Discourse 2, Chapter 5. That there have been great Charges made in the Superficial Part of the Earth since the General Deluge, and by what Means

I Shall now Discourse a little concerning such Changes as have been made in the Superficial part of the Earth since the Universal Deluge, and of their Causes.

That there have been such I think no sober and intelligent Person can deny, there being so good Authority and Reason to prove it. Plato in his Timaeus tells us, That the Egyptian Priests related to Solon the Athenian Law-giver, who lived about 600 years before our Saviour, that there was of old time without the Straits of Gibraltar a vast Island, bigger then Africa and Asia together, called Atlantis, which was afterward by a violent Earthquake and mighty Flood, and Inundation of Water, in one day and night wholly overwhelmed and drown’d in the Sea. Whence it may be conjectured, that the Old and New World were at first continuous, or by the Intervention of that Island not very far remote from each other.

That the Island of Sicily was of old broken off from Italy by the irruption or insinuation of the Sea is generally believed, and there is some memorial thereof retained in the very name of the City Rhegium, standing upon the Fretum that separates Italy and Sicily, which signifies breaking off. —¹ Zancle quoque juncta fuisse Dicitur Italiae, donec confinia pontus Abstulit, & mediâ tellurem reppulit undâ. In like manner the Island called Euboea now Negroponte, was of old joyned to Greece, and broken off by the working of the Sea.

Moreover, the Inhabitants of Ceylon report that their Island was anciently joyned to the Main-land of India, and separated from it by the force of the Sea.

It is also thought, and there is good ground for it, that the Island of Sumatra was anciently continuous with Malacca, and called the Golden Chersonese: for being beheld from afar, it seems to be united to Malacca.

And to come nearer home, Verstegan affirms, and not without good reason, that our Island of Great Britain, was anciently Continent to Gaule, and so no Island but a Peninsula, and to have been broken off from the Continent, but by what means it is in his judgment altogether uncertain: whether by some great Earthquake, whereby the Sea first breaking through might afterward by little and little enlarge her passage; or whether it were cut by the labour of Man in regard of commodity by that passage: or whether the Inhabitants of one side, or the other, by occasion of War did cut it, thereby to be sequestred and freed from their Enemies.

His Arguments to prove that it was formerly united to France, are, 1. The Cliffs on either side the Sea, lying just opposite the one to the other, that is, those of Dover to those lying between Callice and Bouloin, (for from Dover to Callice is not the nearest Land) being both of one Substance, that is, of Chalk and Flint. 2. The sides of both towards the Sea plainly appearing to have been broken off from some more of the same stuff or matter, that it hath sometime by Nature been fastned to. 3. The length of the said Cliffs along the Sea-shore being on one side answerable in effect to the length of the very like on the other side, that is, about six Miles. And 4. the nearness of Land between England and France in that place; the distance between both, as some skilful Sailers report. not exceeding 24. English Miles.

Some of the Ancients, as Strato, quoted by Strabo in the first Book of his Geography, say, That the Fretum Gaditanum or Strait of Gibraltar, was forcibly broken open by the Sea. The same they affirm of the Thracian Bosphorus and Hellespont, that the Rivers filling up the Euxine Sea, forced a passage that way, where there was none before. And in confirmation hereof, Diodorus Siculus in his Fifth Book gives us an Ancient Story current among the Samothracians, viz. That before any other Floods recorded in Histories, there was a very great Deluge that overflowed a good part of the Coast of Asia, and the lower Grounds of their Island, when the Euxine Sea first brake open the Thracian Bosphorus and Hellespont, and drowned all the adjacent Countries.

This Traditional Story I look upon as very considerable for its Antiquity and Probability, it seeming to contain something of truth. For it’s not unlikely that the Euxine Sea, being over-charged with Waters by extraordinary Floods, or driven with violent storms of Wind, might make its way through the Bosphorus and Hellespent. But it will be objected, That the Euxine Sea doth empty it self continually by the Bosphorus and Hellespont into the Mediterranean, and that if it had not this way of discharge (the Rivers bringing in more than is spent by vapour) it would soon overflow all its shores, and drown the circumjacent Countreys; and so it must have done soon after the Flood; and therefore it is not probable that Samothrace should have been inhabited before that irruption, if any such there were.

To which I answer, 1. That Monsieur Marsilly thinks he hath demonstrated an under-current in the Thracian Bosphorus, by means of which the Euxine may receive as much Water from the Mediterranean as it pours forth into it. But because I have already declared my self not to be satisfied of the being and possibility of these undercurrents, I answer, 2. The Annual receipts from the Rivers running into the Euxine, not very much exceeding what is spent in vapour, who knows but that from the time of the General Deluge till the Irruption whereof we are discoursing, the Euxine might yearly enlarge its Bason, and encroach upon the Neighbouring Countreys?

Natural Historians give us an account of new Islands raised up in the Sea: Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. 2. cap. 87. enumerates. Delos and Rhodes Islands of note; and of less account and later emersion Anaphe beyond Melos, and Nea between Lemnos and the Hellespont: Alone between Lebedos and Teos, and among the Cyclades, Thera and Therasia, Olymp. 135. An. 4. [which last, or one of the same name, Seneca saith was raised, himself beholding it, nobis spectantibus enata:] Among the same after 130 years Hiera, and two Furlongs distant in his own time, when Iunius Syllanus and L. Balbus were Consuls, Thia. But the most considerable and remarkable mutations that have been made in the Earth have been on the Sea-coasts, either by carrying on the Land into the Lea, and atterrating the bottom of the Sea; or by drowning the Lands near the Sea, by Irruptions and Inundations thereof, or undermining or washing away the shores.

Of the first sort of Change by Atterration, or making the Sea dry Land, we have an eminent Instance in the Dutch Netherlands, which, I easily consent with Verstegan, so far as they are even and plain without any Hills, have undoutedly heretofore in time long past, been Sea; as appears 1. From the lowness of their situation, some of the more Maritime Parts of them, as Zealand and Holland, and part of Flanders, being so low, that by breach or cutting of the Sand Banks or Downs, which the Sea by little and little hath cast up, and the labour of Man here and there supplied, might easily be drowned and converted into Sea again: and of the great harms that these Parts have heretofore by the Irruption of the Sea sustained. But now not only those low Places that adjoyn upon the Sea, as Holland and Zealand, but the greater part of Flanders and Brabant, though they lye not so low as they, but of such height as no Inundation of the Sea can any whit annoy them, though the Sand-Banks and Downs on the Sea-side were never so much broken or cut through, yet are they as even and level as even Holland and Zealand themselves, which is a sufficient demonstration, that they were once covered with Water. For that Water will thus level Ground, it often runs over, is clear from Meadows, and from the bottom of the Sea discovered at Low-water; and we have Experience of no other Cause that doth or can effect it. And therefore Lewis Guicciardine erroneously argues Hubert Thomas Secretary to Count Frederick Palatine of the Rhine of a Mistake, for saying in his Description of the Country of Liege, that the Sea hath come up even to Tongres Walls, now well nigh an hundred English Miles from the Sea: among other good Reasons, alledging for the proof thereof, that the great Iron-rings are there yet remaining, unto which the Ships that there sometimes arrived were fastned. I say erroneously, seeing all the Countreys between that and the Sea are level, and of an equal Superficies, without any Hills or Risings. 2. This appears not only from the great plainness and evenness of the Ground, but in that the Soil generally both in Flanders and Brabant is sandy; whence it seems naturally to follow, that those Countreys were anciently the Flats, Sands, or shores of the Sea. 3. In that digging about two Fathom more or less deep in the Earth innumerable shells of Sea-fish are found, and that commonly in all places both of Field and Town; and in many places the great Bones of Fishes.

Further (saith Verstegan) it is to be noted, that albeit digging deep in the Earth in Brabant and Flanders, great abundance of shels and bones of Fishes are to be found; yet digging in the Earth in Holland and Zealand, none at all are perceived; howbeit on the Sands on the Sea-shore there are very many. The reason whereof may be because those parts have been in time long past part of the depth of the Sea: and the parts aforesaid of Brabant and Flanders the flats or shore; and on the flats, and not in the depths, such kind of Shell-fish are naturally nourished. This is a very plausible account. But yet it hath been by experience found, that if you dig deep enough, even in Holland it self, after many floors of several sorts of Earth, you will at last come to Beds of shells. For Varenius tells us, that sinking a Well in Amsterdam, after many beds or layers of Earth, Sand, Turf, &c. at an hundred foot depth they came to a bed of Seasand mixt with Cockle-shells of four foot thickness, which doubtless was of old time the bottom of the Sea, and all the other beds above it were brought down partly by Floods subsiding and settling there, partly by the working of the Sea spreading beds of Sand upon the layers of the Earth, and so interchangeably. But from this Experiment it doth appear, that however deep the Sea were thereabouts, yet it was not too deep to breed or harbour shell-fish.

Another great instance of Change made in the Superficies of the Earth by atterration is in our own Country, the great level of the Fens running through Holland in Lincolnshire, the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, and Marshland in Norfolk. Which that it was sometime part of the Sea, and atterrated by Land brought down by Floods from the upper Grounds, seems to me evident, in that it is near the Sea, and in that there is thereabout a concurrence of many great Rivers which in Flood-times by the abundance of mud and silt they bring down there subsiding, have by degrees raised it up: and thirdly in that the whole Country is exactly level, like the bottom of the Sea; it being (as I have already said) the nature of the Water flowing over the Earth in time to level and bring to a plain all places that are soft and yielding, and not rocky, as is seen in Meadows, and in the bottom of the Sea discovered at Low-water.

A third Instance is the Craux in Provence in France, anciently called Campus Lapideus, of which Pliny saith it was Herculis praeliorum memoria; and Strabo out of Aeschylus gives us a Poetical Fable, that the stones were rained down by Iupiter in favour of Hercules when he wanted Darts, that he might cast them at the Ligurian Army, and thereby break and scatter it. Posidonius thinks it was once a Lake, which by fluctuation dried up; and so the stones came to be equally dispersed over the bottom of it. That it was a very ancient thing, is clear, having its original in the fabulous times before any Memoirs of true History: it continues to this day such a kind of place as it was in Strabo’s time. It appears so evidently to any one who hath viewed and considered it, to have been once part of the Sea, from its being exactly level, and strowed all over with stones, as I have observed the bottom of the Sea in many places to be, that there is not the least reason to doubt of it.

The River Arnus in Tuscany now falleth into the Sea six Miles below Pisa: whereby it appeareth, (saith Dr. Hakewil) that the Land hath gained much upon the Sea in that Coast, for that Strabo in his time reporteth, it was but twenty Furlongs (that is, but two Miles and an half) distant from the Sea.

I might to these add many other Instances of Atterrations out of Strabo in his first Book; as about the Outlets of Ister the places called Stethe and the Deserts of Scythia: about those of Phasis the Sea-coast of Colchis, which is sandy, and low and soft. About Thermodon and Iris all Themiscyra, the plain of the Amazons, and the most part of Sidene.

To omit the whole Land of Egypt, which probably was covered originally with the Sea, and raised up by the mud and silt brought down by the Nile in its Annual Floods subsiding there, as I shall have occasion to shew afterwards.

Moreover, Varenius rationally conjectures that all China, or a great part of it, was originally thus raised up and atterrated, having been anciently covered with the Sea: for that that great and impetuous River, called the Yellow or Saffron River, coming out of Tartary, and very often, though not at anniversary seasons, overflowing the Countrey of China, is said to contain in it so much Earth and Sand, as make up a third part of its Waters. The evenness and level Superficies of this whole Country of China render this Conjecture the more probable.

In fine, the like Atterrations appear to have been made about the Mouths of Indus and Ganges in the East-Indies, and the River de la Plata in America: and the Rhodanus in France; and doubtless most other great Rivers throughout the whole World.

To all which if we add the spatious Plains that are on each side most great Rivers from their Mouths many Miles up their Channels, as may be observed in the Thames and Trent in England, which probably were at first Sinuses of the Sea, landed up by Earth brought down from the Mountains and upper Grounds in times of Floods; it will appear that in this respect there hath been a very great Change made in the Terraqueous Globe, the dry Land much enlarged, and the Sea straitned and cut short.

But you will say, Hath there been no compensation made for all this: Hath not the Sea other-where gained as much as it hath lost about the Mouths of the Rivers? If not, then the Sea will in time be so far landed up, or straitned till it be compelled to return again, and overflow the whole Earth.

To which I answer, That where the shores are Earthy or Argillaceous, or Gravelly, or made of any crumbling and friable matter, the Sea doth undermine and subvert them, and gain upon the Land; which I could prove by many Instances, some of which I shall afterward touch. But whether the Sea doth in these places gain proportionably to what it loses in the fore-mentioned, according to the Vulgar Proverb, is to me some what questionable.

To proceed now to discourse a little concerning the Changes that have been made by the Irruptions and Inundations of the Sea, or by its undermining and washing away the shores.

That there have been of old great Floods, and much Land laid under Water by Inundations of the Sea, is clear, many such being recorded in History.

The most ancient of all, next to the general Deluge in the days of Noah, viz. that of Ogyges King of Boetia, or rather Attica, seems to have been of this nature: So doth that of a great part of Achaia in Peloponnesus, wherein the Cities of Bura and Helice were overwhelmed and laid under Water.

Cambden out of Gyraldus reports, That anciently a great part of Pembrokeshire ran out in the form of a Promontory towards Ireland; as appears by that Speech of King William Rufus, That he could easily with his Ships make a Bridge over the Sea, so that he might pass on foot from thence to Ireland. This Tract of Ground being all buried in deep Sands during the Reign of King Henry the Second, was by the violence of a mighty storm so far uncovered, that many stumps of great Trees appeared fastned in the Earth: Ictúsque securium tanquam hesterni (saith Giraldus) and the strokes of the Axes in them, as if they had been cut but yesterday; ut non littus jam, sed lucus esse videretur, mirandis rerum mutationibus; so that now it made shew of a Wood rather than of a Strand; such is the wonderful Change of all things.

In the time of King Henry the First of England there happened a mighty Inundation in Flanders, whereby a great part of the Country was irrecoverably lost, and many of the poor distressed People, being bereft of their Habitation, came into England; where the King in compassion of their Condition, and also considering that they might be beneficial to his Subjects, by instructing them in the Art of Clothing, first placed them about Carlisle in the North, and after removed them into South-Wales, where their Posterity hath ever since remained.

In the Year 1446. there perished 10000 People by the breaking in of the Sea at Dordrecht in Holland, and thereabouts; and about Dullart in Friesland, and in Zealand, above 100000 were lost, and two or three hundred Villages drowned, some of their Steeples and Towers, when the Tide is out, still appearing above water.

Mr. Carew of Antony in his Survey of Cornwal, affirmeth, That the Sea hath ravened from that Shire the whole County of Lioness. And that such a County there was he very sufficiently proves by many strong Reasons. Camden in his Britannia reports out of ancient Records, That upon the Kentish Coast, not far from Thanet, is a sandy dangerous place, (which the Inhabitants call Goodwyns Sands) where an Island (being the Patrimony of Earl Goodwyn) was swallowed up in the Year 1097.

But the greatest Change of this kind that ever was made (if it be true) was the submersion of the vast Island of Atlantis, whereof we have already spoken.

As for the Changes that have been made by undermining and washing away the shores, they have been partly the diminishing of the Land, and partly the raising up of several Islands not far from the shores. So the Baltick Sea hath invaded the shores of Pomerania, and destroyed a famous Marttown called Vineta. So the ancient Borough of Donewich in Suffolk is almost quite eaten away and ruined by the Encroachments of the Sea. And it is said that the Ocean hath cut off twenty Miles from the North part of the Island of Ceylan in India; so that it is much less at this day than formerly it was. And many the like Examples there are. And for the raising up of Islands near the shore, very likely it is that the Sea continually preying upon the shore, and washing away abundance of Earth from thence, cannot carry it far to any great distance from the shores, but lets it fall by little and little in their Neighbourhood: which subsiding or settling continually for some Ages, at last the heaps ascend up to the very Superficies of the Water, and become Islands. Hence in the middle of the Ocean, there are no Islands, or but a very few, because those parts are too remote from the shores for any Earth washed from thence to be carried thither; and if it were, yet the Sea thereabout is too deep to have any heap raised in it so high: besides, the motions of the Water in those depths, were there Earth enough, would overthrow any heap before it could be advanced any thing near the top. But all Islands in general, a very few excepted, are about the shores, or not far from the shores of the great Continents. Which thing is especially to be remarked in all the great heaps or swarms of numerous Islands, they being all near to the Continents; those of the Aegean Sea to Europe and Asia; the Hesperides to Africa; and the Maldivae, (which are thought to amount to eleven thousand) to India: only the Flandricae or Azores seem to be situate in the middle of the Ocean, between the Old and New World.

Besides these Changes about the Seacoasts, by the prevailing of the Land upon the Sea, in some places, and the Sea upon the Land in others, the whole Continents seem to suffer a considerable mutation by the diminution, and depression or sinking of the Mountains, as I shall have occasion to shew afterward in the third Discourse.

Aelian in his eighth Book, cap. 11. telleth us, that not only the Mountain Aetna, but Parnassus and Olympus did appear to be less and less to such as sailed at Sea, the height thereof sinking. Of this lowring and diminution of the Mountains I shall not say much in this place, but taking it for granted at present; only in brief intimate the Causes of it, assigned by that learned Mathematician Iosephus Bla[…]canus, which are partly Rainwater, and partly Rivers, which by continual fretting by little and little, wash away and […]at out both the tops and sides and feet of Mountains, and fill up the lower places of the Valleys, making the one to encrease, and the other to decrease; whereby it appears (saith Dr. Hakewil) that what the Mountain loseth the Valley gains; and consequently, that in the whole Globe of the Earth nothing is lost, but only removed from one place to another; so that in process of time the highest Mountains may be humbled into Valleys: and again (which yet I will not allow him) the lowest Valleys exalted into Mountains. He proceeds, Anaxagoras (as Diogenes Laertius reports in his Life) being demanded what he thought, Whether the Mountains called Lapsaceni would in time be covered with Sea? answered Yes, unless time it self fail; which answer of his seems to confirm the opinion of Blancanus De Mundi fabrica, cap. 4. where he maintains, That if the World should last long enough, by reason of this continual decrease of the Mountains, and the levelling of the Valleys, the Earth would again be overslown with Waters, as at first it was.

Beside these more eminent and remarkable Changes, which in process of time, after a long succession of many Ages, threaten some great effect; indeed no less then a reduction of the World to its primitive state before the separation of the Land and Water. There have been many other lesser mutations made either by Earthquakes and Eructations of burning Mountains, or by great Floods and Shots of Rain, or by violent or tempestuous Winds and Hurricans, some whereof are mentioned by Naturalists and Historians, Strabo, Pliny, Seneca, Ovid, and others.

For Earthquakes, Posidonius, quoted by Strabo, in his first Book, writes, That there was a City in Phoenicia, situate above Sidon, swallowed up by an Earthquake, and that almost two thirds of Sidon it self fell therein, though not suddenly and all at once, so that there was no great destruction or slaughter of men happened. The same extended almost over all Syria, though not violently, and reached as far as some of the Cyclades Islands; and Euboea, where the Fountains of Arethusa in Chalcis were stopped up by it, and after many days broke forth again at another source: neither did it cease to shake the Island by parts, till the Earth opening in the Field Lelantus vomited out of a River of fiery Clay.

The same Strabo tells us, That Democles mentions huge Earthquakes of old in Lydia and Ionia, extending as far as Troas, by which many Villages were swallowed up, and Sipylus overthrown when Tantalus reigned, and great Lakes made of Fens.

And that Duris saith, That the Rhagades Islands by Media were so called from the Lands about the Caspiae Portae being torn and broken by Earthquakes, so that many Cities and Villages were overthrown, and several Rivers received alterations.

And Demetrius Calatianus relating the Earthquakes that happened throughout Greece, writes, That a great part of the Lichades Islands and Cenaeus had been drowned thereby; and that the hot Baths at Aedepsus and in Thermophylae, having been stopt for three days, slowed again, and those of Aedepsus from new Sources. That the Wall of Oreus on the Sea-side, and seven hundred Houses, were thrown down; and a great part of Echinus and Heraclea Trachinia; but the whole building of Phalarnus was overturned from the very Soil or Plain of it; the like happened to the Larians and Lariss[…]aus; and that Scarphia was utterly demolished and subverted from the very foundations, and not fewer then 1700 Persons over-whelmed and buried; and more then half that number of the Thronii.

Pliny in his first Book, chap. 84. tell us, that in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar, there happened an Earthquake (the greatest that ever was in the memory of Man) wherein twelve Cities of Asia were prostrated in one night.

But what is that to what St. Augustine writes [Lib. 2. De Miraculis SS. cap. 3.] if that Book he his, In famoso quodam terroe motu centum Libyae Vrbes corruisse: That in a famous Earthquake an hundred Cities of Libya were demolished.

The City of Antioch, where the Disciples of Christ were first called Christians, with a great part of Asia bordering upon it, was almost wholly subverted and swallowed up by an Earthquake in Trajan’s time, as Dion Cassius writes; Trajan himself then wintering there.

The same City of Antioch, in the time of Iustinian, in the Year of our Lord 528. was again shaken with a terrible Earthquake, wherein were overwhelmed and buried in the ruins of the Houses above 40000 of the citizens.

And lastly, in the 61 Year after the last mentioned Earthquake, being again shaken by a new one, it lost 60000 of its Inhabitants: Gregory the then Bishop, being by the Divine Favour, and in a manner miraculously preserved, the House wherein he abode falling down presently after his going out of it.

Eusebius and Spartianus make mention of an Earthquake in the Emperour Adrian’s time, wherein Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bithynia, and Nicopolis and Caesarea, Cities of Palaestina were thrown down and ruined.

In the Year 1182. when Saladin set himself to overthrow the Kingdom of Ierusalem, there happened an Earthquake, in which Antiochia, Laodicea, Alapia, Caesarea, Emissa, Tripolis, and other famous Cities, were almost wholly thrown down and destroyed.

To omit many that are recorded in ancient Histories and to come near to our times;

Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope by the Name of […]ius the Second, in a Letter of his to the Emperour Frederick, thus pitifully describes an Earthquake that fell out in his time; Audies ex latore praesentium quàm mirabilia & incredibilia damna fecerit Terraemotus in Reguo Apuliae, nam multa oppida funditus corruerunt, alia magna ex parte collapsa sunt. Neapoli omnes fere Ecclesiae & maxima Palatia ceciderunt, plusquam triginta millia corpora oppressa ruinis traduntur, populus omnis habitat in tentoriis: i. e. You shall understand by the Bearer of these Presents, what wonderful and incredible losses an Earthquake hath wrought in the Kingdom of Apulia; for many Towns are utterly ruined, others for the greatest part fall’n: In Naples almost all their Churches and sair Palaces are overthrown; more then 30000 Persons are said to have been slain, all the Inhabitants dwell in Tents.

This Kingdom of Naples, especially Apulia and Calabria, hath, I think, been oftner shaken, and suffered more by Earthquakes than any other part of Europe. For Cluverius tells us, That in the Year 1629. there were dreadful Earthquakes in Apulia, by which 17000 Men are said to have perished.

And Athanasius Kircher the Jesuite, in the Preface to his Mundus Subterraneus, gives us a sad Narrative of a dismal Earthquake in Calabria, in the Year 1638. wherein himself was, and out of which he hardly escaped with his Life: Nothing to be […]en in the whole Country he passed by for two hundred Miles in length, but the Carcasses of Cities, and the horrible ruins of Villages, the Inhabitants wandring about in the open Fields being half dead with fear and expectation of what might follow. But most remarkable was the subversion of the noted Town of S. Eufemia, which was quite lost out of their sight and absorpt, and instead thereof, nothing left but a stinking Lake. But for a full account thereof I refer the Reader to the said Preface.

Not many years ago the famous City of Ragusa was almost wholly subverted and destroyed by a terrible Earthquake; and Smyrna has lately been demolished by one. From the West-Indies we hear frequently of great Damages done in our Plantations by Earthquakes. The printed Transactions and Journals are full of these great Concussions and Subversions.

This present Year 1692. on the Seventh day of Iune there happened a dreadful Earthquake in the Island of Iamaica which made great Ruins and Devastations throughout the whole Country, but especially in the Capital Town of Port Royal, which was almost swallow’d up and overflow’d, by the sinking of the Earth, and irruption of the Sea: a full Account whereof contained in two Letters, sent from the Minister of the Place, the one dated Iune the 22d, the other the 28th of the same Month, 1692. from aboard the Granada in Port-Royal Harbour, to a Friend of his England, and published by Authority, I shall give the Reader, with some Remarks.

1. He tells us in general, That this Earthquake threw down almost all the Houses, Churches, Sugar-works, Mills and Bridges throughout the whole Island: That it tore the Rocks and Mountains [others tell us, that it levelled some Mountains, and reduced them to Plains] that it destroyed some whole Plantations, and threw them into the Sea; but that Port-Royal had much the greatest share in this terrible Judgment.

2. Then he acquaints us, what for to save the Reputation of the People, and to avoid the laying a perpetual blot upon them, I should rather suppress and conceal, but for the vindication of the Divine Providence and Justice, and to deter others from the like Enormities, I think necessary to publish, That the Inhabitants of that Place were a most ungodly and debauched People, and so desperately wicked, that he was even afraid to continue among them: for that very day this terrible Earthquake was, as soon as night came on, a company of lewd Rogues, whom they call Privateers, fell to breaking open Warehouses and Houses deserted, to rob and ri[…]e their Neighbours, whilst the Earth trembled under them, and some of the Houses […]ell upon them in the Act. [The like Robbers and Plunderers we were told wandered up and down the Country, even in the very smoke, during the last great […]urning and eruption of Aetna in Sicily.] And those audacious Whores that remained still upon the Place, were as impudent and drunken as ever; and that since the Earthquake, when he was on shore to pray with the bruised and dying People, and to Christen Children, he met with too many drunk and swearing. And in his second Letter, he saith positively, That there was not a more ungodly People on the Face of the Earth.

[…] The Account he gives of the Motions and […] of the Earthquake is as follows […] when this Calamity befel the […] very clear, affording […] evil. [This […] Earthquakes, and […] in England. the […] being clear and calm. But […], about half in […] Morning, […] Town in all the English […] might he call it so, […] place of his Letter, […] the Wharf were […] those in […] and Mart or […] in Riches and abounding in all good things, was shaken and shattered to pieces, and covered for the greatest part by the Sea. The Wharf was entirely swallowed by the Sea, and two whole Streets beyond it. Himself, with the President of the Council, being in a House near where the Merchants meet, hearing the Church and Tower fall, ran to save themselves: He having lost the President, made toward Morgan’s Fort, because being a wide open place, he thought to be there […]ecurest from the falling Houses, but as he was going he saw the Earth open, and swallow up a multitude of People, and the Sea mounting in upon them over the Fortifications: Moreover he tells us, That their large and famous Burying place, called the Pallisado’s, was destroyed by the Earthquake; and that the Sea washed away the Carcasses of those that were buried out of their Graves, their Tombs being dashed to pieces by the motion and concussion. That the whole Harbour, one of the fairest and goodliest that ever he saw, was covered with the dead Bodies of People of all Conditions floating up and down without burial. That in the opening of the Earth, the Houses and Inhabitants sinking down together, some of these were driven up again by the Sea which arose in those Breaches, and wonderfully escaped: Some were swallowed up to the neck, and then the Earth shut upon them, and squeezed them to death; and in that manner several were left buried with their Heads above ground, only some Heads the Dogs have eaten, others are covered with Dust and Earth by the People which yet remain in the place, to avoid the stench. So that they conjecture, that by the falling of the Houses, the opening of the Earth, and the inundation of the Waters, there are lost Fifteen hundred persons, and many of good note, as Attorney General Musgrove, Provost Marshal Reeves, Lord Secretary Reeves, &c.

Further he tells us, That after he was escaped into a Ship, he could not sleep all night for the returns of the Earthquake almost every hour, which made all the Guns in the Ship to jar and rattle. And he supposes that the whole Town of Port-Royal will in a short time be wholly swallowed by the Sea: for few of those Houses that yet stand are left whole, and that they heard them fall every day, and that the Sea daily encroached upon them. That they had Accounts from several parts of those Islands of Mischiefs done by the Earthquake. From St. Anns they heard of above 1000 Acres of Woodland changed into Sea, carrying with it whole Plantations. And lastly, That he was told by some, that they still heard bellowings and noises in the Mountains, which made them very apprehensive of an eruption of Fire; which if so, he feared might be more destructive then the Earthquake. [But I think causlesly, (for I never heard or read of any great destruction of Men made by any eruptions of Fire, even out of burning Mountains.]

4. The Account he gives of his own unexpected and strange preservation, take his own words: After I had been at Church reading Prayers, (which I did every day since I was Rector of the Place, to keep up some shew of Religion) and was gone to a place hard by the Church, where the Merchants meet, and where the President of the Council was; who came into my Company, and engaged me to take a Glass of Wormwood Wine as a whet before dinner; he being my very great Friend, I staid with him; upon which he lighted a Pipe of Tobacco, which he was pretty long in taking; and not being willing to leave him before it was out, this detained me from going to dinner to one Captain Ruden’s, whither I was invited; whose House upon the first concussion sunk first into the Earth, and then into the Sea, with his Wife and Family, and some that were come to dine with him: Had I been there I had been lost. But to return to the President, and his Pipe of Tobacco; before that was out I found the ground rowling and moving under my feet, upon which I said to him, Lord! Sir, what is this? He replyed very composedly, being a very grave Man, It is an Earthquake, be not afraid, it will soon be over: but it increased, &c. Then he relates how he went to his own Lodging, and found all things in order there, nothing stirred out of its place, and going into his Balcony to view the Street, he saw never a House down there, nor the ground so much a crackt: And that after he had prayed […] People at their earnest request, and […] them some serious Exhortations to Repentance, in which Exercises he spent near an hour and half, there came some Merchants of the place to him, desiring him to go aboard some Ship in the Harbour and refresh himself, telling him that they had gotten a Boat to carry him off. Whom he accompanied, and passing over the tops of some Houses, which lay levelled with the Surface of the Water, got first into a Canoe, and then into a […]ong Boat, which put himon board a Ship.

5. The last thing I shall take notice of in these Letters, shall be the influence and effect this Judgment had upon the Remainder of the People, to bring them to a sence of their Sins and Repentance for them, and to resolve upon and begin a Reformation and Amendment of their Lives. It is a true saying, Vexatio dat intellectum: In their affliction they will seek me early. The pious inclination of the People appeared in that they were so glad to see their Minister in the midst of this Disaster, and so earnest with him to come down and pray with them when they saw him in the Balcony beforementioned; and that when he came down into the Street, every one laid hold on his Cloaths and embraced him, so that with their fear and kindness he was almost stifled. And that not only at the instant of the Distress, but afterwards when he went a-shore to bury the Dead, and pray with the Sick, and baptize the Children, and preach among them, the People were over-joyed to see him, and wept bitterly when he preached to them. Fear is a more powerful Passion then Love: and whatever creates terrour is a more effectual Curb to restrain and rule Men as well as Children, then any Favours or Benefits the most powerful Motives of Love and Affection: For though the Bonds of Love are called the Cords of a Man, and are indeed very strong ones to rational and ingenuous Persons, yet the greatest part of Mankind are so far degenerated, that they have broken these bonds, and cast these cords from them; and upon trial, one shall find little of Gratitude or Ingenuity among them.

I shall add one or two Remarks upon the precedent Paper.

First, It is very remarkable that the day, when all this befel Port-Royal and the whole Island of Iamaica, was very clear, not affording the least suspicion of any evil: so that the Inhabitants had no warning at all of it, but were surprised of a sudden, without time sufficient to escape and save themselves. For in the short space of three Minutes the Town was shaken and shattered to pieces, and sunk into, and covered for the greatest part by the Sea. In which respect this Judgment resembled those on the Old World and on Sodom, which, the Scripture tells us, were to the People involved in them sudden and unexpected; as also the second coming of Christ, and future Dissolution of the World by Fire is predicted to be.

That the Cause of Earthquakes is the same with that of Thunder, I doubt not, and most learned Men are agreed; that is, Exhalations or Steams set on fire, the one in the Clouds, the other in the Caverns of the Earth; which is sufficiently proved from the great deflagrations and eruptions of Vulcano’s or burning Mountains; they being always either preceded or attended by Earthquakes; and Earthquakes, even here in England, being, as far as I can understand, for the most part accompanied with a noise. But now of what nature this steam is that is thus inflamed, and what causes the accension, I must confess my self not to be yet fully satisfied. That it is at least partly Sulphureous is certain, and well proved by Dr.² Lister from the Sulphureous stink of waters smelt before, and of the very Air it self after them: That it conceives fire of its self, and is not kindled after the manner of Gunpowder by the touch of fire, is as clear, there being no fire praeexisting in the Clouds; but how it should kindle, unless by a colluctation of parts after the manner of fermentations, I cannot conceive. And if so, then the steam must be a dissimilar Body composed of parts of different Natures; else would there be no colluctation, and consequently no accension, the parts friendly conspiring and agreeing in the same motion.

I am not ignorant that water, either in the gross body, or in vapour, may and doth so far work upon some solid Bodies, as for example, Quicklime, Hay in a Mow, the Pyrites or Firestone, &c. as to cause an incalescency and even an accension; but still this is by the discord or contrariety of the parts of water or vapour, and those of the forementioned Bodies meeting and strugling together. So in Tempests of Thunder and Lightning, the fume contain’d in the Clouds, which my honoured Friend Dr. Martin Lyster supposes and proves to be no other then the breath of the Pyrites, encountering with the vapour of water, there may very likely by the concourse and conflict of these two be produced first a great heat, and afterwards an actual fire.

As for Thunder, after the steams inclosed in the Cloud are once inflamed, I conceive the fire goes not out till the end of the Tempest, but when the inflamed matter is so much dilated that the cavity of the Cloud cannot contain it, it rends the Cloud and forces its way through where it is most yielding, so much of the fire escaping at the breach, till the Cloud overcomes the resistance of the remainder, and closes it self again; and continues shut, till there be so much of the Sulphureous steam anew inflamed as to have strength enough to tear it, and break out the second time, which process is repeated, till the whole steam be burnt and consumed, and the fire go out; or till the Cloud be quite condensed and faln down in rain. That this vapour or steam in the Clouds heats gradually before it comes to accension, I think probable, because before any considerable Tempest the Air beneath is sultry (as we call it) that is, suffocatingly hot.

So likewise in the Caverns of the Earth it is not unlikely that the steams or damps that cause Earthquakes before ignition, may be gradually heated by a colluctation of parts; but their accension seems to be very sudden, and in manner of explosion, like that of Gunpowder; the succussion coming unexpectedly without any notice-giving, and being also very transient, and of short continuance. I mean Earthquakes where there are no eructations of fire, such as ours in England are.

There is a sort of Damp which some call a Fire-damp or Fulminating-damp, of which I had the first notice from my honoured Friend Francis Iessop An. 1668. whereof I find a Relation since communicated by him in a Letter to Dr. Lister, published in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 117. and a further Account from him in Answer to some Queries proposed by the Honourable Mr. Boyl in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 119. wherein he writes, That this sort of Damp presently takes fire at the touch of a lighted Candle, or other flaming Matter, and flies out of the mouth of the bink or shaft with a crack like a Gun. He instances in three Persons that had been hurt by it; one in the Coal-mines in Hasleberg Hills, who had his Arms and Legs broken, and his Body strangely distorted by it. A second in those at Wingersworth, who going into a bink, where this kind of Damp was, to fetch some of his Tools, with a Candle in his hand, found himself on a sudden environ’d with flames, so that his face, hands, hair, and a great part of his Clothes were very much burnt. He heard very little noise, but one who was working at the same time in another bink, and those that were above ground heard a very great one, like a clap of Thunder, wherewith the Earth shook; which hearing, they ran in a great amazement to see what the matter was, with their Candles in their hands, which were twice extinguished, but held upon the third Lighting. They saw nothing, but met with an intolerable stench of Brimstone, and an heat as scalding as an Oven half-heated, which made them glad speedily to quit the place. A third at the same place met with the same accident: and he fore-mention’d person happening then to stand at the mouth of the fired bink, was shot forth about two or three yards, and had his head broken and boyd bruised against the further side; the same also a third time incurred the like disaster. That it shot off the Turn at the mouth of the Pit to a considerable height. That they could perceive no smell before the fire, but afterwards a very strong one of Brimstone. That the Damp hung about the top of the bink, and therefore they were for[…]‘d to go with their Candles very low, else it would have taken fire. That the flame would continue in the Vault two or three Minutes, sometimes more after the crack. That he could never hear of any Damps that kindled of themselves. That from the breaking of these Fulminating-damps proceeded a black smoke of the smell and colour of that from Gunpower fired.

This sort of Fire-damp Mr. Beaumont tells us, they have also in some Coal-works bordering on Mendip Hills. See Philosoph. Collect. 1. And Mr. George Sinclair in a Land called Werdy, west of Leith, which even in the day-time is sometimes seen in Coal-works in little holes, shining like kindled Sulphur. But the most strange Fire-damp was that which happen’d at Mostyn in Flintshire at the same time with that at Wingersworth [1675.] which as soon as the Colliers were scanted of Air appeared in the crevisses or slits of the Coal, where water had been before, in a small blewish flame, flashing and darting like Sword-blades from side to side of the Pit: and being kindled, had the same and more violent effects than those of Hasleberg or Wingersworth, leaving a foul ill-sented smoke behind it. In the last there mention’d [philosoph. […] Numb. 136.] firing of it by one who can indiscreetly with his Candle over the Eye of the damp Pit, it flew to and fro over all the hollows of the work with a great wind and mighty roaring, tore the Mens clothes from their backs, findging and […] as also their hair and skins, […] of them 1[…] or 16 yards from […], beating them against the […] Coal and the Posts. As it drew […], it caught one that was […] along with it, and up it comes […] out of the mouth of the […] a terrible crack, not unlike, but […] then a Cannon, so that it was […] fifteen miles off. The Man’s Body, […] things from the Pit, were seen in […] above the tops of the highest Trees […] grew on the […]row of the Hill (eighteen yards above the Pit) more then 100 […] The barrel of an Horse Engine for […] up the Rope of above 1000 pound weight, though fastned to the frame with Locks and Bolts of Iron, together with the Buckets and Rope was thrown up, and carried a good way from the Pit, and pieces torn off from it scattered about the Woods. And lastly the whole frame of the Engine moved out of its place. The whole Relation deserves well to be read.

That which seems to me most strange and Romantick is the motion of the Damp, that as if it had been a living thing, it should fly up with a long sharp flame to lighed Candles set over the Eye of the Pit, and put them out: And yet Mr. Iessop also mentions a like motion in that of Wingersworth; For of, saith he, in the bink where it was, they held their Candles any higher then ordinary, they could see the Damp, which lay near the Roof, to descend like a black Mist, and catch bold of the flame, lengthning it to two or three handfuls.

By these Descriptions, this Damp should seem to be but Gunpowder in a vapour, and to partake the Sulphur, Nitre, and Bitumen, as the Learned Dr. Plot well proves in his Natural History of Staffordshire, C. 3. § 47. to which I refer the Reader. But for the accension of it, whether it ever takes fire of it self, I am in some doubt. Mr. Iessop denies it of those of Hasleberg and Wingersworth; and how far those Relators that affirm it are to be credited, I know not.

If in this particular I were satisfied, I should readily accord with the Doctor, That our Earthquakes in England, and any others that have but one single Pulse, owe their Original to the kindling and explosion of Firedamps.

You will say, That fire is the cause of Thunder we readily grant, because we see it plentifully discharged out of the Clouds: but what reason have we to think so of this sort of Earthquakes, where we see no lightning or eruption of fire at all? What becomes of the inclosed flame?

In answer hereto, I demand, what becomes of it in the open Air? It diffuses it self through the Caverns of the Earth, till the deflagration be made, and is there dissipated and dissolved into Fume and Ashes. It breaks not forth, I conceive, because by reason of the depth of the Caverns wherein it is lodged, it is not able to overcome the resistance of the incumbent Earth, but is forced Quà data porta ruere, to make its way where it finds easiest passage through the strait Cuniculi of the Earth: as in a Gun the inflamed Powder, though if it were at liberty, and found equal resistance on every side, it would spread equally every way; yet by reason of the strength and firmness of the Mettal, it cannot tear the Barrel in pieces, and so break out; but is compelled to fly out at the muzzel, where it finds an open, though strait passage. For the force of flame, though very great, is not infinite.

It may be further objected, We hear not of any eruption of fire at Port-Royal, or elsewhere in this Island, and yet the Earth open’d, and the roofs of the Caverns fell in, therefore fire could not be the cause of this Earthquake; for if it had, at those apertures and rifts of the ground, it must needs have issued forth and appeared abroad.

To which I answer, That the Vaults and Cavities wherein the inflamed Matter was imprisoned and the explosion made, lay deep in the Earth, and were covered with a thick and impenetrable Coat of hard stone, or other solid matter which the fire could not tear, but that above this coat there were other superficial hollows in a more loose and crumbling Earth, which being not able to sustain the shock, and hold out against the impetuous agitations of the Earthquake, the roofs might yield, open, and subside, as we hear they did, and give way to the Sea to rush in and surmount them.

You will reply, This may be a tolerable account of our English Earthquakes, which are finished at one explosion, but what shall we say to those of Iamaica, which like a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning in the Clouds, have (as we learn by this Relation) several Paroxysms or Explosions, and yet no discharging of fire?

To which I answer, That I conceive the Caverns of the Earth wherein the inflamed Damps are contained, are much larger there then ours in England; and the force of the fire joyned with the elatery of the Air being exceeding great, may of a sudden heave up the Earth, yet not so far as to rend it in sunder, and make its way out, but is forced to seek passage where it finds least resistance through the lateral Cuniculi. So the main Cavern being in a great measure emptied, and the exteriour parts of the extended matter within cooling and shrinking, the Earth may subside again, and reduce the Cavern to its former dimensions. Yet possibly there may not be a perfect defiagration and extinction of the fire, and so new Damps ascending out of the Earth, and by degrees filling the Cavern, there may succeed a second inflamation and explosion, and so a third, and fourth, till the steams be quite burnt up and consumed. But in this, I confess, I do not satisfie my self. They who have a more comprehensive knowledge of all the Phoenomena, may give a better account.

But as for those Earthquakes that are occasioned by the burnings of Vulcano’s, they are, I conceive, of a different nature. For in them the fire burns continually, and is never totally extinct, only after the great eruptions, in which, besides smoke and fire, there is an ejection of abundance of Ashes, Sand, Earth, Stones, and in some floods of melted Materials, the raging is for a time qualified; but the fire still continuing, and by degrees increasing in the combustible matter it finds in the hollows of the Mountains, at last swells to that excess, that it melts down Metals and Minerals where it meets with them, causing them to boil with great fury, and extending it self beyond the dimensions of the Cavities wherein it is contained, causes great succussions and tremblings of the Earth, and huge eruptions of smoke, and casts out such quantities of Ashes, Sand and Stones as we just now mentioned: and after much thunder and roaring by the allision and repercussion of the flame against and from the sides of the Caverns, and the ebullition and volutation of the melted Materials, it forces out that boiling matter either at the old mouths, or at new ones, which it opens where the incumbent Earth is more thin and yielding. And if any water enters those Caverns, it mightily encreaseth the raging of the Mountain. For the fire suddenly dissolving the water into vapour, expands it to a vast dimension, and by the help thereof throws up Earth, Sand, Stones, and whatever it meets with. How great the force of water converted into vapour is, I have sometimes experimented by inadvertently casting a Bullet in a wet mold, the melted Lead being no sooner poured in, but it was cast out again with violence by the particles of water adhering to the mold suddenly converted into vapour by the heat of the Metal.

Secondly, The People of this Plantation being generally so ungodly and debauched in their lives, this Earthquake may well be esteemed by this Gentleman, the Minister of Port-Royal, a Judgment of God upon them.

For though it may be a servile complaint, and popular mistake, that the former imes were better than these, and that the World doth daily degenerate, and grow worse and worse. Aet as parentum pejor avis tulit hos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem. For had this been true, Vice would long before this time have come to the height and greatest possible excess: and this Complaint hath been made as well in the best as worst of times. Though I say this be partly an errour, yet I do verily believe, that there are certain times when Iniquity doth abound, and Wickedness overflow in a Nation or City; and that long Peace and Prosperity, and great Riches, are apt to create Pride and Luxury, and introduce a general Corruption of Manners: And that at such times God usually sends some sweeping Judgment, either utterly destroying such a People who have filled up the measure of their iniquity, or at least grievously afflicts and diminishes them. So when in the old World the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, Gen. 6. 5. And the earth was corrupt before God, and filled with violence, all flesh having corrupted their ways, vers. 11. & 12. God brought in the Flood, and drowned them all. The like vengeance we find executed on the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha after such a monstrous height of wickedness as the Inhabitants were generally arrived at. And we shall find it noted by Historians, That before any great publick Calamity or utter Excision of a Nation, the People were become universally vicious and corrupt in their Manners, and without all fear of God or sence of Goodness. For God doth not stand by as an idle and unconcerned Spectator, and suffer things to run at random; but his Providence many times interposes, and stops the usual course and current of Natural Causes: Nay, I believe and affirm, That in all great and notable Revolutions and Mutations he hath the greatest hand and interest; himself ordering and governing them by his special Superintendence and influence. So though the Instruments and Materials wherewith this devastation in Iamaica was made, as a subterraneous fire and inflamable materials, were before in the Earth, yet that they should at this time break forth and work, when there was such an inundation of wickedness there, and particularly and especially at Port-Royal, this we may confidently say, was the finger of God, and effected perchance by the ministery of an Angel.

Moreover, This Relator’s being called aside, and stopped from going to a place, whither if he had then gone he had certainly perished, we have good reason to think an effect of Providence, designing thereby his preservation; as Gregory the Bishop of Antioch his going out of the House wherein he abode immediately before it fell down, was rationally thought to be in respect of him.

But to proceed; I should now have done concerning Earthquakes, it being my design only to take notice of such as have made considerable mutations in the superficial part of the Earth, passing by those, which after a short trembling and succussion have left the Earth as they found it, making no alteration at all therein. But at the very time this sheet of Earthquakes was Composing, there happening a notable one, though of this latter kind, in our own Country, I was partly by the coincidence of it, with the composure before-mentioned, partly at the request of the Bookseller, induced to make some mention of it, and add what I knew or could learn of its History; which is indeed very little and inconsiderable, we having as yet but a very lame and imperfect account of the Accidents of it.

As for the time when it happened, it was the 8th of September 1692. about 4 Minutes past Two of the Clock in the Afternoon, as was observed at London; hereabouts I can hear of no body that was so critical in noting the time, only they agree that it was about Two of the Clock. Had we a punctual and exact notice of the very Minute that it happened in far distant places, we might thence gather something concerning the motion and progress of it. However it is remarkable that it happened in the Autumn, one of the Seasons in which Aristotle tells us such effects are most frequent, the other being the Spring; and likewise in the Month of September; in the which that about Oxford in the Year 1683. fell out: and moreover in a wet Season, as that also did; though the Forenoon of the day was clear and fair, yet in the Afternoon, when the Earthquake was past it rained hard till Night, the whole precedent Summer (to this I mean) having been cold and wet: which what influence it can have toward the production of an Earthquake, unless by stopping the Pores of the Earth, and hindring the evaporation of those sulphureous steams, which are the efficients of it, I know not, The same Night succeeded some strokes of Thunder and Flashes of Lightning both here and at London, and since then we have had great storms of Wind. I might have taken notice, that for some Mornings before we had smart Frosts for the time of the Year.

Since this was written and sent away in order to printing, I am advis’d by Letter from my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson, that this Earthquake was not confin’d to some Counties of England, as Middlesex, Essex, Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, &c. but spread far into Foreign Parts; an Account whereof I shall give you in the Doctor’s own words. The Concussion or Vibration of our late Earthquake was felt in most parts of the Dutch and Spanish Netherlands, as also in Germany and France: It affected places most upon the Sea-Coasts, and near the great Rivers as Zealand, Cologn, Mentz, and the Bridge of London. It went not beyond 52 Degrees and 40 Minutes of Northern Latitude; how far it reach’d to the South and East, is not yet certainly known for want of good Intelligence, we have already traced it beyond Paris to the 48 degree of N. Latitude, and beyond the Rhine on the East to Francfort; so that we know at present of 260 Miles square shaken by it. The motions of some Machines were very sensibly stop’t or retarded by the Choc, especially Pendulums; and there were some alterations in the Air (as to its smell, spring, and gravity) both before and after. The time of its happening here in England, and beyond the Seas, seems to vary some Minutes, but that may easily be accounted for by the difference of Meridians. Thus far the Doctor. Dat. Septemb. 22.

The duration or continuance of it (as I am informed by some curious and attentive Observers) about London was about Two Minutes; here not so long.

The manner of the motion, as I am assured by my Learned and Ingenious Friend and Neighbour Mr. Allen, Physitian in Braintree, who had it from several intelligent and observant Persons hereabouts, and that lived in distant places, was first a manifest heaving upwards, and after that a trembling, or vibration, or agitation to and fro. So that in the first respect, its motion seemed to resemble that of the Blood in an Artery stretching the Channel as it passed.

The motion of it was most considerable upon Hills and in Valleys.

The effect it had upon those who were sensible of it was a swimming or dizziness in their Heads, and this was general upon all. In some it affected their Stomacks, and created a loathing and inclination to vomit: Some of the tenderer Sex found in themselves such a disposition as they have had before a swooning fit. All which must be the effects either of the heaving or tremulous motion, or both; and yet no motion of Boat or Coach doth so suddenly affect and disturb the Head or Stomack.

Lastly, It was attended with a noise, as our Earthquakes generally in England are, as is observed by Mr. Pigot in that of Oxford in the Year 1683. and by my self when I lived in Sutton […]field, in […] that happen’d there in the Winter time as I remember in the Year 1677 and extended at least 40 Miles in length into Worcestershire. The noise I heard seem’d to be in the Air. This noise hereabouts was heard but in few places, and by few persons, but yet I am well assured by some, and those of the Vulgar and Ignorant sort, who reported it of themselves, having no reason to seign it, and who had never heard that any such thing accompanied Earthquakes.

From many of the fore-mentioned particulars it may be collected, That the Caverns in which the inflamed Damp causing this Earthquake was contained, lye deep in the Earth, else could it not have shook such a vast extent of Ground, both Hills and Valleys, passing under the Channels of great Rivers, and even Creeks of the Sea, and not being stop’t by them; and if it had not lain deep, it would in all likelyhood some where or other have rent the Earth, and broken forth. And yet notwithstanding the depth, it should seem it found so much vent as to affect the external Air, and create a sound: for if the Caverns wherein the Damp was had been close shut up with such a thick Coat of Earth, I doubt whether the trembling and vibration of the soft Earth alone would have produced such a noise abroad in the Air; and the vapour of it also made a shift to struggle through the Pores of the Earth into the open Air, in such quantity as to affect the sence; a sulphurous scent having been observed in the Air both before and after the Concussion.

It is moreover very remarkable, That there were some particular spots which were not at all stirred in those Countreys where the places not far distant round about were shaken; as Sturbridge-Fair before remembred, and that where my Dwelling is; neither my self, nor any of my Family, though they were above stairs, nor any of our near Neighbours being sensible of the least motion or impression of it, and yet those living within less then half a mile had their Houses considerably shaken by it.

It is also worth the noting, That both this, and all other Earthquakes I have heard or read of in England, have been very short, and finished at one explosion; which is an argument that the Cavities and Cuniculi, wherein the enflamed matter is contained and moves, are very strait and of small dimensions. Explosion I call it, because by the quickness of the motion it seems rather to resemble that of Powder in a Gun, then that of a Squib running in a Train of Powder. Though others I have read of whose motion was very slow; as that observed by the Honourable Mr. Boyl, and described in the Philosophical Transactions, Numb. 11. Had we certain knowledge where the greatest force of this Earthquake was, we might thence learn where its first accension was, and which way it spread it self. But I have not time to enlarge further concerning it, or to give an account of all its Phoenomena, lest I injure the Printer by stopping the Press: neither indeed would it be prudence to attempt it, till we have a more particular and perfect History of it.

Since this was written and sent away to the Printer, intelligence is come from beyond the Seas, that Flanders and all Holland, part of France and Germany, were shaken by this Earthquake, and consequently the interjacent Provinces, which is a clear demonstration of our Opinion, That the inflamed Damp, which caused it, was lodged deep in the Earth, the Cuniculi or Caverns which contained it passing under the very bottom of the Sea. It is also a great confirmation of what we have delivered concerning the Mountains of Aetna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius communicating by Submarine passages. Add hereto, that Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius reports, That at the Mountain Semo in Aethiopia, there happened a burning at the same time with that of Vesuvius in Campania, viz. in the Year 1633. So that not only Vesuvius communicates with Aetna by subterraneous Vaults, but also (as he rationally infers) Aetna with the Mountains of Syria, the Tunnels running under the depths of the Mediterranean Sea, and those with the Arabian, and lastly the Arabian with Mount Semo in Aethiopia.

That an inflamed Damp or subterraneous Fire is the cause of all Earthquakes in general, and not only such as precede the eruptions of Vulcano’s, may be proved by an eminent instance of an Earthquake happening May 12. 1682. which shook the greatest part of France and Switzerland, and reach’t as far as Collen in Germany: an Account whereof we have in the Iournal des Scavans set forth Iune 1. 1682. inserted in the Weekly Memorials printed for Mr. Faithorne, Numb. 23. In which they write, That it was perceived in Lionnois, (which was wont […] pass for a place exempt from such Accidents) in P[…]phiny and Beaujolois, though very […], and without any ill consequence. That at Mets in Lorrain the Watch-place of a Bulwark was thrown down into the […], with the Soldier that stood Sentinel […]

That at Tonnerre the Houses and Churches were so terribly shaken, as if several Coaches with six Horses had driven along full speed through the Streets; and that it threw down several Rocks on the side of Bourbirant. They tell also that it stop’t a Fountain at Raviere hard by (which at fifty paces from its head turns a Mill) for half an hour.

That it was perceived in Provence by the shaking of Windows and Beds, and opening of Doors, and that it had two several motions or pulses, as ours also was by some observed to have: and that the Domestick Animals, as Sheep, Cows, Horses, and Poultry did discover their fear by unusual motions and cries. And the Sheep at Dijon in Burgundy could not be stopt from getting into their Stalls at four of the Clock in the Afternoon, which were not then wont to betake themselves thither till Sun-set.

That the Cities of Orleans, Troyes, Sens, Chalons, Ioinville, Reims, Soissons, Laon, Mascon, Dole, Strasbourg, &c. felt the Effects of it.

But at Remiremont upon the Moselle, where it exerted its greatest force, throwing down several Houses, insomuch that the Inhabitants were forced to betake themselves into the Fields for six weeks time; there was a noise heard like Thunder, and flames frequently broke out of the Earth of a noisome scent, but not Sulphureous, and which burnt nothing, yet was there no rift or chap in the ground, save only in one place, the depth whereof was in vain search’t, and which afterwards closed up. And before this Earthquake also flames appeared for 4 days upon a Mountain near Geneva.

It is very strange and remarkable that the flames that issued out were of the nature of an Ignis fatuus, and burnt nothing; and that (as Monsieur Colbert writes) the Earthquake raged every Night, and never in the Day-time.

Concerning Earthquakes, I shall only add two Observations.

1. That it is not likely that they spend all their strength upon Cities, but do indifferently shake, break in sunder, and throw down Mountains and Rocks; and seeing few Cities there are but have been shaken, and many ruined and subverted by them, and levelled with the Ground; there is good reason to think, that few Rocks or Mountains have escaped their Fury, but have suffered the like Concussions and Alterations.

2. That the Changes that have hitherto happened in the Earth by Earthquakes have not been so considerable as to threaten a dissolution of the present System of the Terraqueous Globe, should there be a like succession of them to Eternity. Unless we will except that unparall’d universal one, which happened in the days of Valentinian the first (which we have already mention’d) by which the whole known World, both Land and Sea, and its like the then unknown too, were violently shaken; which might seem to be a Prelude to the future Conslagration or Destruction of the whole by such a confusion and dashing in pieces of all the parts of it one against another, as the Stoicks speak of.

Of the Effects of burning Mountains or Vulcanos, I have already said something, and shall afterwards, have occasion to say more. In brief, 1. They cast forth out of their Mouths, and scatter all over the Country, sometimes to a very great distance, abundance of Sand and Ashes. Dion Cassius reports, that in that noted deflagration of Vesuvius in the time of Titus the Emperour, there was so much Cinders and Ashes vomited out of its flaming Tunnel, and with that Fury and Violence, that they were transported over Sea into Africa, Syria and Egypt; and on the other side were carried as far as Rome, where they darkned the very Air, and intercepted the Sun-beams. At which time, by the fury of this burning and tempest, the whole Mountain and Earth thereabouts was so shaken, that two adjoyning Cities Herculanium and Pompeii, were destroyed with the People sitting in the Theater. And the famous Natural Historian Pliny the Elder, then Admiral of the Roman Navy, out of a curiosity of searching out the Causes and Nature of the Deflagration approaching too near the Mountain, and staying too long there, was suffocated with the sulphureous smoke and stench thereof.

Of another eruption of the same Vesuvius we read, in the time of Leo the Emperour, wherein the Ashes thereof transported in the Air obscured all Europe, being carried as far as Constantinople; and that the Constant inopolitans being wonderfully affrighted therewith (insomuch as the Emperour forsook the City) in memory of the same, did yearly celebrate the Twelfth of November.

2. They also pour out huge Floods of melted Minerals, Stones, and other Materials, running down like Rivers for many Miles together; as did the Mountain Aetna in that last and most famous Eructation, disgorging such mighty streams of fiery running matter, as flowed down to Catana, above twenty Miles distant, and advanced a considerable way into the very Sea it self.

Secondly, The next thing I shall mention is the extraordinary Floods caused by long continuing showers, or violent and tempestuous storms and shots of rain.

The most ancient and memorable of this kind is that of Deucalion, of which we have already discoursed sufficiently. S. Hierome in the Life of Hilarion (as I find him quoted by Dr. Hakewill) speaks of a Flood and Inundation after the Death of Iulian, in which Naves ad praerupta montium delatae pependerunt, the Ships being landed upon the tops of the Mountains, there stuck. Which whether it proceeded from Rain, or from an Irruption of the Sea, or from both Causes together, he doth not say: but if it were literally true, and not hyperbolically exaggerated, then may some credit be given to what Sabin in his Commentaries upon Ovid’s Metamorphosis, reports, Ex Annalium monumentis constat Anno 1460. in Alpibus inventam esse Navim cum anchoris in cu[…]iculo per quem metalla effodiuntur: It appears by the Monuments of History, that in the Year 1460. in a Mine of the Alps was found a Ship with its Anchors; in confirmation of what that Poet writes,

Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis.

In the Year of our Redemption 590. in the Month of October, Gregory being then Bishop of Rome, there happened a marvellous overflowing in Italy, and especially in the Venetian Territory and in Liguria, accompanied with a most fearful storm of Thunder and Lightning, after which followed the great Plague at Rome, by reason of the many dead Serpents cast up and left upon the Land after the Waters decreased and returned.

Strozius Sigog in his Magia omnifaria, telleth of an Inundation in Italy in the time of Pope Damasus, in which also many Cities of Sicily were swallowed: another in the time of Alexander the Sixth: also in the Year 1515. Maximilian being Emperour. He also remembers a perillous overflowing in Polonia about Cracovia, by which many People perished.

Likewise Vignier a French Historian, speaketh of a great Flood in the South part of Languedoc, which fell in the Year of our Lord 1557. with so dreadful a Tempest, that all the People attended therein the very end of the World and Judgment-day; saying, that by the violent descent of the Waters about Nismes, there were removed divers old heaps and mountures of Ground, and many other Places torn up and rent; by which accident there was found both Coin of Silver and Gold, and divers pieces of Plate, and Vessels of other Metal, supposed to be hidden at such time as the Goths invaded that Province. These stories related in the three last Paragraphs, I have borrowed of Sir Walter Ralegh his History of the World.

To which I shall add one of late date happening in Sicily, a Narrative whereof communicated in a Letter from Palermo, dated Iune the 25th, 1682. I met with in the London Gazette, Numb. 1742. in the following words: We have an Account from the Town of Tortorica, That on the sixth Instant, about seven a Clock in the Evening, after so great a darkness that no object could be distinguished at the distance of four paces, there arose such a great storm of Rain, Lightning and Thunder, which lasted six and thirty hours, that about One a Clock the next morning, great Torrents of Water, caused by these Rains, fell down from the neighbouring Mountains with so great rapidity, that they carried with them Trees of an extraordinary bigness, which threw down the Walls and Houses of the Town they happened to beat against. The Waters were so violent that they overthrew the Church of St. Nicholas; and the Arch-Deacon of the Town, who retired thither, perished there with many other persons: there remaining only one Abby, and about fifty Houses, and those so shattered, that they fell one after another. There were about six hundred of the Inhabitants drown’d, the rest being abroad in the Field gathering their silk, fled to the Mountains, where they suffered very much for want of Provisions. The Goods, Trees, Stone, Sand and other Rubbish which the Waters carried away, were in so great abundance, that they made a bank above the Water two Miles in length near the mouth of the River, where before the Sea was very deep. This Town is situate in that part of Sicily called the Valley of Demona, on the side of the River Tortorica, about five and Twenty Miles from the Tuscan Sea. The Towns of Randazzo and Francaville, and several others, have likewise been destroyed by this great Flood. It is added that Mount Aetna casts out such abundance of Water, that all the neighbouring Country is drowned. Which if it be true, (as I see no reason to doubt it) this is a further proof, against Borellius, that the Caverns of Aetna are more then superficial, and reach down to the very Roots and Foundations of that Mountain, communicating with the Subterraneous Abyss, and the Sea its self, from whence in all likelyhood these Waters were derived, as is evident in those poured out by Vesuvius.

Many other Floods we read of in Histories, whether caused by Rains or Inundations of the Sea, is uncertain, and therefore I shall not spend time in setting them down. The effect of all which relating to the Earth in general is, the wasting and washing away of Mountains and high Grounds, the raising of the Valleys and Bottoms, and consequently levelling of the Earth, and landing up of the Sea.

Thirdly, The last thing I shall mention, which hath effected considerable Changes in the Earth, is boisterous and outragious Winds and Hurricanes, of which I need not give Instances, they every year almost happening. These I conceive have a great Interest in the Inundations of the Sea we have before mentioned. These raise up those great Hills or Downs of Sand we see all along the Coasts of the Low-Countreys, and the Western-shores of England, and the like places. These sometimes blow up so much Sand, and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent Countreys, and to mar whole Fields, yea to bury Towns and Villages. They are also a concurrent cause of those huge Banks and Shelves of Sand that are so dangerous to Mariners, and bar up Havens, and ruin Port-Towns; of which many Instances might be given.

I find in Dr. Hakewil’s Apology, a story or two shewing the great force and strength of Winds; the one taken out of Bellarmine’s Book De ascensu mentis in Deum per scal. creat. grad. 2. Vidi ego (saith the Cardinal) quod nisi vidissem non crederem, à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem, eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altissima conspiceretur, unde terra eruta fuerat, & pagus totus coopertus, & quasi sepultus manserit, ad quem terra illa devenerat: i. e. I my self have seen, which if I had not seen, I should not have believed, a very great quantity of Earth, digged out and taken up by the force of a strong Wind, and carried up a Village thereby, so that there remained to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted, and the Village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it.

The other out of Stow, who reports, That in the Year 1095. during the Reign of King William Rufus, there happened in London an outragious Wind, which bore down in that City alone six hundred Houses, and blew off the Roof of Bow-Church, with which the Beams were born into the Air a great height, six whereof being 27 foot long, with their fall were driven 23 foot deep into the ground, the streets of the City lying then unpaved.

Now then to sum up what we have said, The Changes and Alterations that have been made in the Superficial Part of the Terraqueous Globe have been effected chiefly by Water, Fire, and Wind. Those by Water have been either by the Motions of the Sea, or by Rains; and both either ordinary or extraordinary: The ordinary Tides and Springtides of the Sea do wash away the shores, and change Sand-banks, and the like. The extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the Sea, raised by raging and impetuous Winds, subterraneous Fires, or some other hidden causes, overwhelm Islands, open Fretum’s, throw up huge beds and banks of Sand, nay vast baiches of Stone, extending some Miles, and drown whole Countreys. The ordinary Rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the Mountains, filling up of the Valleys, and atterrating the skirts of the Seas. The extraordinary Rains causing great Floods and Deluges, have more visible and remarkable influences upon such mutations, doing that in a few days, which the ordinary Weather could not effect, it may be, in an hundred years.

In all these Changes the Winds have a great interest; the motion of the Clouds being wholly owing to them, and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundations of the Sea.

Whatever Changes have been wrought by Earthquakes, Thunders, and Eruptions of Vulcano’s, are the effects of Fire.

All these Causes co-operate toward the lowring of the Mountains, levelling of the Earth, straitning and landing up of the Sea, and in fine compelling the Waters to return upon the dry Land, and cover the whole Surface of it, as at the first. How to obviate this in a natural way, I know not, unless by a transmutation of the two Elements of Water and Earth one into another, which I can by no means grant. ‘Tis true indeed, the rocky parts of the Mountains may be so hard and impenetrable, as to resist and hold out against all the Assaults of the Water, and utmost rage of the Sea; but then all the Earth and Sand being washed from them, nothing, but as it were their Skeletons, will remain extant above the Waters, and the Earth be in effect drowned.

But though I cannot imagine or think upon any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect, yet do I not deny that there may be some; and I am the rather inclinable so to think, because the World doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this Period, as the force and agency of all these Causes together seem to require. For, as I said before, the Oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of Cilicia as far as Cyprus by the Earth and Mud that the turbid River Pyramus should bring down, and let fall in the interjacent strait, is so far from being filled up, that there hath not any considerable progress been made towards it, so far as I have heard or read, in these 2000 years. And we find by experience, that the longer the World lasts, the fewer Concussions and Mutations are made in the upper or superficial Region of the Earth; the parts thereof seeming to tend to a greater quiet and settlement.

Besides the Superficies of the Sea, notwithstanding the overwhelming and submersion of Islands, and the straitning of it about the Outlets of Rivers; and the Earth it washes from the shores subsiding, and elevating the bottom, seems not to be raised higher, nor spread further, or bear any greater proportion to that of the Land then it did a thousand years ago.

So have I finished my second Discourse concerning the Deluge and its Effects; and the Mutations that have been since made in the Earth, and their Causes.

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Footnotes

1. Ovid. Metam. lib. 15. ↩

2. Philosoph· Transact. N. 15[…]. ↩