God on their Seats fell upon their Faces and Worshipped God saying We give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wast and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great Power and hast Reigned ver 18. And the Nations were angry and thy Wrath is come and the time of the Dead that they should be Judged and that thou shouldest give reward to thy Servants the Prophets and to the Saints and them that fear thy name small and great and shouldest destroy them which destroy the Earth And the Temple of God was opened in Heaven and there was seen in his Temple the Ark of his Testament and there were Lightnings and Voices and Thundrings and an Earthquake and great Hail Likewise in Chapter 16. And the seventh Angel poured his Vial into the Air and there was a great Earthquake and there came a great Voice out of the Temple of Heaven from the Throne saying It is done And there were Voices and Thunders and Lightnings and there was a great Earthquake such as was not since men were upon the Earth so mighty an Earthquake and so great And the great City was divided into three parts and the Cities of the Nation fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of his Wrath And every Island fled away and the Mountains were not found And there fell upon Men a great Hail out of Heaven every Stone about the weight of a Talent and men Blasphemed God because of the Plague of the Hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great These and such other Scriptures may denote the future Calamities that will befal the Inhabitants of the Earth about the end of the World and do also demonstrate the great power and alsufficiency of Almighty God who as Job saith Chapter 9. Is wise in Heart and mighty in Strength who removeth the Mountains and overturneth them in his anger Who shaketh the Earth out of her place and the Pillars thereof tremble XVIII Having given an account of the Supernatural and Metaphorical Earthquakes recorded in Holy Writ I shall now relate those that are mentioned by other Historians of the former and latter Ages and likewise of some of the Consequents which have succeeded them as to Wars Pestilence Famines and other dreadful Calamities and were judged to be the effects of them wherein I shall be obliged to repeat some of those already published in a Book called surprizing Miracles of Nature c. XIX Before the birth of Saviour Plato mentions a wonderful Earthquake whereby in a Day and a Night a vast Island without the Streights of Gibralter called Atlantis and bigger than Asia and Africa together was wholly overwhelmed and afterward covered by a great Inundation of Waters insomuch that on the Atlantick Ocean for a great while after no Ship could Sail by reason that the same huge Sea by resolution of the Earth of that mighty Island was all turned into Mud. He also Writes that by another terrible Earthquake the Continent of Africa was rent asunder from Europe and Asia as it is at this day being now only connected by a little Neck of Land at the Red Sea The famous Isle of Sicily was likewise formerly a part of Italy and by an Earthquake divided from it And our Island of Great Brittain is supposed to be broken off from the Continent of France by that means Herodotus saith that Egypt in ancient time was a Gulph of the Sca and by an Earthquake made a dry Land The River Indus in Asia which receives fifteen others Rivers into it altered its Channel and the neighbouring Countrey was turned into a Wilderness by a lamentable Earthquake Before the Peloponesian or Civil Wars among the Grecians one of their Islands called Delphos famous for the Oracle and Temple of Apollo scituated therein was wholly ruined by an Earthquake which was thought to portend those remarkable alterations which soon after happened in Greece A little before the Wars between the Lacedemonians and the Ilotae who were their Slaves and Bondmen in the Countrey of Laconia there happened in the City of Sparta a most terrible and fearful Earthquake for the Earth in many places of the Countrey opened and fell in as into a bottomless Pit The Mountain Taygetum shook so terribly that parts of Rocks fell down from it and Sparta with two other Cities with the violence of it were thrown to the ground five hundred Houses only exceptcepted And great flouds of Water following it the Countrey was almost utterly destroyed thereby Tyre and Sydon suffered exceedingly by Earthquakes and an infinite number of People were buried under the ruins And Strabo mentions a City scituate about Sidon that was wholly swallowed up thereby Pliny writes of twelve Cities ruined in one Night and St. Augustine is cited for what is more strange That in a samous Earthquake a hundred Cities in Lybia were destroyed In the Veliternean Fields the Earth rent asunder in such huge and frightful breaches that Trees and whole Houses were swallowed up in them and it Rained Bloud for two whole days together about which time Hannibal received that notable overthrow by Scipio which was the destruction of the famous City and Republick of Carthage and the Conquest of that Country to the Romans Tit. Livius Hist Josephus records that about twenty nine years before the birth of Christ there happened a tremendous Earthquake in the Country of Judea whereby divers Beasts were slain and many People overwhelmed in the ruins of their Houses and perished to the number as some write of about thirty thousand XX. I now proceed in a Chronological Order to relate all the Earthquakes that have happened since our Saviours Birth as I find them mentioned by several Authors of which that which happened at his Crucifixion is said to be the greatest that ever was which shook not only one part of the Earth as in other cases but the whole Would trembled at once if some famous Authors are to be credited In the tenth year of Christ was a great Earthquake in Cyprus that overthrew many Cities and in his sevententh year thirteen Cities in Italy were destroyed and the River Tyber overflowed Rome The effects whereof were thought to be That Sejanus the Favourite to Tyberius was executed for his Ambition his Son strangled his Daughter first Deflowred by the Hangman then put to death Drusius is Poisoned Tyberius turn'd Tyrant In 59. was a terrible Ecclipse of the Sun so that the Stars were seen Nero's Supper was burned with Lightning and a great Earthquake happened at Rome At this time the Brittains slay seventy thousand Romans and Suetonius destroys eighty thousand Brittains as he comes from Anglesey Rome is fired by Nero who rejoices in that Villany he commits Incest with his own Mother afterwards Murders and Rips her up to view the place where he lay before he was born Cartismunda Queen of the Brittains rejecteth her Husband the
The Dreadful Earthquake in Jamaica Iune 7. 1692 The General HISTORY OF Earthquakes BEING An Account of the most Remarkable and Tremendous Earthquakes that have happened in divers parts of the World from the Creation to this time As they are recorded by Sacred and Common Authors And perticularly those lately in Naples Smyrna Jamaica and Sicily With a description of the famous burning Mount Aetna in that Island And a Relation of the several dreadful Conflagrations and Fiery Irruptions thereof for many Ages Likewise the Natural and Material Causes of Earthquakes with the usual Signs and Prognosticks of their approach And the Consequents and Effects that have followed several of them By R. B. LONDON Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in the Poultrey near Cheapside 1694. TO THE READER THE several dreadful Earthquakes that have happened in divers parts of the World within a few years past and among others that in the Island of Jamaica and another in England wherein the People of this Nation is particularly concerned seem to call aloud for Repentance and Reformation of the horrid Enormities that are boldly committed amongst us for the Almighty executes his Judgments upon Mankind that the People of the Earth might learn Righteousness Therefore the collecting and publishing the terrible Relations of Earthquakes needs no Apology and may I hope be influential upon the minds of men who appear affected with the dismal accounts that have been lately given of these terrible Visitations of God I have been the more incouraged to proceed in Printing these small Manuals by the acceptance that others of this nature have already met with which I find has occasioned many especially young people to lay aside those vain and idle Songs and Romances wherewith they were formerly Conversant and to divert their vacant hours with reading the real Transactions Revolutions and Accidents that are recorded by Authors of the greatest Veracity to have happened in divers Ages and Countreys And this being of that kind I have no cause to doubt but it may meet with as civil Treatment as as those that have already been made publick by R. B. The General HISTORY OF Earthquakes I. AMong the several Plagues and Judgments wherewith the Almighty visiteth and punisheth the Enormities and Sins of Mankind that of Earthquakes may be accounted the most Dreadful and Tremendous which in an instant swalloweth up thousands of people of all Qualities and Ages together with the most superb and stately Edifices that Pride and Ambition can raise in a moment even in the twinkling of an Eye to convince men of the Greatness and Power of the Supream Creator and how vain it is to value themselves upon any mundane enjoyments Of which we have lately had very astonishing Instances in several parts of the World II. But before I proceed to give a Relation of them it may be necessary to discover the Natural Causes of this dreadful Concussion of the Earth which the God of Heaven makes use of to signifie his Displeasure for the provoking Crimes of Nation and People Of which a Learned Divine gives the following account III. An Earthquake is a shaking of the Earth occasioned by Wind and Exhalations inclosed within the Caves and Bowels of the Earth which can find no passage or at least none long enough to discharge themselves and therefore breaking forth with great force and violence it sometimes shaketh the Earth another while rendeth and openeth the same sometimes casting up Earth a great height into the Air otherwhile causing the ground to sink down a great depth swallowing Cities Towns Palaces Castles yea prodigious high Mountains leaving in the place nothing but deep holes or long and unfathomable Lakes of Water IV. Authors Write differently of the several kinds of Earthquakes but they usually comprehend them under four The first kind is when the Earth is shaken laterally or to one side the whole force of the inclosed Wind and Vapours driving to one place and there is no contrary motion to hinder it This Wind if it be not great causeth the Earth to tremble like a man in an Ague Fit and doth no more harm but if it be strong and violent it looseth the Foundations of all Buildings though never so firm overthrows whole Cities and sometimes throws down great Hills so that they overwhelm all the Valleys under them The second kind is when the Earth is lifted up with great violence so that the Buildings are like to fall and instantly sink down again and this is caused by the force of the Winds which strive to get upward like Gunpowder and finding some deliverance from confinement the Earth falls down to its former place The third sort is the opening rending or gaping of the Earth which sinking down swallows up Cities Towns yea Rocks Rivers and Flouds and so that they never appear again Nay the Sea in some places hath been drunk up so that People have gone over on foot till the returning Tyde hath covered the place with Water again The last kind is when great Mountains arise out of the Earth or else when some part of the Land sinketh down and instead thereof arise Rivers Lakes or Fires breaking out with Smoak and Ashes Sometimes the bottom of the Sea is lifted up whereby many Islands are made that were never seen before Of which History gives large accounts V. If it be asked how such mighty Winds come to be under the Earth the Philosophers answer that the great Caves and Dens of the Earth being always full of Air when the heat of the Sun resolves the moisture of the Earth many Exhalations are generated both within and without the same and the places being full before can receive no more unless some part be let our so that in those Countries where the Earth hath but few Pores or where they are stopt with moisture it must necessarily happen that these Exhalations striving to get out must needs rend the Earth or lift it up either to get free passage or to make room enough to abide within VI. It has been observed That there are usually several Signs and Presages of this terrible Calamity As first the raging of the Sea when there are no Tempestuous Winds to move it yea in the greatest Calm which is occasioned by the Winds labouring to get passage that way but being repelled soon after shakes the Earth Again the Water in the bottom of deep Wells is troubled and infected with a Sulphurous smell from the pestilent Exhalations long inclosed within the Earth which now begin to spread abroad And hereupon in divers places an Earthquake has caused abundance of Smoak Flame and Ashes to issue forth by reason that the vast quantity of Brimstone under ground is by the violent motion set on Fire and bursteth out so that it is a wonder if after an Earthquake some grievous Pestilence does not follow the whole Mass of the Poysonous Minerals within the Bowels of the Earth being by this furious shock blown
means whereby he designed to make them void XXIV In 367. in the Reign of Valens and Valentinian Emperors of Rome there happen'd such horrible Earthquakes throughout the Western Empire as neither True Historians have related the like nor Fables themselves represented to us A little after the day dawned there was a great Tempest of Thunder and Lightning which was followed by such a dreadful trembling of the Earth that the Sea also was shaken therewith and deserted the shore and its ancient bounds for a great space and the depths of its Channels were discovered multitudes of Fish were seen to stick in the Mud and many plowed Fields became Navigable the inequality of the Seas bottom appeared here Hills and there Vallies which had never before seen the Sun since at the original of all things they were first overwhelmed with the Flouds Many Ships were left on the dry ground and swarme of People flew thither to catch Fish when suddenly the Sea as disdaining to be imprisoned returned to its former station with such impetuosity that it over-ran its former bounds and with the fury thereof overthrew a multitude of Towns and Houses with many thousands of People and great numbers of Ships were overwhelmed some of which with the violence thereof were blown upon the tops of Houses Soon after a great Rebellion happened and the Northern Nations came in like a Floud and over-ran the Roman Empire which was thought to be presaged by this lamentable accident XXV In 430. A great Earthquake raged in divers places and overturned many Cities the Wall of Constantinople though but new built it threw to the ground with 57 Turrets Also Stones of great bulk lately placed there fell down many Town were ruined Yea some Authors affirm that it was so terrible as to affect almost the whole World the Earth gaped and swallowed up many Villages Fountains were dried up and Waters brake forth in places formerly dry Great Trees were torn up by the Roots Heaps of Earth were so shaken together that they were raised into Mountains The Sea threw up dead Fishes many Islands were sunk and overwhelmed Ships sailing on the Sea were suddenly left on dry ground In short many places of Bythinia the Hellespont and both the Phrygin's were grievously distrest thereby This disaster continued six months without intermission and the People of Constantinople not daring to stay in the City for fear of the fall of their Houses continued together with their good Emperor and their Patriarch in the Fields instant in Prayers to the Almighty for the removal of so dreadful a Judgment After the danger was over the Emperor repaired the Walls of Constantinople which were much endamaged thereby This was judged a Sign of the Death of Theodosius which soon after followed and of several changes which happened at the same time in divers parts of the World XXVI In 454. A great Earthquake at Rome another at Vienna Wolves and other Beasts wander all the year through the City and devour men An Earthquake in Russia and at Constantinople with two wonderful Blazing Stars About this time the Brittains beat the Saxons and drive them into the Isle of Thanet The Jews Rebel in Egypt and Kill two hundred thousand Men and forced those that survived to eat the dead They slay two hundred and forty thousand in Cyprus and at last are slain themselves A great Famine in Constantinople The Goths wast Thrace Thessaly and Epirus Gratian killeth thirty five thousand Germans Maxinius slayeth Gratian treacherously and possesseth Brittain France Spain and Africk The Temple of Apollo Daphneus is burnt The Heathen Temples are shut up by the Christian Emperors and their Idols destroyed In 458. A great Earthquake happened at Antioch which the Citizens had sad cause to remember Before it began some of the Inhabitants were seized with an extraordinary madness such as seemed to exceed the fury of Wild Beasts and to be the presage of that Calamity which followed soon after For about the Fourth hour of the night in September almost all the buildings of the new City were overturned which was well peopled and none of it forsaken or empty being curiously built by the Magnificence of divers Emperors who strove to exceed each other in the adornment of it The first and second Fabricks in the Palace were also cast down the rest standing together with a Bath which having formerly been neglected now when by the Earthquake the rest were choaked up stood the Citizens in very good stead XXVII In the first Century was a terrible Earthquake in Arabia and another in Palestina and a third at Constantinople for six weeks together It rained Bloud in Piedmont and at York the Fountains ran Bloud a Dragon and many Serpents were seen in the River Tyber After this so terrible a Famine raged in Brittain that the People assembled in great numbers to cast themselves into the Sea A Plague so great in Rome that 800 men fell dead in an hour in the time of Procession Brunchild a Daughter of France being found guilty of the death of ten Kings She is tyed by the Hair of the Head and the Arms to Wild Horses and torn to pieces The Jews and Samaritanes Persecute the Christians and burn their Churches in Caesaria XXVIII In the sixth seventh and eighth Centuries an Earthquake at Antioch Another in Palestina another in England and Normandy a fiery Dragon was seen in the Skies and divers other dreadful Prodigies About the same time there was a violent Earthquake at Constantinople which lasted many days and every hour the City suffered extraordinary shocks Many houses were thrown down but the People betook themselves to Prayer Fasting and Repentance and the Almighty had compassion on them Many Cities in the East were ruined by it and the City of Alexandria was sore shaken therewith which was the more astonishing because it seldom happens in those parts Some years after Constantinople was again shaken so violently that not only the Walls and Churches but all Greece trembled therewith The Saracens about this Age Besieged Constantinople for seven years and at last thirty thousand of them were slain The King of Scots is slain by the Picts A Pestilence in Constantinople for three years which devoured so many that the living were not sufficient to bury the Dead Alphonsus King of Portugal killeth seventy thousand Moors and taketh Lisbon from them The Danes Invade England but all of them almost perished The Brittains Invade Scotland Constantine their King was killed The Saracens take Armoricum and many Captives Lothair Wars with his Brethren and an hundred thousand men are slain In 801. while Charles the Great was in Italy there was an Earthquake with great noises which shook all France and Germany but especially Italy it overthrew several Towers and even Mountains and the Church of St. Paul at Rome was destroyed by it whereupon Pope Leo III. appointed solemn Feasts and Processions These Prodigies were followed with furious Tempests and Contagious
such mighty flames The space of this boyling Fire was about two Acres and the Fire arose with such mighty force that it reached even to the Clouds carrying with it Water Sand Earth Stones and much other matter which like Feather-Beds flew into the Air to the terror of the Beholders afar off and falling down again into the water resembled a kind of Pultis or Frumentie and had not the Wind by Divine Providence blown off from the Isle into the Sea and thereby driven back this outragious Fire without doubt the whole Countrey had been utterly burnt up and destroyed by this formidable Combustion soon after it cast forth stones of so vast a bigness to the height of above three lances that they seemed rather like entire Mountains than Stones which in their fall meeting and dashing against others they broke into a Thousand pieces with a terrible noise and ratling which afterward being taken up mouldred into a black Sand. Moreover out of this vast quantity of matter thrown out a new Island arose even in the midst of the deep Ocean In the beginning it was not above five Acres but increasing continually in four days after it took up the length of five mile so vast a multitude of Fish perished by this burning that eight Ships of India could hardly contain them and being dispersed about all parts of the Island were gathered together and buried in deep Ditches by the Inhabitants for eighteen miles round about to prevent any Contagion which might arise from them but the Sulphur or Brimstone was smelt Twenty four Miles This year the Hollanders beat the Spanish Fleet upon the Coast of England XLIII The same year 1638 the Learned Rircherus made a search and discovery into the burning Mountain of Vesuvius in the Kingdom of Naples so famous for fiery irruptions for many Ages which being one of the most tremendous Miracles of Nature I shall relate in his own words After so great dangers sustained by Sea and Land in diligently searching out the incredible power of Nature working in Burroughs and Passages under ground I had a great desire to inform my self concerning Vesuvius I went therefore to Porticus the Porch or Entrance a Town scituate at the Foot of of the Mountain where hiring an honest Countreyman for a true and skilful Companion and Guide in the way not without a considerable reward I ascended the Mountain at midnight through difficult rough uneven and steep Passages when I came to the top or mouth I saw what is horrible to be expressed I saw it all over of a light Fire with a dreadful combustion and stench of Sulphur and burning Bitumen whereat being astonished methoughts I beheld the habitation of Hell wherein nothing seemed to be wanting but the Apparitions of Ghosts Devils and Damned Spirits I then observed horrible bellowings and roarings in the Mountain and unexpressible stink smoaks mixt with darkish Globes of Fire which both the bottom and sides of the Mountain continually belched forth from eleven several places and made me belch and ready to vomit O the depth of the riches of the Wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are thy ways If thou shewest thy power against the the wickedness of mankind in such formidable and potentous Prodigies and Omens of Nature What shall it be in that last day wherein the Earth shall be destroyed by thy wrath and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat In the morning as soon as it was light that I might with the more diligence search into the Bowels of the Mouutain I chose a place to set my feet secure upon which was an huge Rock plain on the top where taking forth my Pantometer or Universal Measure I took the dimensions of the Mountain and found by Geometrical Computation the compass of the Mouth to be almost three hundred paces The Mountain was every where up down cragged and broken yet no gradual declining for any passage to the inward parts but descended in its compass of an equal bigness like a Well and although the bottom seemed narrower yet I judged it only to proceed from the exceeding great depth and distance from our sight In the very middle of the bottom Nature seemed to have made a Shop or Workhouse of Fire with everlasting gushings forth and streamings of Smoak and Flames which seem to be employed for boyling of Sulphur Bitumen and other Minerals in preparation for deadly ruins and slaughters afterward to be committed since the Vapours contained therein not having room endeavoured to free themselves with such great force and violence accompanyed with horrible cracklings and noise that the Mountain seems to be tost with an Earthquake or trembling upon which the higher and softer parts of the Mountain that are clung together of Ashes Cinders Rains and other refuses of Minerals being shook in pieces and loosned by this quaking and so falling like Hills into the bottom of this Hellish Gulph cause such terrible noises as are often heard which are so great and fearful as may daunt the most stout and couragious Spirit The matter which was continually belched forth from the center or bottom of the Mountain made as it were a new Mountain which had wonderful variety of Furrows or hollow Channels with various kinds of melted Minerals formed as it were by the ingenious Pencil of Nature sometimes of a greenish colour from Brass then yellow from Sulphur Arsnick and Sandarack presently after Red from Cinabar Read Lead and Vermilion afterward Black from Vitriol mixt with Water or of an Ashy colour from the very Cinders Thus far the laborious Kircher XLIV Hear now what our ingenious Countryman Mr. G. Sandys relates of this fiery Mountain Vesuvius it is scituate in Campania Faelix about eight miles from Naples which City hath received great injuries and prejudices by its Cinders and violent throwing out of Stones even to its Walls and Houses This Mountain has vast Fountains of Fire and was heretofore high on every side before the inward parts were consumed it usually utters smoak by day but by night Flames its manner is to send forth a loud sounding or roaring noise and bellowing first and then to belch forth a huge quantity of Cinders to the great danger of those who pass by but if a vehement wind blow upon it the Ashes or Cinders are raised so high and driven so far in length that 't is certain they have sometimes been carried as far as Constantinople though many hundred miles distance and so affrighted them that they have all ran to their Prayers to implore the averting of Divine Wrath. The Mountain hath a double top that toward the North ends in a Plain the other toward the South aspires higher which when covered with Clouds prognosticates rain to the Neopolitans in the top there is a large deep hollow in form of an Amphitheater in the midst is a Pit which leads into the Entrails of the Earth the matter thrown up is ruddy light and soft
the last Sermon he preached in the Church he plainly represented to them the danger of their impenitence and wickedness with so much zeal and earnestness that many now confessed It was more like a Prophecy than a Sermon He says he had many times before an impulse upon his Spirit to Preach those things which he never premeditated at home and could not he thought do otherwise The morning of this dreadful day was very fair and clear affording no suspicion of the least evil but in the space of three minutes about half an hour after eleven in the morning Port-Royal the fairest Town of all the English Plantations the best Emporium and Mart of that part of the World exceeding in its riches plentiful of all good things was shaken and shattered to pieces and sunk into and covered for the greatest part by the Sea Few of the Houses that stood were left whole So that by their falling the opening of the Earth and the Inundation of the Waters it is reckoned there were lost fifteen hundred Persons The Sunday after the Minister Preached to them in a Tent not daring to venture among the shattered Houses the People were overjoyed to see him among them and wept bitterly when he Preached to them It was a sad sight to see all that Harbour one of the fairest and goodliest in America covered with the dead bodies of People of all conditions floating up and down without burial for the great and famous Burial-place called the Pallisadoes was destroyed by the Earthquake and the Sea washed the Carcasses of those that were buried out of their Graves their Tombs being dashed to pieces by the Earthquake of which there were hundreds in that place Multitudes of Rich men were utterly ruined whilst many that were poor by watching opportunities and searching the wrack'd and sunk Houses even almost while the Earthquake lasted and terror and amazement was upon all the considerable People have gotten great riches From St. Anns there was news that above a thousand Acres of Wood-land were turned into the Sea and carried with it whole Plantations but no place suffered like Port-Royal where whole streets were swallowed up by the opening of the Earth and the Houses and Inhabitants went down together Some of them were driven up again by the Sea which arose in those breaches and wonderfully escaped Some were swallowed up to the neck and then the Earth shut upon them and squeezed them to death and in that manner several were left buried with their heads above ground only some Heads the Dogs had eaten Others were covered with dust and Earth by the remaining People to avoid the stench Great bellowing and noises were heard sometime after in the Mountains which made them apprehensive of an Eruption of Fire but thanks be to God no ill Event hath yet succeeded By a second Letter from another worthy Divine and a Minister of the parish of Vere in that Island some Leagues from Port-Royal we have this further Relation of that tremendous Judgment Dated June 30. 1692. On Tuesday June 7. about 11. in the morning it pleased the Just God to visit us with a terrible Earthquake which continued with much violence and terror for about a quarter of an hour as most say but in my opinion not above 6. or 7. minutes in which time it overthrew all the Brick and Stone Buildings in the Countrey whereof several in my own Parish which now are either levelled with the ground or standing Monuments of the wrath of God so shattered and torn that they are irreparable while these were tumbling the Earth opened in my Parish in multitudes of places and though their dire Chasms spewed out Water to a considerable height above ground in such quantities in some places that it made our Gullies run on a sudden though before exceeding dry insomuch that some were afraid of being overwhelmed at once by the River and Sea joyning together to swallow up the Countrey these gaping mouths being no less than 12 20. or more foot deep under the Earth and above two miles up in the Countrey especially nigh the River in the purest mould which had not Clay nor other consolidating Matter beneath to oppose the force of the Fountains of the Deep breaking up for where that was we do not find any cracks of the Earth at all And yet it pleased God that we in this Parish have escaped the danger much better than our Neighbour Parishes for happening to content our selves with mean and low-built Houses generally of Timber and Boarded or with Cratches set deep in the ground and plaistred such Houses are generally standing So that we have means to assist one another whilst in other parts hundreds of Souls are cast out of their dwellings and have not a place to hide their Heads in except in Booths and Tents which they have since built to shade themselves from the Sun Our noted Town of St. John de la Vega Or The Spanish Town is utterly down to the ground and its Church devoured in the same Ruins Our Magazine and only Store-House of Port-Royal is three parts swallowed up in the Sea Ships and Shallops now riding at Anchor where great numbers of fine Fabricks stood not long since Many eminent Merchants worth thousands have scarce any thing left but the blue Linnen on their backs several are dead either overwhelmed with their Houses or drowned in the Sea which flowed in suddenly upon them For while they fled from the Sea the Earth devoured them in her gaping Jaws or they were killed with the falling Houses and while they fled from the gaping Chasms of the Earth or the tottering buildings the Sea met and swept them away A whole Street called the Wharf where most of the noted Merchants lived and where much of the Planters goods were landed for convenience of Sale and Shipping particularly Sugar and Cotten sunk at once from one end to the other with a general crack at the very begining of the Ear thquake together with two Forts Guns c. thereon and all that were upon or nigh it perished in an instant without warning and soon after while the People were in the greatest horror and consternation imaginable not knowing whither to fly for safety two or three more Streets in their whole length rottered and fell and were immediately funk ground and all together deep into the Sea as far as the Jews Street All the Upper part of the Town with the Church and all above the Pallisadoes is under Water even the very Pallisadoes it self where their burying place was is now no longer Earth but Sea and the dead Corps floated from thence to all parts of the Harbour The Houses that yet remain are many of them so rent and torn and others so deeply sunk into the Water even up to their Balconies that they are unserviceable The Wall at the Pallisadoes is utterly ruin'd with the Port thereto belonging and though Morgans Line and Walkers Fort yet stand they
are sorely shaken and rent and so sunk they are not tenable the whole place that is yet above Water sinking daily by those Earthquakes we have ever since had sometimes 4 5 6. times more or less in 24. hours I my self while I am now writing expecting when the Earth will tremble under me though in other parts of the Countrey through Gods mercys we do not hear of any further damage since the first The reputed number of the Dead for perhaps there will never be an exact Account is reckoned about 1500 persons besides Negro's who are thought to be 6. or 700 more a multitude of whose Black Corps floated many days from one side of the Harbour to the other which caused such an intollerable stench that the dead were like to destroy the Living till at last some were sunk and others dispersed by the Sea-breeze Imediately upon the Cessation of the Earthquake your heart would abhor to hear of the Robberyes and Violences committed in an instant upon the place by the vilest and basest of the People No man could call any thing his own for they that were strongest and most wicked seized what and whose they pleased without regard to the Owners Gold and Silver Jewels Plate or Goods was all their own if they could lay hands on them Nothing but breaking open Houses rushing into Shops and taking from the owners what they pleased even before their faces Yea Robbing them of Money and goods in the open Street as they were carrying them to other places for security whilst others in Canoes Wherries Ship-boats c. were plundring Chests Boxes Scriptores c. of what they could find in them upon the Water Even the very Slaves thinking it their time of Liberty committed many barbarous Insolencies and Robberyes till they were supprest by the Death of some and punishment of others And indeed our first fears were concerning our Blacks those irreconciliable and yet intestine Enemies of ours who are no otherwise our Subjects than as the whip makes them who seeing our strongest Houses demolisht our Army broken and hearing of the destruction of our greatest dependency the Town of Port-Royal might in hopes of Liberty be stirred up to rise in Rebellion against us which is a War always the more terrible by how much there is no quarter given in it but they kill and slay all the Whites Men Women and Children that they can Conquer But God be praised those fears are now blown over Many days did these Depredations last especially upon the Water where the dead were Rob'd of what they had about them some stript others searched their Pockets pick'd their Fingers cut off for their Rings their Gold Buttons taken out of their shirts and then they were turn'd adrift again From thence was taken all manner of stores that would swim every one taking that for his own which he could lay his hands on as Pork Beef Mackril Saltfish Coaca Candle Soap Wine Beer Brandy and a vast deal of other things not to be thought of or reckoned up So that the richest became poorest and the meanest of the people were inriched by the losses of others to estimate which seems as difficult as to reckon the number of the People lost and destroyed Port-Royal in its flourishing condition was a famous Empory and Mart Town for the West Indle's and the Archinto being setled there a very large share of the riches of Mexico and Peru were brought thither and vast sums of Coin and Bullion yearly transported for England to the great inriching of the Jamaican Merchants and Factors so that it was hard to compare what was lost but many think at least the value of four hundred Thousand Pound at Port-Royall only Yet in the midst of this woful Calamity some People were miracolously preserved from Death being swallowed down into the Bowels of the Earth alive yet spued up again and saved by the violent Eruption of Water through those Gaps Others as themselves affirm if they were then capable of knowing what was done to them were swallowed up in one place and by the rushing of the Waters to and fro by reason of the Agitartion of the Earth at that time were cast up again by another Chasm at places far distant But the general means of Preservation was by Peoples flying as fast as they could toward the back Sea side or speedily getting aboard the Ships in the Harbour which were croudded with Men Women and Children Among others a Man of War the Swallow then in Harbour was so damaged by the fall of the Houses that she became utterly unserviceable and Twelve Shallops were sunk by the same means Likewise Ligania the first and principal Town for Planting and imitating if not exceeding the stately Buildings of Port-Royal is now brought to most terrible Desolation and its fine New Built and yet Unfinished Church buried in the same ruin with the Houses Above which place the Costly Blue Mountains lift up their heads but are now so rent and torn that they are fearful to behold and stand like lasting marks of Divine Wrath which hath also happened in other parts of the Countrey which is very Hilly in the middle so that by the fall of a Mountain into the Channel of the River which supplies both this Town and Port-Royal with Water the River became dry for sixteen hours together to the terror of the Inhabitants fearing the Desertion as well as Desolation of the place till it afterwards Run again as formerly and they were informed of the cause of the Stoppage of the Water for so long a time This among other reasons was the Cause why the People that were saved at Port-Poyal were almost perished for Thirst in their deep Extremity their own Water-casks being either ruined or swam away into the Sea and no Boats to fetch any in that Dismal Consternation or otherwise imployed to save Peoples Lives or to get Plunder Or if any did go there was no Water to be had so that it was hard to be gotten and very dear many paying great rates only to quench their Thirst And yet for all these Woful Disasters great Numbers of People are not all Reformed of their Wickedness which brought them upon us but there is the same Whoring and Drinking the same Cursing and Swearing if not worse than formerly So that we have cause to fear the Judgment of Sodom may be our next punishment In the midst of our Distress it pleased God to give us a Signal Victory over our Enemies the French who happened at that time to make the Sharpest Attack upon us since the War having Landed as we hear Two Hundred men on the North side of the Island which is but weakly furnisht with men where they intrenched themselves but were shamefully beaten out by a Vigorous Attack in the Night by a Party of about Thirty Men who Slew Seven or Eight outright and the rest flying to their Boats Thirty of them were drowned While in the mean
are Meadows through which you shall see the smoak of that Bâ—rrough arise But all this is nothing in comparison of what Martin Martinius relates in his Chymical Atlas He reports that there is a Mountain in China which is full of great Concavities in several places which are as it were bored through and serve as Roads from one Province to another That there are within this Mountain Lakes Rivers Fish Meadows and Animals of several sorts and that it would require half a years time to survey and describe all these Caverns LXXI To close all with some Moral and Divine Reflections Who doth not start at the thought of such tremblings of the Earth as we have already given large accounts of In what condition can a man be safe saith Seneca speaking of Earthquakes when the World it self is shaken and the only thing that passes for fixt and immoveable in the Universe trembles and deceives us Whither shall we fly for security if wheresoever we are the danger be still under our feet Upon the cracking of an House every man takes himself to flight and leaves all to save his life but what retreat is there where that which should support fails us when the soundations not only of Cities but even of the World it self opens and wavers what help or what comfort where fear it self can never carry us off An Enemy may be kept at a distance with a Wall a Castle may put a stop to an Army a Port may protect us from the fury of a Tempest Fire it self doth not follow him that runs away from it a Vault may defend us against Thunder and we may quit the place in a Pestilence there is some Remedy in all these evils Or however no man ever knew a whole Nation destroy'd by Lightning A Plague may unpeople a Town but it will not carry it away there is no Evil of such an extent so inevitable so greedy so publickly Calamitous as an Earthquake For it does not only devour Houses and single Towns but ruins whole Countreys and Nations either overturning or swallowing them up without so much as leaving any Footstep or Mark of what they were Some People have a greater horror for this Death than any other To be taken away alive out of the number of the living As if all Mortals by what means soever were not to come to the same end death and it is not to be regarded whether I am crushed to death by one Stone or by a whole Mountain Whether I perish by the fall of an House or fall under the burthen of the whole Earth whether I be swallowed up alone or with a thousand more for Company We should therefore arm our selves against that blow which can neither be avoided nor foreseen It is not the abandoning those places that we find infested with Earthquakes which will secure us for there is no Place can be warrant against them What if the Earth be not moved It is moveable for the whole body of it lies under the same Law and exposed to danger only some at one time and some at another As it is in great Cities where all the Houses are subject to ruintho ' they do not all fall together So in the body of the Earth now this part fails and then that Tyre was formerly subject to Earthquakes In Asia 12 Cities were swallowed up in one night Achaia and Maccdonia have had their turns and now Compagnia The Fate goes round and strikes at last where it hath a great while passed by It falls out oftner 't is true in some places than in others but no place is totally free and exempt And it is not only men but Cities Coasts nay the shores and the very Sea it self that suffers under the dominion of Fate And yet we are so vain as to promise our selves some kind of assurance in the goods of Fortune never considering that the very ground we stand upon is unstable and it is not the frailty of this or that Place but the quality of every spot of it for not one inch of it is so compacted as not to admit many causes of its Resolution And though the Earth remain entire the parts of it may yet be broken Thus the three Heathen Philosophers strove to sortifie themselves against these calamities which they judged inevitable not considering them as punishments of their sins and enormities inflicted upon them by Divine Justice Hear now what Christians who are instructed in a better School say of them How astonishing saith a worthy Person of our Nation are the fearful Effects which Earthquakes have had produced in all Ages as we may find them in Histories and Philosophical Discourses where you may read of Rocks torn in pieces Mountains not cast down only but removed Hills raised not out of Valleys only but out of Seas Fires breaking out of Waters Stones and Cinders belched up Rivers Changed Seas Dislodged Earth opening Towns Swallowed up and many other such hideous Events Of which kind our own Memories can furnish us with many at home although these colder Climates are more rarely infested with such frightful Accidents And of all the Animadversions that Divine Justice gives men there is none more horrid or less Evitable than this of Earthquakes For what assurance can we hope for here below if the Earth quake under our feet where can we think to escape danger if the most solid thing of all the World do shake If that which sustains all other things above us threaten us with sinking under our feet What Sanctuary shall we find to defend us from an Evil that doth incompass us round And whither can we withdraw if the Gulphs which open themselves shut up our passages on all sides With what horror are Men struck when they hear the Earth groan When her trembling succeeds her complaints when Houses are loosned from their Foundations when the Roofs fall upon their heads Heads and their Pavement sinks under their Feet VVhat hope is there to be had in so general a disorder when fear cannot be fenced by flight In other Cases there is some outlet whereby to escape an Evil. An Enemy is beaten from the Bulwark he had possess'd himself of Earth-works are opposed to the Thundring Cannon VVinds which raise Tempest deliver us from them and after having a long time tossed us to and fro they cast us on the Shore Houses serve us for Sanctuaries against the injuries of the Air and VVeather If a Man will resign his goods to the Fiâ—â— he may save his Person Thunder hurts not those who hide themselves in Caverns VVhen the Pestilence infects whole Cities we may shun the Contagion by going into the Countrey And if it dispeople Towns it doth not throw down Houses But an Earthquake incloses what it overthrows and wages VVar not with some few Houses only but whole Provinces and sometimes leaves nothing behind it to inform postery of its Outrages More Insolent than Fire which sparâ—â—… Rocks More Greeâ—y
and the Children in and then closed again so that he nor they were ever seen after This History is writ and religiously kept by them in their Annals at Hamel to this day is read in their Books and painted in their Windows and their Churches they date their Bills Bonds and other Instruments in Law From the year of the going out of the Children Besides there is a great Pillar of Stone at the Foot of that Hill whereon the Story is Ingraven It is also observed in the memory thereof that in the Streets the Children passed out of no Piper is admitted to live ever since and if a Bride live in that Street till she is come out of it no Dancing is to be suffered Howel's Epistles page 272. XXXIII In 1300. When the Turkish Empire began to be considerable there was such an Earthquake at Rome as never was before and forty eight Earthquakes happened in one year whereby all Lombardy was shaken A great Earthquake in London which was especially felt on the Banks of the River Thames which shook and threw down many buildings and was the more terrible because the Western parts are less accustomed to Earthquakes and there was little ebbing or flowing of the Sea observable as at other times for about three months after Another Earthquake did much mischief about Bath and Bristol and two more happened in England not long after Also two in France and one in Savoy An Earthquake at Rome in the time of Pope Boniface the eight who fainted away for fear and afterward published a Jubilee In 1348. a terrible Earthquake happened at Constantinople which indured six weeks and reached in the extent of it as far as Hungary and Italy Twenty six Cities were overthrown by it Mountains were torn up by the Roots and several Men Women and Beasts by that strong Exhalation were turned into Statues of Salt In Persia five hundred Houses were thrown by an Earthquake in the City of Lair In England for six hours together the Sun appeared as Bloud In Germany was a very great Earthquake Grashoppers cover Switzerland like Snow At Oxford the Image of a Head spake thus Caput decidetur Caput Elevabitur Pedes elevabuntur super Caput The Head shall be cut off The Head shall be lift up The Feet shall be elevated above the Head Which was thought to presage the Deposing and Death of King Richard II. At this time fifty thousand Christians were slain by the Turks in the Plains of Casovia Scotland is wasted by the English The Emperor Sigismond executed thirty two of the Nobles in Hungary The Pope is imprisoned by the French King A great Battle between King Henry the V. and the French wherein they lost twenty thousand men ten thousand being killed upon the place and as many made Prisoners The French burn Rye and Hastings in Sussex and Plunder the Isle of Wight In Gaunt five thousand Houses were burnt and seventeen Towns drowned in Flanders A very great Earthquake in France and Grashoppers destroy almost every green thing there The World was shook with terrible Earthquakes Cities Castles Villages and a multitude of People were swallowed up in the Caverns of the Earth Many at Liege destroyed by Thunder while they were paying their Veneration to the Saints for safety Mountains were cleft and Rivers were dried up XXVIV In 1456. There arose upon the Sea of Ancona in Italy together with a thick Gloomy Cloud that extended above two Miles a Tempest of Wind Water Fire Lightning and Thunder which peircing to the most deep Abysses of the Sea forced up the Waves with a most dreadful fury and carried all before it upon the Land which caused so horrible an Earthquake some time after that the Kingdom of Naples was almost ruined and all Italy carried the dismal marks of it A Million of Houses and Castles were buried in their own ruins and above thirty thousand People crushed to pieces and a huge Mountain overturned into the Lake de la Garde Soon after was a dreadful Earthquake in Millain another in Hungary In Poland there was seen saith my Author an Image of Christ crucified with a Sword to pass along the Air from West to South for two hours In Germany Hailstones fell as big as Goose Eggs. At this time the Hungarians defeat the Turks and take thirty thousand Captives from them The Spanish Inquisition is first instituted in Castile against the Moors and Jews The Jews are expelled Spain The Turks expel the Christians from Adrianople King Henry VI. is taken Prisoner at North-hampton Great Inundations in England The Sun is darkned without an Ecclipse XXXV In 1509. Sept. 14. There happened a terrible Earthquake at Constantinople and in the Countrey thereabout Bajazet II. being Emperor by the violence whereof a great part of that Imperial City with many stately Buildings both Publick and Private were overthrown and thirteen thousand People overwhelmed and slain The terror thereof was so great that the People generally forsook their Houses and lay abroad in the Fields Yea Bajazet himself though very Aged and sore troubled with the Gout for fear thereof went from Constantinople to Adrianople but finding himself in no more safety there than before he left the City and lay abroad in the Fields in his Tent. This Earthquake endured by the space of eighteen days or as the Turks relate for a month with little intermission which was then accounted ominous as portending the miserable Calamities which afterward happened in the Ottoman Family After this Earthquake ensued a great Plague wherewith Constantinople was grievously Visited and almost depopulated After the Earthquake ceased the Emperor imployed eighty thousand Men to repair it who in four months time re-edified the ruins thereof with much Beauty and Magnificence It is strange to Relate saith my Author that in this year 1510 there fell twelve hundred stones from Heaven some weighing Sixty pound others more An Earthquake in Apulia whereby above Sixteen thousand Persons were overwhelmed after which ensued a War betwixt the French and the Duke of Savoy which devoured above a Million of Men. In Holland four hundred and four Parishes are drowned with all their People and Cattel The Turks take Buda in Hungary King Henry VIII writes against the Pope Cardinal Woolsey dies The English Clergy are fined and pay the King an hundred thousand pound for divers Misdemeanors In 1531. In the City of Lisbon in Portugal about fourteen hundred Houses were overthrown by an Earthquake and Six hundred more so sorely shaken that they were ready to fall and many of their Churches were cast to the ground XXXVI In 1538. Mr. George Sandys gives the following Relation of a most remarkable Earthquake and Burning which happened near the City Puteoli with the new formed Mountain For the famous Lake Lucrinus hard by extended formerly to the deadly Sulphurous Lake Avernus supposed the entrance into Hell by ignorant Antiquity where they offered Infernal Sacrifices to Pluto their God of Hell and
the City of Agra eleven Churches nine Chappels besides many private Houses and in the City of Praga hardly an house was left standing Not long after so horrible an Earthquake happened in another of the Islands of Azores called St. Michael aforementioned that not far from thence the Sea opened and thrust forth an Island above a League and half in length at a place where there was above a hundred and fifty Fathom Water XL. In 1618. The Town of Pleurs in Switzerland was overwhelmed by an Earthquake of which we have the following account in the late Travels of a Reverend Divine in that Countrey This place consisted in about two thousand two hundred Inhabitants and magnificently built for besides the great Palace of the Francken that cost some Millions there were many other Palaces erected by several Rich Factors both of Milan and other Parts of Italy who liked the Scituation and Air as well as the freedom of the Government of this place so they used to come hither during the Heats and here they gave themselves all the Indulgences that a vast wealth could furnish By one of the Palaces that was a little distant from the Town which was not overwhelmed one may judg of the rest It was an Out-house of the Family of the Francken and yet it may compare with many Palaces in Italy and certainly House and Gardens could not cost so little as one hundred thousand Crowns The Voluptuousness of this Place became very crying and Madam de Salis told me saith my Author that she often heard her Mother relate some Passages of a Protestant Ministers Sermons who Preached in a little Church which those of the Religion had there and warned them frequently of the terrible Judgments of God that were hanging over their heads and that he believed would suddenly break in upon them On the 25 of August 1618. an Inhabitant came and persuaded them to be gone for he saw the Mountains cleaving but he was laughed at for his pains He had a Daughter whom he prevailed with to leave all and go with him but when she was gone out of the Town with him she called to mind that she had not lockt the Door of a Room in which she had some things of value and so she went back to do that and was buried with the rest for at the hour of Supper the Hill fell down and buried the Town and all the Inhabitants so that none escaped The fall of the Mountains did so fill the Channels of the River that the first news those of the Chavennes had of it was by the failing of the River for three or four hours there came not a drop of Water but the River wrought for it self a new course and returned to them I could hear no perticular Character of the Man who escaped so I must leave the secret reason of so singular a preservation to the great discovery at the last day of those steps of Divine Providence that are now so unaccountable Some of the Family of the Francken got some Miners to work under-ground to find out the Wealth that was butied in their Palace for besides their Plate and Futniture there was a great Cash and many Jewels in the House the Miners pretended they could find nothing But they went to their Countrey of Tirol and built fine Houses and a great Wealth appeared of which no other visible account could be given but this that they had found some of that Treasure XLI In 1622. Was a great Earthquake in Italy The shape of an Elephant was seen in the Air and three Suns Armies fighting Monstrous births Waters turned into bloud unusual and impetuous Tempests which overthrew several Towers At this time began the third Civil War in France the Prince of Conde is taken and shot to Death with a Pistol The Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland rebel The Popish Clergy are expelled Antwerp by the People The Emperor Prohibiteth the Protestant Religion at Atken The Spaniards Invade Ireland but are beaten thence The Turks lose Alba Regalis and threescore thousand men The Persians Invade Babylon and kill twenty thousand men The King of France is slain Nine hundred thousand Moors are expelled Spain The Hollanders beat the Spaniards in the South Sea The Tartars Invade Podolia they burn four Cities and four hundred Villages and carry from thence a vast booty The Jesuits and Papists are expelled the Netherlands In 1627. An Earthquake happened in England and a great fiery Beam was seen in the Air in France Six Suns in Cornwall at once and five Moons in Normandy In 1627. July 31. happened an Earthquake in Apulia in Italy whereby in the City of Severine alone ten thousand Souls were taken out of the World and in the horror of such infinite ruins and sepulchre of so many Mortals a great Bell thrown out of the Steeple by the Earthquake fell so fitly over a Child that it inclosed him and doing him no harm made a Bulwark for him against any other danger Strange and wonderful were the Prodigies that were seen in Germany both in the Heavens Earth and Waters before the beginning of that Bloody War in those Countreys and which plainly presaged the ensuing miseries and desolations which happened there and began about 1631. In which year not long before the troubles of Naples there happened a terrible Earthquake in and about that City and the Mountain of Soma after many terrible bellowings vomited out burning streams of Fire which tumbled into the Adriatick Sea and cast out an huge deal of Ashes The like happened the year following with great damage and loss to the Neighbouring places both in Houses People and Cattel And in Apulia seventeen thousand Persons were destroyed by the same XLII In the year 1638. Six Suns were seen at once in Cornwall and several Apparitions of men in the Heavens preparing to fight with each other Also Navys of Ships were visible in the Sky The Scots at this time make an Insurrection the King goes in Person to appease them they renounce the Bishops and Prelacy and set up Presbytery in Scotland In this year 1638. happened a Terrible Earthquake in the Island of St. Michael one of the Azores or Tercera's belonging to the Spaniards in the Atlantick Ocean Westward Upon June 26. this Island began unversally to quake and tremble which continued eight days so that the People leaving the Cities Towns and Castles were forced to live in the open Fields After which this Prodigy succeeded Six miles distant from the Hill or Pick of Camerine at a place called Ferriera where Fishermen with their Boats use to fish in Summer they at this time caught such a multitude that no Boat returned with less than Ten Thousand Fish At this very place in July this very year Fire broke forth with such unexpressible violence notwithstanding the depth of the Ocean which had been fathomed one hundred and twenty foot deep that the very Sea it self was not sufficient to extinguish
with the vastness of its strength it cast out huge Rocky Pumice Stones and great heaps of other matter which it carried through all Asia Lesbos and Abydus and the Sea-Coasts of Macedonia so that the whole Surface of the Sea was covered with these Pumices But in the middle of so great a Fire there was an Island made from the heaping up of that matter and and joyned to the Island called The Sacred which never was in being before There was likewise another Island next to this formed in 1670. not without great terror to those of Santorin since the burning lasted for a year as some ancient People who saw it with their Eyes did lately testifie But in the middle of this smaller new Island which is now called little Camena there is to be seen at this very day an huge deep Ditch which being narrow toward the bottom grows bigger by degrees like a Funnel out of which as out of a Chimney those mighty Stones and Rocks did burst forth which being mixt with Cinders and Ashes composed the rest of that Isle XLVII But if ever these Fires pent up in the Bowels of the Earth exercised their force it was most remarkable upon September 24. 1650. which shook the Island till the ninth of October with such mighty and frequent Earthquakes that the People of Santorin fearing that their immediate ruin was approaching were on their Knees night and day before their Altars It cannot be expressed what an horror invaded all men especially when those victorious Flames breaking through all Obstacles strove to make themselves a way through the midst of the Waters of the Ocean about four miles Eastward from Santorin For the Sea all on a suddain swelled Thirty Cubits upward and extending it self wide through the Neighbouring Lands overturned all in its way Insomuch that it broke in pieces several Ships and Galleys in the very Haven of Candia with its extraordinary violence though fourscore miles distant from thence The Air being darkned with those sulphurous stinking Vapours put on innumerable Forms and Appearances as of Fiery Lances and Swords brandished and shaken bright and glittering Arrows darting forth Here terrible Serpents and Dragons seemed to be flying There hideous Thunderclaps Lightnings and Thunderbolts And yet they could scarce see for the Peoples Eyes were so hurt with those sharp pricking sulphurous smoaks and vapours that almost all became blind for three days with such grievous pains in their Eyes that they wept continually and bewailed their most miserable Fate But when their Eye-sight returned they saw all their Silver and Gold both Vessels and Garments and Pictures spread over with a yellow colour and such a vast multitude of Pumice stones did this fiery Gulph vomit forth that it covered the Sea so that they could scarce pass in a Vessel It is most certain that they were carryed many hundred Miles even to Smyrna and Constantinople and all the Shoars and Coasts were filled therewith The fury of this Burning was greatest for the first two months which caused the Neighbouring Sea to bubble like a boyling Pot and night and day huge Globes and Flakes of Fire and exceeding thick Smoak mounted up to the Heavens which if at any time it was carryed by contrary winds to any places near at hand besides a most grievous stink it brought certain destruction upon Birds and Beasts yea upon men themselves As it happened in October and November this year that fifty Husbandmen miserably perished thereby besides an innumerable multitude of Birds Sheep Oxen and Asses The like happened to nine Marriners who passing that way in their Ship by night after three days were all found half burnt and were buried in the Island Nio threescore Miles from Santorin But the other four months for it flamed six in all though that Hellish Hearth or Furnace abated much of its vigour and fierce heat and could scarce lift it self above the waves yet it still seemed to cast out Pumice stones and to be labouring to form a new Island which though it does not yet appear above Water yet in a calm Sea it is observed to be very shallow thereabout the Water being in that place not above eight Cubits deep XLVIII In 1657. The Spaniards felt a terrible blow in Peru which if it were not a Mark of the Wrath of Heaven saith my Author was at least a Sign that the Earth is weary of them especially in those parts where they have stained it with so much innocent blood The City of Lima was swallowed up by an Earthquake and Calao another City not far from it was consumed by a shower of Fire out of the Clouds eleven thousand Spaniards lost their lives in this calamity and the Earth devoured an hundred Millions of refined Silver which the lucre of the Spaniards had forced out of its Bowels All the Mountains of Potosi from whence they dug their choicest mettal were levelled with the Plain and no more hopes of Gold was left to their insatiable avarice XLIX In 1660 an Earthquake happened at Paris in France and at the same time they had news that part of the Pyrenean Mountains had been overthrown some days before They are certain Mountains that divide France and Spain it did great mischief there overwhelming some Medicinal Baths many Houses and destroying hundreds of People only one Church which sunk into the Caverns below was thrown up again and stands very firm but in another place This was looked upon as a great Miracle especially by the French who have disputed with the Spaniard about this Church as standing on the Frontier Line but now is removed near half a League within the acknowledged limits of France L. In 1665. There was a great Tempest accompanied with Thunder Lightning and an Earthquake in divers places in England at which time the stately Spire of Trinity-Church in Coventry fell down and demolished a great part of the Church The next year Sir Rob. Holms destroyed above one hundred and fifty sail of Dutch Ships at the Vly in Holland and burnt the Town of Bandaris in the Island of Schelling containing at least a thousand Houses Sept. 2. about One a Clock in the Morning a sudden and lamentable Fire broke out in the City of London beginning in a place called Pudding-lane near New-Fish-Street which in four days time burnt down thirteen thousand two hundred Houses LI. In 1668 in Autumn a great part of Asia and some parts of Europe were infested with extraordinary Earthquakes The Cities of Constantinople and Adrianople felt its sad Effects but not with that violence and continuance as in other Places In some parts of Persia it continued for above fourscore days Torqueto and Bolio two considerable Cities were by its great violence laid even to the ground and all or most of the Inhabitants buried in the Ruins above six thousand Persons perished in the first of them and above eighteen hundred in the latter And in all the adjacent Cities it raged with extraordinary
a mile in breadth which I saw and that which did augment my admiration was to see in the Sea this matter like ragged Rocks burning in four fathom Water two fathom higher than the Sea it self some parts liquid and moving and throwing off not without great violence the stones about it which like a crust of a vast bigness and red hot fell into the Sea every moment in some place or other causing a great and horrible noise smoak and hissing in the Sea and thus more and more coming after it making a firm foundation in the Sea it self I stayed there from nine a Clock on Saturday morning to seven next morning and this Mountain of Fire and Stones with Cinders had advanced into the Sea twenty yards at least in several places in the middle of this Fire which burn'd in the Sea it hath formed a passage like to a River with its Banks on each side very steep and craggy and in this Channel moves the greatest quantity of this Fire which is the most liquid with stones of the same composition and Cinders all red hot swimming upon the Fire of a great magnitude From this River of Fire under the great Masse of the Stones which are generally three fathom high all over the Country where it burns and in other places much more there are secret Conduits or Rivulets of this liquid matter which Communicate Fire and Heat into all parts more or less and melts the Stones and Cinders by fits in those places where it toucheth them over and over again where it meets with Rocks or Houses of the same matter as many are they melt and go away with the Fire where they find other compositions they turn them to lime or ashes as I am informed The composition of this Fire Stones and Cinders are Sulphur Nitre Quick-silver Sal-Armoniac Lead Iron Brass and all other Mettals It moves not regularly nor constantly down hill in some places it hath made the Valleys Hills and the Hills that were not high are now Valleys When it was night I went upon two Towers in divers places and could plainly see at ten miles distance as we judged the Fire to begin to run from the Mountain in a direct line the flame to ascend as high and as big as one of the highest and greatest Steeples in Your Majesties Kingdoms and to throw up great Stones into the Air I could discern the River of Fire to descend the Mountain of a terrible fiery or red colour and stones of a paler Red to swim thereon and to be some as big as an ordinary Table We could see this fire to move in several other places and all the Country covered with Fire ascending with great Flames in many places smoaking like to a violent furnace of Iron melted making a noise with the great pieces that fell especially those which fell into the Sea A Cavalier of Malta who lives there and attended me told me that the river was as liquid where it issues out of the Mountain as water and came out like a Torrent with great violence and is five or six fathom deep and as broad and that no stones do sink therein I assure Your Majesty no Pen can express how terrible it is nor can all the Art and Industry of the World quench or divert that which is burning in the Country In forty days time it hath destroyed the habitation of twenty seven thousand persons made two Hills of one a thousand paces high apiece and one is four Miles in compass Of twenty thousand persons which inhabited Catania three thousand did remain all their Goods are carried away the Cannons of Brass are removed out of the Castle some great Bells taken down the City-Gates Walled up next the Fire and preparation made all to abandon the City That night which I lay there it rained Ashes all over the City and ten Miles at Sea it troubled my Eyes This Fire in its progress met with a Lake of Four Miles in compass and it was not only satisfied to fill it up though it was four fathom deep but hath made of it a Mountain I send also to Your Sacred Majesty the following Account in Print which the Bishop gave me as it is collected out of divers Relations from Catania LIV. Mount Aetna or Monte Gibello a Mountain so Renowned throughout the World for its height and greatness but more for those Prodigious Flames Smoak and Ashes which it hath cast out from the top of it whilst the other parts are continually even in the midst of Summer covered with Snow has been for many Ages observed once or sometimes oftner in the space of about fifteen years to throw up more than ordinary Flames with much Smoak and Stones and great quantities of Ashes which though terrible to the Neighbouring Towns and Villages was yet wont in little time to abate of its fury and prove but seldom more injurious to the Country near it than by communicating largely its ashes which though for the present it did somewhat incommode them they had afterwards a considerable compensation in the product of their Lands which by this means was rendred more fruitful But on Friday the 18th of March 1669. the Sun was observed before its set-setting to appear of a pale and dead colour which being contrary to what it ever before appeared to us struck no small terror into the Inhabitants all Objects appearing also of the same colour with a paleness received from that of the Sun The same night happened in this City as well as the whole Countrey hereabouts a terrible and unusual Earthquake whose strong and unequal motions joyned with horrible Roarings from Monte Gibello exceedingly frighted the the Inhabitants but was so extraordinary violent in the Countrey adjacent that the People were forced to abandon their Houses and to fly into the Fields to avoid the danger threatned them from the falling of their Houses The Village of Nicolosi was of all others the most dreafully handled by this furious Earthquake the Houses and other Buildings being shaken all in pieces and buried in their own Ruins the poor People who had preserved their Lives by a timely flight with such little of their goods as their hasty fears would permit them to carry out with them continued a Night or two in the Fields beholding with grief and astonishment the ruin of their habitations but observing that by these violent concussions the Earth began to open in several places and to threaten them with inevitable ruin they fled though with much trouble and amazement to this City These shakings of the Earth being so frequent and violent that the the People went reeling and staggering with much difficulty supporting one another from falling insomuch as what with their want of sleep the pains they were forced to take in travelling and the great terrors imprinted on them by what they had seen and suffered they appeared at their arrival in this City as so many destracted People wholly
are hil'd break all in pieces which never happened till since this late Earthquake The rest of the Springs are also become much clearer and better This will be a subject for those to exercise their Pens who make it their business to dive into the secrets of Nature This Earthquake went not beyond 52 Degrees and 40 Minutes of Northern Latitude How far it reached South and East is not yet certainly known It has been traced beyond Paris to the 48 degree of North Latitude and beyond the Rhyne on the East to Franckfort so that 260 Miles square were shaken by it The time of its happening here and beyond the Seat seem to vary some minutes but that may easily be accounted for by the difference of Meridians So that the inflamed Damp saith Mr. Ray which caused this Earthquake was lodged sleep in the Earth the Caverns that contained it passing under the bottom of the Sea The same year 1692. Oct. 15. about three a Clock in the Morning they felt an Earthquake at Bale and Schaffouse in Switzerland which was very violent as to the motion but did no harm at all LXVI I have already given an Account of divers Earthquakes and Irruptions of the dreadful Burning Mount Aetna in Sicily for many years past but that which lately happened in this unfortunate Island is of so astonishing a Nature that it may be more easily imagined than exprest and which can hardly be parallel'd in any former Age Both for the suddenness of it and the mighry defolations it did produce This tremendous Eauthquake a greater than which we read not of either in Ancient or modern History Was upon Jan. 7. 1692 At which time about ten at night Mount Aetna began to roar in a most horrible manner which usually presages some dismal Calamity to ensue It s loud bellowings continued for two days and then began to cease and fall lower and about an hour after the People of Catania which was nearest to the Mountain felt a trembling under them for near three Minutes during which no noise was heard from Mount Aetna so that it only affrighted the Inhabitants but within a Minute after the Roaring of the Mountain was redoubled with infinite terror and the top thereof appeared all in Flames and the West Wind carried away a great quantity of burnt Ashes This trembling of the 9th was felt in the Cities of Mineo Palaonia Ragosa Licodia and most of the South parts of Sicily at the same instant with that of Catania But the most tremendous shake of all happened on Jan. 11. which affected the whole Island in a more or less degree even from Messina North to Cape Coio the farthest Southern point of Sicily and though it continued but Six Minutes yet made horrible Ravage throughout the whole Countrey Under which dimal Calamity the Ancient City of Catania pleasantly Seated and full of Inhabitants of Quality with an University and about 24000. People in a Minute was sunk out of sight with a noise as loud as if thousands of Cannons had been discharged at once and some Moments after to the East where the City stood a little Mountain advanced it self several times a considerable height above the surface of the adjacent ground but soon after became likewise iuvisible The dismal bellowing of Mount Aetna was louder both before and after and appeared more than ever in Flames Yet a few Minutes after Catania was swallowed up there was neither Flames visible nor for five or six hours any Roarings to be heard After which it began to rage and throw out more Black and Smoaky Flashes than at any time before These particulars were observed by some Fishermen who happened at that time to be in their Boats in the Bay to the South and within three Miles of the City who expected every moment to have been swallowed up by the wonderful Agitation of the Waves But upon the sinking of the imaginary Mountain aforementioned the Sea became instantly Calm It is computed that not above 2000. of the Inhabitants of this City escaped and those of the Gentry who by the shake of the 9th instant and the hideous roaring of Mount Aetna the 11th in the morning which is the usual presage of some dismal Tragedy were frighted away all the rest of the People perishing in this lamentable ruin In the place where Catania stood some heaps of rubbish and a great Lake of Water appear at a distance Some Letters add That just as the Earthquake in Catania began to be perceived the Sea retired about two Miles from the Shoar which put the People into such a terrible fright that every one betook himself to what he thought might best secure him from this dreadful Scourge of Heaven Away they flew to the Cathedral where one of the Cannous carryed about the Reliques of St Agatha the Patroness of that City but neither the Reliques nor the Prayers of the Patroness could prevent the impending stroke for the whole City was destroyed in a moment after and all the People therein Under the same dismal Calamity fell the Ancient City of Syracuse so famous in History that it was formerly reckoned one of the greatest in the World having for many Centuries been the Metropolis of a Renowned Republick and still retained some marks of its prestine Grandeur seated in a Rich and pleasant Soil with a strong Castle and about 16000. Inhabitants By the Earthquake of the 9th many principal Houses and most part of the Castle were torn in divers places and the next night it was again shaken with so terrible a storm of Wind that the great Bell in one of the Churches made a noise by the violent Motion of the Steeple Many were killed by the Tempest and the rest fled out of the City for safety in the Night and so escaped the horrible devastation of the 11th wherein two thirds of the buildings were thrown down and above 7000. People buried in the Rubbish a great number were digged out of the Ruins but so bruised that there was little hope of their Recovery The Chief Magistrates and People of Condition fled for security into the great Church but there met with Death by the fall of the Stone-Roof and Steeple at once Neither did Noto though built upon a very high Bock almost inaccessible on all sides but one narrow way and a City which formerly contended with Syracuse for dignity partake of a less dismal fate It has one of the largest and best Harbours in Sicily and is the Key of the Countrey on that side and though the hardness of the Rock whereon it stood seem'd to secure it yet the trembling of the 9th did very much affect it and on the 11th laid it in heaps in a minute all the Inhabitants except some few who fled from thence on the 9th were buried under the ruins of their own Houses being reckoned about 7000. a part of a Church and very little more remaining standing in the whole Town Augusta a City in a
than the Sea which vomits up Shiâ—wracks Mnre Cruel than the Conqueror who spares VValls it swallows and devours whaesoever it oVerturns The Sea is Subject to its Empire and Marriners confess that those Storms are most dangerous which are occasioned by Earthquakes This misfortune is common to all Kingdoms Since Man became Criminal all parts of the Earth are become moveable and stedfastness must be no longer lookt for in the VVorld since Innocency is banished thence by Injustice This disorder is the punishment of our Sin and Reason a well as Faith doth sufficiently assure us that the Universe would never have been agitated with these furious Accidents during the state of Original Righteousness VVherefore should Gods Anger have Armed the Elements against his Faithful and Obedient Subjects VVherefore should he have overthrown all this works to destroy Innocent Men VVhy should it have overwhelmed the Inhabitants of the Earth with the ruins thereof if they had not been sinful VVhy should it have buried those in the Bowels of the Earth who were not to dye Let us then conclude that Earthquakes are the Effects of Sin Appendix HAving given an Account of the most remarkable and tremendous Earthquakes in the World from the Creation to this time I think it may not be improper to add two or three unusual Occurrences and strange Passages that have happened of another kind but altogether as surprizing as the former I. The first shall be the Copy of a Letter sent from an Abbot in France giving a Relation of an Hermit living in that Countrey who seems to revive the ancient simplicity and innocency of that solitary Life to which some pious men in former ages confined themselves thereby to be freed from the noise and hurries of the World and to devote their minds wholly to the Service of God Which being so very unlike the lazy Luxurious Lives of the generallity of the present Romish Monks and Fryers may be somewhat diverting after the reading the former melancholy Relations And I shall give it you in the Abbots own words as I sind them in the Memoirs of the Present State of Europe for the Month of May 1692. Sir It is now eleven years and an half that the famous Father Hermit has been received into the Wood of my Abby but I can assure you that at this hour I know him no more than the first day I saw him This venerable Old Man has been so careful to conceal his Name Family Countrey Age and all that could make him known that neither I nor any of his Brethren nor as I fancy any other Person has ever known any thing of him touching his Bitth Having told him one day that the example of a man of his Quality had mighty Efficacy He cry'd out immediately telling me that he was nothing and that if the rumour went he was something he would depart the Province the next day insomuch that I never mentioned it to him but once since It is now about a month that the occasion lay fair for so doing He told me with some heat that all that was said of his Birth was Lie and Fiction About seven years ago he was grievously sick and forsaken by his Physicians The most antient of his Brethren and whom he most cherished conjured him to make himself known at least to them promising never to discover it till after his death He refused him with a rebuke telling him that it was above 40 years that he had laboured to conceal himself and that he would make him lose a work of a so many years in one quarter of an hour The truth is that in the Province of Burgundy where he remained a long while the report ran that he was the Natural Son of King Henry IV. and as soon as he came hither the same report was scattered here What gave occasion to it so far as I can judge is his great presence and his Majestick Ayr which causes him to be beloved and respected generally by all People his noble and easy carriage and behaviour his countenance wherein are observed many seatures of that of Henry le Grand his quick wit and gay hamour but more especially that profound silence he observes to prevent his being known for the more he would be concealed the more People strive to know who he is and the less he speaks of himself the more he is discourst of As concerning his Age it is difficult to know it exactly When he came hither which was in June 1676 he told me he was 70 years old Since he has said he was about the Age of the Bishop of Angiers who is above ninety He formerly told me he had seen the Moors go out of Spain when they were driven thence and that he was then tall In fine his Brethren by other circumstances affirm him to be ninety four years old Now follows what I know of his Life and which I have learnt from himself That until the Age of 20 years he had been well educated which was the Cause of his great Vigor That he had born Arms without being wounded That thinking to retire from the World he had examined all the different manners of living in the Religious Orders and that nothing had pleased him so much as the Hermitick Life after the manner it subsisted in the time of the first Hermits of the East That this was that he imbraced That for this purpose he had gone into Italy and had retired into a Forrest that belonged to the Republick of Venice whence he had been driven by the frequent visits of the people of that Countrey That thence he went into Germany and that to see a brave Hermit he willingly went 3 or 400 Leagues That being since retired into the Kingdom of France he had remained in Lorrain Champagne in Lionnois in Burgundy and lastly in Anjou And that where ever he had been he had built Hermitages and had assembled Companions I fancy you will not be sorry that I give you such a particular account of his establishment in this Province since I am a Witness of it This good old man having left the Diocess of Langres by reason as his Brethren told me of the report that was spread there of his being the Son of Henry IV. of France He took the Resolution of going to settle with one of his Companions in Normandy upon the Sea side Having fallen down as far as Saumur upon the River Loire he understood there was a Forrest in that Neighbourhood where he might erect a fine Hermitage This Forrest is called the Wood of Brossuy belonging to M. de la Meilleraye The next day he went with his Companion to view that Forrest but having found no Water in it he lost hopes of being able to retire thither At his coming out of the Wood this good old Man being wearied and perceiving our Abbey he came to it to refresh himself I received him and falling presently to discourse of solitude and retreat he