L U C O N I A. 65 



with burning waters which communicate with hidden flames. 

 All thefe great accidents of nature, are the efFe6t of extinguifhed 

 volcanoes, of fome that are flill burning, and of others that are 

 forming in thefe deep cavities, where corabuflible materials are 

 perpetually in agitation. 



Earthquakes are frequent and fometimes tremendous. Mr. Earthquakes. 

 Pye, in the Philofophical Tranfactions *, gives an account of one 

 of uncommon horror in 1750, which lafted for three months, 

 witli almoft continual tremblings, and at laft broke out in an 

 eruption, from a fmall illantl, in the middle of a lake, round 

 which the bottom is unfathomable. The third day after the com- 

 mencenient of the eruption, there arofe four more fmall iflands 

 all burning ; and about a mile diftance from one there is a conti- 

 nual fire which ilTues from the v/ater, where there is no ground 

 for upwards of an hundred fathoms deep. 



It is generally fuppofed that before the arrival of the Euro- 

 peanSi the Chinefe had poffeffed themfelves of the fea coafls of 

 thefe iflands. The Japanefe alfo boaft of having been once 

 'lords of the Pbilippinei, and the vicinity to both thofe empires 

 •may make it probable. 



The Ch'niefe were fo numerous in Manilla about the year Chikese 



' A. 7 n - r ' MaSSACRJ. 



1600, as to excite in the Spaniards the greateil tear of the danger 

 arifmg from any plots they might enter into againft the coloniihs. 

 The Spaniards, affifted by the Japanefe and other foreigners, 

 took the ufual method of preventing them, by putting no lefs 

 than twenty-five thoufand to the fword ; the maflacre of thefe 

 people was far greater than that of Batavia. The Spaniards 



• Vol. xllx. p. 45S. 



Vol. ly, K affert 



