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letter IV. 
A Copy of Part of Two Letters^ written hy John 
Mendes Saccheti, M. D. F. R. S. to Dr. DeCaftro, 
F. R. S, dated from the Fields of Lifbon, on the 
yth ^November, and the ijl oj December, 175'f. 
Read Jan. is> X Cannot, at prefent, give you a proper 
^ i account of the firft day of this month 
of November, the moft unhappy and fatal day for 
this court and kingdom, the caufe of our total ruin, 
and general lofs of fo many nations, connedled with 
the flourifhing condition of the commerce of this 
great capital ; becaufe I am, and have begun, to write 
the natural, philofophical, and meteorological hiftory 
of this tragical event, with a defign to publifli it, 
by the particular delire of his excellency the fecre- 
tary of Hate Diego de Mendoca Corte Real, and 
fome other noblemen, which, as foon as finilhed, 
I lhall take fpecial care to fend it to you, and com- 
municate it to our Royal Society. Therefore now 
I lhall only inform you, in a few words, that ceci- 
dit Babyhny and that there is no more to be feen 
than Campus ubi Troya fuit. Lilbon, the great city 
of Lilbon, was at once tumbled to the ground, burnt 
to alhes, and plundered j reducing this court, and 
the molt part of the realm, to inconceivable mifery, 
and deplorable condition. The third part of its in- 
habitants was buried in the ruins, and the other two 
thirds wandering, fcattered, and full of mifery in 
their tents. I have miraculoully efcaped with a friend 
and family, where I lodged, and all retired to his 
VoL, 49, ^ g g country- 
