Slate of CharyhcTts. ' %^ 



and dangerous, it ftill contains no incavation, or gulph of tlie nature of a vortex ; but 

 merely a ftrong agitation and dafliing of Its waves, which produces thofe fmall whirlings 

 of its waters, which are only accidental and not to be feared. So far llkewife is Charybdis 

 from drawing to itfelf and fwallowing veflels, that it rather repels them, and throws them 

 to a diftance. 



This error has arlfen like many others with refpeiH: to the produftlons of nature. 

 Homer, in relating the voyage of Ulyfles through the Strait of Mefllna, was the firft who 

 defcribed Charybdis as an Immenfe vortex, which abforbs and rejects the water, and the 

 fhlps that approach it ; exemplifying his account by the fate of fome of the companions 

 of his hero, who were carried away by the whirlpool. The writers who came after him, 

 whether poets, orators, hiftorlans, or geographers, have followed him in this defcription, 

 without any one of them taking the pains to repair to the place and examine it hlmfelf» 

 Even Fazello the Sicilian, who was fo induftrious in afcertaining fadis, and whofe accounts 

 of his country are fo accurate, clearly {hews in his defcription of Charybdis, that he had 

 never obferved it himfelf j and concludes his narration with the erroneous fuppofitioii 

 above cited, that the things fwallowed up by Charybdis are conveyed by fubmarlne currents 

 to the fliores of Taormina. 



Among all who have written on this fubjeft, we only find Cluverius who feems, at 

 Jeaft at firft view, to have vifited the place. I fliall tranfcribe his words : 



" Ego fane, cum Charybdis liofcendse gratia aliquot dies Meflana fubfifterem, et ab 

 hominibus ejus loci, maxime vero nautls, non Siculls modo, fed et Belgis, Britannis et Gallis, 

 ■qui hoc fretum frequentes navigant, dlligentius earn rem fclfcltarer, nihil omnino certi 

 ipfis perdifcere potui, adeo fcilicet totum negotlum omnibus obfcurum et incognitum erat. 

 Tandem tamen reperl Charybdim, quse incolis, patrils vocabulis, dicitur Calofaro, fub prse- 

 difta ad Mefianenfem portum pharo efle mare rapidc fluens, atque in vortices a£tum : quod 

 non <rf(; £7r' iifiali ut tradit Homerus, id edjingulis diebus ier, abforbet ingenti gurgite, revo- 

 mitque aquas, fed quoties vehementlori flu£lu fretum comltatur." 



*' I remained fome days at MeGina, with a view to obtain fome information relative to 

 Charybdis ; but though I made every enquiry of the people of the place, and principally 

 •thefailors, not the Sicilian only, but the Italian, Dutch, Englifh, and French, who fre- 

 quently navigate that Strait, I could learn nothing fatisfaftory, fo little was known by them 

 on the fubje£i. At length however I found Charybdis, which the natives call Calofara^ 

 under the lighthoufc before mentioned near the Jiarbour, to be a fea rapidly flowing, and 

 forming vortices. It does not abforb the waters in its vaft gulph, and rejefl; them thric< 

 in a dayy as Homer tells us ; but as often as the fea runs high in the Strait." 



From the exprefllon " I found Charybdis" we miglit be induced to believe, that he 

 made his obfervations on the fpot. It is certain however that he does not explicitly tell 

 us fo : and when treating of a phenomenon, of which he was fo anxious to obtain an 

 accurate knowledge, which he could not procure even from the Meffinefe failors, it is 

 ftrongly to be prefumed, that he would not have fupprcffed a circum.ftance of that import- 

 ance. As Charybdis may be feen from the (hore, if he only went thither and turned his 

 eyes towards it, he might with truth aflert that he had difcovered It. The other adjundls 

 to his account, that Charybdis is a rapid fea, and Ltmt it abforbs and rejetls tlie water in 



Da a ftorm, 



