"Simabara was now a vast heap of ruins. Enormous blocks of rock, tumbling from the top of the mountain, crushed and ground to atoms all beneath them. Thunder rolled overhead, and dreadful sounds rumbled beneath the feet at one and the same time. All of a sudden, after an interval of calm, when men thought the scourge had passed over, the northern spur of Wountsendake, the Moikenyamma, burst forth with a tremendous detonation. A vast portion of that mountain was blown into the air. Colossal masses fell into the sea. A stream of boiling water rushed forth foaming from the cracks of this new volcano, and sped to the ocean, which at the same time advanced and flooded the land."
Then was seen a sight never seen before, intensifying the terror of the innumerable witnesses of that terrible day, which might well seem a Day of Judgment come. From the conflict of the boiling waters of the volcano with the cold waters of the tempestuous ocean, suddenly mingled, there arose waterspouts which ravaged the land in their devouring gyrations.
The disasters caused by this accumulation of catastrophes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, waterspouts, inundations, united together, exceed belief. Not a single house of Simabara and its environs was spared: only the citadel remained, whose Cyclopean walls were formed of gigantic blocks of stone. The convulsions of nature on that day so changed the coast-line, that the most experienced mariners could not recognise its once familiar shape and bendings.
Fifty-three thousand persons perished on that fatal day.
ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF MULGRAVE.
The first diving bell was nothing but a very large kettle, suspended by ropes, with the mouth downwards, and planks to sit on fixed in the middle of its concavity. The Greeks at Toledo, in 1588, made an experiment before the Emperor Charles V. with it, when they descended with a lighted candle to a considerable depth. In 1683 William Phipps, the son of a blacksmith, formed a project for unloading a rich Spanish ship, sunk at Hispaniola; Charles II. gave him a ship, with every necessary for the undertaking; but being unsuccessful, Phipps returned in great poverty. He then endeavoured to procure another vessel, but failing, he got a subscription, to which the Duke of Albemarle contributed. In 1687, Phipps set sail in a ship of 200 tons, having previously engaged to divide the profits according to the twenty shares of which the subscription consisted. At first all his labours proved fruitless, but at length, when he seemed almost to despair, he was fortunate enough to bring up so much treasure that he returned to England with £200,000 sterling. Of this sum he got about £20,000, and the Duke of Albemarle £90,000. Phipps was knighted by the king, and laid the foundation of the present house of Mulgrave.
SHRINE OF ST. SEBALD AT NUREMBURG.
The city of Nuremberg—the birthplace of Albert Durer—is enriched with many works of high art. The most remarkable is the bronze shrine of St. Sebald, the work of Peter Vischer and his five sons, which still stands in all its beauty in the elegant church dedicated to the saint. The sketch on next page is a correct representation of it.
