"The quantity of volcanos in this island confirms that assertion; because at certain times they vomit forth flames, shake the earth, and perform all the effects Pliny attributes to those of Vesuvius; that is, they change the beds of rivers, drive back the adjacent sea, fill with cinders the neighbouring plains, and throw out stones to great distances, with reports louder than those of cannons.
"In 1646, a mountain in the island of Machian split by an earthquake, with a dreadful noise; from this opening issued a number of flames, which destroyed several plantations with the inhabitants and all that was therein. In the year 1685, this prodigious crack was to be seen, and probably is still apparent; it is called the path of Machian, because it descends from the top to the bottom, like a road hollowed out, but which at a distance appears like a path."[U]
[U] See the Hist. of the Conquest of the Malaccas, vol. ii. p. 318.
The history of the French Academy mentions in the following terms, the earthquakes that took place in 1702 and 1703. "The earthquakes began in Italy in October 1702, and continued, till July 1703; the country which suffered the most by them, and where they began, is the town of Norcia, with its dependencies under the ecclesiastical government, and the province of Abruzzo, which are situated at the foot of the Apennines on the south side.
"They were often accompanied with terrible noises in the air, which also were heard without any dreadful effects, when the sky was serene. The earthquake which happened on the 2d of February 1703, was the most violent; it was accompanied, at least at Rome, with a great serenity of sky and calmness in the air. It lasted at Rome half a minute, and at Aquila the capital of Abruzzo three hours. It destroyed the whole town of Aquila, buried 5000 persons under the ruins, and made great havock in the environs. The vibration of the earth, according to the observations made by the lamps in the churches, was from south to north.
"It opened two places from whence issued a great quantity of stones, which entirely covered it and rendered it barren; after the stones they threw out water above the height of the trees; this lasted half an hour, and inundated the adjacent fields. The water was whitish, like soap suds, and had not any remarkable taste.
"A mountain near Sigillo, a city twenty-two miles distant from Aquila, had on its summit a very large plain surrounded with rocks like a wall. The earthquake of the 2d of February, changed this plain into a gulph of unequal breadth, whose greatest diameter is twenty-five fathoms and the least twenty; the depth of it has not been discovered, although a line 300 fathoms has been let down in it. At the time this opening was made, flames were seen to issue out, and afterwards a great smoke which lasted three days with some interruptions.
"At Genoa on the 1st and 2d of July 1703, there were two slight earthquakes, the last was felt only by the people on the pier: at the same time the sea in the port sunk six feet, and remained so a quarter of an hour.
"The sulphurous water in the road from Rome to Tivoli it diminished two feet and a half, both in the bason and in the canal. In many places of the plain, called Testine, the springs and rivulets, which formed morasses, are all dried up. The waters of the lake called l'Enfer is also lowered three feet. In place of the ancient springs new ones have appeared at above a league distance, so that possibly they are the same waters which have changed direction[V].