of robbers and precipices. My two guards, inftead of leading the way, as they had hitherto done, now feparated, and formed an advanced and a rear-guard. The narrow road was often interrupted by the fallen rocks and trees during the earthquakes, and obliged us to feek a new and still more dangerous road; but the Calabrefe horfes are really as fure-footed as goats. In the midst of one of thefe paffes we felt a very fmart fhock of an earthquake, accompanied by a loud explofion, like that of fpringing a mine: fortunately for us, it did not, as I expected, detach any rocks or trees from the high mountains that hung over our heads. After having paffed the woods of Bagnara, Sinopoli, and Solano, I went through rich corn-fields and lawns, beautifully bounded with woods and feattered trees, like our finest parks, and which continue varying for fome miles, till you come upon the top of an open plain on a hill, commanding the whole Faro of Meffina, the coaft of Sicily as far as Catania, with Mount Etna rifing proudly be hind it, which altogether compofed the fineft view imaginable. From thence I defcended a horrid rocky road to the Torre del Pezzolo, where there is a country-feat and a village belonging to the Princefs of Bagnara. There. I found that an epidemical diforder had already manifested itself, as it probably will in many other parts of this glorious but unhappy country, in proportion as the heats increafe, owing to the hardships fuffered, and the air having been spoiled by new-formed lakes. Several fishermen affured me, that, during the earthquake of the 5th of February at night, the fand near the fea was hot, and that they faw fire iffue from the earth in many parts. This circumftance has been often repeated to me in the plain; and my idea is, that the exhalations which iffued during the violent commotions of the earth, were full of electrical fire, juft as the fmoke of volcanoes is conftantly obferved to be

during violent eruptions: for I saw no mark in any part of my journey of any volcanic matter having iffued from the fiffures of the earth; and I am convinced that the whole damage has been done by exhalations and vapours only. The firft fhock felt at this place, as 1 was affured, was lateral, and then vorticofe, and exceedingly violent; but what they call violent here must have been nothing in comparison of what was felt in the plain of Cafal Nuovo, Poliftene, Palmi, Terra Nuova, Oppido, &c. &c. where all agreed in affuring me, that the violence of the fatal fhock of the 5th of February was inftantaneous, without warning, and from the bottom upwards; and, indeed, in thofe places where the mortality has been fo great, and where nothing is to be feen but a confufed heap of ruins, without diftinction of either ftreets or houfes, the violence of that fhock is fufficiently confirmed. From this place to Reggio the road on each fide is covered with villas and orangegroves. I faw not one house levelled to the ground; but perceived that all had been damaged, and were abandoned; and that the inhabitants were univerfally retired to barracks in thefe beautiful groves of orange, mulberry, and fig-trees, of which there are many in the environs of Reggio. One that I vifited, and which is reckoned the richest in all this part of Magna Grecia, is about a mile and half from the town of Reggio; and, what is remarkable, belongs to a gentleman whofe chriftian name is Agamemnon. The beauty of the argrume (the general name of all kind of orange, lemon, cedratę,, and bergamot-trees) is not to be de fcribed; the foil being fandy, the expofition warm, and great command of water, a clear rivulet being introdu ced at pleasure in little channels to, the foot of each tree, are the reafons of the wonderful luxuriancy of thofe trees. Don Agamemnon affured me it was a bad year when he did not gather from his garden (which is of no great extent) 170,000 lemons, 2 B 2

200,000

200,000 oranges, (which I found as excellent as thofe of Malta) and bergamots enough to produce 200 quarts of the effence from their rinds. There is another fingularity in thefe gardens, as I was affured every fig-tree affords two crops of fruit annually; the firft in June, the fecond in Auguft.

But to return to my fubject, from which my attention was frequently called away by the extraordinary and uncommon beauty and fertility of this rich province; I arrived about fun-fet at Reggio, which I found lefs damaged than I expected, though not a houfe in it is habitable or inhabited, and all the people live in barracks or tents: but, after having been feveral days in the plain, where every building is levelled to the ground, a houfe with a roof, or a church with a fteeple, was to me a new and refreshing object. The inhabitants of the whole country that has been fo feverely afflicted with earthquakes, feem, however, to have fo great a dread of going into a houfe, that when the earthquakes fhall have ceased, I am perfuaded the greatest part of them will ftill continue to live in barracks. The barracks here (except fome few that are even elegant) are ill conftructed, as are in general throughout the country all barracks of towns that have been fo little damaged as to allow the inhabitants to flatter themfelves with a hope of being able to return to, and occupy, their houfes again, when the prefent calamity is at an end. Reggio has been roughly handled by the earthquakes, but is by no means deftroyed.

The archbishop, a fenfible, active, and humane prelate, has diftinguifhed himself from the beginning of the earthquakes to this day, having immediately difpofed of all the "fuperAuous ornaments of the churches, and of his own horfes and furniture, for the fole relief of his diftreffed flock, with whom he chearfully bears an equal fhare of every inconvenience and diftrefs which fuch a calamity has naturally occafioned.

very

Except in this inftance, and few others, indeed, I obferved throughout my whole journey a prevailing indolence, inactivity, and want of fpirit, which is unfortunate, as such a heavy and general calamity can only be repaired by a difpofition directly contrary to that which prevails: but as this government is indefatigable in it's endeavours at remedying every prefent evil, and preventing fuch as may naturally be expected, it is to be hoped that the generous and wife difpofitions lately made, will reftore the energy that is wanting; and without which one of the richest provinces in Europe is in danger of utter rain. Silk and effence of bergamot, oranges and lemons, are the great articles of trade at Reggio. I am affured, that no lefs than 100,000 quarts of this effence are annually exported. The fruit, after the rind is taken off, is given to the cows and oxen; and the inhabitants of this town affure me that the beef, at that feafon, has a ftrong and disagreeable flavour of bergamot. The worthy archbishop gave me an account of the earthquakes here in 1770 and 1780, which obliged the inhabitants (in number 16,400) to encamp or remain in barracks feveral months, without, however, having done any confiderable damage to the town. I was affured here, (where they have had fuch a long experience of earthquakes) that all animals and birds are in a greater or lefs degree much more fenfible of an approaching fhock of an earthquake than any human being; but that geefe, above all, feem to be the fconelt and moft alarmed at the approach of a shock; if in the water, they quit it immediately, and there are no means of driving them into the water for fome time after.

The mortality here, by the late earthquake of the 5th of February, correfponds with the apparent degree of damage done to the town, and does not exceed 126. As it happened about noon, and came on gently, the people of Reggio had time to efcape; whereas, as I have often re

marked,

marked, the fhock in the unhappy plain was as inftantaneous as it was violent and destructive. Every build ing was levelled to the ground, and the mortality was general, and in proportion to the apparent deftruction of the buildings. Reggio was deftroyed by an earthquake before the Marfian war, and having been rebuilt by Julius Cæfar, was called Reggio Julio. Part of the wall ftill remains, and is called the Julian Tower; it is built of huge maffes of ftone without cement. Near St. Peruto, between Reggio and Cape Spartivento, there are the remains of a foundery; his prefent Catholic Majefty, when King of Naples, having worked filver mines in that neighbourhood, which were foon abandoned, the profit not having answered the expence. There are fome towns in the neighbourhood of Reggio that fill retain the Greek language. About fifteen years ago, when I made the tour of Sicily, I landed at Spartivento in Calabria Ultra, and went to Bova, where I found that Greek was the only language in ufc in that diftri&t. On the 14th of May I left Reggio, and was obliged (the wind being contrary) to have my boats towed by oxen to the Punta del Pezzolo, oppofite Meffina, from whence the current wafted us with great expedition indeed into the port of Mefina. The port and the town, in it's half-ruined ftate, by moon-light, was ftrikingly picturefque. Certain it is, that the force of the earthquake (though very violent) was nothing at Meffina and Reggio to what it was in the plain. I vifited the town of Meffina the next morning, and found that all the beautiful front of what is called the Palazzata, which extended in very lofty uniform buildings, in the fhape of a crefcent, had been in fome parts totally ruined, in others lefs; and that there were cracks in the earth of the quay, a part of which had funk above a foot below the level of the fea. These cracks were probably occafioned by the horizontal

motion of the earth, in the fame manner as the pieces of the plain were detached into the ravines at Oppido and Terra Nuova; for the fea at the edge of the quay is fo very deep, that the largest fhips can lie alongfide; confequently the earth, in it's violent commotion, wanting fupport on the fide next the fea, began to crack and feparate; and as where there is one crack there are generally others lefs confiderable in parallel lines to the first, I fuppofe the great damage done to the houfes nearest the quay has been owing to fuch cracks under their foundations. Many houfes are ftill ftanding, and fome little damaged, even in the lower part of Melina; but in the upper and more elevated fituations, the earthquakes feem to have had scarcely any effect, as I particularly remarked. A ftrong inftance of the force of the earthquake having been many degrees lefs here than in the plain of Calabria, is, that the convent of Sante Barbara, and that called the Noviziato de Gesuiti, both on an elevated fituation, have not a crack in them, and that the clock of the latter has not been deranged in the leaft by the earthquakes that have afflicted this country for four months past, and which still continue in fome degree. Befides, the mortality at Meffina does not exceed 700 out of upwards of 30,000, the fuppofed population of this city at the time of the first earthquake, which circumftance is conclufive. I found that fome houses, nay a ftreet or two, at Messina, were inhabited, and fome fhops open in them; but the generality of the inhabitants are in tents and barracks, which, having been placed in three or four different quarters, in fields and open fpots near the town, but at a great distance one from the other, must be very inconvenient for a mercantile town; and, unless great care is taken to keep the streets of the barracks, and the barracks themfelves, clean, I fear that the unfortu nate Meffina will be doomed to fuffer a fresh calamity from epidemical dif

orders

orders during the heat of fummer. Indeed, many parts of the plain of Calabria feem to be in the fame alarming fituation, particularly owing to the lakes which are forming from the course of rivers having been stopped, fome of which, as I faw myself, were already green, and tending to putrefaction. I could not help remarking here, that the nuns, who likewife live in barracks, were conftantly walking about, under the tuition of their confeffor, and feemed gay, and to enjoy the liberty the earthquake had afforded them, and I made the fame obfervation with refpect to fchool-boys at Reggio; fo that in my journal, which I wrote in hafte, and from whence I have as haftily tranfcribed the imperfect account I fend you, the remark stands thus: Earthquakes particularly pleafing to nuns and fchool-boys. Out of the cracks on the quay, it is faid that, during the earthquakes, fire had been feen to iffue, (as many I fpoke with attefted;) but there are no vifible figns of it, and I am perfuaded it was no more than, as in Calabria, a vapour charged with electrical fire, or a kind of inflammable air. A curious circumftance happened here alfo, to prove that animals can remain long alive without food: two mules belonging to the Duke of Belvifo remained under a heap of ruins, one of them twenty-two, and the other twenty-three days: they would not eat for fome days, but drank water plentifully, and are now quite recovered. There are numberless inftances of dogs remaining many days in the fame fituation; and a hen belonging to the British vice-conful at Meffina, that had been clofely fhut up under the ruins of his houfe, was taken out the twenty-second day, and is now recovered; fhe did not eat for fome days, but drank freely; fhe was emaciated, and fhewed little figns of life at first. From thefe inftances, from thofe related before of the girls at Oppido, and the hogs at Soriano, and from feveral others of the fame

kind that have been related to me,

but which, being lefs remarkable, I . omit, one may conclude that long fafting is always attended with great thirft, and total lofs of appetite. From every enquiry I found that the great shock of the 5th of February was from the bottom upwards, and not like the fubfequent ones, which in general have been horizontal and vorticofe. A circumftance worth remarking (and which was the fame on the whole coaft of that part of Calabria that had been moft affected by the earthquake) is, that a small fish called cicirelli, refembling what we call in England white-bait, but of a greater fize, and which ufually lie at the bottom of the fea, buried in the fand, have been ever fince the commencement of the earthquakes, and continue ftill to be, taken near the furface, and in fuch abundance as to be the common food of the pooreft fort of people; whereas, before the earthquakes, this fifh was rare, and reckoned amongst the greateft delicacies. All fish in general have been taken in greater abundance, and with much greater facility, in those parts, fince they have been afflicted by earthquakes, than before. I conftantly afked every fisherman I met with on the coaft of Sicily and Calabria, if this circumstance was true, and was as conftantly answered in the affirmative; but with fuch emphasis, that it must have been very extraordinary. I fuppofe, that either the fand at the bottom of the sea may have been heated by the volcanic fire under it, or that the continual tremor of the earth has driven the fish out of their ftrong holds, juft as an angler, when he wants a bait, obliges the worms to come out of the turf on at river-fide by trampling on it with his feet, which motion never fails in it's effect, as I have experienced very often myfelf. I found the citadel here had not received any material damage, but was in the fame state as I had left it fifteen years ago. The lazaret has fome cracks in it like those on the quay, and from a like cause. The port has not received any da

mage