mage from the earthquakes. The officer who commanded in the citadel, and who was there during the earthquake, affured me, that on the fatal 5th of February, and the three following days, the fea, about a quarter of a mile from that fortrefs, rofe and boiled in a moft extraordinary manner, and with a moft horrid and alarming noife, the water in the other parts of the Faro being perfectly calm. This feems to point out exhalations of eruptions from cracks at the bottom of the fea, which may very probably have happened during the violence of the earthquakes; all of which, I am convinced, have here a volcanic origin. On the 17th of May I left Meffina, where I had been kindly and hofpitably treated, and proceeded in my fperonara along the Sicilian coaft to the point of the entrance of the Faro, where I went afhore, and found a priest who had been there the night between the 5th and 6th of February, when the great wave paffed over that point, carried off boats, and above twenty-four unhappy people, tearing up trees, and leaving fome hundred weight of fish it had brought with it on the dry land. He told me he had been him felf covered with the wave, and with difficulty faved his life. He at first faid the water was hot; but, as I was curious to come at the truth of this fact, which would have concluded much, I afked him if he was fure of it: and, being preffed, it came to be no more than the water having been as warm as it ufually is in fummer. He faid the wave rose to a great height, and came on with noife, and fuch rapidity, that it was impoffible to efcape. The tower on the point was half destroyed, and a poor priest that was in it loft his life. From hence I croffed over to Scilla. Having met with my friend the Padre Minafi, a Dominican Friar, a worthy man, and an able naturalift, who is a native of Scilla, and is actually employed by the Academy of Naples to give a defcription of the phænomena that have attended the earthquake in thefe parts, with his affiftance on the fpot, I perfectly understood the nature of the formidable wave that was faid to have been boiling-hot, and had certainly proved fatal to the baron of the country, the Prince of Scilla, who was fwept off the fhore into the fea by this wave, with 2473 of his unfortu nate fubjects. The following is the fact: the Prince of Scilla having remarked, that during the firft horrid fhock, (which happened about noon the 5th of February) part of a rock near Scilla had been detached into the fea, and fearing that the rock of Scilla, on which his caftle and town is fituated, might alfo be detached, thought it fafer to prepare boats, and retire to a little port or beach furrounded by rocks at the foot of the rock. The fecond fhock of the earthquake, after midnight, detached a whole mountain, (much higher than that of Scilla, and partly calcareous, and partly cretaceous) fituated between the Torre del Cavallo, and the rock of Scilla. This having fallen with violence into the fea, (at that time perfectly calm) raised the fatal wave, which I have above defcribed to have broken upon the neck of land, called the Punta del Faro, in the ifland of Scilly, 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 dashed them with their boats and richeft effects against the rocks, or whirled them into the fea thofe who had efcaped the first and greatest wave were carried off by a fecond and third, which were less confiderable, and immediately followed the first. I spoke to feveral 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, child, all over deep wounds from the ftones and timber, &c. that were mixed with the water, and dashing about in this narrow port; but all affured me they had not perceived the leaft symptom 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 parboiled 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 priest 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 well acquainted with the cause of this fatal wave, we know 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, was swept into the fea by the wave, and 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 The not been gone up into the country, they would have fhewn her to me. They told me fhe had been used to fwim, as do most 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 that the boat which took her up appeared, fhe 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 know ledge was ftrictly true: a girl about 18 years of age was buried under the ruins of a houfe 6 days, having had her foot, at the ancle, almoft cut off by the edge of a barrel that fell upon it; the duft and mortar ftopped the blood; she never had the affiftance of a furgeon; but the foot of itfelf dropped off, and the wound is perfectly healed without any other affiftance but that of nature. If of fuch extraordinary circumftances, and of hair-breadth efcapes, an account was to be taken in all the destroyed towns of Calabria Ultra and Sicily, they would, as I faid before, compofe a large volume. I have only recorded a few of the moft extraordinary, and fuch as I had from the most 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 Palinurus. I found Tropea (beautifully fituated on a rock overhanging 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 short 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 Meffinefe. I am really afhamed, 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 it's next meeting; of two evils I prefer to chufe the leaft. Such rough drafts, 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 correctly finished. If you confider the fatigue and hurry of the journey I have just been taking; and that, in the midft of the preparations for my other journey to England, which propofe to begin to-morrow, I have been writing this account, I fhall hope then then to be entitled to your indulgence for all it's imperfections*. But, before I take 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 Nuova. If on a map of Italy, and with your compafs on the fcale of Italian miles, you were to measure off 22, 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 it's greateft force) form a circle, (the radii of which will be, as I juft faid, 22 miles) you will then include all the towns and villages that have been utterly ruined, and the fpots where the greatest mortality has happened, and where there have been the most visible alterations on the face of the earth. Then extend your compafs on the fame fcale to 72 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 this fuppofed centre of the evil. One circumftance I particularly remarked, if two towns were fituated at an equal distance from the centre, the one on a hill, the other on a plain, or in a bottom, the latter had always fuffered greatly more by the shocks of the earthquake than the former; a fufficient proof to me of the cause coming from beneath, as this muft naturally have been productive of fuch an effect. And I have reason to believe, that the bottom of the fea, being ftill nearer the vol * Quæramus ergo quid fit quod terram ab infimo moveat, quid, &c. Hæc ex quibus caufis accidant digna res eft excuti. See the whole paffage very applicable here. Seneca. Nat. Queft. Lib. VI. Cap. 4. VOL. III. 2 C perceived perceived by mortal eye, or recorded in the very short space of what we call hiftory, let it be ever fo ancient. Perhaps, too, the whole deftruction I have been defcribing, may have proceeded fimply from the exhalations of confined vapours, generated by the fermentation of fuch minerals as produce volcanoes, which have efcaped where they met with the leaft refift. ance, 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 published, with maps, plans, and drawings, of the curious fpot I have defcribed, this rude and imperfect account will, I flatter 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 fubject. I have the honour to be, &c. THE TOUCHSTONE. NUMBER II. THE HE following letter may perhaps be fatisfactory to many perfons who have entertained doubts fimilar to thofe which are expreffed by the intelligent correfpondent from whom it was received. TO SOLOMON SAGEBARO, ESQ. SIR, I HAVE read with much attention your firft paper, and confefs myself greatly delighted with the originality of the fatire it contains: but, Sir, though I acknowledge myfelf highly pleafed with the general execution, you will excufe me if I obferve, what is ftrictly true, that though I have thrice three times perufed, with unabated pleasure, the entire number, I am ftill at a lofs thoroughly to comprehend the plan which you mean to purfue. Indeed, after the most minute analysis of the whole, I cannot avoid thinking, that nothing more is meant, by this formal establishment of the Court of Common Senfe, and decifion or decree by ToUCHSTONE, than the erection of much fuch another tribunal as that which was originally inftituted under the appellation of the SPECTATOR, and gave rife to several other fimilar courts, the decifions of which are not, in general, likely to be controverted. Under this idea, the formality which has puzzled me, and probably many others, inftantly vanishes: the Court of COMMON SENSE appears merely figurative of the good fenfe which all effays admitted into your papers are expected to contain; and the TouCHSTONE itself, or feal of office, only to fignify the power with which the worthipful Solomon Sagebaro, Efq. is fo worthily invefted, of promulging, under that title, fuch opinions as may to him feem deferving of public attention, either from their peculiarly interefting nature, their novelty, or their entertainment. In fhort, I have repeatedly tried my opinion, like the folution of an Edipean ænigma, (for fuch, I affure you, it has been to me) on every particle of your paper; and, unless I hear from yourself, that cafes are to be stated in form, and formal decrees to be nounced, I will never believe that any tended to iffue from the office of Sothing fo dull and abfurd can be inlomon Sagebaro, Efq. pro If, as I fincerely think, my fuggeftions turn out to be juft, you may expect to hear from me occafionallyremember, I difclaim all formality, and every attempt at connection in the different effays-under the fignature of (H.) c. c. c. OXFORD, SEPT. 14, 1783. LYCURGUS. ral effays, whether written by myfelf or friends, will be ftudiously avoided, I shall infert at pleasure whatever comes first to hand, with or without any introduction or remark, as I may think proper, in defiance of all the critics on earth. S. S. TO SOLOMON SAGEBARO, ESQ. KEEPER OF THE GREAT TOUCHSTONE OF THE HIGH COURT OF COMMON SENSE. 'MOST TREMENDOUS SIR! THE ftanzas which I have the honour to inclofe in this address*, were written by my order, and at my expence, by a poet who either has, or thinks he has, no fmall pretenfions to merit in his line. If, by the bye, kis pretenfions are merely ideal, he muft at least be allowed as great a fhare of vanity as any individual of his tribe; and poets, Sir, as you well know, are feldom deficient in that home-manufactured commodity. Be this as it may, he was pretty well paid for his trouble; for, not to mention a good dinner, at which he was by no means an idle fpectator, he received ten fhillings and fixpence fterling, according to previous agreement. He even begged hard for an additional half-crown; in order, as he faid, to refresh his Pegafus at a neighbouring tavern, where a fociety of his rhyming brethren meet, if not regularly, at least whenever credit or cash will allow. This requeft, however, I refused to comply with, till time fhould have proved the efficacy of his production. Now, Sir, you must know, thefe verses were written with a view of reclaiming my wife from a vicious habit of drinking ftrong waters, which * Clodio had wit, and reafon too; was contracted fome years fince, during my abfence in the country on bufinefs.. The poet, (who of courfe was in the fecret) fenfible, I fuppofe, how ufelefs an attempt of this nature muft prove, where not only a woman's will, but her appetite, was to be conquered, went away in difguft, and has never fince troubled me. I would willingly have perfuaded him, at the time, to make a few alterations in the compofition, in order to render it more immediately applicable to the bufinefs in queftion: for inftance, I wanted the name of Clodio to be erafed, and that of Margery inferted; the one belonging to my wife, (faving your worship's prefence) and the other, as I conceive, to no woman on earth. But he, more than half-affronted that any perfon fhould prefume to correct a fyllable in what came from his pen, infifted on the propriety of every word; urging, in fupport of his opinion, that a woman was a man, though a man was not a woman; by the fame rule, and for the fame reafon, as a mare is a horfe, though a horse is not a mare. He farther added, with much feeming importance, that in Latin, (a language which he understood better than any man on earth) the word HOMO was used to exprefs both the fexes, or either, as moft convenient, It was in vain for me to argue on fo abftrufe a point with a man of fuch deep erudition: I therefore was-or rather affected to feem-convinced by his reafoning; well knowing that your very learned men are paffionate as well as wife. Now, Sir, if you pleafe, we will return to my wife; who, by this time it is now ftriking ten-would have been at least half-feas-over-to use a ON A DRUNKARD. The first may still be living; The last in Port, 'midft riot's crew, He drown'd beyond reviving.' Indignant Heaven, who faw the deed, Indulg'd him in his fwallow; Then ftruck him from the human breed, And left the brute to wallow. |