174 £/r william Hamilton’s Account of 
^ - 
From Sicily the accounts of the mod ferious nature were 
thofe of the dedruction of the greated part of the noble city 
of Medina, by the (hock of the 5th of February, and of the 
remaining parts by the fubfequent ones ; — that the kay in the 
port had funk confiderably, and was in fome places a palm and 
a half under water ; — that the fuperb building, called the Pa- 
lazzata, which gave the port a more magnificent appearance 
than any port in Europe can boafl of, had been entirely ruined; — 
that the Lazaret had been greatly damaged ; but that the cita- 
del had differed little ; — that the mother church had fallen ; in 
ffiort, that Medina was no more ; — That the tower at the point 
of the entrance of the Faro was half dedroyed ; and that the 
fame hot wave, that had done fuch mifchief at Scilla, had pafied 
over the point of land at the Faro, and carried off about 24 
people. The viceroy of Sicily likewife gave an account of 
fome damage done by the earthquakes, but nothing confide- 
rable, at Melazzo, Patti, Terra di Santa Lucia, Caffro Reale, 
and in the ifland of Lipari. 
This, Sir, was the intelligence I was poffedfed of the 
end of lad; month ; but as 1 am particularly curious, as 
you know, on the fubjedt of volcanoes, and was perfuaded 
in my own mind (from the prefent earthquakes being 
confined to one fpot) that fome great chemical operation 
of nature of the volcanic fort was the real caufe of them ; in 
order to clear up many points, and to come at truth, which 
you alfo well know, Sir, is exceedingly difficult, I took the 
fudden refolution to employ about twenty days (which was as 
much as I could allow, and have time to be out of Italy, in 
my way home, before the heats fet in) in making the tour of 
luch parts of Calabria Ultra and Sicily as had been, and were 
dill, mod affected by the earthquakes, and examining with 
my own eyes the phenomena above mentioned. I accordingly 
hired 
