Brydone, Patrick; Beckford, William: A Tour Through Sicily And Malta: in a series of letters to William Beckford ; in 2 vol. (Band 1) (1775)

88 A TOUR THROUGH
After seeing the beautiful harbour os
Messina, we have found nothing much
worthy of notice in the city. Some of the
churches are handsomc, and there are a
few tolerable paintings. One ceremony,
from the account they give of it, I Ihould

" vigantibus optime scio; Charybdis" an respondeat
IV fabulis perscribi mihi desidero, fac nos certiores,
" utrum unotantum ventoagatur in vortices, an omnis
" tempestas, ac mare illud contorqueat, et an verum
" sit quidquid illo freti turbine areptum est, &c.
And the following is a transsation from Strabo.
« Ante urbem Paululum in traje&u Charybdis
" ostenditur: Profundum quidem immensum : Quo
" inundationes freti: mirum in modum navigia dctra-
*' hunt: magnas per circumdudtiones, et vortices pre-
" cipitata, quibus absorptis, ac dissblutis ; naufra-
«' giorum fragmenta ad Tauromitanum li&us attra-
" huntur, &c.
" Est igitur Charybdis, (says Sallust) mare pericu-
»• losum nautis; quod contrariis ssuctuum cursibus,
** collisionem facit, et rapta quoque absorbet."
But these arc moderate indeed when compared to the
de.'criptions of the poets.
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