less violent than the two former, the sea rushed in again, and retired with the same rapidity, and I 
remained up to my knees in water, though I had gotten upon a small eminence at some distance from 
the river, with the ruins of several intervening houses to break its force. At this time I took notice 
the waters retired so impetuously, that some vessels were left quite dry, which rode in seven fathom 
water: the river thus continued alternately rushing on and retiring several times together, in such sort, 
that it was justly dreaded Lisbon would now meet the same fate which a few years ago had befallen 
the city of Lima. 
Perhaps you may think the present doleful subject here concluded; but, alas! the horrors of the 
first of November are sufficient to fill a volume. As soon as it grew dark, another scene presented 
itself little less shocking than those already described—the whole city appeared in a blaze, which was 
so bright that I could easily see to read by it. It may be said, without exaggeiation, it was on file at 
least in an hundred different places at once, and thus continued burning for six days together, without 
intermission, or the least attempt being made to stop its progress. 
I could never learn, that this terrible fire was owing to any subterraneous eruption, as some 
reported, but to three causes, which all concurring at the same time, will naturally account for the 
prodigious havoc it made; the first of November being All Saints Lay, a high festival among the Por¬ 
tuguese, every altar in every church and chapel (some of which have more than twenty) was illumi¬ 
nated with a number of wax tapers and lamps, as customary; these setting fire to the curtains and 
timber work that fell with the shock, the conflagration soon spread to the neighbouring houses, and 
being there joined with the fires in the kitchen chimnies, increased to such a degree, that it might 
easily have destroyed the whole city, though no other cause had occurred, especially as it met with no 
interruption. 
The fire, by some means or other, may be said to have destroyed the whole city, at least every 
thing that was grand and valuable in it; and the damage on this occasion is not to be estimated. 
Luring this calamitous scene, it is impossible to conceive the horrors and wretchedness of the 
unhappy inhabitants. The jaws of death were opened to swallow them up; ruin had seized all their 
possessions, and those dear connexions to which they might have looked for consolation in their sor¬ 
rows, were for ever buried in the merciless abyss. All was ruin and desolation. Every countenance 
indicated the extremity of affliction and despair; and the whole country formed a wide scene of unde- 
scribable horror. 
The whole number of persons that perished, including those who were burnt, or afterwards crushed 
to death whilst digging in the ruins, is supposed, on the lowest calculation, to amount to more than 
sixty thousand; and though the damage in other respects cannot be computed, yet you may form 
some idea of it, when 1 assure you, that this extensive and opulent city is now nothing but avast 
heap of ruins, that the rich and poor are at present upon a level, some thousands of families which but 
the day before had been easy in their circumstances, being now scattered about in the fields, wanting 
every conveniency of life, and finding none able to relieve them. 
As this is one of the most exact accounts of an earthquake, so we are favoured by Sir William 
Hamilton with a full description of the eruption of Vesuvius, which happened in 1794. 
Sir William Hamilton begins his narrative with remarking, that the frequent slight eruptions of 
lava for some years past had issued from near the summit, and ran in small channels in different 
directions down the flanks of the mountain, and from running in covered channels, had often an 
appearance as if they came immediately out of the sides of Vesuvius, but such lavas had not sufficient 
force to reach the cultivated parts at the foot of the mountain. In the year 1779, the whole quantity 
of lava in fusion having been at once thrown up with violence out of the crater of Vesuvius, and a 
great part of it falling, and cooling on its cone, added much to the solidity of the walls of this huge 
natural chimney, and had not of late years allowed of a sufficient discharge of lava to calm that fermen¬ 
tation, which by the subterraneous noises heard at times, and by the explosions of sconce and ashes, 
was known to exist within the bowels of the volcano; so that the eruptions of late years, before this 
last, were simply from the lava having boiled over the crater, the sides being sufficiently strong to 
confine it, and oblige it to rise and overflow. The mountain had been remarkably quiet for seven 
months before the late eruption, nor did the usual smoke issue from its crater, but at times it emitted 
small clouds of smoke that floated in the air in the shape of little trees. It was remarked by the Father 
Antonm di Petrizzi, a capuchin friar (who printed an account of the late eruption) from his convent 
close to the unfortunate town of lorre del Greco, that for some days preceding this eruption a thick 
