110 



A HISTORY OF 



vastation. The hailstones which it poured 

 down, being measured, were found to be 

 many of them fourteen inches round, and, con- 

 sequently, as large as a bowling-green ball. 

 Wherever it came, every plantation fell be- 

 fore it ; it tore up the ground, split great oaks, 

 and other trees, without number ; the fields 

 of rye were cut down, as if levelled with a 

 scythe; wheat, oats, and barley, suffered the 

 same damage. The inhabitants found but a 

 precarious shelter, even in their houses, their 

 tiles and windows being broke by the violence 

 of the hailstones, which, by the force with 

 which they came, seemed to have descended 

 from a great height. The birds, in this uni- 

 versal wreck, vainly tried to escape by flight ; 

 pigeons, crows, rooks, and many more of the 

 smaller and feebler kinds,were brought down. 

 An unhappy young man, who had not time to 

 take shelter, was killed; one of his eyes was 

 struck out of his head, and Ins body was all 

 over black with the bruises; another had just 

 time to escape, but not without the most im- 

 minent danger, his body being bruised all 

 over. But what is most extraordinary, all 

 this fell within the compass of a mile. 



Mezeray, in his history of France, tells us 

 of a shower of hail much more terrible, which 

 happened in the year 1510, when the French 

 monarch invaded Italy. There was, for a 

 time, a horrid darkness, thicker than that of 

 midnight, which continued till the terrors of 

 mankind were changed to still more terrible 

 objects, by thunder and lightning breaking 

 the gloom, and bringing on such a shower of 

 hail, as no history of human calamities could 

 equal. These hailstones were of a bluish 

 colour, and some of them weighed not less 

 than a hundred pounds. A noisome vapour 

 of sulphur attended the storm. All the birds 

 and beasts of the country were entirely de- 

 stroyed. Numbers of the human race suffer- 

 ed the same fate. But what is still more ex- 

 traordinary, the fishes found no protection 

 from their native element ; but were equal 

 sufferers in the general calamity. 



These, however, are terrors that are seldom 

 exerted in our mild cliimtes. They only 

 serve to mark the page of history with won- 

 der; and stand as admonitions to man- 

 kind of the various stores of punishment 

 in the hands of the Deity, which his power 



can treasure up, and his mercy can suspend. 



In the temperate zones, therefore, meteors 

 I are rarely found thus terrible; but between 

 the tropics, and near the poles, they assume 

 very dreadful and various appearances. In 

 those inclement regions, where cold and heat 

 exert their chief power, meteors seem pecu- 

 liarly to have fixed their residence. They 

 are seen there in a thousand terrifying forms, 

 astonishing to Europeans, yet disregarded by 

 the natives, from their frequency. The won- 

 ders of air, fire, and water, are there com- 

 bined, to produce the most tremendous ef- 

 fects ; and to sport with the labours and ap- 

 prehensions of mankind. Lightnings, that 

 flash without noise ; hurricanes, that tear up 

 the earth ; clouds, that all at once pour down 

 their contents, and produce an instant deluge; 

 mock suns; northern lights, that illuminate 

 half the hemisphere ; circular rainbows ; 

 halos; fleeting balls of fire ; clouds, reflecting 

 back the images of things on earth, like mir- 

 rors ; and water-spouts, that burst from the 

 sea, to join with the mists that hang imme- 

 diately above them. These are but a part 

 of the phenomena that are common in those 

 countries ; and from many of which our own 

 climate is, in a great measure, exempted. 



The meteors of the torrid zone are different 

 from those that are found near the polar cir- 

 cles ; and it may readily be supposed, that 

 in those countries where the sun exerts the 

 greatest force in raising vapours of all kinds, 

 there should be the greatest quantity of me- 

 teors. Upon the approach of the winter 

 months, as they are called, under the Line, 

 which usually begin about May, the sky, from 

 a fiery brightness, begins to be overcast, and 

 the whole horizon seems wrapt in a muddy 

 cloud. Mists and vapours still continue to 

 rise ; and the air, which so lately before was 

 clear and elastic, now becomes humid, ob- 

 scure, and stifling : the fogs become so thick, 

 that the light of the sun seems, in a manner, 

 excluded; nor would its presence be known, 

 but for the intense and suffocating heat of its 

 beams, which dart through the gloom, and, 

 instead of dissipating, only serve to incr^"e 

 the mist. 



After this preparation, there follcws r*,j al 

 most continual succession of thunder, rain, 

 and tempests. During this dreadful season, 



