (all which rofe undoubtedly from the bottom of the fea by volcanic explosions at different, and perhaps very diftant periods,) owe their birth to the Appenines in Calabria, or to the veins of minerals in the bowels of the earth, and under the bottom of the sea ?-Stromboli, an active volcano, and perhaps the youngest of those islands, is not above fifty miles from the parts of Calabria that have been molt af fected by the late earthquakes. The vertical fhocks, or, in other words, those whofe impulse was from the bottom upwards, have been the most destructive to the unhappy towns in the plain; did they proceed from Monte Dejo, Monte Caulone, or Afpramonte In fhort, the idea I have of the prefent local earthquakes, is, that they have been caused by the fame kind of matter that gave birth to the Eolian or Lipari iflands; that, VOL. II. 43.

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perhaps,

perhaps, an opening may have been made at the bottom of the fea, and most probably between Stromboli and Calabria Ultra, (for from that quarter all agree that the fubterraneous noifes feem to have proceeded,) and that the foundation of a new island or volcano may have been laid, though it may be ages, which to nature are but moments, before it is completed, and appears above the surface of the fea. Nature is ever active; but her actions are, in general, carried on fo very flowly, as scarcely to be perceived by mortal eye, or recorded in the very short space of what we call history, let it be ever fo antient. Perhaps, too, the whole deftruction I have been describing may have proceeded fimply from the exhalations of confined vapours, generated by the fermentation of fuch minerals as produce volcanoes, which have escaped where they met with the least resistance, and muft naturally in a greater degree have affected the plain than the high and more folid grounds around it.

When the account of the Royal Academy of Naples is pub lished, with maps, plans, and drawings, of the curious fpot I have defcribed, this rude and imperfect account will, I fatter myself, be of use. Without the plans and drawings, you well know, Sir, the great difficulty there is in making one's felf intelligible on such a subject.-I have the honour to be, St.

MEMOIRS of a CORNISH CURATE.
Written by HIMSELF.

[Continued from page 372, and concluded.]

WOUNDED

to the foul with his bafenefs, and melted by the piteous fituation of the lovely object who lay stretched on the earth in a ftate of infenfibility, I was fcarcely matter of myfelf. However, I foon fummoned a fufficient degree of rea fon to attempt her revival; and I had the happiness to find that my exertions were not in vain. As the opened her fine blac eyes, and looked me full in the face, I felt an emotion I had never before experienced. She started back at the figat of fuch an unexpected deliverer; and, notwithstanding my utmost en deavours, relapsed into the fame melancholy flate. At length I again found means to restore her; when, bursting into a food of tears," Eugenius, (fays fhe) may every bieffing attend your life! May heaven fhower its choiceft favours on your head! and may fome lovely and fortunate fair reward your virtue for pre ferving mine "My dearest Olivia, (exclaimed I, with all

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the enthusiasm of love,) the hand of heaven seems confpicuous in this deliverance; and, if I may prefume to express the wish that lies nearest my heart, may the fame power make me the everlafting guardian of that virtue which I have been fo miraculously enabled to fave!"" My deliverer, (fweetly returned the ingenuous fair) is entitled to every acknowledgement I can make; conduct me to my father, and lodge under his fheltering roof the child who is at his difpofal." With this requifition I immediately complied; and as we agreed that it would be prudent to conceal the rude affault of my brother, which the malevolent world might have represented as more fatal than it really was, we refolved to afcribe the lateness of our arrival to the fineness of the evening, and the charms of the season, which had temped us to linger beyond our intended time.

The apology was eafily admitted; and, as I was invited to ftay, I eagerly embraced the offer, as well to pafs more time in the company of Olivia, as to recover fufficiently from my per turbation of mind before I met a guilty brother's eye. Next morning I took leave of Olivia and her father; and, during my walk, felt a dejection of fpirits, and heaviness of heart, which could not have been exceeded if I had been the perpe trator of villany, and not the protector of innocence. The mind feems often prophetic of its own fate, and intuitively to foresee the storm that futurity is about to disclose. I approached my brother with looks of indignation and pity; but, before I could utter a fingle word, unlocking his bureau, “ Receive, (fays he) your patrimony, and immediately quit the house! I difclaim for a brother the wretch who can fruftrate my wishes merely to gratify his own, and this under the more deteftable mark of fentimental hypocrify!" Stung to the foul, I replied, "The Power who fees the rectitude of my views, and by my means has defeated the villainy of your's, will abundantly pro vide for me! I renounce an alliance with your ignominy, with the fame pleasure as you disclaim me for your brother: but let me caution you to beware, left your paffions precipitate you into irretrievable ruin!" With thefe words I rushed into my mother's apartment; and, falling on my knees, befought her benediction, before the opportunity was for ever clofed. Too well acquainted with what had paffed, fhe bathed my face with her tears; and, bewailing her hapless fituation, encouraged me to hope for a fpeedy reconciliation, bidding me rely on her unalterable love.

Alas! the lived but a very short time to realize her withes; for within three weeks the fell a martyr to her grief, occafioned by the brutal infolence of my brother, in confequence of her partiality to me.

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