428 
condition. Fourteen artillery-men, 
who were in the magazine, were of 
course blown to atoms. ‘The band 
of a regiment (the 39th) were just 
playing ‘* God save the King,” near 
the place; two were killed on the 
spet; the whole remainder were 
much wounded. The guards on duty 
were killed, The magazine was situ- 
ated on the side of the water oppo- 
site to the city of Valetta ; it is call- 
ed Barmola. Stones were thrown 
over to us, some to the distance of 
two miles. 
the water-side, and the bed of the 
sea was so shook by it, that it rose 
up and overflowed the banks, 
Two vessels (small ones) were sunk. 
Immense stones were thrown up, 
which fell into the water; others on 
the ships and rigging: one I saw, 
which fellon a vessel just arrived, 
weighed an hundred weight. ‘The 
guard-ship, the Madras man of war, 
is moored some distance from the 
disastrous place; but a stone fell 
upon the quarter-deck, and broke 
the thigh of the gunuer, who had 
Jately arrived. A Mr. Woodhouse 
bere, who, with his brother, has a 
great wine-making concern in Sicily, 
has lost 250 pipes of it, worth nearly 
70001. They were at some little 
distance from the place; but the 
shock was se great that the casks 
burst. ‘The churches are filled with 
the dead. A friend of mine, just 
eome from the ruins, says, that he 
was walking over them, when he 
lighted on the head of a woman, 
Her whole body was crushed flat ; 
and, although it is only a few hours 
since thegeneralcalamity took place, 
her body, owing to the intense heat, 
was entirely putrified. Itis supposed 
that the men were employed in 
cuttingaway the fuses from the shells, 
or doing something like that, when 
It was situated close to’ 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
a spark arose. The merchants have 
begun a subscription of 2001. a piece 
for the relief of the poor sufferers. 
A whole town I may say is destroy= 
ed. The accident happened this 
morning about a quarter past 6. 
‘They say there are now buried in 
the ruins 1000 barrels of gunpow- 
der that are in danger; but I trust 
in God it is untrue, for, were that 
to blow up, it would bring all Malta 
in ruins.” 
23rd. This day, during the storm 
of thunder and lightning, about two 
o'clock, a labouring man named 
Tytheman, ploughing in a field be- 
longing to John Potter, esq. at 
South Weald, Essex, for shelter 
against the violence of the rain, re- 
paired with his horses under a tree 
in the field; when he and both 
horses were struck dead by a flash 
of lightning. ‘There were no marks 
of violence upon the man, except a 
small perforation in the crown of his 
hat, apparently as if the electric 
stroke took an upward direction 
through it; the horses were lying 
back to back, and appeared as if 
they had died without a struggle. 
Buonaparte Jately ordered an 
assembly of the principal French 
Jews in the empire, who were 
summoned accordingly by M. Mole, 
one of their elders. He stated that 
his majesty had appointed commis- 
sioners to treat with them respecting 
the bad conduct of many of their 
members with respect to their reli- 
gion —** Thelaws,’\says he, ** which 
have been imposed upon persons of 
your religion have been different all 
over the world ; they have been too 
often dictated by theexigency of the 
moment. But, as there is no exam- 
ple in the Christian annals of any 
assembly like this, so you, for the 
first time, are to be impartially 
judged, 
