820 M I c n 
be fuppofed that the faint would forget fuch a fenfible 
mark of the angel’s difpleafure; he therefore immediately 
repaired to the rock and conftrufted a fmall church, as 
he had been commanded. Here, however, true hiftory 
fupplies the place of fable; and informs us, that it was 
in 966, when Richard the fecond duke of Normandy be¬ 
gan to build the abbey. It was completed about the 
year 1070, under William the Conqueror, though many 
other additions were made by fucceeding abbots. In 
the treafury of the church are innumerable other relics : 
among which fome few have a real and intrinlic value. 
There is a fine head of Charles VI. of France, cut in a 
cryftal, and the reprefentation of a cockle-lliell in gold, 
given by Richard II. duke of Normandy, when he founded 
the abbey. There is an arm faid to belong to St. Richard 
king of England ; but who this faint was it mull be very 
difficult to determine. Such is the hiftory of the prifon, 
abbey, and church, of Mount Michael previous to the 
revolution ; they have probably undergone fome changes 
fince that period. 
MI'CHAEL (St.) a town of Italy, in the duchy of 
Mantua, on the Tartaro: twenty miles eaft of Mantua.— 
Alfo, a town of Italy: twelve miles fouth-weft of Mantua. 
—A town of the duchy of Holftein: fix miles fouth of 
Meldrop.—A town of Sweden, in the province of Savo- 
lax: ten miles nortli-north-eaft of Chriftiana.-—A town 
of Canada, in the river St. Lawrence : fifteen miles north- 
eaft of Quebec.—A river of Maryland, which runs into 
the Chefapeak in lat. 38. 50. N. Ion. 76. 22. W.—A town 
of Maryland s twenty-one miles fouth-eaft of Annapolis. 
•—A town on the fouth peninfula of St. Domingo, called 
alfo Fond des Nagra : ten leagues north-eaft of St. Louis. 
MI'CHAEL (St.), or San Miguel, an ifland in the 
Atlantic, and the largeft of the Azores, difcovered 
by Gonfalvo Velho Cabral, in the year 1444.. It 
is about fixty miles in circumference ; and has feveral 
towns and villages, which carry on a great trade in corn, 
wine, and cattle, though none of its harbours are good 
or fafe. Its chief towns are Punta del Gada and Villa 
Franca. The former is rendered important by its com¬ 
merce, by its ftrong caftle, in which the Portuguefe keep 
a garrifon, and by its being the refidence of the primate 
of the Azores. The number of inhabitants in this ifland 
is varioufly ellimated, from 25,000 to 50,000. The town 
of Punta del Gada is fituated in lat. 37. 47. N. Ion. 
25. 42. W. 
Rircher gives an account of an earthquake, which hap¬ 
pened here on the 26th of June, 1638, that continued for 
eight days without intermiflion, and lb terribly (hook the 
ifland, that the people abandoned their houfes in the ut- 
moft terror and perturbation, living all the while in the 
open fields. At this time a new ifland was formed 5 and, 
had not Providence directed the wind to blow on the 
contrary fide, St. Michael muft inevitably have been de- 
ftroyed by thefe Ihowers of liquid ftones and minerals 
.thrown up into the air while the eruption continued. In 
the years 1810 and 1811, other dreadful earthquakes hap¬ 
pened ; and in the latter year another volcanic ifland was 
thrown up under fimilar circumftances to thofe mentioned 
by Kircher. The following is an abridged account of 
thefe dreadful vifitations. 
On the 10th of Auguft, 1810, at ten at night, fome 
flight (hocks of an earthquake were felt at intervals of a 
few minutes for four hours. Between two and three in 
the morning a dreadful rocking was experienced through¬ 
out the whole ifland; leveral houfes were thrown down, 
and many others greatly damaged ; and fuch perfons as 
fought fafety in the open air were dallied to the ground. 
On the 12th, at mid-day, a hollow rumbling found was 
heard, the clouds gathered, and the wind was hufhed into 
Jilence; the rocking returned, and in a few minutes af¬ 
ter the village of Cozas, fituated on a plain, comprifing 
twenty-two houfes, was fwallowed up, and in the fpot 
where it ftood a lake of boiling water gullied forth. About 
thirty-two perfons loft their lives by this awful and cala- 
AU. 
mitous event; and cattle and property to a confiderable 
amount were deftroyed. A great degree of alarm pervaded 
the whole ifland, as on the eaft fide an orifice was difco¬ 
vered, refembling the crater of a volcano, and out of which 
flames occafionally burft ; but hitherto they had been un¬ 
accompanied by any ejection of volcanic matter. 
On the 26th, 27th, and 28th, of January, 18x1, St. Mi¬ 
chael’s again experienced a repetition of feveral very fevere 
Ihocks of an earthquake, without, however, doing any da¬ 
mage or coft of lives, only dreadfully alarming the inha¬ 
bitants. On the 3 ift, a moft awful and alarming explofion 
of fmoke and flame iflued from the watery element at the 
diftance of two Englifli miles from the (bore, in the weftern 
diredtion of the iiland, which ftruck the inmates of the 
contiguous villages and hamlets with difmay and confter- 
nation. The fcene was awful beyond all defcription, and 
from the bowels of the inflammatory fubftance. forming 
its paffage upwards of eighty fathoms deep in the ocean, 
iflued fmoke, fire, cinders, allies, and ftones of an im- 
menfe fize. 
All this feemed preparatory to the grand eruption, by 
which an ifland was thrown up, as we have mentioned. 
And, as this event happened juft at tdie time when a 
Britifh Hoop was off St, Michael’s, we have an exaft ac¬ 
count of it from S. Tillard, efq. the captain of the veil'd, 
which was inferted in the Phil. Tranf. for 1812. Of this 
we ftiali extract the moft interefting parts. 
“ Approaching the ifland of St Michael, on Sunday the 
12th of June, j8xx, in his majefty’s (loop Sabrina, under 
my command, we occafionally obferved, rifing in the 
horizon, two or three columns of fmoke, fuch as would 
have been occafioned by an adtion between'two (hips, to 
which caufe we at firft attributed its origin. This opinion 
was, however, in a very Ihort time changed, from the 
fmoke increafing and afcending in much larger bodies 
than could poilibly have been produced by fuch an event; 
and, having heard an account, prior to our failing from 
Lilbon, that in the preceding January a volcano had burft 
out within the fea near St. Michael’s, we immediately 
concluded that the fmoke we faw proceeded from that 
caufe ; and, on our anchoring next morning in the road 
of Punta del Gada, we found this conjedlure corredt as to 
the caufe, but not to the time; the eruption of January 
having totally fubfided, and the prefent one having only 
burft forth two days prior to our approach, and about 
three miles diftant from the one before alluded to. 
“ Defirous of examining as minutely as poflible a con« 
tention fo extraordinary between two fuch powerful ele¬ 
ments, I fet off from tlie city of Punta del Gada on th@ 
morning of the 14th, in company with Mr. Read, th# 
conful-general of the Azores, and two other gentlemen. 
After riding about twenty miles acrofs the north-weft 
end of the iiland of St. Michael’s, we came to the edge of 
a cliff, from whence the volcano burft fuddenly upon ouir 
view in the moft terrific and awful grandeur. It was 
only a Ihort mile from the bale of the cliff, which was 
nearly perpendicular, and formed the margin of the fea; 
this cliff being, as nearly as I could judge, from three to 
four hundred feet high. To give you an adequate idea 
of the fcene by defcription is far beyond my powers ; but 
for your fatisfaftion I (hall attempt it. 
“ Imagine an immenfe body of fmoke rifing from the 
fea, the furface of which was marked by the lilvery rip- 
ling of the waves, occafioned by the light and fteady 
breezes incidental to thofe climates in fummer. In a 
quiefcent ftate, it had the appearance of a circular cloud 
revolving on the water like an horizontal wheel, in va¬ 
rious and irregular involutions, expanding itfelf gradually 
on the lee fide, when fuddenly a column of the blacked: 
cinders, allies, and ftones, would llioot up in form of a 
fpire at an angle of from ten to twenty degrees from a 
perpendicular line, the angle of inclination being nniver- 
laliy to wihdward; this was rapidly lucceeded by a.fe- 
cond, third, and fourth, each acquiring greater velocity, 
and overtopping the other till they had attained an alti¬ 
tude 
