Earth shall be drown'd with the Ire of thy Fury and the Elements melt with fervent heat Morning therefore waxing light that I might search out the Constitution of the whole Interiours of the Mountain with all the diligence I could I chose a safe and secure place to set my feet sure upon which was an huge Rock of a plain surface to which there lay open an Avenue by a descent of the Mountain very far And so I went down unto it Here taking sorth my Pantometer or universal Measurer I set upon the dimensions of the Mountain and found by a Geometrical Computation the compass of the Crater to contain almost three hundred paces but the depth eight hundred The Mountain all up and down every-where cragged and broken No gradual declining for any passage to the inward parts but descended in its compass or circuit after the manner of a Cylinder made hollow directly and streight And although the Bottom seemed to the eye to be contained in a more narrow circumference yet according to Optick Accounts and Laws That happened from the exceeding great distance and prosundity from the innermost surface of the Crater or mouth In the Center of the Bottom Nature seem'd to have constituted as it were her Harth of Fire And to say truth a Shop or Workhouse to make a Vulcanian Kitchin boyling with an everlasting gushing forth and streamings of Smoak and slames and imploy'd in decocting of Sulphur Bitumen and melting and burning other kinds of Minerals and by a certain secret endeavour and enterprise preparing for deadly ruines and slaughters afterwards to be committed Sith the vapours included within as they know not how to be contained so they did discuse or scatter the burden that lay upon them with so great force and violence accompanied with horrible cracklings and noises that the Mountain seem'd to be tost with an Earthquake or trembling Which whensoever it happened the supream and softer parts of the Mountain which clung together of Ashes Cinders Rains and other Refuses of Minerals being shook in pieces and loosened by the trembling and so falling like Hills into the bottom of the Hellish Gulph did from that various reslexion of the sound stir up that crackling noise So great and fearful a one as that any even of the stoutest and most undaunted heart would scarce venture to suffer The matter which was continually belched forth from the center of the Mountain made as it were a new Mountain indued with wonderful variety of furrows or hollow channels which the various ebullition of the melted Minerals flowing into all parts of the circumference of a greenish colour now from Brass presently of a yellow colour from Sulphur Arsenick and Sandarack Now red from Cinnabar Minium or Red Lead and Vermilion then black from Vicriol mixt with Water or of an Ashy colour from the very Cinders did as it were by the ingonious Pencil of Nature form This little Mountain after the last burning of the Mountain which happened in the year 1631 at which time proceeded great Earthquakes as well as Noises and Roarings and Tremblings as is its custom hath grown so big that we may thence very reasonably conjecture that it is hereafter likely to rise unto the same height which it once obtained of old unless it be destroyed by some new burning supervening Which hath happened in this very same year I now write these things in the year 1660. For that the Mountain outragious with a new and horrible burning hath so cast down its top and Crator that it appears now much lower at this day then what I a little before described it to be And consequently as it is found of greater circumference so of lesser profundity Having taken a view of all these things duly and returning to Naples the next day I betook my self into the Island Aenaria which they call Ischia of much note and celebrated with great fame by ancient writers And thence into the Phlegraean Plain of Putzol Fields Vulcan's Market-place or Theater of which before And whatsoever either the Antients or Moderns have related wonderfull of those places I found to be most true It is also taken notice of in History that there was an Eruption and great Burning near Carignole in Terra di Lavoro which laid three Acres of Ground all in meer Ashes and Cinders Tuscany also hath a burning Mountain in the Apennine and another in the Fields of Bononia There are also Laky Ditches Pits and Dens between Pistorium and Petra Mala belching forth perpetual Globes of Flames especially by night There are noted also in the Fields of Mutina two famous places full of Burnings c. But these with the rest of Italy have been barely enumerated before of which we have nothing further remarkable to add And so we are at last come to the main Fountain and Spring-head in a manner as we may say of all the subterraneous Fire of these Parts with their manifold desolating Eruptions Aetna now Monti Gibello CHAP. VI. Of the Remarkables of the grand Volcano Aetna in especial and it s most remarkable Eruptions together with the Vulcanian Islands adjoyning NOtwithstanding the horrid face of things by reason of the frequent prodigious and mischievous Eruptions and Devastations of Aetna Notwithstanding it continually sendeth forth dreadful flames of Fire to the astonishment of all Beholders and that its Soyl springs abundantly with often and eternal Burnings Yet those subterraneous fountains of Fire that continually feed and supply these Vulcano's and the abundance of fat oily sulphureous and inflammable matter and fuel or nourishment wherewith the whole Country thereabouts and all the Island over is so richly stor'd and manur'd with by Natures own bountiful hand every-where plentiously producing Sulphur Bitumen and other rich and fat Earths and Marles c. make Sicily one of the most fertile Islands in the World For the Soyl is incredibly fruitful in the best Wine in Oyl Hony Saffron Minerals also of Gold Silver and Allom together with plenty of Salt and Sugar There are also Gems of Agats and Emeralds Quarries of Porphyre and Serpentine It yieldeth also great store of the richest Silks which grow plentifully about Messina the chief City Variety of most excellent and delicious fruits both for taste and colour with such abundance of all sorts of Grain that it was called in old times Horreum Romani Populi or the Granary of the Roman Empire whence also Cicero call'd it The City of Romes Soul and doth now furnish some parts of Italy Spain and Barbary besides Malta and the adjacent Isles with that which she can spare of her superfluities Nay Tully doth not only call it the Granary and Storehouse of the City of Rome in regard of Corn bat adds that it was accounted for a well-furnish'd Treasury as being able of it self without charge of the State to cloath maintain and furnish the greatest Army with Leather Corn and Apparel And if Diodorus Siculus may be credited in it he tells
to unknown Cyclopian Coasts we run The Port was great and calm with sheltring shoars But near from horrid Ruines Aetna roars c. 5. Under the Dominian of the Greeks in Sicily viz. from the second Olympiad even to the 88th viz. from about 3180 till towards 3600 as Thucidides testifies who lived in this time The Mountain was all on fire with three huge Burnings A little after which time the Mountain raging anew is said to have drawn even Pythagoras himself into highest admiration Also in the time of Hero when Histories deliver that even Empedocles an observer of the Mountain then perished 6. In the time of the Roman Consuls for about 450 years Four remarkable Burnings to have happened is collected out of various Authors Diodorus Polybius and others Whereof that before the Servile Wars about 3830 was prodigious The Mountain belching forth into vast Fires and spread it self far and wide Of which before It seems also to have reach'd Catania it self when the two pious Brethren before mentioned rescuing their Father perished all in the Flames 7. In the time of Julius Caesar about fifty years before Christ Diodorus delivers that Aetna did again rage most violently And which they will have pertended the death of Caesar. For it is reported to have been so great that the Sea with its servour and boyling heat burnt even the very Ships as far as the Vulcanello's Ad the Fish being extinct and decocted or boyled And so within twenty years that the Mountain burnt four times 8. In the time of Caius Caligula forty nine years after Christ the Mountain did again rage so that Caligula abiding at that time in Sicily and possest with the terror of the impendent mischiefs betook himself to safer stations there Yet they relate that Hadrian Caesar in the greatness of his mind to have ascended the Mountain very far whilst yet it raged to consider more nearly so great Miracles 9. About the Martyrdom of St. Agatha the famous Martyr of Catania by whose merits and intercession as they there fondly imagine it was effected that the Mountain although growing fierce yet durst not touch or meddle with Catania And so ever since have reposed great confidence in her and her Reliques which in this late fiery inundation the Religious carried in procession with multitudes of people whipping and mortifying themselves with all signs of penance But enraged Vulcan would not be scarr'd away nor appeas'd so And yet'tis like they will be fondly made to believe still that 't is by her vertue and merits that the City is preserved For which no doubt she shall not lack her Festival Honours and Publick Solemnities 10. In the time of Charles the Great in the year 812 who also much terrified with the fierceness of the Mountain is said to have sought safer places 11. From the year 1160 to 1169 all Sicily was shaken with huge Earthquakes and the Mountain Aetna foming mightily overthrew all the circumjacent places with incredible desolation with the ruine of the Cathedral Church of Catania In which also the Abbot John with his Monks was overwhelmed and perished St. Agatha was to blame sure and too too unkind 12. In the year 1284 a fearful burning happened about the death of Charles King of Sicily and Arragon 13. In the year 1329 even till 1333 the Mountain raged after an horrible manner In the time of the King Arragon 14. In the year 1408 under King Martin 15. In the year 1444 even to 47 again and again 16. In the year 1536 even to 37 it sent forth a fiery floud and Rivers of Flames bringing desolation to the bordering places 17. In the year 1554 raging more than ordinary it battered Catania it self its Suburbs and Fields grievously But St. Agatha forsooth still came to help in time of need and defended it still 18. In the year 1633 even to 39 the burning raged by so much the more formidable by how much it lasted the longer time which seeing many have described I will not insist in reciting it 19. In the year 1650 raging afresh on the Northern and Eastern side and bursting asunder the Mountains it vomited forth such a quantity of Fires that it almost brought Brontium into utmost hazard and destruction with its fiery Torrents 20. Lastly this present year 1669 the most horrible of this Age for its mighty devastations sorely threatning even Catania it self And all respects considered perhaps not inferior to any former Ages according to the late publick Relation universally known For its fiery Torrent was as vast for length and breadth as any of old and approach'd the very Walls of the City ruining many Houses near thereunto And which is remarkable by the huge quantities of congealed matter hath formed a convenient Port over against the Castle seventy foot deep in water able to contain many Ships Corallary I. From these things it plainly appears that the Mountain its matter being consumed takes respit sometimes for a greater sometimes for a lesser space till at length increased by new provision of combustible matter it breaks forth and acts those Catastrophe's which with admiration we read of And yet it is so far from being diminished by so great an eructation of matter that it seems rather to be augmented Sith indeed the Citizens of Catania digged for Pumice-stones and opening the Earth the depth of an hundred Palms found Streets paved with Marbles and various footsteps of Antiquities which plainly teach that Cities built here of old time have been overwhelmed with the castings off or rejectaneous offalls and off-casts not without the great increase of the Mountain They found besides very many Bridges of Pumices which were made and consisted only out of the meer flux or flowing of the fiery Torrents the Earthy softer substances being eat away And of late not far from the City an Image of our Lady was under Earth as they say accidentally found Whose reputed Miracles have got her already much fame From the ruines no doubt of some Religious Place c. Flame also now and then appears in the exalted or higher rais'd Earth anon disappears which are clear and conspicuous signs and tokens of the Earths being rais'd Yet Aelian tells us that as well Aetna as Parnasses and Olympus did appear to be less and less to such as sail'd at Sea The height thereof sinking as it seem'd And thereupon supposes the decay thereof and of the World But an Answer is at hand to this That it might then perhaps decrease in magnitude For it may be sometimes in some Ages augmented and sometimes diminished But in the whole rather augmented Or else It was but a meer fancy and opinion But these are known things This one thing only hath after a wonderful manner tortur'd the wits of Philosophers hitherto In that they apprehend not whence the unsatiableness and greedy devouring of the perpetual fire should be
Regions abounds with these vomiting Mountains of fire Persia has divers Vulcano's And in the Island Armuzia The Island Zeilan remarkable by the name of Adam In Persia itself many sulphurous Craters or Cups very terrible to Travellers with Susis in Media and Cophantus in the Region of the Bactrians sormidable to beholders In the Moguls Empire in the Kingdom of Ingoston Tibet Camboi every where these kind of Mountains and in the most vast Kingdom of China But especially the Molucco-and Philippine-Islands and the universal Archipelago of St Lazarus so abounds with these Vulcanian places that there 's scarce an Island without them either in the Crater's or deep mouth'd Cups and hellish ditches if not upon the Mountains themselves Also in the Bandan's whereof the Mountain Gourapi most eminent in both the Java's within the entrails of most high Mountains The Mountain Balalvanus in Sumatra The inaccessible Mountain in the Island Terenate In the Maurician Islands the Mountain Tola In Tandaia nigh the Promontory of the Holy Ghost are found some also as also in the Island Marindica Moreover in Jappan no small number near the City Firandus and a famous one over against the City Tanaxuma in one of the Seven Sisters Islands so called and several other circumjacent Islands every where which through subterraneous Burrows or Channels have occult commerce with St. Lazarus Islands in the Archipelago even to new Guiny and those called Solomon's Islands and from thence to other Islands of the Pacifick commonly call'd the South Sea For in new Guiny as also in the Southern Land are observed such Mountains to the great astonishment of Mariners And the like are seen in the vast Southern Ocean or South Sea In the Indian Ocean every where Desert and Rockey Mountains discover their smoking Chimneys even in the shores of Northren Tartary towards Muscovy are frequent Vulcanello's and in all the Ocean and Islands almost c. which we leave and come to Africa Where Fight famous Vulcano's are observ'd Two in Monomotopa Four in Angola Congus and Guiny One in Lybia and One in Abâ—ssia besides innumerable Craters and sulphurous Dens every where obvious some whereof having consum'd their combustible matter have ceas'd again to re-inkindle when they shall have ripen'd and concocted again their recruited matter and fuel The Atlantick Sea so abounds with subterraneous Fires that Plato's Land call'd Atlantis seems to have been swallow'd up from no other cause but the outrages of these fues and earthquakes thence arising And to this very day some Tracts are every where infested with flames and fires breaking forth from their under-ground store-houses the violence and rage whereof both Columbus and Vespuccius at their great peril had experience of The Terzera's can scarce be inhabited for the vehemency of fires The Canary Islands and in them the Pico or Pike a Mountain of immense Altitude equal to Taenariff belches forth flames to this very day as also the Plains of the circumjacent Islands stuffed with brimstone and sulphurous-unctuous matter The Islands of St. Helen and of the Ascention to have stam'd heretofore both the burnt Rocks of Mountains and the Cinders and plenty of Mineral and Stone-coals burnt and chark'd as it were do sussiciently shew Yet no part of the world more famous than America which you may call Vulcan's Kingdom In the Andes alone which they call the Cordillera from a Coneatenation of Mountains in the Kingdom of Chile are fifteen Vulcano's To these you may adjoyn the Vulcano's out of the Southern part of the Magellanick Sea commonly call'd Terra del Fuego In Peru not fewer then in Chile six of inaccessible height and three in the continued tops of the Andes besides innumerable Vulcanian Ditches Pits and Jakes In Carappa a Province of Popayan is a Mountain raging with smoke and flames chiefly in serene weather The City Paraquipa ninety leagues distant from Lima has a Mountain near it casting forth continually such sulphurous fires that the People are greatly afraid lest sometime at length the Eruptions should utterly destroy the whole Region At the valley of Peru call'd Mulahallo fifteen leagues distant from the City Quito is another Vulcan continually belching sorth flames far and near and threatning the People In the Northern America are observed five partly in new Spain viz. Three formidable for their belching flames partly in new Granada partly in the very heart and midst of Califormia and the more in-land Mexican Kingdom In Nicaragua one Another neer Aquapulcus three neer the Continent of Califormia And in the American Mediterranean Sea two others and innumerable others 't is like not yet discover'd through all the Terr-aqueous Globe In Europe five chief ones are noted viz. Aetna in Scicily by the Monuments of all Writers whether Poets or Historians most famous Strongylus and some other of the Liparitan Islands not very remote from Scicily especially that notorious by the name of Vulcano to which is adjoyn'd another call'd Vulcanello said all to have burnt heretofore call'd the Vulcano's or Vulcanian Islands The Mountain Hecla in Izland in the surthest North and Chimaera in Greece besides many others in each particular Country at least Fire-wells Pits and Orifices c. Among all which Italy throughout all Ages is the most notorious for such underground Harths and Aestuaries of which more particularly by its self And indeed Italy is most fitly seated of all Countries of Europe for such vast Combustions and Eruptions of fire Neither are Germany France Spain and other Countries wholly distitute of theirs where though there be none answerable to the other yet both the frequent sulphureous Craters and deep burning Ditches and Pits vomitting forth smoke and flames and also the innumerable multiude of hot Baths and Wells every where do betray some store and work-houses of subterraneous fire creeping between their Conservatories and Abysses of water In Misnia in Germany the Mountain Carbo ever and anon rages with sume and fire c. Neither are the furthest Tracts of the North too cold and frozen for them Four whereof Authors reckon in the Region of the Tynsei in Tartary In Lapland high Mountains are observ'd to belch forth flames like Aetna In Izland the famous Hecla And lest Nature might seem to have lest the furthest Regions of the North curs'd with the Everlasting inclemency of Cold and Ice it has constituted an huge Vulcanian Mountain in the Island call'd Groenland next to the Pole And others in the Neighbouring whether Islands or Continents scituated about the Pole which they continue even unto the Creeks and Bayes of the Southern Land call'd Del Fuego So that many think that the Tracts of the Northern Pole inaccessible by reason of the multitude of these fire-spewing Mountains CHAP. III. Of the Vulcano's of Italy Scicily and Neighbouring Islands ITaly and the adjacent Island have in all times afforded prodigious Heats Combustions Aestuaries hot Baths Conflagrations and Eruptions of burning flames and
temper of mixture and the virtue of the heat which it has under a different Tract of Veins produces various effects and causes marvellous burnings and Eruptions at certain times We conclude therefore saith Kircher That Italy the Nurse of Burnings and Combustions as it is all over stuffed with subterraneous fires which burn in some places perpetually in others by fits so heretofore it had so great increases of Sulphur such a coacervation and vast treasury of fires that if it suffered not a total conflagration yet at least to have burnt in a very great part as Berosus witnesses Nor is it less credible according to these principles of nature standing that even again and again it shall burn with vast Conflagrations till the very final Destruction and Consumation of the whole Universe Lastly Those of Aetna in Sicily and Strongylus Vulcano c. of the Lipparitan Islands have no doubt their Submarine and Subterrane Communications with the Italian Vesuvian c. also The Soyl of Sicily springs with often and eternal fires and the whole Island cavernous producing Sulphur and Bitumen abundantly whereby exceeding fertile of old and even to this very day CHAP. IV. Of the Remarkables of Vulcano's and their most prodigious Phaenomena's bitberto observ'd in particular With particular Relations c. THus all the World over are found Eruptions of Fire by Natures own kindling as if she kept House under-ground and made several Hills her ignivomous and evacuating Chimneys In Ocmuzio an Island of the Persian Gulph all things are full of fires whence 't is said to have burnt seven whole years continually It yet belches forth daily out of the Saline Mountains which it abounds with globes of flames whereby the most famous Mart of the whole East is almost quite laid wast In Media Susis at the white Tower breaks forth with fire out of fifteen Chymney-holes with such a vehement noise and sound that the People round about are perswaded the Gates of Hell to be there In Japon above other Islands Vulcan seems to have forg'd a number of his Shops and Work-houses vomiting forth fire and smoak night and day And as it is seventy miles distant from the famous City Firandus so by night they illuminate the whole Region like so many blazing Torches to the admiration of Beholders In the Island Java the Mountain not far from the City Panacura having not burnt for many years for some places burn alwayes some by fits In the year 1586 raged with such a violent Eruption that ten thousand persons are said to have perished in the subjacent fields and three whole dayes darting forth mighty stones into the said City with fumes caused such a darkness as hid the Sun and turned day into night The Mountain Pico in the Island Timor of such an height that a flamy Spire or Pyramid was seen for three hundred miles in the Sea This in the year 1638 had its very foundations shaken by an horrible Earthquake and was wholly swallow'd up together with the Island leaving nothing behind it but an huge mighty Lake So the Annals of the Jesuites Society relate The Mountain Gounapi in one of the Bandan Islands in the year 1586 after continual burnings of seventeen years at length burst asunder sent forth such a quantity of stones cinders ashes and sulphureous-Bituminous Pumice-stones that the Sea almost cover'd therewith all seem'd to burn with the destruction of all Fish and living Creatures In the Island Ternat one of the Malacca's there is an high and steep Mountain climbing up into the Clouds whose lower parts are beset with thick Woods and Forrests and upper parts peel'd and made bare with continual burnings On the very top it hath a Cup or deep Mouth with a vast gaping made round into many circles from greater to lesser like an Amphitheater or stage one below another This at the time of the Aequinoctials chiefly by the blast of the Northern winds raging with smoak and flames reduces all the neighbour places round about overwhelm'd with ashes and cinders into desolation The Maurican Islands seem wholly to burn whence frequent Earthquakes and casts forth out of Caverns and the very top of the Mountain Thola such quantity of flames ashes and stones as big as great Trees that it seems a kind of Hell The Atlantick Sea west of Africa so abounds with subterraneous Fires that Plato's Laud call'd Atlantis seems to have perish'd from no other cause but as swallow'd up with the fierceness of these Fires and the frequency of Earthquakes following thereupon And to this very day certain Tracts of Seas are abundantly infested with shines and fires issuing out of their store-houses whose rage both Columbus and Vespuccius to their great hazard try'd Neer Hesperius a Mountain in Ethiopia the fields in the night all glitter with Light As also a certain piece of ground does the like in Babylonia and some places in Italy were noted before for some such like thing Pliny after reckoning up of the most notorious concludes with the burning of the high and vast Mountain Theonochema or Chariot of the Godds in Africa as the most famous example of this kind above all others at least in those dayes And ends saying In so many places with so many fires does Vniversal Nature burn and roast the Earth And this great Naturalist who perish'd in prying too curiously into these dangerous prodigies of Nature considering how full fraught the World is with this Element and how propagative it is of it self sayes It is the greatest Miracle that an universal Conflagration of the World has not happen'd already Truly it exceeds all Miracles that there has been any day wherein all things have not burnt Those be his words Some of the Vulcano's in the Andes in the Kingdom of Chile were so big-belly'd as it were with fires that in the year 1645 they brought forth so great Calamities to that Kingdom that no Pen is able to express whole Cities every where being both swallow'd up and overturn'd The City Paraquipa ninety Leagues distant from Lima has a neighbouring Vulcanian Mountain continually darting forth fires in so much that the People are sorely afraid lest sometime it should burst asunder and destroy the whole Countrey The Vulcano's of Guatimalla are more terrible In the year 1586 almost all the City of Guatimalla fell with an Earthquake This Vulcano had then for six months together day and night cast from the top and vomited as it were great flouds of Fire As is also observeable of the Vulcano of Quito which cast such aboundance of ashes that in many Leagues compass thereabouts it darkned the light of day In Nicaragua in North America thirty five Leagues from the City Leon an high Mountain vomits forth flames in such abundance as to be seen for ten miles distance and more And another not far from Aquapulcus of the same fierceness Of these Vulcano's some vomit out of their mouths smoke and ashes or both some
an Abysse or bottomless Gulph For on June the 26th in the year 1638 formidable Earthquakes began to make the universal Island shake and quake for the space of eight dayes so that the Cities Towns and Castles being deserted Men were forc'd to dwell in the open Fields chiefly those of Vargen where the Earthquakes raged more dangerously than in other places After which Earthquakes succeeded the following Prodigy Six miles distant from the Pick commonly called the Pick of Camerine is a place called Ferreira where Fisher-men with their Boats were wont to fish especially in the Summer-time For there in a dayes time they caught such a multitude of Fish of all kinds as no Boat returned laden with less than ten thousand Fish In this tract therefore of the Ocean on Saturday in the month of July in the year 1638 Fire broke forth with such an unexpressible violence notwithstanding the depth of the said place of the Ocean found often heretofore by the Fishers to be an 120 foot deep that indeed the very Ocean would not suffice to éxtinguish so great a burning The space which the boyling fire took up was as great as would serve for the sowing of two Bushels of Wheat breaking forth with so great violence that notwithstanding the said profundity of the Ocean it reach'd as high as the Clouds being elevated into the supream Region of the Air carrying with it the very Water Sand Earth Stones and other mighty heaps just like Featherbeds flying up into the Air. Which afar off appear'd a sad spectacle to Beholders But the melted matter returning down into the Sea again resembled a kind of Pultis or Frumenty Moreover it is to be ascribed to the benignity of the Divine Providence that at that time the Wind was terrestrial rushing forth from the parts of the Island against the rage of the outragious Fire without which the whole Island had without doubt been burnt and perished with this formidable combustion Then presently after it cast forth stones of such vast bigness of the height of three Lances or piked Staves that you would say not Stones but entire Mountains were cast out And this was added to the horror That the stony Mountains which were cast forth on high falling back again and meeting and dashing against others thrown out aloft at a good distance out of the bowels of the Sea broke into a thousand pieces with a terrible noise and ratling which afterwards being took up into your hands mouldred into a black Sand. Moreover out of the various and vast multitude of rejected Offalls and the collection and heaping together of innumerable stones a new Island arose and that even in the midst of the most deep Ocean In the beginning indeed little of five Acres only but daily encreasing grew to such a bigness that four dayes after it took up the length of five miles And so great a multitude of Fish perished with this burning as scarce eight Ships of Indian Burden could contain which being dispersed far and wide up and down the Island lest they should cause some Contagion by their putrisaction they were collected together by the Inhabitants all about and buried in most deep-dugg ditches for eighteen miles round about But the scent of Sulphur was smelt for the space of twenty four miles This from the Relation of the Fathers of the Society These visible instances of particular Burnings of the Earth are notable presumptions that there are laid in the hidden Mines of Providence such a provision of combustible matter as will serve for an Universal Conflagration of the Earth when the day of Vengeance shall make use of these Treasuries of Wrath. We might add further Arguments of Subterraneous Fires and the Fewel thereof from Earthquakes and hot Fountains Of which there are some in Peru as Acosta reports that are so hot that a Man cannot endure his hand so long as the repeating of an Ave-Marie There be infinite numbers of these in the Province of Charchas He makes mention also in the same place of several Springs and Fountains that run with Pitch and Rosin Which yet seems nothing so strange as those Baths Fallopius speaks of in the Territories of Parma whose Water catches Fire at a distance But these are something from our present design and therefore pass them by CHAP. V. Of the Remarkables of the Italian Vulcano's and their prodigious Eruptions in particular with particular Relations HOw Italy of all Lands especially Continents has been most notorious for Vulcanian Eruptions and Combustions has already been observed It remains therefore now only to take notice of the most remarkable which are those about Putzol with the Phlegraean Plain now called Sulfatara and the Vesuvian All within the Kingdom of Naples which has near communication and commerce with the Aetnaean in Sicily namely in Terra di Lavoro which Land was anciently called Campania Foelix from the wonderful fertility thereof So exceeding fruitful in Wines and Wheat that it is called by Florus the Land of Strife between Bachus Ceres and deservedly For in this noble Region one may see large and beautiful Fields overshaded with rich Vines thick and delightful Woods sweet Fountains and most wholsom Springs of running Waters as well for health as delight and pleasure and in a word whatsoever a covetous mind can possibly aim at or a carnal covet And yet all this Campania as before was shew'd is or has been obnoxious to Fires and abounds with sulphureous and combustible Earth and Materials which no doubt tend to its fructification To begin with the Phlegraean fields Concerning which Hear first what Mr. Sandys in his Travels sayes Vulcan's Court described The Court of Vulcan call'd the Phlegraean fields heretofore for that Hercules here overthrew the Gyants for their inhumanity and insolencies assisted with Lightning from Heaven Th' Earth with imbowell'd Flames yet fuming glows And Water with Fire Sulphur mixt upthrows Whereupon grew the Fable of their warring with the Godds But hear we Petronius describing it A place deep sunk in yawning Cliffs 'twixt great Dicharchea and Parthenope repleat With black Cocytus waves For Winds that strain To rush forth there a deadly heat contain Th' Earth fruits in Autumn bears not nor glad Field Once puts on Green or sprouting branches yield Their Vernal Songs But Chaos and ragg'd Stone Smircht with black Pumice there rejoyce o'regrown With mournful Cypress Dis his head here raises Cover'd with Ashes pale and Funeral blazes A naked Level it is in form of an Oval twelve hundred forty and six foot long a thousand broad and invironed with high cliffie hills that fume on each side and have their Sulphurous savour transported by the Winds to places far distant You would think and no doubt think truly that the hungry Fire had made this Valley with continual feeding which breaks out in a number of places And strange it seemeth to a stranger that men dare walk up and down with so great a security The
Subterraneous Burrows till it reached the subterraneous place on which they stood and there utter'd such horrendous Thunderings within the Earth with so formidable Earthquakes that none of the company were able to stand on their feet After the Violence was over getting up again not without ineffable consternation they beheld the Subversion and lamentable Catastrophe of the most famous Town St. Euphemia three miles off which happened in that time and the Citty wholly swallowed up For seeking for the Town they found in stead thereof wonderful to be spoke nothing but a most putrid Lake sprung up in its place They could find no Men nor Inhabitants Thence passing on their Journy they found nothing else for two hundred miles but the Carkases of Cities horrid Ruines of Castles Men stragling up and down in the open Fields and through fear as it were withering away Then passing by Naples he could not after all this leave out Vesuvius out of the way of his Observations what that did also Of which before in its place And this was a leading us to another Chapter concerning Earthquakes as the proper effects and products of Subterraneous Fires also and alwayes preceding and concomitant with these Vulcanian Eruptions But that we found a Chapter was not sufficient for so great a Subject and that we had already transgressed and exceeded the intended and prescribed bounds of This. FINIS A fuller Relation of the Spanish Priests Error and attempt about getting Gold out of one of these flaming Mountains in the West-Indies THE most famous Vulcano's in the West-Indies are the Guatamala discernable at vast distance on the South-Sea A Spanish Priest out of Avarice would needs sound this Mountain supposing the bottom to be full of Gold This Priest was called Mossen born at Antequera who came to the Indies with Pirarow at the time of Ferdinand Cortez's Conquest He had a Sister living with him who had a fair Daughter whom the Captain married to Lazart d' Almadia Clark of the Ship promising 1000 Duckets in Marriage But the Clark being jealous of his Captain left his Wife in Spain and the Captain being come on Shore with grief for his Mistress absence died to whom by his last Will he ratified the 1000 Duckets Mean while the Clark took command of the Vessel and arrived in New Hispaniola where the Priest was very welcome Priests being there very acceptable and was accommodated in the Town of Sanda where he lived in great esteem for sincerity and devotion so in few years he grew very wealthy But not content with this upon suggestion that the slaming Mountain not far thence was a Mine of Gold he thought to get inestimable riches out of it for this purpose he caused a strong Iron Chain to be made to the measure of the height of the Mountain which he had taken by Artizans then by strength of Men began to cut a way for portage of his necessaries which could not be done but at great expence a mans labour there being worth two Crowns a day nevertheless Avarice made him pass it easily But this beginning was a mean matter for he must continue the Labourers being yet not advanced far by reason of the height of the Mountain and firmness of the Rock which he must cut through nor though many looked upon the Enterprize as extravagant and inconsiderate yet the Priest every day got nearer to the mouth of the Fornace with expence of time labour and difficulty After four moneths space the pondrous Chains and Caldrons with great cost and pain were drawn up The good man boasted He donbted not now to come shortly to his ends and that he had a Revelation of it in his sleep At length all these Iron Engines were set in order and the workmen to the number of fifty began to let down a Caldron well fastened to a strong Iron Chain with other Engines secured and the Priest himself set his hand to the work But as they thought to draw up the Caldron full of rich melted mettal the strength of the fire consumed all and they hardly escaped without burning their hands and feet so violent a heat burst out upon them The Priest half mad cried out The Devil had broken his Chain with a thousand Curses ready to throw himself headlong into the Precipice covered over with Soot and Cindars and frying with heat fright and toyl that he looked like a right Fury running like a mad man to and fro the rest in little better condition the greatest part being saur'd and consum'd with labour and the violence of heat which had even melted them The good man at last was brought to his Lodging in extream torment where they laid him to bed in so much grief and discomfort that he was the pitty of the World Walking in the night he was surprized with such a rage that he gave himself several stabs in the throat with his knife and in the morning his Sister coming to visit him found him steeped in blood and gastly half dead whereupon she cried out for help and friends came immediately in and a Chirurgion applyed the Country Balsom so fortunately to his wounds that he was well within few dayes nevertheless for extream grief and sullenness he could eat nothing At last he languished to death having consumed all he had gotten besides what his Sister had also and other Friends whom he quite ruined The poor woman lived a while after but miserably Her Son-in-Law making some Voyages betwixt the Indies and Spain in the best sort he could who afterwards had other strange misfortunes upon his Wifes account esteemed the Daughter of that Unfortunate Priest Thus do greatest disappointments procure the greatest desperations London if the Story were true accidentally beholding to flaming Mount Strombolo If all the pious Tales of Catholicks were true London was eternally beholding to the good Devils of Strombolo for frighting Sir Thomas Gresham into such Publick good Deeds But why he should begin to practise them at least eighteen years after the death of King Henry and how many before had passed we know not and that not till the dayes of Reformation for he laid the first Stone of the Royal Exchange in the seventh year of Queen Eliz. Or why neither Catholick nor Protestant Historians should so much as mention much less record for truth so remarkable a Transaction concerning so glorious and Renowned a Founder no tolerable account or reason can be given However take the Story as it runs in Sands's Travels thus A pretty devised Story and Catholick pious Tale concerning the occasian of Sir Tho. Gresham's devout Life and pious and charitable Inclinations and good Deeds and the converting his great acquired Riches to such worthy and publick uses Viz. From the sound of an horrid Voice out of the mouth of one of these Hellish Volcano's the Prodigious Mount Strombolo It was told me at Naples by a Country-man of ours and an old Pensioner of the Popes who was
us that about Leontium now Lentini and some other places Wheat did grow of it self without any labour of the Husbandman At this day in some parts of the Isle the soyl is so exceeding fruitful that it yeelds unto the Husbandman an hundred measures of Corn for one And certainly the Corn of this Country must needs yeeld a wonderful encrease the King of Spain receiving an hundred thousand Crowns yearly for the Custom of Wheat In this Country also is the Hill Hybla so famous for Bees and Honey But too much of the Country We return to its greatest Wonder of all Ages and indeed a vernaculous kind of Portent thereof the horrible Mount Aetna It is a marvellous Hill of fearful and stupendous Fires Flames as it were the very Mouth of Hell distant Eastwards ten miles from the City Catania situated at the foot thereof From which it ascends by degrees to so many miles height Others reckon it fifteen miles from Catania but indeed scarce ten English miles And yet its full height in a direct descent according to its Axis is computed by exact Geometricians 30 miles as Kircher has it except the Printer has added a Cypher too much as must needs be This ancient City was built as some say in the year of the World 3469 eighty nine years after Rome and near 500 before Christ. But others in the year 4462 about 500 years after Christ. The first without all doubt by most Authentick Authors the truer account and receives both loss and if Strabo may be believ'd advantage from its nearness to Aetna For the ejected flames have heretofore committed horrible wasts which gave Amphinomus and Anapius two Brethren an occasion to become famous for their Piety who rescu'd their Parents ingag'd by the Fire and bear them away on their shoulders whereof Ausonius Who will forget Catania of high fame For Piety of Brothers sindg'd in Flame Yet it was never known in all this time to have been wholly ruin'd or destroy'd by the terrible threatnings of so troublesome and dangerous a Neighbour that spares none in his violent raging fits and Convulsions Yet has been shrewdly in danger sometimes and much havock'd and spoyl'd in some parts thereof whereby it may appear that this last and present Eruption so prodigious and fearfull has not been the greatest as it has not been the first by some hundreds Several Towns and Cities lay round about it All or most now buried in Ashes and Ruines by the late excessive burning and conflagration even as many have been so in former times It was here in this Insernal Mountain where the Poets fable that Jupiter with his Thunderbolts struck down the Rebel-Giants the Cyclops's condemned to be Vulcan the Godd of Fires Hammerers whom they feign forges here his Father Jupiter's Thunderbolts and the Arms of the Heroes and laid this Mountain upon Enceladus the grand Conspirator's back there said to have been buried and his hot breath to have fired the Mountain lying on his face As Virgil poetizes Enceladus with Thunders struck they tell Under the weight of this huge Burthen fell Above him was the mighty Aetna laid Who now breaths Fires through broken Trunks convey'd And as he weary turns a Thunder-Crack Sicily shakes and Heav'n is hung with Black Though Naturalists interpret the Giants to be hot Spirits included in the Earth which finding no passage out sometimes burst open most high Mountains and rush out with violence and even shoot forth as it were their darts against Heaven The Poet therefore feign'd these Giants to have assaul ed the Godds in the Phlegraean-Plains but to be struck down some into Aetna others into the Vulcanian Islands and others into Hell And as the grosser Heathen suppos'd it to be Vulcans Shop and the Cyclops's so the gross Papists there take it for the place of Purgatory All alike unfallible And here some report or rather fable that Empedocles affecting Divine Honour departing from his company secretly by night leapt in at the mouth of this Mountain that he might be reputed an Immortal God as Horrace witnesses Empedocles to be a Godd desires And casts himself into th' Aetnaean Fires But that his Iron Slippers or Brazen Shoes which the Fire had thrown up again with its belching flames to have discovered the matter But wiser men more rightly relate him to have perished only as a curious and ventrous Observator going about to search out this Fiery Lake and thereby to have fallen into some pit or ditch and consumed in the Burning The barren top of the Mountain is encompassed with a Bank of Ashes Cinders and Pumices c. of the height of a Wall In the middle is also a round Hill of the same matter and colour wherein be two great Holes fashioned like unto Cups which be called Craters Out of these do rise sometimes sundry great flames of fire sometimes horrible smoak sometimes are blown out burning stones in infinite number Moreover Before the said Fire appears there is heard within the ground terrible noise and roaring And also which is more marvel though it continually burns nay when the smoak and fire is most abundant and fervent yet round about the top of the said Hill and uppermost parts where the Fire is greater and continual are seen perpetual and most deep Snows and hoary Frosts And from all Antiquity has this Mountain burnt after an horrible manner and often-times affects the Neighbouring Regions with incomperable and unvaluable losse though yet not a more fertile Region in the whole World as was before described c. The Cinders and Ashes of Aetna as Pliny testifies fall down an hundred and fifty miles distant from thence Mr. Sandys makes such a following Description of it Aetna now Mount Gibel call'd by Pindar the Caelestial Column is the highest Mountain of Sicily for a great space leisurely rising in so much as the top is ten miles distant from the uttermost Basis. It appeareth Eastward with two Shoulders having an eminent Head in the middle The lower parts are luxuriously fruitful the middle woody and shaded the upper rocky steep and almost cover'd with Snow yet smoking in the midst like many conjoyning chimneys and vomiting intermitted flames though not but by night to be discerned As if Heat and Cold had left their contentions and imbraced one another This burning Beacon doth shew her Fire by night and her Smoak by day a wonderful way off yet heretofore discerned far further In that the matter perhaps is diminished by so long an expence My self sayes he have seen both plainly unto Malta And the Mountain it self is to be discovered an hundred and fifty miles off by the Saylors Those that have been at the Top do report That there is there a large Plain of Cinders and Ashes invironed with a Brow of the same And in the midst an Hill of like substance out of which bursteth a continual Wind that keepeth an horrible rumbling evaporating flames and smoak which hangs