VOL. XVII.] ?HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 55Q 



and dying groans. On the heaps of stones we may now write, here was 

 Catania. 



Lentini, a very ancient city, and for a long time an episcopal see, &c. felt 

 that shock on the Qth with such violence, as threw down and ruined the greater 

 part of its buildings; among which was the ancient convent of Minorites ; the 

 Royal Convent, so called from the tomb of one of our queens buried there, 

 under the ruins of which 4 religious were buried; the rest escaped miraculously. 

 But the last earthquake, on the 1 1th, laid in the dust the remainder of the city, 

 destroying also about 4000 people, who returned thither, after the first shock, 

 to take care of their goods. So that the city is all shattered to pieces, not one 

 house left standing. 



Carlentine, a modern city, being as a citadel dependent on Lentine, had the 

 same fate. The beautiful castle of Licodia all ruined, with the Marchioness of 

 Martini and all her children buried therein. — Bizrini, a city of rich inhabitants, 

 is levelled with the ground, with the death of many people ; part by the first, 

 and the rest by the last day's earthquake. Sortino and Cassero are quite de- 

 molished ; in the first about 3000 perished, and in the other a very great 

 number. 



Agosta, a trading town, built on an island in a large bay, which makes a 

 capacious port, was all blown up into the air ; for besides the damage of the 

 earthquake, there was a great quantity of powder in the castle, which took fire, 

 and killed several of the citizens, that had escaped into the fields, with the 

 stones of the buildings : here perished about 3000. The enraged sea grew 

 terribly boisterous, and tempestuously beat against the walls of the Dominican 

 convent with such fury, that some galleys belonging to the Knights of Malta 

 scarcely escaped shipwreck in the port. In fine, luctus ubique pavor, et plurima 

 mortis imago. The country of Mililli, in the duchy of Montalto, felt the same 

 fate, with the destruction of the inhabitants. 



Syracuse, famous of old, an episcopal see ; in our time like the phoenix 

 arising from the ashes, standing on a peninsula, by art made an island, having 

 a bridge to the main land ; strengthened with a modern fortification, sufficiently 

 populous by reason of its convenient situation for trade, full of nobility, and 

 beautified with churches, convents, monasteries, and palaces, now mourns in 

 ruins. It was sensible of Friday's, but all shaken to pieces by the Sunday's 

 earthquake, with the loss of many thousand persons. Most of the nobility 

 saved themselves by a timely flight. Of the religious not many perished. 

 Scarcely a village in the whole diocese is left: confusion reigns every where; and 

 the misery is increased by the want of food, caused by the granaries and mills 

 being destroyed. 



