MALTA AND SICILY. 
247 
and property of thirty thousand persons. 
Our friends the Benedictines had a very 
narrow escape, which I suppose they attri¬ 
buted to the interposition of their patron St. 
Nicholas, for the lava passed within five 
yards of their convent, when it turned off’ in 
another direction, and at length finished its 
destructive course by pouring into the sea. 
It is impossible to imagine anything more 
terrible than this encounter. A river of red 
hot lava, several miles in width, and many 
yards in depth, suddenly opposed in its 
course by the sea! Authors who had an 
opportunity of witnessing this conflict inform 
us, that the noise was infinitely louder than 
the loudest thunder; that the air was dark¬ 
ened by clouds of steam and sulphurous 
vapours, that the sea was rendered muddy 
for months, and that all the fish on the coast 
were destroyed. 
