nd
Torre del Greco, three villages that had grown up during the period
of quiescence, were more or less overwhelmed by the molten lava. Great
torrents of hot water also poured out, adding to the work of desolation.
It was estimated that eighteen thousand of the inhabitants were killed.

What made the horror all the greater was a frightful error of judgment,
similar to that of the Governor of Martinique at St. Pierre. The
Governor of Torre del Greco had refused to be warned in time, and
prevented the people from making their escape until it was too late.
Not until the lava had actually reached the walls was the order for
departure given. Before the order could be acted upon the molten streams
burst through the walls into the crowded streets, and overwhelmed the
vast majority of the inhabitants.

In this violent paroxysm the whole top of the mountain is said to have
been swept away, the new crater which took the place of the old one
being greatly lowered. From that date Vesuvius has never been at rest
for any long interval, and eruptions of some degree of violence
have been rarely more than a few years apart. Of its various later
manifestations of energy we select for description that of 1767, of
which an interesting account by a careful observer is extant.

GREAT ERUPTION OF 1767

From the 10th of December, 1766, to March, 1767, Vesuvius was quiet;
then it began to throw up stones from time to time. In April the throws
were more frequent, and at night the red glare grew stronger on the
cloudy columns which hung over the crater. These repeated throws of
cinders, ashes and pumice-stones so much increased the small cone of
eruption which had been left in the centre of the flat crateral space
that its top became visible at a distance.

On the 7th of August there issued a small stream of lava from a breach
in the side of a small cone; the lava gradually filled the space between
the cone and the crateral edge; on the 12th of September it overflowed
the crater, and ran down the mountain. Stones were ejected which took
ten seconds in their fall, from which it may be computed that the height
which the stones reached was 1,600 feet. Padre Torre, a great observer
of Vesuvius, says they went up above a thousand feet. The lava ceased
on the 18th of October, but at 8 A. M. on the 19th it rushed out at a
different place, after volleys of stones had been thrown to an immense
height, and the huge traditional pine-tree of smoke r