The Sun.
London, England, 1809-08-01 00:00:00

ERUPTION OF MOUNT ETNA,

We have been favoured by-an ()Seer of destine-
tion in Sicily With the following account of the last.
eruption of ,Mount Etna, which took
.place at the
end of March and continued until the middle of
April
March 27, at day-break, a great quantity of lava
dUst or ashen, fell at Messina, 60 miles from. Mount
Etna, and, the country round as far as the Far-o, and
God knows how much farther into the sea; the streets
and balconies were quite covered and black With- it ;
the children said ." it. rained • black snow;" wind
S.E. or thereatiouts ; atmosphere dark -and .gloomy;
thick black clouds driving very fast ; sun pale and
dim; .at twelve :ihunder storms -and rain ; at -one
.p. Tn. hail ; after which the _Weather cleared, aid
wind changed.-10
301 h, Left Messina, and proceeded • in company
with General C. Colonel A. and Captain W. ; Co-
lonel, is. joined, is -at, Taurominct. • Here the dust
lay thicker about .a quarter of an inch, but- of a dif-
ferent kind ; St Messina it was black and granulat-
ed, resennbling.,coayse y;unpowder ; There it, waslight
grey, as !fincl as tiour„but the little rain had formed
'a crust on it; at Pienton te.andlinguaGrossa it lay still
thickeri about cn
.inch high, and Mtge, -;and beCame.
offensive; butit was „again black cinders a the size
of a pea; and the nearr you approached the
the.nagreit;*creased in quantity' and
.size. :.L

-31, Crackling under your feet ; tat' four P. M. Its-
.cCll tied' Monnt -Etna from. Lingua Grossa, and read-
ed the, running,la,va in the woody regions about. se-
ven ; here we were joined :by Dr, Franklin, 'Scion
after we approached the principal new, crater; there •
were then at least,seven -oreiglat;whe're we:ten-fain-
ed long after-dusk. We eame Within thirty to fifty
yards of-it,
_and chose our -ground Inas to 'be 'nearly
on a level with,it; It is impossible' to .discribe'the
sublime and imposing sight- of -these:immense fur-
naces, particular-13'. in the night, .with -a tremendous
noise, something like the continued discharge of
heavy artillery from a. 74, per example; and aubter-
raneOus thunder, which makes the earth tremble
:under you ;- the flames ascend amidst vast colUmns
of thick smoak, white and black, from these gulphs, .
.with a fury that suffers no comparison, accompanied
with thick and continued- showers- of fire-stones and
,cinders, sorneof an immense size, which are driven
into the air to an astonishing. height, many out of
sight-o--these, in coming down again, cover all- the
country- round; but the large ones, from their
weight, mostly come dawn again perpendicularly,
though some tell among-us the size of at least a foot
in diameter. 1 carried-offs flat one-with-sticks, of
which I still preserve a piece; but with-the lesser
cinders, froda the size of a walnut downwards,. we
were continually covered, even at a great distance,
and
.the trees-also were covered with them. By the
great quantity of cinders .and ashes, which do not
compose the running lava, and which fall back
most perpendicularly high, banks are formed round
the crater-:which-swell into mountains; the principal
one was now.- almost as large as one of the Monti
Rosses.:' Some of. the craters vomit side-ways; but
this :,faney is only lava bubbling out.
From .our first position we descended gradually
by the-side of the stream, which -can only be corn-
pared to a fiery sea in great agita;ion ; hills' of, fire .•
rolling, one overtheother, carrying trees, and•eyeii
thing-in theircway down with them : it is singular,
however, that these .are 'not 'immediately carried
away ; though some people have seen large -trees.
floating down upright,-I have not; but -the lava sur---
rounds-them; and they only fall and float down when -
the bottom part is nearly burnt through. A curious
circumstance -happened. 'We were standing- near
the streaming lava, not far from the Crater, under a
tall fine tree, which was perfectly sound, or appear-
ed so to bv. By chance looked up, and saw almost
at the top.,of the tree a large branch in dames close
to the trunk, so that it soon fell down by its weight,
no 'Other part -of the tree was then touched. This
Must have been 'either by some bot matter basing
lodged-on that part of the tree, of, asar. Franklin
would
.have it, the fire had ascended from under
ground (indeed the ground was very, hot). through
the root and centre of the tree; and this idea we
were inclined to adopt afterwards, from seeing other
trees and parts of trees floating down, which were
completely burnt inside, apparehtly before they had.
fallen, and before any pant of the outside was de-
stroyed.
Nearly at the highest part of the lava we raked
out, not without some difficulty, a large piece of it,
on which_ we laid a gridiron and dressed a:beef-steak,
on it, which was -voted very good. The whole
scene in the light was indesCribably.grand and .su-
blime, of which nothing bbi reality can give an idea.
We returned to Lingua Grossa, and ascended again
next morninz, when we found the before-mentioned,'
tree gone, and the ground upon Which we' stood the
night before completely overwhelmed. We started
a poor young hare near, the crater, to whom we,very
cruelly gave chace, but the ground was favourable
for her, and she fortunately made her escape.
This morning we examined the stream in its dif-
ferent parts with -more attention, and passed the
ground. in several places to-observe its rapidity. The
progress of the lava is vary different according to the
shape of the ground and according as it spreads or
) descends; • but we calculated that about the highest
- -
part where it is most liquid, it, might run in .stane
places three or four miles an hour'; the lower you
descend where the crust becomes gradually thicker,
-and of course cooler, the-slower it runs, 'so that it
of course heaps up-in proportion ; id aotte parts it is
'house high, at the extremity it may be from 12 to
15 and 20 feet-high ; but it is well known that there
is old lava lying (of former eruptions) 300 feet high.
--We stopped a good while in front of it, where
many-of the poor distressed peasants sat within 20
yards.of it, watching its progress,. and seeing these
• terrible rivers advancing slosiily towards them in-all
their awful grandeur, destroying theirproperty, and
spreading devastation. 'What a melancholy specta-
cle here !- it clearly, advanced more than 50 or 100
yards.per hOur. It had now come among the vine.:
yards, which it was swallowing up gradually. One,
person alone, the• Baron Cagnoni, of Franci Villa,
had already lost to the amount of 10,000 manes of
-Sicily., and considering what a number of poor peo-
ple lose their bread by it, is heart-breaking. -We talk
of setting up a subscription forahem.
They Were carrying theirsaints to the lava, but,

alas ! to no purpose, one of them' was burnt .i.vhen
we left it ; -it had marched within four miles of.
Lingua Grossa, and about a like distance from Qas-
tiglione, undetermined which course it would
.take,
but I am informed since it took the, slope towards
Franca Villa and Castiglione I 'understand, also that
more craters have broken out, one over
and another over Randazzo, the great old. crater :on
the summit.waS'also flaming ; this we saw ; so that
the Whole mountain seemed to be in a coMpli.;terq-
volut ion.

I find I have said nothirfg as to the 1-fvepadth of the
lava strearn. It Was impossible for us to oleterminq,
as it varies extremely aqciording to the shape of .the
country ; but theextrerne breadth could. not.-have
been less than a mile, while some cif ,the.branches
were not above twenty yards in breadth. F.rona.tra7
'vellers who were returning "froM the inohn.tath every
day day (1 th April),, I believe the eruptions have now
:nearlY.ceaied, so that'. it is hoped no moredarnke
.will be done for the-present, uide,,s it breal.3 out
again,las on many .former oceasiorig 'it has done: •

ADMIRALTY COURT.

INSURANCE.

, The. Plaintiff was the celebrated Captain Goodall,
.Vice-Adtpiral of klayti,• in the service of -General
'President., Christophe. The Defendants were the
underwriters at Lloyd's.' The following are the
.circurnstance* of the'casea :Admiral Goodall :had
sold to-President Christophe an English ship, which
Jie, had pfeviously fitted out as a .ship of war ; and _ it
Was intended to be used, by that ,Chieftainfor the
purpose of earrying- on, war,against Petion. For
this ship Goodall ,vas paid,in, produce, with which
'he freigated a 'Vessel, hired . for the , purpose, and
the vessel was cleared out at Cape Francois for Eng-
'land. Before he freighted the vessel, he caused.his
agents in London to insure the cargo for 28,0001.
In the meantime Gobdall was -sent, by order of
Christophe, on a cruise off the city of St. Domingo,
against a flotilla belonging to the rival Chieftain, Pe-
Lion, which he. destroyed.
,During this interval,
Goodall's Vessel, after being loaded, was cleared'
out, under the superinteudance of a Mr. .Grogan,
a merchant at Cape Traneols, wbd Vient on board
as a passenger fo England, :this was doing"
an English • squadron from Jamaica "surrounded the
Haytia,n fleet under Goodall; took possession of
his ship, took. himand his officers prisoners, and sent
them all state prisoners to }:,rigland; on board a
King's ship. After remaining at Plymouth for near
six weeks; they were released by an order from
the Secretary of State; and about a month ago
.they arrived in London. Mr. Grogan, had gone.on
board Goodall's 'ship as a passenger, and the vessel
sailed. Shortly after she sailed
_the master
On the paSsage Grogan-assumed the coMmand, and
prevailed on the mate, and crew to steer to Balti-
more. .On the .arrival of the vessel at-Baltimore,
he sold the cargo for 30,000). put the money into
his own pocket, and began -to live in a state of
Splendid extravagance in that 'city. He sent the
Vessel afterwards home, under the, care of Mr.
Hutchins, the chief mate, who breught her safe into
Liverpool, in ballast, -about siti weeks ago: Ad-
miralGoodall then sued . the Underwriters for the
value of thEt carL,vo..-, The defence made by them
was, that he had appointed Grogan. as; his super-
cargo, with a roving commission, 'to' pose of the
cargo wherever he 'pleased; that consequently Gm,
gan was his servant ; and ,that they 'were not liable
for any a& of. his. For the Plaintiff, it was con-
tended; that the goods -were stolen, and that such
stealing was tantamount to a capture. 'lt .was,.lww-
ever, proved by Hutchins, the mate, that. Grogan
had no authority on board, -except,what he unlaw-
fully assumed on the death of the Captain, and. that
he intimidated the whole crew by language to the
following_ etfea :—" Oh ! Goodall is sent hpme as
a state prisoner for piracy—he and .his officers will
be hanged ;, we shall have it all to ourselves." -The
Court decided in favour of Captain -Goodall.

- PARTNERSUIPS DiSsOLVED.
E. Gibbs and co. St. Philip and Jacob, tite•makers.
E. Henning and T. P Euxton, Weymouth, bankers.
W. Henderson and f . Nixon, Great Tower-hill, corn fac-

tors:
P. Kempson, senior. and Co Birmingham, mlnula-durers.
Hibbc.rt and I. Cottrell, Macclesfield, shopkeepers.

SHIP NEWS.

GRAVESEND, JULY fr.

Arrived--the Gerterons Planter, Gulten, SkAndrew 1-fam-
mond, Barr, London-, Goldfinch, Filendship, Stnzth, and
Lady fjohosoil, Richardson, ,
.ij arnalea Faith, Seuit,
from the Brazils;. Mary, Staffurd,..tiorn . Grenada ; Canada,
St.,iling, • from Surinam ; Farris, Storm, stroni Virginia„;
Princess Elizabeth, -, from Curacoa ; and the- Dundee,
,C004.1ec., from Greenland;
Sailed- the Royal
.Sovereign, ilornhy, Travella, White,
and` Beiestortl,' Donaldson,- ti r ibral tar ; Llan tt ninney,
DawSon",:foereneritli:.; Milian"), Ainsworth, for .Cadiz ;
AqSokl, C,9gOwnl,. for. 111.41aga ;:(Pon„..tk Luig, tor (hp
B 1 Mentor Brinc!, ter Alta • 13ritannia Mason, an 4
the•Good-In ent, Sly, to: Gibrall4 . ..
• •