Mars, Neptune, and Eolus; on the stern, Victory, in the midst of a frontispiece; upon the beak-head sitteth King Edgar, on horseback, trampling on seven Kings.

The Sovereign of the Seas was the largest ship that had ever been built in England, and is said to have been designed only for splendour and magnificence; but, being taken down a deck lower, she became, according to report, one of the best men of war in the world. She was in almost all the great engagements that were fought between England and Holland. She was rebuilt in the year 1684, and called the Royal Sovereign; and, on the 27th of January, 1696, being laid up at Chatham, in order to be re-built a second time, she accidentally took fire, and was totally consumed.

FEMALE TOM BOWLING.

AT the Public Office, Queen Square, an old woman, generally known by the name of Tom Bowling, was lately brought before the Magistrate, for sleeping all night in the street; and was com. mitted as a rogue and vagabond, and passed to her parish. She served as Boatswain's Mate on board a man of war for upwards of 20 years, and has a pension from Chatham Chest. When waked at midnight by the watchman in the street, covered with snow, she cried, "Where the devil would you have me sleep?" She has generally slept in this way, and dresses like a man; and is so hardy at a very advanced age, that she never catches cold.

PLATE CCXXIX.

TH HIS View of the Faro di Messina is from the accurate pencil of Mr. Pocock, and represents Lord Nelson's fleet, with a correct portrait of his flag-ship, standing through that celebrated Strait.

This passage, which is so named from the Faro, or Light-house on Cape Faro, and its vicinity to Messina, is remarkable for having the tide ebb and flow every six hours with great rapidity, though it is but seven miles over.

The Greeks always called it Messene; the Romans Messana, to distinguish it from Messene of Peloponnesus: and yet the Sicilian coins bear Messanicis, or Messanenses for the people;

Damagetus, in a Greek Epigram, calls the city Messana.—It was in a still carlier period called Zancle, from King Zanclus; or from the Sicilian term Zanclon, denoting a sickle, alluding to the carve of the coast. The Strait was also called Fretum Sicalum, and was imagined, by both Pliny and Ovid, to have been formed by an earthquake breaking the Isthmus, which joined Sicily with the

main land.

On the side of Italy is the celebrated rock called Scylla, and on the side of Sicily was fixed the dangerous whirlpool Charybdis, respecting the exact situation of which our learned ren have not agreed. The ancient Poets represented them as nearly opposite: and hence their proverb, "Incidit in Scyllam, dum vult vitare Charybdim." He is driven, or strikes on Scylla, whilst he is endeavouring to avoid Charybdis." It is so difficult to navigate through the entrance of the Faro, that pilots are always ready to put to sea, as soon as a vessel is seen in the offing. Charybdis is supposed by Mr. Swinburne to have been at the Isthmus of Cape Peloro, several miles north of Messina; where it is commonly supposed to have been by Strabo, and where there is still a kind of whirlpool, although no wise answering to the description given of Charybdis by the ancients.

Mr. Clarke, in his laborious and extensive work on Maritime Discovery, informs us, that Scylla was one of the sacred Maritime Temples, or Fire Towers, that were constructed by the Cuthites, or Amonians, as sea marks by day, and light-houses by night; where charts of the coast were deposited, and the votive offerings of mariners were received. The dogs with which the Greeks surrounded Scylla, were its Cahen, or Priests of its Temple. Great cruelties, and the most savage rites, were exercised in these lighthouses, which then greatly added to the horror of passing this Faro. The seamen who came to these places for assistance, were often obliged to wrestle in the area before the light-house, as Mr. Clarke informs us, with an athletic Priest, trained to the exercise, and skilled in the work of death. It is believed that human flesh was eaten by the Pagans in those places; and accordingly Ulysses, when entering the dangerous pass of Rhegium, had six of his companions seized by Scylla, and lost the same number in the cavern of the Cyclops. The Furies, or Furia, and the Harpies, were originally their Priests of Fire *.

Its interest, which at present is so deservedly attached to the Island of Sicily, as it induced us to publish this Plate, will also be

* See an Engraving of the Temples in Clarke's Progress of Maritime Discovery, Vol. I, Introduction, page xci.

the cause of our paying a greater attention to our account of it, than we should otherwise have done.-It may be of service to many of our naval readers, who are now stationed in the adjacent sea, to be informed, that an excellent Voyage Pittoresque des Isles de Sicile, Malte, et de Lipari, was published many years since by M. Houel: the part relative to Messina appeared about the year 1785. The 73d plate of the 13th number gives a view of the Pharos and Straits, and the coast of Calabria. The 74th plate contains a plan of the Straits. In the 14th number are six beautiful views of Messina, as it appeared before the dreadful earthquakes in 1783: and this number is terminated by an account of that remarkable ærial phænomenon, called the Fata Morgana, or Fairy Morgana, which is sometimes observed from the harbour of Messina, and adjacent places, at a certain height in the atmosphere.

"In fine summer days," says M. Houel, "when the weather is calm, there rises above the great current, a vapour, which acquires a certain density, so as to form in the atmosphere horizontal prisms, whose sides are disposed in such a manner, that when they are come to their proper degree of perfection, they reflect and represent successively, for some time, like a moveable mirror, the objects on the coast, or in the adjacent country: they exhibit by turns the city and suburbs of Messina, trees, animals, men and mountains; they are really beautiful arial moving pictures. There are, sometimes, two or three prisms, equally perfect, and they continue in this state eight or ten minutes: after this, shining inequalities are observed upon the surfaces of the prism, which render confused to the eye the objects that had been before so accurately represented, and the picture vanishes. The vapour forms other combinations, and is dispersed in air. Different accounts have been given of this singular appearance."

An engraving of this singular scene, with a further account of the Fata Morgana, was given by Mr. W. Nicholson, in the 5th number of the first volume of his Journal of Natural Philo sophy, (page 225.) He informs us that the account was taken for Minasi's Dissertation on the Fata Morgana, printed at Rome in 1773. This singular appearance is also noticed by Brydone, and Swinburne, and many other writers. Minasi distinguishes three sorts of Fairy Morgana in the Straits of Messina. First, that which appears on the surface of the sea, which he calls the Marine Morgana; the second, in the air, called Aerial Morgana; and the third, only at the surface of the sea, which he calls, the Morgana fringed with prismatic colours.

CORRESPONDENCE.

*

Journal of the Proceedings of a Squadron of His Majesty's Ships, under the Command of Sir JoHN JERVIS, K.B., employed in conjunction with a Body of Troops, under the Command of Sir CHARLES GREY, K.B., to reduce the French Colonies in the Leeward Islands, 1794+, and 1795.

[From the MSS. of a Naval Officer.]

AFTER waiting nearly a month beyond the time expected for

the fleet's sailing, we put to sea from St. Helen's, having left several of the ordnance vessels behind, with the Quebec frigate,

The squadron sailed from St. Helen's, November 27, 1794; and lauded at St, Anne's Bay, February 5. Pidgeon Island surrendered

Captain Rogers, who had orders to bring them out to join the squadron, with all possible dispatch.

One cause, among others, which apparently stopped the early sailing of our squadron, was the expedition then on foot, and at that time ready to sail, under the command of Admiral M'Bride and Lord Moira, against the coast of France. Eight regiments, destined for the West India Expedition, were taken from the command of Sir Charles Grey, and sent upon that fruitless enter. prize, so contrary to the known interests of our country, according to the opinion of those persons who have known the best; and so constantly deprecated by the worthiest and wisest of the kingdom, who have had sense enough to perceive, that our genius and our situation were not fitted to Continental Wars, where the numbers of the enemy must always carry success with them; and that small expeditions against a country so peopled, and so warlike, must, according to all rational calculation, turn out to our disadvantage.

In our passage down Channel, we met Commodore Paisley in the Bellerophon, with two other ships of the line, who gave us intelligence that Lord Howe, with the British fleet, was to the westward; and that they had made an unsuccessful chase after four or five line of battle ships of the enemy, who had got into Brest, notwithstanding all his Lordship's exertions to prevent it, being favoured by the darkness of the night, and the wind.

When off Madeira, having foul winds, blowing very hard; Sir J. Jervis, with the Boyne, and several of the forty-gun ships, left us with the convoy under the command of Commodore Thompson, (who then hoisted a broad pendant,) to make our passage, by constantly standing to the westward, whilst he stood to the eastward, On our arrival at Barbadoes, the 10th day of January, 1794, we found Sir J. Jervis had arrived a few days before. Two or three days afterwards came in the Irresistible, with transports from Ireland: different frigates were dispatched to Tobago, and the other Islands, to collect all the troops which could be spared. The

four or five days afterwards; St. Pierre's taken, February 17; took possession of the heights of Soubrine, Feb. 19; Fort Royal storme 1, March 20; landed at St. Lucia, April 2; anchored at the Gozier, Guadaloupe, April 10; Fleur d'Epée stormed, April 12; landing of the troops and sailors at the Ance de vieux Habitants, April 15; taking of Morne Hoel, April 19; capitulation of Fort Charles, April 22; sailed from Guadaloupe in the Santa Margaretta, April 24

av. Chron. Col.XVIL