NAP 
were alfo killed. In the province of Salerno, and in the 
three provinces of LaPouille, the (hock was much {lighter; 
but in the county of Molife the damage done wa-s very 
confiderable. The town of Iferno was entirely deftroyed s 
it contained about {'even thou fand inhabitants, a fixth 
art of whom are fuppofed to have periffied. Campo- 
aflo, Baflano, Loppizuto, Pierabondante, Macchia, and 
fome other {mail places in the province of Molife, were 
alio nearly deftroyed. It is fuppofed that 20,000 per- 
fons periflied in thefe different places. Great damage 
was alfo done at Piedimonte di Alife, Cajazzo, Caferta, 
Santa Maria, Capua, and Roccaromana; but no one was 
killed. 
From an obfervation of the places where damage was 
done, it appears that the earthquake took a dire&ion 
from fea to lea, in a line which might be drawn from the 
crater of Vefuvius to that of Pozzuoli. Great damage 
was done at Briano, the ancient capital of the Samnites, 
which had already been feveral times deftroyed by the 
fame misfortune. 
As to the city of Naples, the regifters of the police 
only ftate the number of deaths to be four; that of wound¬ 
ed was confiderable ; a circumftance which is almoft a mi¬ 
racle in the midft of fo many ruins and fo much tumult 
amongft the inhabitants. The queen, the princeffes, and 
prince Leopold, after the firft {hock, took refuge in the 
king’s ftables, and palled the night in different carriages. 
The king, who was at Portici, did the fame thing. The 
prince royal and the princefs were at Caferta, and ex¬ 
perienced no accident. More than two hundred houfes 
were rendered uninhabitable, and thofe the moll folidly 
•built, as if nature had taken pleafure in triumphing over 
the efforts of art. It is obfervable, that the buildings 
which fuftered leaft were thofe elevated upon arches. But 
even in thofe which fuftered leaft, there was not a beam 
which remained in its place, a gate which would {hut, or 
a pillar which retained its fituation. 
A correlpondent gives an account of an eruption which 
followed, in a letter dated Aug. 13. “ Although I ex- 
p re fled to you in a former letter my regret that no erup¬ 
tion of Mount Vefuvius took place, and how defirable it 
was that a vent fhould be given by an eruption to the in¬ 
flammable matter that feemed to exift in the bowels of 
the earth, I did not expect to have this day to announce 
to you, that my willies were accomplifhed left night, by 
an abundant eruption of lava from Mount Vefuvius, 
which now relieves us, in my humble opinion, from any 
further apprehenfion of new {hocks. In the courfe of 
yefterday, till feven o’clock in the evening, Vefuvius was 
very quiet, emitting but little fmoke; it then increafed, 
with flames at intervals; after nine o’clock they became 
frequent; and at ten the eruption took place. We were 
going to vifit the crater, when the cries of the people, 
and a volume of flame, informed us that the volcano had 
opened. The lava precipitated itfelf in three feconds from 
the laft peak of the mountain, and took a direftion to¬ 
wards the valley fituated between Torre del Greco and 
Torre del Annunziata, two towns on the fea-coaft beyond 
Portici, and feven or eight miles from Naples. 
“ We fet off immediately to fee this wonderful and tre¬ 
mendous phenomenon nearer. From the place of our 
departure we law the whole courfe of the lava, which ex¬ 
tended already two miles from the crater to the houfes 
that join the two towns. The fight was the moft mag¬ 
nificently frightful that could be teen. I contemplated 
the cafcades of flame pouring from the top of the moun¬ 
tain, and fhuddered at feeing an immenfe torrent of fire 
ravage the fineft fields, overthrow houfes, and deftroy, in 
a few minutes, the hopes and refourees of a hundred 
families. A line of fire marked the profile of the moun¬ 
tain ; a cloud of fmoke, which feemed to lend forth from 
time to time flafhes of lightning, hung over thefeene; 
and the moon appeared to be pale. Nothing can ade¬ 
quately deferibe the grandeur of the feene, or give an 
accurate idea of the horror of it. 
L E S. 5G7 
“ The moment we arrived, the lava was crofting the 
great road below Torre del Greco. To fee it better, we 
got into a beautiful lioufe on the road-fide. From the 
terrace we faw the fire at no more than fifteen paces from 
us : in a minute we defeended, and twenty minutes after¬ 
wards there remained of the lioufe but three large walls. 
I approached as near as the heat and flow of the current 
would permit me. The lava does not run in liquid waves : 
it refembles an immenfe quantity of Coals on lire, which 
an invincible ftrength had heaped up, and pufhed on with 
violence. When it met with a wall, it collefted to the 
height of feven or ten feet, burnt it, and overthrew it at 
once. I faw fome walls get red-hot, like iron, and melt, 
if I may ufe the expreffion, into the lava. In its greateft 
fpeed, and on an horizontal road, I reckoned that the 
torrent travelled at the rate of eighteen indies a minute. 
Its fmell refembled that of iron red-hot. 
“ Many very valuable vineyards and farm-houles have 
been deftroyed; and, as the lava ruffled out with very- 
little noife and great rapidity, fome habitations on the 
brow of the hill were furrounded before the people were~ 
aware of the danger, or had time to efcape ; but a great 
part of the lava ran on that of the year 1779, which ren¬ 
ders the mifehief lefs.” 
The next eruption we have to notice will make the 
year 1810 an epoch in the annals of Vefuvius, on account 
of the manner in which it began, and the dilafters it pro¬ 
duced. 
It is confidered as a very extraordinary circumftance 
that this eruption was not preceded by the ufual indica¬ 
tions ; every convuliion of Vefuvius being previoufly an¬ 
nounced by the drying up of the wells of Naples. This 
phenomenon did not take place on this occafion; and, to 
the great furprife of the inhabitants, Vefuvius began to 
emit flames on the night of the 10th of September. On 
the morning of the nth the flames became more intenfe, 
and the lava began to flow from the eaft and fouth-eaft 
fides of the mountain. Towards evening the conflagra¬ 
tion increafed, and about twilight two grand ftreams of 
fire were feen to flow down the ridge of the volcano : night 
produced no change in this ftate of things. On the morn¬ 
ing of the 12th a hollow found was heard, and continued 
increafing; the fire and fmoke equally augmented in in- 
tenlity, and towards evening the horizon was obfeured. 
The breeze, ufual in thefe parts, having blown from the 
fouth-eaft, diffipated the accumulated clouds. The moun¬ 
tain continued to vomit lava and a denfe fmoke, which 
even at a diftance was ftrongly fulphureous; the hollow 
noife in the fides of the mountain continued to increafe. 
“ Curious to witnefs as near as poffible one of the moft 
aftonifting phenomena of nature, and forgetting the mif- 
fortune of Pliny, I fet out from Naples, and at eight ip 
the evening I reached Portici. From thence tothelum- 
mit of the moun tain the road is long and difficult. About 
half way there is a hermitage, which has long ferved for 
refuge and ftielter to the traveller; a good hermit has 
there fixed his refidence, and takes care to fu.i-n.ifh, for a 
moderate fum, refreihments, whieh to the fatigued tra¬ 
veller are. worth their weight in gold. The environs of 
this hermitage produce the famous wine called Lachryma 
Chrifti. Front the hermitage to the foot of the cave, 
there is a long quarter of a league of road, tolerably good ; 
but, in order to reach from thence the crater, it is necef- 
fsry to climb a mountain of cinders, where at every ftep 
you fink up to the mid-leg. It took my companions, 
myfelf, and our guides, two hours to make this afeent; 
and it was already midnight when we reached the.crater 
The fire of the volcano ie.rved us for a torch ; the noife 
had totally ceafed for two. hours ; the flame had alfo con- 
fiderably decreafed; thefe circumftances augmented our 
fecurity, and {'applied us with the neceffary confidence 
in traverfing fuch dangerous ground. We approached 
as near as the heat would permit, and-we fet fire to the 
fticks of our guides in the lava, which (lowly ran through 
the hollpivs of the crater. The i'urface of this inflamed 1 
matter 
