child. This town was a great market for oil, of which there were upwards of 4000 barrels in the town at the time of its deftruction, fo that the barrels and jars being broken, a river of oil ran into the fea from it for many hours. The fpilt oil mixed with the corn of the grenaries, and the corrupted bodies, have had a fenfible effect on the air. This I fear, as the heats increafe, may prove fatal to the unfortunate remainder of the inhabitants of Palmi, who live in barracks near the ruined town. My guide told me, that he had been buried in the ruins of his houfe here by the firft fhock, and that after the fecond, which followed immediately, he found himfelf fitting a fride of a beam at leaft fifteen feet high in the air. I heard of many fuch extraordinary efcapes in all parts of the plain, where the earthquake has exerted its greatest force.

"From Palmi I proceeded through the beautiful woody mountains of Bagnara and Solano; noble timber oak trees on high rocks, narrow vallies with torrents in their bottoms, the road dangerous both on account 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 ftill more dangerous road; but the Calabrefe horfes are really as furefooted as goats. In the midst of one of these paffes we felt a very fmart fhock of an earthquake, ac companied 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 fcattered 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 Meflina, the coast of Sicily as far as Catania, with Mount Etna rifing proudly behind it, which altogether compofed the finest view imaginable. From thence I defcended a horrid rocky road to the Torre del Pezzolo, where there is a countryfeat and village belonging to the princefs of Bagnara. There I found, that an epidemical diforder had already manifefted itself, as it probably will in many other parts of this glorious but unhappy country, in proportion as the heats increafe, ow. ing to the hardships fuffered, and the air having been spoiled by new-formed lakes. Several fishermen assured 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 com motions of the earth were full of electrical fire, juft as the fioke of volcanoes is conftantly obferved to be during violent eruptions; for I faw no mark, in any part of my journey, of any volcanic matter hav ing iffued from the fiffures of the carth; and I am convinced, that the whole damage has been done by exhalations and vapours only. The firft fhock felt at this place, as I was affured, was lateral, and then vorticofe, and exceedingly violent; but what they call violent here, muft have been nothing in comparison of what was felt in the plain of Cafa Nuova, Polftene, 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 streets or houfes, the violence of that shock is fufficiently confirmed. From this place to Reggio the road on each fide is covered with villas and orange groves. I faw not one houfe levelIed to the ground; but perceived that all had been damaged, and were abandoned; and that the inhabitants were univerfally retired to barracks in these 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 a half from the town of Reggio, and what is remarkable, belongs to a gentleman whofe Chriftian name is Agamemnon. The beauty of the agrume (the general name of all kind of orange, lemon, cedrate, and bergamot-trees) is not to be described; the foil being fandy, the expofition warm, and command of water, a clear rivulet being introduced at pleafure in little channels to the foot of each tree, i3 the reafon of the wonderful luxuriancy of these 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, 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 funfet at Reggio, which I found lefs damaged than I expected, though not a house in it is habitable or inhabited, and all the people live in baracks or tents; but after having been feveral days in the plain, where every building is levelled to the ground, a house with a roof, or a church with a steeple, 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 ceafed, I am perfuaded, the greatest part of them will fill 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 destroyed. The archbishop, a fenfible, active, and humane prelate, has diftinguished himself from the beginning of the earthquakes to this day, having immediately difpofed of all the fuperfluous 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. Except in this inftance, and very few others, indeed, I obferved throughout

I 4

throughout my whole journey, a prevailing indolence, inactivity, and want of fpirit, which is unfortunate, as fuch 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 its 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 ruin. 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 is 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 difagrecable 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 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 foone and moft alarmed at the approach of a fhock: 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, correponds with the apparent degree

on

of damage done to the town, and does not exceed 126. As it happened about noon, and came gently, the people of Reggio had time to escape; whereas, as I have often remarked, the fhock in the unhappy plain was as inftantaneous as it was violent and deftructive. Every building was levelled to the ground, and the mortality was general, and in proportion to the apparent deftruction of the buildings. Reggio was destroyed by an earthquake before the Marfian war, and having been rebuilt by Julius Cæfar was called Reggio Julio. Part of the wall still remains, and is called the Julian Tower; and is built of huge maffes of stone without cement. Near St. Peruto, between Reggio and the 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 neighbour. hood of Reggio that still 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 lan guage in ufe in that district. 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, opposite Meffina, from whence the current wafted us with great expedition indeed into the port of Meffina. The port and the town, in its half ruin. ed 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

ftance is conclufive. I found, that fome houfes, nay a street or two, at, Meffina, 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 spots near the town, but at a great distance one from the other, must be very incon venient for a mercantile town; and unlefs great care is taken to keep the ftreets of the barracks, and the barracks themselves, clean, I fear that the unfortunate Meffina will be doomed to fuffer a fresh calamity from epidemical diforders, 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 offered them, and I made the fame obfervation with refpect to fchools-boys at Reggio; fo that in my journal, which I wrote in hafte, and from whence I have as haftily transcribed 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 spoke with attested); 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 circumstance happened here alfo, to prove 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 largeft hips can lie along-fide; confequently the earth, in its 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 houses are still ftanding, and fome little damaged, even in the lower part of Meflina; but in the upper and more elevated fituations, the earthquakes feem to have had fcarcely 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 Santa Barbara, and that called the Noviziato de' Gefuiti, 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 paft, and which still continue in fome degree. Befides, the mortality at Meffina does not exceed 700 out of up. wards of 30,000, the fuppofed population of this city at the time of the first earthquake, which circum

animals

animals can remain long alive with out food. Two mules belonging to the duke of Belvifo, remained un der a heap of ruins, one of them twenty-two, and the other twentythree 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 closely fhut up under the ruins of his houfe, was taken out the twenty-fecond day, and is now recovered; it did not eat for fome days, but drank freely; it was emaciated, and fhewed little figns of life at first. From these infiances, 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 at tended with great thirst, and total lofs of appetite. From every in quiry I found, that the great fhock 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 coast of the part of Calabria that had been most affected by the earthquakes) is, that a fmall fish called cicirelli, refembling what we call in England white-bait, but of a greater fize, and which ufually lye 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 common food of the pooreft fort of people; whereas, before the earthquakes, this fifh was rare, and reckoned amongst the

greatest delicacies. All fifh, in general, have been taken in greater abundance, and with much greater facility, in thofe parts fince they have been afflicted by earthquakes than before. I conftantly asked every fisherman I met with on the coaft of Sicily and Calabria, if this circumstance was true; and was as conftantly anfwered in the affirmative; but with fuch emphafis, that it must have been very extraordina ry. I fuppofe, that either the fand at the bottom of the fea 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 ang ler, when he wants a bait, obliges the worms to come out of the turf on a river fide, by trampling on it with his feet, which motion never fails in its effect, as I have experienced very often myself. I found the citadel here had not received any material damage; but was in the fame ftate as I had left it fifteen years ago. The Lazaret has fome cracks in it, like thofe on the quay, and from a like caufe. The port has not received any damage 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 the fortrefs, rofe and boiled in a most 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 or eruptions from cracks from 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,