an ancient, large, handsome, and strong city of Sicily, and in the Val di Demona, with a citadel, several forts, a fine spacious harbour, and an archbishop's see. It is seated on the sea side, 110 miles east of Palermo, 260 south by east of Rome, and 180 south-east of Naples. E. Long. 15° 50'. N. Lat. 38° 10'. The public buildings and the monasteries were numerous and magnificent, and it contained about 60,000 inhabitants; the harbour is one of the safest in the Mediterranean, and extremely deep; the viceroy of Sicily resides here six months in the year; and it was a place of great trade in silk, oil, fruit, corn, and excellent wine, especially since it was declared a free port. This city in the beginning of the year 1783 suffered most dreadfully by the earthquakes which shook great part of Calabria and Sicily to their foundations, overturned many rich and populous towns, and buried thousands in their ruins: (see CALABRIA, and EARTHQUAKE, GEOLOGY Index).—The following account of Messina, as it stood before the above period, is extracted from Mr Swinburne's Travels in Sicily.

A large chain of mountains prelifes upon the shore, and part of the city stands upon elevated ground. The mountains are many of them nobly wooded; the hills before them finely chequered with groves and fields.

As the town runs in a sweep along the edge of a declivity, every building of consequence is seen to advantage, while the less noble parts are hidden by the Palazzata. This is a regular ornamental range of lofty houses, with 19 gates, answering to as many streets: it follows the semicircular bend of the port for one mile and five poles, and would have been the handsomest line of buildings in Europe had the design been completed; but a considerable part of the extent is not finished, except merely in the front wall, and that seems to be in a very ruinous condition. Philibert Emmanuel de Savoy, viceroy of Sicily, in 1622, began this princely work. Before it is a broad quay, decorated with statues and fountains; ships of any burden can moor close to the parapet in great depth of water. At the west extremity is a small fort and a gate; the other end is closed by the governor's house and the citadel, a modern pentagonal fortress, built on the point where the isthmus or braccio di San Raniero illues from the main land. On this slip of low ground, which with the Palazzata forms the circular harbour of Messina, is placed the lighthouse (lazaretto), and on the point the old castle of St Salvatore. The circumference of the port is four miles: it probably owes its formation to an earthquake, which opened an immense chasm, and then filled it with water. Near the lighthouse is a kind of whirlpool in the sea, shewn as the Charybdis of the ancients.

The inner part of Messina is dirty, though it contains a considerable number of neat churches and large substantial dwellings. The cathedral is Gothic, enriched with Saracenic mosaics on the altars and shrines; the front of the high altar is particularly splendid: Gagini has embellished the pulpit and some tombs with excellent specimens of his art.—In the treasury of this church is preserved the palladium of Messina, a letter from the Virgin Mary to its citizens (a). This is the title upon which the Messinese build their pretensions

(a) The story is as follows: After St Paul had made some stay at Messina (a circumstance of his travels unnoticed by St Luke), the Messinese prevailed upon him to return to Jerusalem with an embassy of four persons sent by the city to the Virgin Mary. Their excellencies were graciously received by her, and brought back a letter written with her own hand in the Hebrew tongue, which St Paul translated into Greek. By the irruption of the Saracens this invaluable treasure was lost, and utterly forgotten till the year 1467, when Constantine Laferas, a refugee Greek, found a copy of it, and turning it into Latin, made it known to the citizens, and then to all the Catholic world. Its authenticity is now so well established at Messina, that Regna the historian candidly acknowledges, that whoever was to confess even a doubt on the subject in that city would be treated as an infidel.

This curious epistle is conceived in these terms:—Maria Virgo, Joachim filia, Dei humillima Christi Jesu crucifixi mater, ex tribu Judae, stirpe David, Messamenibus omnibus salutem, et Dei Patris Omnipotens benedictionem. Vos omnes fide magna legatos ac nuncios per publicum documentum ad nos misisse constat. Filium nostrum Dei genitum Deum et hominem effe fatemini, et in coelum post suam resurrectionem ascendite, Pauli apostoli electi predicatio mediante viam veritatis agnoscentes. Ob quod vos et ipsam civitatem benedicimus, cujus perpetuum protegremus nos efe volumus. Anno filii nostri XLII. Indièt. I. III. Nonas Junii, luna XXVII. feria V. ex Hydrocolymis.

Thus translated:—"The Virgin Mary, daughter of Joachim, most humble mother of God, Jesus Christ crucified, of the tribe of Juda and the family of David, health and the blessing of God the Father Almighty to all the people of Messina. Out of the abundance of your faith, you have, in consequence of a public declaration, sent a deputation to me; and since you acknowledge that my Son is both God and man, and that he ascended into heaven after his resurrection, as you have learned from the preaching of St Paul the apostle, pretensions to pre-eminence over the whole island, nay over the whole world; to its virtues and patronage they attribute every piece of good fortune, and to their own unworthiness all finiter events that have befallen them. The authenticity of this epistle has been seriously impugned, and of course vigorously defended by many Sicilian divines and disputators.

There is another church in this city that deserves particular notice, not so much on account of its architecture or ornaments, as for its being the last refuge of the Greek liturgy, which was once the predominant service of the island, but gradually abolished by different conquerors. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary de Grapheo, or of the Letter, which denomination may perhaps have furnished Laferaris with the idea of his letter. It is known at present by the name of la Cattolica. According to the Greek canons, the entrance of monastic churches was reciprocally forbidden to each sex, and the cathedrals were the only places of worship where a daily sacrifice was offered up by the bishop and clergy, and where both men and women were present at the same time, but in different parts of the church. From this general admittance the building acquired the title of Catholic or universal.

Meffina is all paved with lava, cut into large flags of two feet square: a material which the vicinity of lavas renders it easy to procure, and which being very hard resists friction better than any other.

During a series of ages, notwithstanding the various revolutions and calamities to which it has been exposed, this city has still maintained its original situation; while most other cities have shifted their ground more or less from the place where they were first founded. But its situation enjoys advantages which have still tempted such of its inhabitants as escaped from the ravages of war and the debilitation of earthquakes to prefer it to every other spot, however delightful or secure. It is of very ancient origin; it has been under many different races of monarchs; and its name has been repeatedly changed: It has been at different times called Zancle, Mamertina, Meffina. Its first name Zancle, which in the old language of Sicily meant, "a sickle;" alluding, as some authors suppose, to the form of the port; or, according to others, to the fertility of the country. Allured by the advantages of its situation, the Cumaeans, a commercial and enterprising people, invaded the island and drove the Siculi from this settlement; they were in their turn overpowered by a band of Samian adventurers, who made way for a colony of citizens of Messene, and under these masters it changed its name to Meffina. Their government was of short duration; for in the 289th year before Christ it was destroyed by the Mamertines, a warlike unprincipled nation inhabiting the south part of Bruttium. These soldiers being received into Meffina on their return to Italy from Syracuse, where they had served as mercenaries in the army of Agathocles, took an opportunity of massacring the inhabitants and usurping their possessions. The city was now called Mamertina; and, in order to support themselves against the resentment of the Sicilian powers, the Mamertines implored the protection of the Romans, who, eager to extend their dominion beyond the limits of Italy, and jealous of the growing power of Carthage, made no scruple to succour these assailants with a consular army. This step brought on the first Punic war. The Mamertines reaped no other fruit from the alliance but a more honourable degree of slavery; for such was the real nature of their connexion with Rome, whatever name it might be disguised under.

Meffina was, however, always distinguished by particular attentions and favours from the senate; and, excepting a short period during the wars of the triumvirate, appears to have tasted all the sweets of Roman prosperity, without partaking of the bitter draughts of adversity. Its fate, in the ruin of the empire, was similar to that of the rest of Sicily. In 829 Meffina fell into the hands of the Saracens, but obtained very honourable terms of capitulation; for half the city was left to the Christians, where they were to be governed by their own laws, and profess their own religion undisturbed. In the other reigned the bey of one of the five provinces into which the Arabian conquerors had divided the island. Notwithstanding this indulgence, Meffina was the first to cast off the yoke in 1037, when George Maniaces landed an army of Greeks and Normans on the shore of the Faro. It afterwards held out against the whole Muslim force, till the feeble state of a distracted empire flat out all hopes of assistance from Constantinople. This unfortunate city then opened its gates to the army of the caliph, and felt very severely the weight of his resentment, but it did not long groan under the yoke; for in less than 20 years Roger the Norman took it by surprize and delivered it from Mahometan oppression. During the crusade our Richard Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus king of France wintered here in their way to Palestine; a sojourn marked by continual quarrels, confiscation, and bloodshed. The Meffineese were particularly tardy in entering into the national conspiracy of 1282, but afterwards exceeded the rest of the insurgents in deeds of cruelty: This, and the importance of their situation, flogged them out for the first objects of Charles's vengeance. He invested their city very closely, and declared so openly his determination to refuse all terms whatever to the besieged, that they saw no hopes of safety but in an obstinate defence. Their courage, perseverance, and sufferings, were excessive; at length their strength and resources began to fail rapidly, and every circumstance seemed to denounce their speedy destruction, when Roger Lauria appeared off the harbour with the Arragonian fleet, forced the king to retire with precipitation across the

I give my blessing to you and all your city, and agree to become your protectrefs. In the 42d year of my Son, the rtf of the Indiction, the 3d day of June, and the 27th of the moon, at Jerufalem."

Not to dwell upon the astronomical blunders in these dates, let it suffice to observe, that Laferaris was not aware that Denis the Little, a Syrian monk in the 6th century, was the first who made use of the era that commences at our Saviour's birth. Medina, the straits, and in his flight defeated and destroyed his naval armament. Robert, grandson of Charles I. also made a fruitless attack; but in the disturbed reign of Frederic III. Messina was delivered up to Louis king of Naples and his comfort Queen Joan, who entered it in triumph. In a few years it returned to its former possessors. The year 1672 was remarkable for the revolt of the Messinei.—They threw off the Spanish yoke, and swore allegiance to Louis XIV. king of France. They were for some time vigorously afflicted by the French; but before the Spaniards had gained the least advantage to excite any hopes of recovering so valuable a possession, Louis found himself necessitated from motives of political interest to desert his new subjects, and leave them to the mercy of their old incensed masters. The horror of being thus abandoned, and the chastisement inflicted by Spain, broke the fierce spirit of the Messinei; they were still stunned with the remembrance and effects of this blow, when the plague in 1743 was introduced from the Levant, and swept away more than half the inhabitants. From this chain of calamities, the opulence, trade, and population of Messina, have been gradually sinking; and unless very favourable circumstances happen, will every year fall lower. The number of its inhabitants does not now exceed 30,000.

The following particulars are added from M. Honel, who visited this city since the late earthquakes, which completed its destruction.

On the front of the cathedral there is a square, which, though not regular, is far from being mean. This was not the largest square in Messina before its overthrow; but it was the most elegant, the most splendidly adorned, and the best frequented. There stands in this square an equestrian statue of Charles II. of Spain, in bronze, which has been spared by the earthquake. It stands on a marble pedestal, in the middle of the square. Opposite to this statue is an elegant marble fountain, ornamented with a variety of figures, representing men and other animals, all of them spouting out water in great abundance; which used, in summer, to spread an agreeable and refreshing coolness over the square, that induced company to assemble here. Seven streets terminated here. The cathedral forms a part of the square. It is dedicated to the blessed Virgin; the occasion of which has been already mentioned.

There is an anniversary feast celebrated in Messina, which is called the feast of the Letter. A lock of the Virgin's hair, which she lent to the Messenians at the same time with the letter, is carried through the city in procession in a crystal vessel. She made also a present of her picture to the Messenian deputies. It is placed over the tabernacle. None but the canons of the cathedral are permitted to touch, or take up on their shoulders, the silver shrine in which the crystal vessel with the Virgin's hair is deposited. Eight of those canons, with mitres on their heads, bear this shrine in the procession. The canopy suspended over it is supported by six senators in their robes. The picture and the hair is shown to strangers. This procession, and the other religious ceremonies of this festival, are followed by horse races. The spirits of the people being already elevated by their religious exercises, they engage with amazing eagerness in these and the other diversions with which they are accompanied: Medina a tumultuous joy reigns over the city; and the evening concludes with illuminations and fireworks. The ships in the harbour pay the citizens the compliment of entertaining them with a discharge of their guns on the occasion.

Through a square called the Square of the Great Hospital, runs a large and impetuous torrent, the Porte delle Legni. It is precipitated from those lofty mountains which overlook this city on the south side. The channel which it has cut out for itself is at times entirely full. It would, on such occasions, overflow the square and other parts of the city, were it not confined by walls which have been built on both sides to prevent such accidents.—Another stream of a similar origin, called the Torrent of La Boceta, runs through another part of the city, it is also confined within walls to prevent it from overflowing.

The Square of St John of Malta is one of the largest in Messina. In the middle of this square is a fine marble fountain, ornamented with a variety of sculptured figures and jets d'eau. Beside the fountain there used to stand a large reservoir for horses to drink out of.

In the time of the annual festivals, there used to be exhibited on the water of the reservoir a galley, or rather a fictitious representation of a galley, with galley-slaves, soldiers, officers, and a commander on board, all in arms, and the galley properly equipped as a ship of war. This galley was decorated with great art; and by night the masts, and every other suitable part, were hung with lamps, which illuminated it in a very splendid manner. Every thing around was so artificially disposed, that when the fireworks were played off, the spectator was led to think, though he perceived only one galley, that the noise which he heard was produced by a naval combat; and that the other ships were concealed from his view by the smoke occasioned by the guns and fireworks. This, when properly conducted, was a noble spectacle. The senate repaired thither from the cathedral, attended with a guard and a numerous company. In one carriage sat fix senators, the governor of the city, and sometimes the archbishop. It was exceedingly large, and drawn by fix white horses very richly harnessed. Other carriages followed, with the train who attended the governor and the senators.

Almost all festivals owe their origin to some extraordinary event, or some singular story either true or false. It is said, that when the splendor with which the feast of the Assumption de la Bara was celebrated at Messina, first began to attract foreigners to the city, on that occasion such crowds repaired thither as to alarm the inhabitants with the fears of a famine: But one year, when the number of strangers was greater than usual at the time of this festival, the magistrates were very much at a loss how to supply them with provisions; and at length, every other resource failing, no hopes of relief remained but from the kindness of the Blessed Virgin. Fervent prayers were addressed to their patroness: and next morning by day-break three brigantines appeared entering the harbour with full sails. They proved to be loaded with corn. It was eagerly purchased: and the people of the city hailed to appease their hunger. But when they came after refreshing themselves to pay the corn merchants their money, neither ships nor merchants could be found. After their first emotions of surprize had subsided, they naturally concluded that such a reasonable supply must undoubtedly be a present from the Virgin, who, being pleased with the zeal of her Messenian votaries, and desirous to prevent the concourse of strangers who attended the festival from diminishing, had interposed in this miraculous manner to save them from the distresses of famine. A new festival was celebrated in gratitude to their generous benefactress. Three small vessels of silver were made, and dedicated to the Virgin in memory of the event; and these are at present used as lamps in the cathedral. The senate likewise decreed, that the clergy should pay annually a small tax, to be laid out in constructing a small gallery to swim on the fountain, and in defraying the expenses of the fireworks. The profits of the clergy are so considerable on the occasion of the festival, that they may be supposed to pay the tax with great cheerfulness.

In Messina, as in the other cities of Sicily, the women wrap themselves in a large black mantle above the rest of their dress. The stuffs are richer or plainer according to rank and circumstances. People who are not rich enough to have fine clothes of their own, hire them at so much an hour. There are women who make a livelihood by lending out their clothes. The mantle covers the wearer from head to foot.—It reduces the old and the young, the ill-shaped and the handsome, pretty much to an equality in point of appearance. This must naturally appear very unfavourable to the influence of beauty. But yet, on proper occasions, at church or in a public walk, the ladies of Messina find means to open and adjust the mantle so as to display all their beauties of face and shape, and to attract the affections of lovers, perhaps more powerfully than if their dress were suited to display their charms in a more ostentatious manner.

Between Messina and the tower of Faro there stands a small church called the Madonna of the Grotto. It was anciently a temple of a round structure, and ornamented with columns like the temple of the sun at Rome. Modern columns now supply the place that was occupied by the ancient. There are large niches in the rock adjoining to the temple, which are thought to be of equal antiquity. These contain no sculptured figures; but in Pagan times they might possibly contain some.

Messina being situated between Mount Ætna and the gulf of Charybdis, and being likewise at no great distance from the volcanoes of Lipari and Stromboli, must have been in all ages liable to suffer by earthquakes. Such terrible events, however, appear to have been more infrequent in ancient than in modern times, and have actually alarmed the present age oftener than any other. In the year 1693 a fourth part of the cities of Sicily was destroyed by an earthquake. Messina merely felt the shock; all its buildings, however, suffered. In the year 1742 it suffered another equally violent. A plague which followed in 1743 retarded the repairs necessary after the earthquake. In the year 1780 this city continued, for more than six months, to suffer from new earthquakes.

Were the date of the elements, previous to these dreadful events, carefully examined, it might perhaps be found to undergo certain changes which might be considered as prognosticating them.

The autumn of the year 1782 was unusually cold and rainy. Fahrenheit's thermometer was often as low as 56 degrees. The succeeding winter was dry; and the mercury never fell under 25 degrees: And, what is uncommon in that season, storms were now and then observed to arise from the west. The pilots in the channel observed that the tides no longer rose at the usual periods, and the gulf of Charybdis raged with extraordinary fury.

On the 5th of February 1783, the air was heavy and calm; the sky obscured with thick clouds, and the atmosphere seemingly all in a flame. About half after twelve at noon, the earth began to shake with a dreadful noise. The shocks continually increased, and became at length so violent as to open the ground, and to overturn in two or three minutes a considerable part of the buildings.

A long white cloud appeared to the north-west; and soon after another, very dark, in the same quarter of the heavens. The latter in a moment spread over the whole horizon, and deluged the city with rain and hail, accompanied with dreadful claps of thunder. The inhabitants fled in the utmost terror to the fields and the ships in the harbour.

From mid-day till five in the afternoon the earthquake continued almost without interruption. The shocks then became somewhat less frequent. The cries of the dying; the shrieks of those who were half buried under the ruins; the wild terror with which others, who were still able, attempted to make their escape; the despair of fathers, mothers, and husbands, bereft of those who were dearest to them; then formed altogether a scene of horror, such as can but seldom occur in the history of the calamities of the human race. Amid that awful scene, instances of the most heroic courage and the most generous affection were displayed. Mothers, regardless of their own safety, rushed into every danger to snatch their children from death. Conjugal and filial affection prompted deeds not less desperate and heroic. But no sooner did the earthquake cease, than the poor wretches who had escaped began to feel the influence of very different passions. When they returned to visit the ruins, to seek out the situation of their fallen dwellings, to inquire into the fate of their families, to procure food and collect some remains of their former fortunes—such as found their circumstances the most wretched became suddenly animated with rage, which nothing but wild despair could inspire. The distinction of ranks, and the order of society were disregarded, and property eagerly violated. Murder, rapine, and lawless robbery, reigned among the smoking ruins.

About one in the morning another shock of the earthquake was felt, which overturned most of the houses that were still standing. Most of those whom want, or avarice, or humanity, still detained among the ruins, now shared the same fate with their friends whom the former shocks had buried under them.

The succeeding day farce alleviated the distress of this dismal night: the few wretches who still survived found themselves destitute of every necessity. At length order was in some degree re-established; and in two days after every person was supplied at least with some small portion of the necessaries for subsistence.

None yet thought of returning to take up their abode among the ruins. The common people fixed their residence on the plain of Porto Salvo, near the town of Salico. The nobles, magistrates, and merchants, took up their abode on another plain, on the other side of the stream Porto de Legno; the soldiers at Terra Nuova.

Some violent shocks which were again felt on the 7th of February and the 28th of March completed the destruction of the city. The corn magazines, however, escaped without damage; and the public ovens and the aqueducts were but little injured. From these facts it may perhaps be inferred, that had not the houses of Messina been, in general, hastily built at the first, and afterwards carelessly repaired, fewer of them would have been overthrown by the earthquake.

The neighbouring villages having suffered but little, were the first to relieve the remaining inhabitants of Messina in their distress. Maltese galleys for some days supplied necessaries to the poor and the sick with a generosity which merits the highest praise. They brought Surgeons and whatever was needed for the cure of the wounded. The supplies sent by the king of France were refused, for what reason we know not. What money was needed for the support of the people was taken from the treasury of the city of Messina; for what the king of Naples sent was seized and spent by the garrison.

It is said that not more than 800 or 900 persons perished by this earthquake. The sea during that convulsion of the land was slightly agitated in the harbour. Farther out the sea was more violently agitated; but none of the ships in the harbour were dashed to pieces. The waters rose so high as to be injurious in a very considerable degree to Pharo, as well as along the coast of Scylla and Bagnara.

This earthquake was not of a momentary duration, like that by which Lisbon was destroyed, and like many others; for more than sixty days, from the 5th of February to the beginning of April, Messina continued to be shaken, and in that time felt more than 200 shocks; and even after that period the alarm was again and again renewed. Not only the magistrates, the soldiers, and the people, but the priests likewise, with their tabernacle and altar, retired to the barracks. The nuns, too, deserted their cloisters, and fought a retreat without the walls. Some of them confined themselves to the gardens of their convents; others mixed indiscriminately with the people.

The chief damage which the public buildings within the city suffered was the fall of the dome of the church of Purgatory. Only the walls were left standing; and even these had suffered considerably. One half of the steeple of the cathedral was beaten to the ground. The magazines of Porto Franco were likewise very much shattered. The fort of St Salvator, being built on an artificial foundation, the side next the sea is there fallen down; but on the other side, where it is founded on a rock, it has stood unmoved by all the shocks of the earthquake.

On the 5th of February, when the earthquake was more violent than at any time afterwards, a strong smell of sulphur was felt. The earth was affected somewhat in the same way as if it had been borne up on a fluid; and seemed to reel with the shocks much like a ship tossed with the waves. This tremulous motion was felt all over Sicily; but towards Pharo it became weaker. On the following days the sky was cloudy; the mountains of Sicily and the shores of Calabria continued covered with a thick fog-like smoke. North and north-east winds raged with the most violent impetuosity.

The disastrous year of this earthquake was scarcely concluded, the chasms which it had opened in the ground were still yawning, and the poor inhabitants of the adjacent country still trembled with terror, when the elements again renewed their fury to ravage this miserable land.

On Tuesday the 6th of January 1784, about sunrise, the wind began to blow softly from the north-east. The sea gradually swelled, rose beyond its bed with rapid impetuosity, overflowed the quay of Messina, and lashed with its billows the ruins of the Palazzata. It loosed and displaced many of the stones of the mole, spread over the whole street, and attacked the pedestals of the statues which had been spared by the earthquake, and still stood firm among the ruins. The same furious wind which swelled the sea in so extraordinary a manner, ravaged the whole coast from Messina all the way to Syracuse.