[ 251 3 
no Apprehcnfion (and I believe with good Reafon) of 
an Earthquake : But we little thought of being invited 
to a Sight, quod nunquam vidimus^ & nunquam vt~ 
debimus for by all the Accounts of the Living, there 
has not been any Eruption in their Remembrance near 
fo violent, nor fo furious 5 and Authors mention none 
to this Degree' later than above One hundred Years 
ago. On Friday y May 17. 1737. N. St. I ob- 
ferved, as far as I could fee round, that the Mountain 
was covered with white Afhes a great Way down, as 
it hath been with Snow in the Winter, which I 
could not find any body here or at Barra near Bor- 
tiche, take any Notice of j though 1 fhould be apt 
to think for theTuture, that it might be a Fore-runner j 
for I had never feen any thing like it. Bliny ob- 
ferves in thefe Words, Brrecefferat per mult os dies 
terramotus minus formidolofusy qui Campania non 
folum caftellay verum etiam oppida vexare folitus. 
{VV\r\.Lib 6. Ep. zo.). Other Authors fay the con- 
trary : though it may very likely be fo, round and near 
the Foot of the Mountain, but this time I have not 
found any body fenfible of it here; but it is certainly 
true, that our Windows and Doors fhook all the 
time of the Violence of the Eruption, which I take 
to be from the very great Concuflion of the Air 
upon the violent Explofions : A Door which had a 
Latch, to my great Surprize, opened often of itfelf. 
I cannot conceive a tremulous Motion of the Earth 
from the Mountain hither, unlefs it were thoroughly 
cavernous from thence, which the People here deny, 
and particularly the Author Baragallo. . 
On Saturday Night, {May i8.) this great Bhano- 
menon began, and incrcafed fo much on Sundayy 
K k that 
