338 Dr. R. D. Thomson on the 



In May 1618, six years after the settlement of the Eng- 

 lish at Surat, " a general and diabolical storm" occurred in 

 the neighbourhood of Bombay (Bombaim as it is termed 

 by old writers). It began at Bagaim (Basseen,) on the 

 15th of that month, and continued with such violence that 

 the people hid themselves in cellars, in continual dread lest 

 their dwellings should be levelled with the earth ; and at 

 2 a.m. an earthquake destroyed many houses. The sea, 

 according to the historian of the time, was brought into 

 the city by the wind ; the waves roared fearfully ; the tops 

 of the churches were blown off, and immense stones were 

 impelled to vast distances; two thousand persons were 

 killed ; the fish died in the ponds ; and most of the churches, 

 as the tempest advanced, were utterly destroyed. Many 

 vessels were lost in the port. At Bombay, sixty sail of 

 vessels, with their cargoes and some of their crews, 

 foundered. 



At Aga§aim, a boat was blown by the force of the wind 

 from the sea into a house, where it killed a woman and her 

 child, and the trees were torn up by their roots. 



Besides the presence of a violent commotion in the 

 atmosphere, and the powerful concussion of the earth, 

 volcanic action seems to have occurred, if we may be allowed 

 to deduce such an inference, from the highly embellished 

 representations of the historian, of giants seen in the air 

 throwing great globes of fire at each other, confusions of 

 human voices in the atmosphere, tramplings of horses, and 

 the sound of warlike instruments. It is added that much 

 of this nature occurred in " Salsete," and other places.* 



The metaphorical figures expressed in the latter part of 

 the description, are strikingly similar to those employed by 

 Dion Cassiusf in his account of the eruption which de- 

 stroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, where we are told that 

 giants were seen, and the sounds of trumpets were heard in 

 the vicinity. 



Frequent mention of earthquakes may be found in the 

 history of the Malabar coast, (which extends from Cananore 

 to Cochin, about 42 leagues,) where they go under the de- 

 nomination of Bhumiculacam. In 1784, a strong concussion 



* Sousa's " Portugues Asia," torn. iii. 

 t Hist. Rom. lib. 66. 



