8 6 Sir William Hamilton's Account of 
boat, I put my hand into the water, which was literally 
scalded ; and by this time my boatmen observed that the pitch 
from the bottom of the boat was melting fast, and floating 
on the surface of the sea, and that the boat began to leak ; we 
therefore retired hastily from this spot, and landed at some dis- 
tance from the hot lava. The town of Torre del Greco con- 
tained about 18000 inhabitants, all of which (except about 15, 
who from either age or infirmity could not be moved, and were 
overwhelmed by the lava in their houses) escaped either to 
Castel-a-mare, which was the ancient Stabise, or to Naples ; 
but the rapid progress of the lava was such, after it had al- 
tered its course from Resina, which town it first threatened, 
and had joined a fresh lava that issued from one of the new 
mouths in a vineyard, about a mile from the town, that it ran 
like a torrent over the town of Torre del Greco, allowing the 
unfortunate inhabitants scarcely time to save their lives ; their 
goods and effects were totally abandoned, and indeed several of 
the inhabitants, whose houses had been surrounded with lava 
whilst they remained in them, escaped from them and saved 
their lives the following day, by coming out of the tops of their 
houses, and walking over the scoriae on the surface of the red- 
hot lava. Five or six old nuns were taken out of a convent in 
this manner, on the 16th of June, and carried over the hot 
lava, as I was informed by the friar who assisted them , and 
who told me that their stupidity was such, as not to have been 
the least alarmed, or sensible of their danger : he found one 
of upwards of go years of age actually warming herself at a 
point of red-hot lava, which touched the window of her cell, 
and which she said was very comfortable ; and though now 
apprized of their danger, they were still very unwilling to leave 
