Show H CURIOUS RECORDS L OF MOUNT ETNA It and Vesuvius Always Have Been Sources of Terror to Natives STORY WRITTEN IN 1698 3 THEODORE VALLA GIVES IM IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS IMPRESSIONS IN 1831 1631 I New York April It Mount Etna and j Mount daunt Vesuvius have always been of ot terror to the Inhabitants of ot their dis districts Hundreds of years ago the peo people pIe believed that from these thes Infernal Internal chimneys will wUl come the fire tire that will wUl con consume consume sume SUD the world The editor of ot the London Lon London London don Mercury for July 1833 1698 writes as M follows Naples and Catania stand so near the jaws of hell that the people are ara frequently fre frequently freQuently terrified into godliness Theodore I Valla Yalta In a relation which he published of what happened In the th year 1631 says a pleasant ant light Bight Eight to see the pro of ot of monks of ot all aU orders accompanied by tae devout people of at all ages sexes and conditions walking bareheaded and barefoot in the streets street of ot Naples trailing ponderous crosses with long and great ropes tied about their necks laden with massive rosaries images and relics whipping themselves and forcing the theP P very blood from their shoulders perform performing In ing ng all an l the acts of ot a most rigid peal peni tence lene 4 There is a certain author who in a book bok of his entitled Theoria Sa ora cra a believes that the fire tire which Is le to parch up the earth at the end of ot the world worlds la Ja s to break forth from Mount Etna or Vesuvius or some such other magazine of ot sulphur and brimstone I must confess it were to be wished that some person undertake to write an exact neu neutral neutral neutral history of ot these fires tires or what pre pro precedes cedes cades them and what follows them This would be bo not only curious but profitable For Tor 1 who knows whether by this Means the certain time Ume when those mountains were ready to vomit up their torrents of flames might not be certainly foreseen and consequently the fatal effects of them prevented by retiring betimes The kingdoms of Naples and Sicily Icily would assuredly as assuredly be ba the most moat lovely countries In the world were it not for these thel two pernicious inconveniences But there is no pleasure in sleeping upon a land where there is no nomore nomore nomore more security than in a ship continually 1 tossed upon the waves or where In ln instead stead IStead of pleasing showers of water it rains nothing but fire and brimstone An Fear Catania has stood In fear tear of Etna ever since the city was founded by the Greeks Gre ks TO B C Twenty years after that date B C history records the first eruption eruption eruption 9 tion of at Etna the second was during th the time of ot Pythagoras about B B Then along came cama king of Syracuse In B C pU pil pill l to another locality and colonized the place with after which he renamed i it Etna On his death the re returned returned returned turned retook their city and restored Its old name which it has since retained 1 There were other otheT eruptions of df Etna in Int and B C after atter which there Is t I i tw Fh ti J r ii ry v vy k y r E ti ka Y 1 y t g k t a 4 PeL k R u u aMi r Dr Joseph H K Robinson binson in His New Model 18 Buick no mention of activity for years or until HO B C From that date there isan Is Isan Isan an uninterrupted record of at the more vio lent ent eruptions attended with loss of at life Ute and md damage in all IncludIng Ing ng that of or the present time The most violent of ot which there is any extended record were those of 1169 A D Dand Dand Dand and 1669 and 1693 That of 1169 was ac accompanied accompanied companied by an earthquake which destroyed the city of ot Catania burying persons In the ruins It was on the feast day of ot St Agatha and the he great cathedral founded by Roger I L in 1091 was filled with worshippers The Immense structure collapsed burying the large arge congregation all the bishops and Benedictine monks An earthquake came also just before the he outbreak In 1669 The flow of lava from the crater if It combined would have bave made a stream two miles wide The main flow was 1800 feet f et wide forty feet deep and traveled thirteen miles In twenty twenty twenty ty days At that time Catania was a walled waned city and the flow of lava piling up against that obstruction to height of sixty feet overflowed wall in a fiery cascade and poured on through the city to the sea Minor eruptions followed in 1682 1688 1658 and 1689 then came that of 1693 This was heralded also by an earthquake and there the first extended newspaper account of at snob sich disasters The following is la taken verbatim from the original files of the London Mercury for Mar h of ot that year The of January about Four a II Clock in the Morning a terrible Earth Earthquake Earthquake Earthquake quake at Messina which how however however however ever did no Damage but it strook so great a Terror into the Inhabitants that the greatest part forsook the City the rest betook themselves to the Churches Two Days after the whole City was so BO terribly shaken that the violence of the Shag Four and Twenty Pal Palaces Palaces Palaces aces and considerably all the rest of the Buildings All the People to the Dome where the Arch Bishop and gave absolution as I did also a great Number of Priests dis fSr for tor that Purpose in all Quarters of ot the City After Absolution received everybody thought of ot nothing else but escaping from the Danger and retiring into the Country where they could set setup setup setup up Tents Tenta were safe safa from the Injuries of the Weather the Air beta bein all on a lame But notwithstanding the great Damage Daman Damage done to this City It was nothing to others oth rs received for we understand that Fa Mascall Mascali Cataneo Syracuse and sev several several several eral other considerable Cities Towns and Provinces are utterly is 16 become a meer Lake by Reason of ofa ofa ofa a Rupture which the Sea made in that Part Parl while at the same game time the Light Lightning Lightning Lightning ning flashing Into the fortress of the City blew it up into the Air was utterly overturned and Sixteen thousand Persons were burled buried under the Ruins of the great Church We have not yet re received received received the Particulars from Palermo all that we know at present Is That the Palace Royal is quite overturned and that the ViceRoy had nad much ados to es escape escape escape cape to the Galleys It may be truly said that Sicily Is la utterly laid waste as aa also the Lower Calabria Tia thought that above a Hundred Thousand Persons are destroyed In this dismal Destruction and Twenty thousand wounded Queer Explanation of Causes But to speak one Word of the the Causes of em and earthquakes I Isay Isay Isay say there are Two which are Natural The Fires and the Wind are the first Cause The Bowels of the tM Earth are full of Af ot Mines of Coal Sulphur and Saltpeter and when It happens one Stone falling failing upon another strikes Fire by Col Cal Collision Collision those combustible Matters being kindled and the Wind blowing up the Flame they Cause most terrible over turnings of the Earth unless they find t Outlets as In Etna and Vesuvius and oth other other er Mountains of or the same Nature Nature The second natural Cause proceeds from the Water that Is under the Earth which undermining the tho Foundations that support the Vaults which h extend themselves for tor several Leagues together In several parts part those Vaults deprived of their usual Props and by their own weight shrink down and all of a sud sudden sudden sudden den impetuously pushing forward the theAir theAir theAir Air and Water In the Earth give the tho upper parta parts those violent and I jots Jolts as quickly overturn the i weaker Structures of human Arts From that time until 1702 1102 Etna was quiet in the latter year there was an another another another other outbreak About that date the publication of weekly newspaper r began so there is a complete record from that time on Since 1693 there have been eruptions of Etna the last prior to the recent one being In 1832 1893 Vesuvius has not had nearly so many violent eruptions but the most moat violent were worse e than those of Etna in loss of ot life Ute and damage dam geto to property due duo to the fact that the slopes of at Vesuvius were worse than those of Etna in loss of life lite and damage to property due duo to the fact that the slopes of Vesuvius were more densely populated It Is I generally general y ac that Vesuvius had been quiescent for tor centuries before the Christian era ere The old Roman writers in describing the mountain tell of the and fire scorched rocks on the tho slopes and sum Bum summit summit mit Strabo who lived and wrote at atthe atthe atthe the beginning of the Christian era in describing the mountain wrote that Vesuvius Vesuvius Vesuvius vius waa was a mountain clothed with lovely vineyards and fertile pastures only t that there lay a large plain at the top cov covered covered covered ered with ashes ash s and bearing no fruit but full tull of wide holes discovering roomy caverns where the rocks had been eaten cut out by the fires tires Then came that terrible August 24 79 78 A D when the cities of Pompeii Her Herculaneum Herculaneum Herculaneum and Stabia were overwhelmed by the lava la Scientists are still excavating excavating excavating among the ruins of those cities in n this year of our Lord 1910 Later Marcianus and Festus Roman consuls write of ot the torrid vomits of After their time there la is lit little little little tle or no record of activity on the tho ho part pm of the volcano for over a thousand years It is presumed that the volcano we be bo believed believed to be extinct from the fact that the people had covered its slopes elopes as high as anything would grow with villages vineyards and orchards They had h for forgotten gotten one can forget much in J thou thousand thousand thousand sand years where there are no newspapers pers as reminders But they had a reminder in 1831 a reminder that swept of them to toa toa toa a horrible death In referring to this in connection with the eruption of 1694 the Mercury for July of that year says This Infernal chimney vomited up a great quantity of flame accompanied by bya a torrent of ot sulphur and a storm of stones as thick as hail han which burled an adjoining town in ashes and burned or stifled all the inhabitants However through these al thunders and hideous conflagrations ao aU most destructive tive ve to the neighboring parts and ter terrible terrible terrible to both the senses of ot hearing and seeing yet are they not to be ho looked upon aa as either eUller supernatural or preter prater preternatural natural For it Is la rip wonder that gui sul sulphur which is by chemistry acknowledged acknowledged edged to be one n of the principles of ot all mixtures an oily viscous with alum and saltpeter peter with the Cam Campania Campania pania or the Terra dl dI Lavaro abounds and an all of them combustible matters be being beIng being ing once once kindled by the continual agitation agitation tion of the earth and blown Into flame by those bellows should break forth in conflagration and and melted torrents of liquid brimstone to overflow the tM fields adjoining However all aU this I while H It t la Sa but natural and the effects I of these terrible eruptions of fire and andI melted bitumen might be prevented per par perhaps perhaps I haps laps by labor and giving due vent to toI I these Imprisoned spirits I So even at that early date they were I considering the advisability of ot tunneling Into tae mountain for a vent In this eruption volcanic dust fell teU In the Adri Adriatic Adriatic sea and in the rust city otty of Constanti Constantinople Constantinople Constantinople nople The next eruption of ot Vesuvius was In April 1694 of which the following news story was printed in the Mercury The people were first of all aU alarmed by the roaring of ot subterranean noises which began April 15 16 Those noises were attended by rowling hurricanes of flames with sm and from the wide mouth of the mountain I Ia a torrent of feed fire The air was at a cloud the tho same time cover coverd with a thick cloud of blended cinders and burning sand The mountain opening Itself el In several places andel matter bituminous matter threw up flames and which separated themselves Into several severa several torrents The breadth ot of it it was fifty fathoms and the fire rear d Itself upward about fathoms This con till the The same day the mountain still threw up from the wide widemouth widemouth widemouth mouth of it which near four miles in circuit a prodigious quantity of bituminous OWl one matter which rising in little burning mountains and melting with a JL dreadful noise formed another torrent of fire tire This eruption continued for weeks and the remainder of the story Is confined to toa toa toa a description of ot the flow of lava how It formed form fl in the valleys and and burned everything with which it came ame In contact In July 1688 1 the Mercury says There has been a great Earthquake in the territory of Catana which has done donea a great deal of Mischief Mount Veau Vesuvius Vesuvius vius was all aU of a flame for fot Six days to together together together gether which cause great astonishment in the City of Naples Besides a thick which coverd the Parts and turned Noonday into Night Globes of Fire were seen to issue forth from the Hole of ot the Mountain that broke and flashed in the Air with a Noise like a II Clap of Thunder after which there fol tot followed followed lowed a Shower of Ashes that covered the Streets and Tops of Houses Two Inches thick The accorn accompanied accompanied with his Clergy and attended by bythe bythe bythe the People went to the th Mountain In Pro Procession Procession Procession cession and being got to the Top threw into the yawning gyss a Taper by the deceased Pope Popo Innocent nt XI Short Shortly ly thereafter the tho Flames One Ore naturally wonders how they reached the top amid all flames names and thick stifling On August 8 1707 there was another violent eruption and the mountain threw out such a vast Quantity of ot Ashes that it ft was dark at noon and they were forced to light their Candles Candies as in an obscure ob obscure obscUre Night The Archbishop resolved to carry in Procession the Head of St Ge Genaro Genaro Genaro naro Protector of the City of Naples and the Viceroy with all his Nobility and the People assisted therein And this ter terrible terrible terrible eruption a few Hours after atter they were confirmed in their Devotion for that Saint They returned Thanks Thanks to to God the next Day and the City was w il illuminated illuminated for three Nights together to the Honour of St Genaro From that time on Vesuvius has bas con continued continued tinned In a state of ot comparative watch feeble activity the only dates d a in in which It has bas displayed any destructive qualities being bean In 1779 1794 1823 1855 1872 and an early In April 1906 |