1>0 A HISTORY OF 



dreadful noise. They, at the same time, and in the midst of the da\ 

 appeared to cast forth fire and smoke, while a vast number of Komuu 

 knights and travellers from the ^Emilian Way, stood and continued 

 amazed spectators. Several towns were destroyed by this shock ; and 

 all the animals that were near them were killed." In the time of Tra- 

 jan, the city of Antioch, and a great part of the adjacent country, \vas 

 buried by an earthquake. About three hundred years after, in the 

 times of Justinian, it was once more destroyed, together with forty 

 thousand inhabitants ; and, after an interval of sixty years, the same 

 ill-fated city was a third time overturned, with the loss of not less 

 than sixty thousand souls. In the year 1182, most of the cities of Sy- 

 ria, and the kingdom of Jerusalem, were destroyed by the same acci- 

 dent. In the year 1594, the Italian historians describe an earthquake 

 at Puteoli, which caused the sea to retire two hundred yards from its 

 former bed. 



But one of those most particularly described in history, is that of the 

 year 1693; the damages of which were chiefly felt in Sicily, but its 

 motion perceived in Germany, France, and England. It extended to 

 a circumference of two thousand six hundred leagues ; chiefly affect- 

 ing the sea-coasts, and great rivers ; more perceivable also upon the 

 mountains than in the valleys. Its motions were so rapid, that those 

 who lay at their length were tossed from side to side, as upon a roll- 

 ing billow.* The walls were dashed from their foundations ; and nc 

 less than fifty-four cities, with an incredible number of villages, were 

 either destroyed or greatly damaged. The city of Catanea, in par- 

 ticular, was utterly overthrown. A traveller, who was on his way 

 thither, at the distance of some miles, perceived a black cloud, like 

 iiight, hanging over the place. The sea, all of a sudden, began to 

 roar ; Mount ./Etna to send forth great spires of flame ; and soon after 

 a shock ensued, with a noise as if all the artillery in the world had 

 been at once discharged. Our traveller, being obliged to alight, in- 

 stantly felt himself raised a foot from the ground ; and turning his 

 eyes to the city, he, with amazement, saw nothing but a thick cloud 

 of dust in the air. The birds flew about astonished; the sun was 

 darkened; the beasts ran howling from the hills; and, although the 

 shock did not continue above three minutes, yet near nineteen thou- 

 sand of the inhabitants of Sicily perished in the ruins. Catanea, to 

 which city the describer was travelling, seemed the principal scene 

 of ruin ; its place only was to be found ; and not a footstep of its for 

 mer magnificence was to be seen remaining. 



The earthquake which happened in Jamaica, in 1G92, was very ter- 

 rible, and its description sufficiently minute. " In two minutes' time il 

 destroyed the town of Port-Royal, and sunk the houses in a gulf for 

 ty fathoms deep. It was attended with a hollow rumbling noise, 

 like that of thunder ; and, in less than a minute, three parts of the 

 houses, and their inhabitants, were all sunk quite underwater. Whilo 

 they were thus swallowed up on one side of the street, on the other 

 the houses were thrown into heaps; the sand of the street rising lik 

 be waves of the sea, lifting up those that stood upon it, and immedi 



* Phil. Trans. 



