supply'd with new and new food alwayes And how the Pumices Cinders and Ashes and the other refuses of burnt matter should in succession of time be converted into new materials fit for fires Which knot that it may be untied You may remember that before elsewhere we shewed how that to the conservation of Nature in its perpetual constant course there was a necessity of an everlasting circulation and return round of things In the Heavens the Elements the Air Water Earth and its several sorts soils and Minerals c. even with the very Fire also and its materials and nutriment As appears in the perpetual wheeling round of the Planets and Stars by a constant and inviolable Law of Nature so many thousands of years The perpetual motion and mutation of the Elements alwayes unvariable in the greatest variety of things The perpetual circulation of waters both within and about the Earth All Rivers come from the Sea and return to the Sea again as Solomon the Wise hath confirm'd to us The Sun dries up the vapours of the Sea the vapours are received into rain and return back to the Earth and Sea again Elegantly expressed by Ovid The Earth resolv'd is turned into streams Water to Air the purer Air to slames From whence they back return The fiery flakes Are turn'd to Air The Air thickned takes The Liquid form of Water That Earth makes Or as Dubartas has it The purest humour in the Sea the Sun Exhales i' th Air which there resolv'd anon Return to Water and descend again By sundry wayes into his Mother Main Many therefore wondring whilst they behold Aetna burning so many thousand years how the Mountain should not be consumed by so long and lasting Burnings Nor the Fire ever extinct But Bursting wide ope its Fornace Mouth still streams With melted stones still spues out Globes of Flames And by a thousand Fires as Virgil exprest it before It spending still the fewel which it burns Yet still to former strength afresh returns These certainly if they understood the circling operations of Nature would not so strangely admire when as food is never at any time wanting thereto to perpetuate the Burnings The Fires burn the Mountain and convert the Miscellany or mixture of combustible matter into Ashes Out of the Ashes mixt with Water a new food and nourishment of everlasting Fire is generated Omnia continuo rapidos virtuntur in orbes Naturâ motus perpetuante suos Which may be englished out of our Incomparable Cowly altering a word from his extravagant allusion to drinking Nothing in Nature's constant found But an Eternal course goes round This premised I take for granted First That a great plenty of Salt lies hid in the Ashes which even from hence is proved That Salt is no wayes more easily got than from a Lixive or Lee of things reduced into Ashes By this means Nitre Salt Allom in some more moist places breaking or springing out of the walls and sides as also in the dunging-places of Pidgeons and other Animals first vegitated and quickned with Urine is dug forth in most plentiful store and abundance I suppose for granted Secondly That out of the humid Sea tinctured and seasoned with a fat saltishness and mixture of other Mineral things an huge quantity of Exhalations together with the spirits and insensible corpuseles of the said things are extracted by vertue of the Sun Which being both extrinsecally resolved into Rain Hail Snows settle about the top of the highest Mountains and also intrinsecally deriv'd through subterraneous passages of the Sea do fertilize the matter of the Fire-houses under ground with new provant These things supposed I say That the Fire perpetually powerful and waxing strong in its Store-houses is also by occult fibres and veins of the Sea insinuating and entering underneath perpetually augmented whilst that it replenishes and recruits the matter consum'd away with fire as are the Ashes and the most porous stones of Pumices with a Sulphureous Soot and Bituminous Spirits And in some measure prepares and disposes it for an enkindling and inflamation But when by the melting of the Hail and Snow both with the fervent heat of the Sun and also with the heat of so near Fire lurking within and by the coming on of Rain the Dust and Ashes be soaked through with a most plentiful bewetting From hence a certain mixt matter is propagated which insinuated more deeply within the porous recesles and spaces of the Pumice-stones And then Sulphureous and Bituminous Spirits which but now lately lodged there intervening to their help at length ends presently as soon as it is waxen ripe in a new food and nourishment of the Fire And that this is so I found by an irrefragable experiment in the brinks and edges of the Valleys of Aetna Vesuvius and Strongylus burnt up with Fire in most of the Cindry and Ashy walls and sides of which I found an immense quantity of Salt Allom and Niere springing forth In some also a slowing and gushing forth of Bitumen Napththe and the like fat oily liquors together her with a most copious quantity of Sulphur Which have their original from no where else but partly out of the Cinders of combust and burnt things from which must necessarily be begot a new off-spring and succession of Salt and Nitre Partly from the Sulphureous corpuseles or spirits which while they continually exhale from the lowest Gulph of the Mountain are condensed into Sulphur in the more cold climate of the Mountain And so that mixt matter is generated cut of Salt Nitre ' Allom Bitumen ' and Sulphur which insinuated as hath been said into the pores of the Calx or Calcined Lime or Ashes of the burnt and adust Pumice and Stones it administers that perpetual and everlasting fuel and food of Fire which we have hitherto inquired after For this corrupted by the Fire as it prepares new burnings so the fat and sulphureous matter being burnt up which lurk'd and lay dormant within the Pumices undergo some respits or truces as it were Till the capacity of the Pumices and the remaining Calx or Calcined Ashes be replenished again as was said with the like new birth of combustible matter But now what happens in the exteriour and outmost surface of Aetna It 's certain the same is effected in all other slammivomous Mountains Nature carrying it self after the same manner alwayes Yea he that shall more narrowly and throughly dive into these things he cannot be ignorant that the process of Nature which we have expressed in the exteriour surface of the Mountain but that it keeps the same course and tenour or order in its intimate and inmost Fire-houses or Receptacles Corallary II. Hence it follows That the food and fuel of Subterraneous Fire follows the Motion of the Sea raging with a perpetual reciprocation of Flux and Reflux For from the concitation and commotion of the Tide The Sea being thrust through occult passages and Burrows at its bottom as
An Imaginary Idea or Type of Subterraneous ffire houses whose Breath holes as it were the Vulcanian Mountains only are An Imaginary Idea or Type of Subterraneous ffire mixt with water and of the protrusion of waters through Subterraneous Aquaeducts out of the Sea and into the water houses of mountains the Concoction of Subterrestrial waters through ffire-ducts THE VULCANO'S OR Burning and Fire-vomiting MOUNTAINS Famous in the World VVith their REMARKABLES Collected for the most part out of KIRCHER'S Subterraneous World And expos'd to more general view in English upon the Relation of the late Wonderful and Prodigious Eruptions of AETNA Thereby to occasion greater admirations of the Wonders of Nature and of the God of Nature in the mighty Element of Fire Res semper aliquid apportat novi None sadlier knows the unresisted Ire Then Thou Poor London of th' all-raging Fire But these occasion'd kindlings are but Blazes To th' mighty Burnings which fierce Nature raises If then a Town or Hills blaze be so dire What will be th' last and universal Fire Licensed and Entred according to Order London Printed by J. Darby for John Allen and are to be sold by him at the White Horse in Wentworth Street near Bell Lane And by Benjamin Billingsly at the Printing-Press in Broad-street near Gresham-Colledg 1669. The Epistle to the READER HEre are presented to thee in English the most wonderful most prodigious and even miraculous Operations of Nature in the Geocosm or Terrestrial World 'T is confess'd 't is not an exact or compil'd History But rather a scatter'd Collection of Historical Relations by others of most remarkable passages Which so came to pass First upon so fair an occasion given by the late incredible Eruptions of Aetna and past all belief Had they not been confirmed by so honourable a Testimony past all mistrust And yet there were not wanting some such Persons so unknowing and faithless as to question notwithstanding at first all for a Rodamontado or Isle of Pines c. Therefore secondly also by reason of so general and universal Ignorance of these Matters found among our Countreymen as sufficiently appeared at the first coming forth of that wonderful Relation As if some such strange thing had hapned as never before in the World at least never so great so prodigious and portentous That therefore men might be more generally acquainted with the Wonders of Nature in this particular also of Fire has this been undertaken And then because there had yet been none in English of the Subject for the general information of men or of such as were desirious to know fuller of these matters And yet there is a method sufficient for an exact History Nor is there any thing Material or Remarkable that is not in brief at least taken notice of Lastly The Subject and Argument so admirable and curious may excuse other defects For that not so much the Philosophy of these Matters yet there is a sprinkling of that too as occasionally it occur'd in our Author as the mighty Effects and Things themselves are here intended for the English Reader 'T is therefore an Historical Narration of the Worlds Volcano's and their Wonders and Remarkables But for the grand Literado's and such as are past their English Tongue let them be satisfied that it was never calculated for men of their Degree and Elevation So not to weary thee with Complements of a long Epistle or to hang out Invitations of greater pretences then realities we leave thee to what entertainment the Book it self will afford And if thou findst any occasion not to repent of so much time and labour as the perusal By so much the farther will the Author be from repenting of his pains or thinking his labour lost that is for no good or benefit to his Countreymen in Englishing so wonderful things He presumes to say Read and admire and take the pleasure thereof Farewel The Explication of the Schemes out of Kircher I. THE Central Fire A through certain Fire-ducts or Channels diffuses round about every where far and near fiery exhalations and spirits These driven into the Water-houses it partly disposes into hot Baths partly attenuates or rarifies into vapours which dashing as it were against the Arches or Vaults of Concavous Dens and condens'd by the coldness of the place and lastly dissolved into Waters generate Fountains and Rivers and then partly derived into fit Matrices and Receptacles fruitful of other kind of Juyces of several Minerals contract fast together and harden into Metallick Bodies or else are ordered for a new Conception and fructifying of combustible Matter to nourish and still feed and maintain the Fire You see there also how the Sea by the Winds and pressure of the Air or motion of the aestuating Tides ejaculate and cast forth the Waters through Subterraneous or under-ground Burrows into the highest Water-houses of the Mountains You see also the Sea and the Plains in the utmost surface of the Earth to take place next to the Subterraneous World and the Air next to them as the Scheme teaches Yet you are not to imagine that the Fires and Waters c. are really thus disposed in Nature underground For whoever has seen them But this onely was to signifie according to the best imagination of the Author that they are after some well-ordered and artificial or organiz'd way or other contriv'd by Nature and that the Under-ground World is a well fram'd House with distinct Rooms Cellars and Store-houses by great Art and Wisdom fitted together and not as many think a confused and jumbled heap or Chaos of things as it were of Stones Bricks Wood and other Materials as the rubbish of a decayed House or an House not yet made And to the perpetuation of these hidden and unsearchable operations of Nature there is a constant circulation and return round thereof The Constellations Sun Moon and Stars cause the reciprocal slowings and Tides of the Sea to and fro By the impetuousness of the Seas rage and Tides an immense bulk of Waters being through hid and occult passages at the bottom of the Ocean protruded or thrust forcibly into the intimate bowels of the Earth excites and stirs up also Subterraneous Fire by the impetuousness of Winds and restores it with new conveyance of Nutriment The Subterraneous Fire not knowing how to be idle being enkindled by the reciprocation or return to and fro of the Tides as it were by certain Bellows and raging does by these and those and the other Fibres or Veins of occult passages which are replenished with Metallick and Mineral Juyces carry whiles it passes by an huge plenty of vapors with it self which protruded partly through the Terrestrial Conveyances of the Mountains partly through the bottom of the Ocean into the uttermost Surface and there dilated and spread wider do again with their blasts solicite and provoke the Air the Ocean and Seas And what is again insinuated through the Orifices of the Oceans bottom doth
convey new Provanr to the Subterraneous Fire to nourish and conserve it and by this means also doth supply new matter to provoke and stir up the Sea again as but now was declar'd You see therefore the manner and way of the Circulation of Nature You see how Water Fire Fire Water mutually as it were cherish one another and by a certain unanimous consent conspire to the Conservation of the Geocosm or Terrestrial World For if Subterraneous Fire should emit no vapours for matters of Winds The Sea as it were torpid and void of motion would go into a putridness to the ruine of the whole Globe And consequently destitute of the aid of Winds could neither also succour Subterraneous Fire with necessary nutriment Whence the Fire extinct being the life of the Macrocosm as spiritous blood is of the Microcosm Universal Nature must necessarily perish Lest therefore Nature undergoing so great a detriment should fail Hereupon God most good and great by provident Nature the Hand-maid of the Supream Work-master would have both Elements be in a perpetual Motion for admirable ends elsewhere shewn For the Water sliding through the secret passages under ground supplies moisture and together therewith carries a mixture of Terrestrial portions to the Fire-houses for their food And these again swelling with hot Spirits carried upwards and elevated through wonted Fire-ducts do with their heat cherish the Water-houses and other kind of Receptacles whether of Air or several Juyces of Minerals and Earths for there are Store-houses of all under ground and do animate them for the Generation both of Minerals and also of Vegetables to be promoted or furthered by exhalations And so in an everlasting and circulatory motion all things which are beheld in Nature do exist and abide And so Subterraneous Fire together with Water are the Effectors and Generators we may say of all things c. II. This Scheme expresses the Nests of Heat only or which is all one the Fire-houses variously distributed through the Universal Bowels of the Earth by the admirable Workmanship of God lest any where should be wanting what would be so greatly necessary to the Conversation of the Geocosm But let none perswade himself as if the Fires were constituted as here represented and the Fire-houses forthwith disposed in that order In no wise this We would onely hereby shew that the bowels of the Earth are full of Aestuaries that is places overflown and raging with Fire which we call Under-ground Fire-houses or Conservatories whether after such or any other manner disposed From the Centre therefore we have deduc'd the Fire through all the Paths to be supposed of the Terrestrial World even to the very Vulcanian Mountains themselves in the Exteriour Surface The Central Fire is signed with the letter A. The rest are the Aestuaries or Fire-houses signed with B. The Fire-ducts C. But the least Channels are Fissures or clests of the Earth which the Fiery Spirits pass and make their way through A. The Central Fire B. The Fire-houses C. The Fire-ducts Fissures of the Earth the rest The TABLE CHAP. I. Of Subterraneous Fire-houses That is Abysses or deep Storehouses of Fire or if you will Aestuaries that is places overslown and raging with or as it were Creeks of Fire underground CHAP. II. Of the Volcano's or Ignovomous that is Fire-vomiting Mountains in General CHAP. III. Of the Manifold Volcano's of Italy in Particular CHAP. IV. Of the Remakables of Volcano's and their Eruptions in General CHAP. V. Of the Remarkables of the Volcano's of Italy and their notorious Eruptions in particular c. Viz. Of the Phlegraean Plains or Volcano's Court. Of the Mountain Vesuvius c. CHAP. VI. Of the Prodigious and Wonderful Aetna in Special and of the Vulcanian Islands adjoyning Aetna's Crater or Fire-Cup A Chronicle of Aetna's Fires c. Of the Volcanello's Strombolo and Volcano c. A sad story of a Spanish Priest c. A foolish Story of Sir Thomas Gresham The VULCANO'S OR Mountains vomiting Fire famous in the World with their Remarkables CHAP. I. Of Subterraneous Abysses and Conservatories or Store-houses of Fire the Original Cause and Sourse of all fiery Eruptions and Vulcano's THAT there are Subterraneous Conservatories and Treasuries of Fire even as well as there are of Water and Air c. and vast Abysses and bottomless Gulphs in the Bowels and very Entrals of the Earth stored therewith no sober Philosopher can deny If he do but consider the prodigious Vulcano's or fire-belching Mountains the eruptions of sulphurous fires not only out of the Earth but also out of the very Sea the multitude and variety of hot Baths every where occurring And that they have their sourse and birth-place not in the Air not in the Water nay nor as the Vulgar perswade themselves not at the bottom of the Mountains but in the very in-most privy-Chambers and retiring places of the Earth is as reasonable to think And there Vulcan as it were to have his Elaboratories Shops and Forges in the profoundest Bowels of Nature For how else could there be every where such a quantity of Minerals brimstone and sulphurous unctuous matters without any fire and subterraneous burnings of fire-engendring and all concocting nature which by no means can be conceived to be enkindled from the conflicts of air and moisture in those most dark and deep Regions of the Earth so remote from all influence of the Sun Therefore subterraneous fire was necessary to the internal Oeconomy or constitution of as it were the organiz'd parts of the earth and distribution of Life and heat as we may so say to all the exteriour members Plato acknowledges hidden treasuries of ever-flowing flames and most huge Rivers of fires as well as of waters Yea and Aristotle himself affirms most ample sourses as of water so of spirit and fire Also Pliny Vitruvius Cicero have noted this Arcanum of nature for in the bowels of the earth are observed hidden operations of heat and the greatest parts of the world are upheld and sustained by heat underneath We see fire struck forth from the conflict and attrition of stones and the reeking earth to smoke upon every new digging especially if deep And also hot and warm waters drawn out of Wells continually and that chiefly in winter for that a great force of heat is contain'd and pent up within the Caverns of the earth All the Poetick Fables of Vulcan Vesta the Cyclops seem to allude to this subterraneous fire This is the sense of Lucretius singing thus The Earth contains within it's Womb First Seeds whence th' Sea and flowing Rivers come In constant course Sources of Fire it has For burning Soyls we see in many a place But above all Aetna's impetuous Cell Rages with flames from th' lowest pit of Hell And Manilius But with all parts the Fires mingled are Quick Lightning in the teeming Clouds of th' Air They gender Pierce the Earth whence Aetna's Mountains Dare Heaven Also
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
those also is the retiring of the Sea to be attributed who strugling to break forth do ratifie and so raise the Earth which thereby also as it were made thirsty sucks the water through crannies into her spungy and hot intrails increasing the vapours not decreasing the fire by reason of the Bitumen Perhaps Delos and Rhodes unseen in the first Ages were made apparant by such means however divers of the Vulcanello's or Liperitan Islands were without peradventure All of them having slam'd and being now more in number than observed by the Ancients This new Mountain when newly raised had a number of issues at some of them smoking and sometimes flaming at others disgorging rivolets of hot waters keeping within a terrible rumbling and many miserably perished that ventured to descend into the hollowness above But that hollow on the top is at this present an Orchard And the Mountain thorow-out is bereft of his terrors Of Vesuvius a Vulcanian Mountain in the Kingdom of Naples likewise now called Monte di Somma The most noted Vulcano of the Mountain Vesuvius is also in this happy Country of Campania a little further remov'd from Naples whose ragings and eruptions have been wonderfully remarkable in all Ages And yet notwithstanding all its fires and burnings its Hills are full of Vines and Olives and all its Fields about of wonderful fruitfulness save only the Top alone where it hath a great Plain bare and bearing no manner of fruit at all The face of the Earth like Cinders or Ashes and old ruinated and wasted Rocks undoubted signs of its ancient and often Burnings Vesuvius then is a Mountain of Campania Foelix about eight miles from Naples which also hath received great injuries and prejadices by its Cinders and violent burling forth of Stones flung even to its Walls and Edifices This Mountain has vast Fountains of Fire And heretofore was on every side high before the inward parts were consumed with fires It utters usually smoak by day but by night flames It s manner is to send forth a loud sound or roaring noise and bellowing first and then to belch forth an huge force of Cinders with the manifest danger of passers by But if a more vehement Wind ply upon it the Ashes or Cinders are rais'd so high and drove so far in length that 't is certain they have sometimes been carried as Procopius testifies even as far as Constantinople it self and All at length so affrighted that they ran to their prayers for many years to avert the wrath of God Thus Coel. Rhodigin Mr. Sand's Relation runs thus This Mountain hath a double top that towards the North doth end in a plain the other towards the South aspireth more high which when hid in clouds prognosticates rain to the Neopolitans In the top there is a large deep hollow without danger to be descended into in form of an Amphitheatre in the midst a pit which leads into the entrails of the Earth from whence the Mountain in times past did breath sorth terrible flames the mouth whereof is almost choaked with broken Rocks and Trees that are fallen therein Next to this the matter thrown up is ruddy light and soft more removed black and ponderous the uttermost brow that declineth like the seats in a Theater flourishing with Trees and excellent Pastorage The midst of the Hill is shaded with Chesnut-trees and others bearing sundry fruits The lower parts admirably cloathed with Veins that afford the best Greek-Wines of the World which hath given to the Mountain the name of Di Sommo in regard of their excellency affording to the Owners the yearly revenue of three hundred thousand Duckats So now it hath lost the name of Vesuvius with the cause why it was given which signifieth a Spark as Veseus a Conflagration But never any thing appear'd so horrible as that which happened in the first or third years Reign of the Emperour Titus eighty years after Christ. For then it disgorg'd such boyling waves and slouds of Fire as consum'd the neighbouring Cities And then also it was that Pliny the second that great searcher of Nature and famous Author of the Natural History and then Admiral of the Roman Navy desirous to discover the Reason was suffocated in his too near approaches and research after so great a Mystery of Nature As witnesseth his Nephew in an Epistle to Cornel. Tacitus Not indeed wilfully and on set purpose as 't is said but I think falsly of the other grand Philosopher that he threw himself into the contrary Element because he could not understand the strange Mystery thereof At that time not only issued forth such store of Smoak that the very Sun seem'd to be in the Eclipse but also huge Stones and of Ashes such plenty that Rome Africk and Syria were even covered And besides Beasts Fish and Fowl it overwhelmed with Pumice-stones two adjoyning Cities Herculanum and Pompeios with the people sitting in the Theater There were heard dismal noises all about the Province and Giants of incredible bigness seen to stalk up and down the top and edges of the Mountain or rather in peoples extravagant fancies which extraordinary Accident was adjudged either a cause or presage of the future Pestilence which raged in Rome and Italy long after Hieronymus Borgius touching the horrible roarings and thundrings of this Mountain thus sets it forth in sutable Verse Then remote Africk suffer'd the dire heat Of twofold Rage with showrs of Dust repleat Scorcht Egypt Memphis Nilus felt amaz'd The woful Tempest in Campania rais'd Not Asia Syria nor the Towers that stand In Neptune's surges Cyprus Creet Joves Land The scatter'd Cyclads nor the Muses seat Minerva's Town that vast Plague scap'd Such 〈◊〉 Such vapours break forth from full jaws then shone When Earth-born horrible Orimedon Hot vomits ire beneath Vesuvius thrown Dion affirms in a manner as much But Bodin the censurer of all Historians doth deride it Notwithstanding Cassiodorus writes as great matters of a later Conflagration whereupon Theodoricus first King of the Goths in Italy did remit his Tribute to the damnisied Campanians Marcellinus further observes that the Ashes thereof transported in the Air obscured all Europe and that the Constantinopolitans being wonderfully affrighted therewith insomuch as the Emperor Leo forsook the City in memorial of the same did yearly celebrate the 12 th of November It also burnt in the sixth year of Constantine the fourth which was about the year of Christ 640 and at such times as Bellisarius took Naples which was about the year 540 and groaned but elected no Cinders and again when the Saracens invaded Africa sometime after c. Plautina writes that it flamed in the year 685 prognosticating the death of Pope Benedict the second with ensuing slaughters rapines and deaths of Princes During the Papacy of two other Benedicts the 8th and the 9th it is said to have done the like The later the last flaming thereof which was in the year 1024 yet often
about it like a great long Cloud and often hurling forth Stones and Cinders Wherefore the story of Empedocles the Sicilian Philosopher's throwing himself down head-long thereinto is by some call'd into question For it is impossible to be approach'd by reason of the violent Wind the suffocating Smoak and the consuming Fervour yet he might approach too near and perish This Mountain hath flamed in times past so abundantly That by reason of the smoke the Air involv'd with burning Sands and thick Vapours The Inhabitants hereabout could not see one another if we may give credit to Cicero for two dayes together The extraordinary eruption thereof hath been and is to this day reputed ominous For so the most famous Conflagrations in former times hapned hard before the Servile War in Sicily which was not pacisi'd and ended but by the slaughter of three score and ten thousand of the Slaves who had taken up Arms against Rome by the Praetors at which time it raged so violently that Africa was thereof an astonish'd Witness This was about the Year of the World 3900. not long before Christ. And so shortly after the death of Julius Caesar when not only the Cities thereabout were damnified thereby but divers in Calabria also and portended those Proscriptions and bloody Wars which did after follow But these great Eruptions of Fire are not now so ordinary as they have been formerly The matter which gave Fewel to it being wasted by continual Burnings So that the flames which issue hence are hardly visible but by night though the smoke shew it self the most part of the day Yet even at this day once in three or four years it falleth in great flakes on the Countrey below and Vales adjoyning to the terror of the Inhabitants the destruction of their Vintage and great loss of the Countrey But that they say is recompensed by the plenty of the following Years The Ashes thereof according to Strabo so batling and enriching of the Soyl that both the Vines and Corn-fields are much bettered by it and prosper above admiration For indeed we find by experience that Turf of the Ground burnt to Ashes and so spread on Land and ploughed into it doth yeeld a very great improvement even to barren Soyls Howbeit at this day much Ground about it lies wast by means of the ejected Pumice Besides the Countrey hereabouts is daily forraged by Thieves who lurk in a Wood of eight miles compass that neighbours upon Catania But Virgil's admirable Description may serve for all Aetna here thunders with an horrid noise Sometimes black Clouds evapoureth to Skies Fuming with pitchy curls and sparkling Fires Tosseth up Globes of flames To Stars aspires Now belching Rocks The Mountain's Entrals torn And groaning hurls out liquid Stones thence born Through th' Air in showres and from its bottom gloes Like boyling Fornace The reason of these Fires is the abundance of Sulphur and Brimstone contained in the Bosom of the Hâ—ll inkindled by Subterraneous Heats Spirits and Fires with the free ventilation of the Sulphurous and easily inflamable Air and agitating Winds through these open Vulcanian Vents and Funnels with innumerable Chinks Trunks Pipes and Caverns with other conveyances through the Earth c. Also through the Chinks and Chaps of the Earth there is continual more fewel added to the Fire the very Water adding to the force of it As we see the Water cast on Coals in the Smiths Forge doth make them burn more ardently And besides prepares the matter with due moisture to be fit Fuel for new Fires c. And Sicily is an Island all over Cavernous and Fistulous and pervious to the penetrating Winds and under-ground Fires and inflamable Spirits and within abounding with Sulphur Bitumen and other fit Fuel and Materials c. And so is most convenient both for inward Combustions and outward Ventilations and thereby for the extreamest Inflamations and Burnings But the Original Sourse and Fountain or first and principal cause of all these are by some later accounted to be the Subterraneous Abysses and Storehouses of Fire and Heat which Nature has provided and furnished her self with under ground in her inward parts for the necessary uses and occasions of her exteriour c. As was at the beginning observ'd The reason of this flame is thus set down by Ovid. A Rozen Mould these fiery flames begin And Clayte Brimstone aids that Fire within Yet when the slimy Soyl consumed shall Yeeld no more food to feed the Fire withal And Nature shall restrain her nourishment The flame shall cease hating all famishment But more fully by Lucretius Hollow the Mountain is throughout alone Supported well-nigh with huge Caves of Stone No Cave but is with Wind and Air repleat For agitated Air doth Wind beget Which heats th' imprisoning Rocks when hot it grows The Earth chaft by his fury and from those Strikes forth fire and swift flame It self on high It mounts and out at upright Jaws doth flie And Fire sheds far off far off dead Coals Transports and fumes in misty darkness rowls Ejecting Stones withal of wondrous size All which from strength of strugling Winds arise Besides against the Mountains Roots the Main Breaks her swoln Waves and swallows them again From whence unto the Summit of th' Ascent The undermining Caves have their extent Through which the Billows breath and flames out-thrust With forced Stones and dark'ning showrs of dust Besides as was said before Aetna is full of Sulphur and Bitumen apt to be kindled And so is all Sicily the principal Reason that it is so fertile But after all this we will give you Kircher's later and more particular Relation and Description both of it and its Causes and of its most noted Eruptions c. A Description of Aetna by Kircher Wherein as in a certain Prototype the Reasons of Subterraneous Fires and their never failing food are demonstrated as we use to say to the Eye When I survey'd Sicily in the year 1638. before all things I thought fit to examine the Mountain Aetna most of all celebrated by the Monuments of all Writers A great Prototype I say of all burning Grounds and that the most famous type of almost whatsoever kind of ragings by Sea or Land outragious And with this one onely spectacle of Nature alone Sicily is and ever was admirable Seeing you can scarce find an Author either of the Antients or Moderns whom the violence of its ferocious nature hath not drawn into admiration and astonishment Yet because they have only beheld afar off the genuine Causes of so great effects We coming a little nearer to the matter from those things which in these last times have been oberved with my own eyes intending to prosecute its Nature and Constitution we will endeavour to demonstrate opportunely the cause of so strange and exotick effects Aetna therefore is one onely Mountain rearing up on high its Top or Spire unto thirty miles according to the Axis or direct line through the
make Baths hot in Fountains To this end the whole Earth is Cavernous and the Terrene Globe contains vast spaces within its own bowels arched Caves and Vaults immense Tracts and impenetrable Abysses For as Seneca relates of the Fields of Puteolum There are vast Caves hugh Recesses and vacuities Stones on Mountains hanging here and there Also cragged Gapings without bottom which have often receiv'd them as they fell in and buried the mighty Ruine in the deep For the whole Earth is not solid but every where gaping and hollow'd with empty rooms and spaces and hidden burrows as it were whereto subscribes Pliny Aelian Lucretius and other writers of Natural things For the Fire and Water sweetly conspire together in mutual service with an inviolable friendship and wedlock for the good of the whole in their several and distinct private-lodgings as we may so say and hidden receptacles spreading themselves far and wide to a vast largeness and capacity which two Associates and Agents of Nature with pains work and bring about such variety of things we see of Minerals Juyces Marles Glebes and other soyls with ebullitions and bublings up of Fountains also As Manilius but now sang to us Sith this fire thus shut up in the Caverns of the Earth agitating it self when it finds passage it never leaves penetrating unto some vent for many hundred Miles even under the Sea and unpassable and far fetch'd windings and turnings of the Earth And acquiring continually greater power it turns the Earth and even the very Stones and Mountains it finds in its way into easie fuel and nutriment That except it were restrain'd by the encompassing of the Ocean and the command of the Omnipotent Deity it would attract and suck in the universal bulk of all elementary Nature into an unquenchable combustion and Conflagration And there is need of such vast quantities of fires for the uses of the Universe And 't is reasonable to think that the Divine Providence hath made a very great provision of fire in the belly of Nature whence by long Chimnyes or Funnels as it were it might diffuse an infinite heat and fervour for the use of things necessary and the emolument of the Earth Men and Beasts Just as it hath constituted the vast Sea in such a manner so as to distribute an indeficient plenty of Waters through the veins and channels of the whole body of the Earth And as it hath appointed the Waters their bounds so it hath so attempted and distributed these fires in the hidden courses and apartments of subterrestrial Nature that they might neither be suffocated by the infinuating and inflowing Waters of the Ocean nor transgress their prescribed Limits and Confines For otherwise if they should be unlimitted Eruptions they would soon turn all into Ruines Which shall at length come to pass in that fulness of time when all the Reins of unruly Nature shall be broke loose and the Cataracts or Flood gates as it were of subterraneous fire flung open by the command of the Divine Power not only the Earth but even the Elements shall melt with fervent heat to the ruine and destruction of the whole World That even as in the universal Flood the windows of Heaven and Gulphs of the Abysses being opened he destroyed the World by an Inundation of Waters even so also in the last times he might destroy the same by a Deluge of Fires which who could deny to be if he should behold the perpetual boyling fires in the Earth the vast burning of Provinces Lastly the manifest provision and preparation of so much Combustible matter and Sulphur together which is vomited forth even at one Gaping and Eructation without confessing it a certain and infallible Specimen and Example and evident token of preparation to the total and final Conflagration prescribed by the Divine Wisdom The Prodigious Vulcano's therefore and Fire-vomitting Mountains visible in the external surface of the Earth do sufficiently demonstrate it full of invisible and under-ground fires For where-ever there 's a Vulcan there also is a Conservatory or Store-house under as certain as where there is a Chimney or smoke there is fire And argue deeper treasuries and storehouses of fire in the very heart and inward bowels of the Earth In so much that from hence the Holy Father's have not incongruously placed the greatest of all the Fire-conservative Abysses in the Centre of the Earth for an eternal Jakes and Prison destin'd for the punishment of the Damned and some others for Purgatory according to the received belief of Papists Now flame is but flowing or fluid fire and the streaming efflux of sulphurous principles or particles c. which from these burst forth in excessive raging streams from the mouth of these Ignivomous or fire-vomitting Mountains and Vulcano's which are wonders of Nature not unworthy generally to be known and taken notice of of all men And which we now come to ennumerate with their remarkable Phaenomena's and Eruptions CHAP. II. Of Vulcano's ingeneral What and where In Asia Africa America and Europe AS Nature hath constituted various Store-houses of Waters in the highest Mountains so it has distributed various Receptacles of fire within the bowels of the highest Mountains also for the compleat fructifying of Nature with this primigenial heat as it were and radical moisture together as before has been shewn For the fire cannot subsist without the water nor the water without the fire 'T is certain if only the moist or only the fiery element should domineer all would be laid wast and nothing fructifie c. The Water would stagnete and freeze without some kindly resolving heat and afford no warm and friendly vapours and fruitful exhalations And the fire cannot live without a moist and humid nutriment or last any time without a free and an asswaging fomentation and breathing of the Air and as it were ventilation These Vulcano's therefore are nothing but the vent-holes or breath-pipes of Nature to give vent to the superfluous choaking fumes and smoaky vapours which fly upwards and make way and free passage for the vehemency of the within-conceived burning and for the attraction and free entrance of the friendly cherishing Air to revive and ventilate those suffocating flames lest they should continually shake the foundations of the Ground with intollerable commotions and Earthquakes For Earthquakes are the proper effects of subterrestrial cumbustions And so the fire is both exonerated of its superfluous clogg of fumes and dregs of dross through those open and wide-mouthed Gulphs and Orifices as it were through certain Jakes or common shoars and also cherished and refreshed with the all-reviving Air so serving as breath pipes both for expiration and inspiration to the whole body of Nature or the Universe Of this sort of Vent-holes Chimneys or Funnels there are such a multitude and variety that there 's hardly any Region in the world without them Asia every where in its several
fires and there are some which never cast either smoke flames or ashes but in the bottom are seen to burn with a quick fire never dying This impos'd upon a greedy Priest and made him think it was nothing else but heaps of Gold melted in the fire which he thought to have fetch'd up by letting down an Iron Kettle with Chains But his device was not fire-proof his Kettle and Chain melting so soon as they approach'd neer the bottom But the greatest wonder of all is that some of these Vulcano's have for some hundreds nay for some thousands of years cast out continually smoke fire and ashes For the European to begin with the more Northern And here first who knows not the notorious Mountain Hecla and also Hegla and of the Holy Cross in Izland by the Relation of all Geographers most remarkable for mighty burnings Mountains so terrible for Thunder flamings out of fire casting abroad stones ashes stink and smoke that the more fanciful conceit that Hell is begun there aforehand which were more plausible if the Apparitions that are seen there were as true as they are said to be frequent And which seems a Miracle of Nature its highest Top or Pike is white with perpetual Snow and its Roots and sides blazing with unquenchable burnings And the multitude of hidden Gulphs and Whirl-pits suffer none to come neer for many furlongs And by the Eructuation of stones and ashes reduces all the circumjacent Plain into barrenness together with a formidable noise and crackling Which while the Inhabitants hear they superstitiously believe the Souls of the wicked to be tormented there with a miserable howling And even in Groenland perpetually frozen with extreamest cold next to the very North Pole there is an huge Vulcanian Mountain at whose Roots is a Monastery of the Order of Preachers call'd St. Thomas's built of Tophas-stone from the casting out of the Mountains Concerning which Bartholomew Zenet a Venetian a diligent Inspector and searcher into these things I know not by what accident cast on these Coasts relates many wonderful things Here sayes he is seen St. Thomas's Monastery of the Dominicans And not far distant an Ignivomous Mountain at the foot whereof a fiery Eountain breaks forth With the Water of this Fountain derived by Pipes not only all the Cells of the Moncks are made hot like Stoves but also their Meat dressed yea and their very Bread bak'd The Mountain vonsits forth the Tophaz or Pumice-stone which the whole Monstery is built of For those Tophaz's soaked through with that hot Water are cemented together as it were with clammy Bitumen Here are also most pleasant Gardens watered with boyling Water in which are Flowers and Fruits of all kinds And this Water when it hath run through the Gardens falls into a neighbour Gulph or Port whereby it happens that it never is frozen and therefore the Fish and innumerable Birds and Fowl frequent there wherewith the Inhabitants live in full plenty So he writes who saw and discovered the Coast the King of Danes chief Admiral Nicholas Zenet a Venetian Now it is most likely that the Vulcan's of Izland and Groenland have communication together by hidden Burrows and Channels and are perpetually imploy'd by secret Aestuaries to allay the vehemency of the Cold and abundance of Ice Whence also is drawn the Reason why in some Northern Islands and the Shores of Norway Finmark Biarmia Lapland in one part the Sea is easily frozen with Ice in another part not at all by no force of cold or snows Also in some shores most abundant Pastures together with Trees and most fruitful fields are found In others as in Nova Zemblia neither Grass nor Trees nor any thing profitable for the nutriment of Man to be met with There was also some Vulcanian Hill Crater or Pit which burnt for sixteen years in Scotland and consum'd a large quantity of ground Even as now some Coal-Mines about Newcastle are said to have continued burning for several years of late and 't is likely do so still In Germany was violent Eruptions formerly Who in these latter Ages hath ever heard or read of such a Fire issuing out of the Earth as Tacitus describes which burnt a whole Territory against which Water was unavaileable which could never be extinguish'd but with Stones Cloaths Linnen and Wollen and other dry Materials cast thereon Tacitus words run thus The City of the Inhonians in Germany confederate with us saith he was afflicted with a sudden disaster For fires issuing out of the Earth burned Towns Fields Villages every where and spread even to the Walls of a Colony newly built and could not be extinguished neither by Rain nor River-water nor any other liquor that could be employed until for want of remedy and anger of such a distraction certain Peasants cast stones afar off into it then the slame somewhat slacking drawing near they put it out with blows of Clubs and otherwise as if it had been a wild beast Last of all they threw in cloaths from their backs which the more worn and fouler the better they quenched the fires We have omitted the high Mountains in Lapland also which Olaus relates belch forth hideous slames like Aetna's In Greece the Mountain Nymphaeus stings out fire also and pitchy bituminous matter the fury whereof is enkindled by rain and water As also the fire of those Ignivomous Mountains of Lycia and Pamphylia in Asia minor not mentioned before viz. The monstrous Mountain Chimaera heretofore famous for often belching forth Fires It 's Fire is the more inkindled with Water but quenched with Earth or Hay As also the Hephaestian Mountains near Chimaera whose Earth touched with a lighted Torch or Brand suddenly takes fire so that the stones burn in the very waters and the fire is fed and nourished by Rains and Waters And if with a kindled or burning brand furrows be made in the Earth Streams or Rivers as it were of Fire will run along after As Pliny writes In the Mediterranean in the Archipelago the Island Santorin has had formidable Fires and Earthquakes as in the year 1650 from the relation of Fa. Fr. Riccard of the Jesuits society who was present and an eye witness and with his own mouth related the whole event to Kircher at Rome afterwards and by the following Testimony would have it known to posterity The Relation of Fa. Fr. Riccard concerning Subterraneous Fires which brake forth from the bottom of the Sea in the year 1650. near the Island Santorin in the Archipelago ALthough some reprove Pliny of lyes in that he relates certain stupendous things above humane capacity yet daily experience teaches us that in many things he spake true chiesly in the History of many Islands which in succession as time arose and started up from the bottom of the Sea and amongst others Thera in the 135. Olympiad which was about the year of the world 3200. It was also call'd Calista and Phylothera But now Santorin
Earth as hot as sufferable being hollow underneath where the Fire and Water make a horrible rumbling conjoyning together as if one were fuel to the other here and there bubling up as if in a Caldron over a Fornace And sprouting aloft into the Air at such time as the Sea is inraged with tempests In some places of the colour of Water which is mingled with Soot in others as if with Lime according to the complexion of the several Minerals The flames do many times shift places abandoning the old and making new Eruptions the mouths of the vents invironed with yellow cinders arising with so strong a vapour that Stones thrown in are forthwith ejected Yet for all these terrors it is hourly trod upon both by men and horses and resorted unto by the diseased in May June and July who receive the fume at their mouths ears nostrils and such other parts of their bodies as are ill affected which heateth but hurteth not that being only sovereign that evaporateth from Brimstone It mollifieth the sinews sharpneth the sight asswageth the pains of the head and stomach makes the barren pregnant cures violent feavers itches ulcers c. From January to October the Husband-men hereabout do stir their Glebe at such time as much smoak doth arise and that they know that it proceedeth from Sulphur which doth add to the soyl a marvelous fertility From hence they exact yearly three thousand pounds weight Another kind of Sulphur is gotten here not taken from the Fire but found in the Earth of especial use for the dying of Hair and familiarly experimented by Women White Salt-Armoniack is here found also At the foot of this Mountain that regardeth the East are Minerals of Allome and the best of the World In the top of the Mountain are certain little veins of a white matter like Salt much used by Skinners whereof a Water is made that forthwith putteth out all characters that are written in Paper The flower of Brass is here found every where excellent and transparent with white and red Niter This place is said by the Roman Catholicks to be disquieted with Devils and that the fire underneath is a part of Purgatory where departed souls have a temporal punishment The Fryers that dwell hard by in the Monastery of Saint January report that they often do hear fearful shreeks and groanings They tell also a late story of a certain youth of Apulia a Student in Naples who desperate in his fortunes advised with the Devil and was perswaded by him to make him a Deed of Gift of himself and to write it in his own Blood in doing whereof he should in short time recover his losses Believing the Deluder according to appointment he came unto this place with that execrable Writing when afflighted with the multitudes of Devils that appear'd unto him he fled to the aforesaid Monastery and aquainted the Prior with all that happened He communicated it to the Bishop now or late living who informed the Pope thereof by whose command he was cast into Prison and after condemned to the Gallies Possible it is that this may be true but Damianus the reporter of that which followeth though a Cardinal might have had the Whetstone if he had not alledged his Author who telleth of a number of hideous Birds which accustomed to arise from hence on a sudden in the evening of the Sabbath And to be seen until the dawning of the day stalking on the tops of the hills stretching out their wings and pruning their feathers never observ'd to feed nor to be taken by the art of the Fowler when upon the croaking of the Raven that chased them they threw themselves into these filthy waters Said to be damned souls tormented all the week long and suffered to refresh themselves on the Sabbath in honour of our Saviour's Resurrection This he reports from the mouth of the Archbishop Umbertus But if this be Hell what a desperate end made that unhappy German who nor long since slipt into these Fornaces or what had his poor Horse committed that fell in with him that he should be damned at least retained in Purgatory The matter that doth nourish these Subterranean Fires is Sulphure and Bitumen But there it is fed by the latter where the flame doth mix with the water which is not by water to be extinguished approved by the composition of those Ignes Admirabiles or Admirable Waters Nigh hereunto are the ruines of a magnificent Amphitheater environing in an Oval a Court an hundred threescore and twelve feet long and fourscore and eight over thrown down by an Earthquake not many ages since which here happen no seldom by the violence of enflamed and suppressed vapours Dedicated it was to Vulcan and not without cause he seeming in these parts to have such a Sovereignty A latter relation and account we have of these Plains by Kercher which we will give you also and is as follows A Description of the Phlegraean Plain in the Fields of Putzol or Puteoli near Naples by Athanas. Kircher his own Observation An. 1638. In the Year 1638. passing by Naples I could not let slip the opportunity of inquiring and looking into these sulphureous Plains so much celebrated in all Ages Which the Antients called the Phlegraean Plains Having therefore got through a subterraneous passage which they commonly call the Grotte which we have elsewhere describ'd Arched and made hollow or vaulted between the Mountain Pausilippus not far from Putzol between the Jaws of the Mountains a Plain stretched forth far and wide presents it self to view A Plain altogether formidable and full of horror in length they lay 1200 foot in breadth a 1000. Pliny writes that they were called the Phlegraean Plains from their flames and burning for so the word signifies But Cornel. Strabo calls it Vulcan's open Market place publick Theater or Court. For in manner of a huge Theater as it were it sends forth perpetual fires and begets much Sulphur and combustible and inflamable matter and therefore called Sulfatara A place where also some fable the Giants to have been overcome by Hercules Little Hills are beheld there to burn and slame in the very bottom for they alwayes exhale forth great smokes every where with a sulphureous stench through many holes which are carried by the Winds through all the neighbouring Regions even unto Naples also This whole Plain is surrounded with Hills or high steep Rocks whereof the top or Pick once very high being at length devoured by perpetual fires is concluded from the very form of the place to have sunk into a most profound Vale. Therefore that which was once the top is now a deep ditch or hole in a plain Vale. And what were the coasts or sides of the Mountain heretofore are now the tops of Cliffs and Rocks And these heretofore indeed as Dion Cassius witnesleth vomited forth sires and flames in greater quantity The neighbour Mountains also did continually burn and cast forth thick
fumes and fiery Waters as it were out of Furnaces But now the very Plains no otherwise then the Phlegraean Hills being exhausted with perpetual flames are cavernous with an infinite number of holes and are every where yellowish with a sulphureous matter and colour The soil also when it is touch'd by such as walk thereupon sounds and rattles like a Drum as it were by reason of the concavities and you may feel as it were not without astonishment boyling waters under your feet and thick and fired fumes to hiss and flow hither and thither with a great crackling noise through Pipes and Subterraneous Caverns made by the force of the hot Exhalations VVhich force how great it is you may try by stopping any hole with a heavy stone or so for then you shall see the violent force of the smoke presently to belch it forth again Yet an huge Laky-ditch in the same Plain did wonderfully affect me For it is found full of boyling waters and ready to fright one with their blackness You would say it was a Kettle or Caldron boyling with Pitch and Rosin VVhich forthwith changes place and the waters growing hard on the brim of the Caldron is made narrower or wider as the force and impetuousness of the Exhalation is greater or lesser That also is wonderful That that swallowing Gulph casts forth waters on high eight or ten foot above a mans height in the fashion of a Pyramid and those fat and clayie and almost of a sulphureous colour VVhich even the Inhabitants of Putzol do confess who affirm that these boyling waters are shot forth on high to sixteen or even twenty four palm height sometimes And this especially when the Sea rages but not so likewise when it is calm A most clear sign certainly that these marvellous effects of the exalted liquor proceed from no where else but from the Sea For the Sea being tossed with the storms of winds whilst through subterraneous passages it sollicites as it were the Steward or dispenser of this melted liquid matter 't is no wonder that a Liquor not knowing how to contain it self in its own narrow bounds should be darted forth on high beyond its limits constituted thereunto by nature By so much indeed the more violently by how much the impetuous afflux of the Sea thrusts it forth with greater violence Yea and the divers colour of the waters at that time compounded of the various mixture of the Sea-water with the various mixture of the Mineral Juices Namely of those waters which from the more profound boyling Springs of the Earth the subterraneous winds agitated by the ragings of the Sea and growing stronger and stronger amidst the slames belch forth does plainly teach But the Sea being still calm none of these things are perceiv'd but the waters are only beheld sat or oyly and filthy with a black coaly soot together with a certain effervency or boyling What shall I say of the Mountains and Rocks with which this Vulcanian Plain is encompassed and guarded There are beheld in these conveyances or passages as it were of Chimneys not a few breathing-holes some of which belch forth a perpetual wind with a formidable sound and crackling noise and with such a force that if you cast a stone thereinto it being struck back presently you shall receive it cast forth again with great force Some dart forth smoak mixt with flames You would think your self almost in the midst of Hell where all things appear horrid sad and lamentable with a most formidable face of things Also you are almost struck even breathless with the stench of Sulphur Bitumen Napthe and other Earths Clayes Marles and Minerals And yet although the place be so horrid yet those who labour in making of Sulphur Niter Vitriol c. reap much profit thereby Further We must not omit here Mr. Sandys's relation of a most memorable both Earthquake and Burning which happened not far from these Plains near unto the City Putzol in the year 1538. with the new-formed Mountain For the famous Lake Lucrinus near Putzol extended formerly it seems indeed to have been joyn'd with it on one side to the deadly sulphureous Lake Avernus suppos'd the entrance into Hell by ignorant Antiquity where they offered infernal sacrifice to Pluto and the Manes there said to give Answers is now no other than a little sedgy plash choak'd up by the horrible and astonishing cruption of the new Mountain whereof as oft as I think I am easie to credit whatsoever is wonderful For who here knows not or who elsewhere will believe that a Mountain should atise partly out of a Lake and partly out of the Sea in one day and a night unto such an height as to contend in altitude with the high Mountains adjoyning In the year of our Lord 1538 on the 29th of September when for certain dayes foregoing the Country hereabout was so vexed with perpetual Earthquakes as no one house was left so intire as not to expect an immediate ruine After that the Sea had retired two hundred paces from the thoar leaving abundance of Fish and Springs of fresh-water rising in the bottom this Mountain visibly ascended about the second hour of the night with an hideous roaring horribly vomiting stones and such store of cinders as overwhelmed all the buildings hereabout and the salubrious Baths of Tripergula for so many ages celebrated consumed the Vines to Ashes killing Bird and Beasts The fearful inhabitants of Putzol flying through the dark with their wives and children naked defiled crying out and detesting their calamities Manifold mischiefs had they suffered by the Barbarous yet none like this which Nature inslicted But hear we it describ'd by Borgius What gloomy fumes dayes glorious Eye obscure The pitchy Lake effus'd through Sulphury Caves Higher than Aetna's Fire throws flaming waves Hath Phleg'ton broke into Avern with groans Whirling the horrid flouds and rumbling stones The Baian waves resound fresh streams ascend And several wayes their speedy currents bend Misenus lets his Trumpet fall scarce heard Sick Prochyta a second ruine fear'd Loud roarings from Earths smoaking womb arise And fill with fearful groans the darkned Skies A sad sour face doth menace from the West Whence sharper plagues the Latian Towns infest Then furious Winds to Skies huge stones eject Which like a Compass turn'd about erect A round Amphitheatral Flouds of Stone From belching Gulf in Millions straight forth thrown Nor can what they then suffered be ever forgotten having such a testimony still in view as is this strange Mountain advancing his top a mile above his basis The stones hereof are so light and pory that they will not sink when thrown into the water The cause of this accident is ascribed unto the neighbourhood of the Sea and hollowness of the soil whereby easily engendred exhallations being hurried about with a most violent motion do inflame that dry and bituminous matter casting it upward and making way for their fiery expirations To
hath already been inculcated and joyning its fat and humid to the hot and dry lodging under Sulphureous Glebes in the intimate bosoms of the Earth restores that which is consum'd away with an uncessant conception and birth of a new generation But in the external surface by vapours attracted from the Sea and which are fruitful and even big with the said new Geniture or Generation of the Sea it lies within the porous Hives or Cells of the now burnt matter through the Snows Hails Rains mixt with the Dust and Ashes a new Geniture or Conception which in its time the matter being now mature and ripe may at length break forth into great Burnings You see therefore the wonderful and indeficient Circulation of Nature in its operations Corallary III. From these things it follows that the formal cause of the Burnings of this Mountain is the Fire it self The material Sulphur and Salt Nitre Bitumen and the like matters apt to cherish Fires propagated by a perpetual motion from the intimate dark recesses of the Earth and also from the incumbent Sea plying thereon The Instrumental the Gavernous nature of the place and the whole Body or Bulk of the Mountain wholly full of Burrows and hanging together aloft and pois'd of it self and perpetually burdened and oppressed with Sulphureous Smoak and Soot Lastly the efficient cause are Winds and Blasts which flowing out of the most inward Caverns at this kind of vent or issue and as it were at their proper gorges and open jaws exuscitate with certain Bellows as we may so say the dorment Fires to enkindle the matter whatsoever shall be found next Sith all Sicily is wholly bored through with innumerable Caverns and Burrows as was before mention'd Else where we have abundantly demonstrated the wounderful Ragings and Tides of the Sicilian Streight and the alterations of its flux and reslux and also the insatiable force of the devouring gulf of Seylla and Charybdis and how that it depends on the said Mountain being disposed after a wonderful way and manner in Subterraneous Shops and work-houses throughout the universal Islands Of which thing this may be a clear Testimony that Charybdis tumultuating after an unusual manner Aetna also withal rages at the same time being together with it stirred up with the Spirit of Sedition and tumult and the sulphureous dens recieving into themselves the more vehement winds and blasts thereby the combustible matter agitated and puffed no otherwise then as with Smith's Bellows burst forth violently into huge Globes of Flames But other winds blowing Aetna seems to take respit for that the orifices of the passages are plac'd in a contrary way to the current waves and flouds of the Sea and hindred by the neighbour Mountain But at the East and South winds blowing according to the constitution of the channels now Flames sometimes Smoke now and then Embers Sparkles and Flakes But sometimes the Fuel being augmented in it self it wonderfully rages with burnings with a formidable stream and floud of Fire and Brimstone which now and then it is wont to belch forth out of the inmost shops of the aestuaries of fire under ground with an huge destruction and ruine of the subjected Villages Fields Cities and Cattel The forerunners of which are groanings of the Caverns from intercepted and shut-up Spirits Roarings of the Sea joyn'd with trembling of the Earth By all which coming so thick together Nature as it were overpress'd and impatient of bonds breaks open all Prison Doors and Barrs and rushes any way it can get out and like a burning River or Floud consumes not only Fields with the mighty rouling stream wherewith it is poured down but also intire Villages overturns neighbouring Towns and Cities and every where leaving footsteps full of horrour devours Woods Rocks and Mountains and nothing is able to stand in its way Of which things the Monuments of Historians are full We conclude therefore the matter of Subterraneous Fire to be not only Sulphur Bitumen Pit-Coals but also Allom Salt Nitre Coaly Earth and Calcanthum or Vitriol and such kind of Metals For Sulphur and Bitumen do not make the Fire so impetuous as that Fire which subverts Mountains buries Cities in Ashes and the ejectments of Pumices and by an incredible violence belches out stony and Rocky Mountains out of the very Mountains as hath plainly appear'd from what hath preceded But some other thing must needs be adjoyned thereto to perform this effect which we go about to explain I say therefore that the universal matter of Subterraneous Fire ought to be sharp and thick or gross as Sulphureous and Bituminous matter are whereto is joyn'd with a great and necessary alliance of Commerce Salt-peter which having its substance replenished with most tumid spirits and joyn'd to Sulphur and enkindled whilst it finds no exit or vent it exercises that force upon the subterraneous obstacles that lye in its way which a little before we have expounded especially if crude Antimony and Mercurial Spirits be superadded as sufficiently appears from the mighty efficacy of Warlike Guns and Cannons Furthermore the combustible materials they are not found but in Subterraneous Dens of which sort are divers kinds of Stones various species of terrestrial Glebes Metallick Mixtures and Miscellanies of the other Minerals And besides these Salt Allom Salt-peter Salt-Ammoniack and whatsoever is there found even to the very Water it self And even Mountains and huge vast Stones are turned into matter and nutriment of the Fire Then forthwith the matter generated only burns and this being consumed away the Fire is extinguished and changing its station invades another near unto it as comes to pass in Bituminous Earths Then afterwards the consumed matter conceiving new Seeds springs again and a good while after is enkindled which indeed if it be by a sudden generation born again in great plenty as in Aetna Strumbolo the Phlegraean Plains then they will burn with an everlasting Fire But the Generation of such kind of matters is made after this manner The Sea replenished with fatness and unctuosity while it enters the hidden Rooms and Chambers of the Earth by and by nourishes anew the substantial parts of the Mountain extenuated with the Fire and replenishes their substance that hath lost its marrow and strength with a new fatness and if a way lie open into Sulphureous Vaults and Houses under ground the water being driven in will be turn'd into the nutriment of Sulphur If into Bituminous places into the nutriment of Bitumen if into Aluminous veins of Allom And so of the rest the same reason And thus the Substances destroyed by the Fire are repaired almost after the same way that Iron is renew'd again in the Island Elva the Mines for several years lying idle and fallow as it were and as stones which they call Travertine in the Fields of Tivoli But how the said matters should conceive fire was above-said As how indeed scarcely from the Sun not
a youth in the days of King Henry That it was then generally bruited throughout England That Mr. Gresham a Merchant setting sail from Palermo in Sicily where there then dwelt one Antonio called The Rich who at one time had two Kingdoms morgaged unto him by the King of Spain being crossed by contrary winds was constrained to anchor under the Lee of this Island Strombolo Now about mid day when for certain hours it accustomedly forbears to flame he ascended the Mountain with eight of the Sailers and approaching as near the vent as they durst among other Noises they heard a Voice cry aloud Dispatch Dispatch The Rich Antonio is a coming Terrified herewith they descended and anon the Mountain again evaporated fire But from so dismal a place they made all the haste that they could when the wind still thwarting their Course and desiring much to know more of this matter they returned to Palermo and forthwith enquiring of Antonio It was told them that he was dead and computing the time did find it to agree with the very Instant that the Voice was heard by them Gresham reported this at his return to the King and the Mariners being called before him confirmed by Oath the Narration In Gresham himself as this Gentleman said for I no otherwise report it it wrought so deep an impression that he gave over all Traffick distributing his Goods part to his Kinsfolkes and the rest to good and publick uses retaining only a competency for himself and so spent the rest of his Life in a solitary devotion A very ill contrived Story attended with no probable circumstances T is like indeed it might be generally bruited as the Gentleman says among the Vulgar by some that would have had it so but never could obtain general credit among the wiser at least and more knowing much less ever to be recorded because so easily consutable ERRATA Candid Reader IF thou wouldst make true sense of what thou readest thou must needs first correct at least these grosser Errata's which quite and clean pervert it Page 5. line 11. For Stagnete reade Stagnate P. 7. l. 7. Blot out Canary Islands And add to that Section of that Chapter thus much further Historians of these times write also That even Teneriff in the Canary Islands now and then smokes out of the top of its crown and to have sometimes heretofore burnt and vomited I lames The Sulphureous Stones testifie which in great plenty are brought into Spain It abounds also with hot Ba hs and Bituminous l ountains which are manifest tokens of Subrerraneous Fires in those AtlanticklSeas lurking underneath Pag. 8. l. 4. for Vulcano's read Vulcanello's P. 9. l. 1. for Island read Islands P. 10. l. 29. f. Mothern r. Northern P. 23. l. 20. f. Fire Sulphur r. Fir'd Sulphur P. 29. l. 33. f. rarifie r. rarifie P. 32. l. 9. f. Shone 2. shown P. 33. l. 3d from the bottom f. could r. they could P. 36. l. 20 f. discuse r. discusse P. 47 l. 23 and 24. No doubt in stead of 30. and 400 miles it should be 3 and 4 miles though so in our Author P. 48. l. 6 from bottom f Rocks verge r. Rocks verge c. P. 57. l. 3. from bottom f. lies r. lay's P 58. l. 14 from bottom f. Islands r. Island P. 62. l. 14. from bottom f. Memories r. Memoires Besides many lesser faults which are left to thy own discretion in reading From what Signs Subterraneous Fire is gathered The necessity of Subterraneous Fire Fire is no where wanting Vables of Poets allude to Subterraneous Fire The whole Earth is Cavernous The Wedlock of Fire and water within the Earth Subterraneous fire seeks passages for vent The need and use thereof The last general Conflagration of the World Hell in the Center of the Earth according to some The Fire and Waters mutual need and use And need of air and breath as it were Vulcano's are Breathing-Holes of Nature Earthquakes proper Effects of Sub erraneous fire 〈…〉 ano's of 〈◊〉 c. The Vulcanian Mountains of Africa Of America The Vulcan's of Europe Italy abounds with subterraneous fires Of Germany c. Towards the Northern Pole Italy abounds with Subterraneous Fires The Phlegraean Plains All Campania obnoxious to Fires Campagna di Roma springs with Sulphur The swimming Islands of Tivo Burrows of Subterraneous Fire dispersed into various branches Two near Fountains one most hot the other most cold Breathing Orifices of Subterraneous Fire at Petra Mala. Italy heretofore in great part burnt Vnder-ground Commerce of Fires between Italy Sicily c. Of Asia and the Eastern Islands c. Of Africa c. Of America c. Of Europe c. The Wonders of St. Thomas Monastery in Groenland c. An horrible stinking Ditch and Pond A marvellous force of jetting or dartingforth Waters It s height top and bigness The largeness and horrid face of its Crater Paths or tracts of fiery floods or rivers Snow and Ashes co ver its top The new generating of Combustible matter An horendous spectacle of the Aetnean Gulph or Whirlpit A perpetual Eructation of Smoak Sounds and formidable crackling noises Eruptions of Fires in many places An huge Cave or Den. The length breadth of the fiery Torrents The wonderfull works of God In the time of the Janigenae about the year 600. In the time of the Argonauts year 2714. Of Aeneas his Expedition the year 2768 From about 3180 til toward 3600. In the time of the Roman Consuls from about 3440 to â—â—â—â— Of Julius Casar 3900. Of C. Caligula Caesar in the year of Christ 49. About the Martyrdom of St. Agatha In the year 812. In the year 1160 In the year 1284. In the year 1329. 1408 1444 1536. 1554 1633 1650 1669 The formal cause of its burnings The material The instrumental cause The efficient The Mountain ejects Fires according to the Winds What thing that may be which causes so great Ruines of the Mountain