"had perished. The country was all cover"ed with locusts without wings; and they “told us that they were the seede of them, "which had eaten up all: and that as soone 66 as their winges were grown, they would seeke "after the old ones. The number of them

66

66

was so great; that I will not speake of it, "because I shall not be believed.——While we abode in the same signorie of Abugunn, "in a place called Aquate, there came at "another time such an infinite swarm of lo"custs, as it is incredible to declare. They "began to come about three of the clock in "the afternoon; and ceased not till midnight. "The next day in the morning they began "to depart; so that by nine there was not “one of them left; and the trees remained "without their leaves. The same day came "another squadron; and these left neither bough nor tree unpilled. They continued

compass that

"the space of five days.- The "these locusts took was nine miles.-The country did not seem to be burnt up, but "rather to be covered with snow, by reason "of the whitenesse of the trees; which were "all pilled."

All the western coast of Africa about Congo

I

and Angola'; the regions also about the Gambia and Senegal, and of Northern and Southern Guinea, are liable to the same misfortunes. Barbot accordingly tells us, in speaking of Upper Guinea--- "Famines are some years oc"casioned by the dreadful swarms of grasshoppers or locusts, which come from the "eastward, and spread all over the country "in such prodigious multitudes, that they "darken the air, passing over head like a mighty cloud. They leave nothing that is green, wherever they come, either on the "ground or trees; and they fly so swift from "place to place, that whole provinces are de"voured in a short time. Thus it may rightly "be affirmed, that dreadful storms of hail "and wind" (he might have added---of rain, and thunder, and of fire mingled with rain), "and such like judgments from heaven, are nothing to compare to this.'

""

66

66

But the most grievous calamity of this kind happened to the regions of Africa in the time of the Romans; and particularly affected those

Churchill's Collection, vol. 5. p. 33. The like in South Guinea mentioned by Barbot, p. 221. also in the Atlantic, p. 539. See also Nieuhof's Account of the Gold Coast, Astley's Collection, vol. 3. p. 420. and Cada Mosta.

1

1

parts which were subject to their empire. It is mentioned at large by Orosius, from whom I will quote it. "In the consulship of "Marcus Plautius Hypsæus, and Marcus Ful"vius Flaccus (about the year of Rome 628: "and 123 years before the Christian æra), "when Africa had scarcely recovered itself "from the miseries of the last Punic war, "it underwent another desolation, terri

'Marco Plautio Hypsæd, et Marco Fulvio Flacco coss. vixdum Africam a bellorum excidiis quiscentem, horribilis et inusitata perditio consecuta est. Namque cum per totam Africam immensæ locustarum multitudines coaluissent, et non modo jam spem cunctam frugum abrasissent, herbasque omnes cum parte radicum et folia arborum cum teneritudine ramorum consumpsissent, verum etiam amaros cortices, atque arida ligna perrosissent, repentino arreptæ vento, atque in globos coactæ, portatæque diu per aerem, Africano pelago immersæ sunt. Harum cum immensos acervos longe undis urgentibus fluctus per extenta late littora propulissent; tetrum nimis atque ultra opinionem pestiferum odorem tabida et, putrefacta congeries exhalavit: unde omnium pariter animantium tanta pestilentia consecuta est, ut avium pecudum et bestiarum, corruptione aeris dissolutarum, putrefacta passim cadavera, vitium corruptionis augerent. At vero quanta fuerit hominum lues, ego ipse, dum refero, perhorresco. Siquidem in Numidiâ, in quâ tum Micipsa rex erat, octingenta millia hominum: circa oram maritimam, quæ maxime Carthaginiensi atque Uticensi litori adjacet, plusquam ducenta millia, periisse traditur. Pauli Oro sii contra Paganos Hist. 1. 5. c. xi.

66

"ble in its effects, and contrary to all experience. For after that immense numbers of "locusts had formed themselves in a huge "body all over the region, and had ruined all "hopes of any fruits of the earth; after they "had consumed all the herbage of the field, "without sparing the roots, and the leaves "of the trees with the tendrils upon which "they grew; and had gone so far as to pene"trate with their teeth through the bark, "however bitter, and into the dry and solid "timber: by a sudden blast of wind they were "wafted away in different portions; and having for a while been supported in the air, they were ultimately all plunged in the sea. "After this, the surf threw up upon that long "extended coast such immense heaps of their "dead and corrupted bodies, that there ensu"ed from their putrefaction a most unsuport"able and poisonous stench. This soon brought on a pestilence which affected every "species of animals; so that all birds, and

،،

sheep, and cattle, also the wild beasts of "the field, died; and their carcasses being

66

soon rendered putrid by the foulness of the “ air, added greatly to the general corruption. "In respect to men, it is impossible, without

،،

66

66

66

"horror, to describe the shocking devastation. "In Numidia, where at that time Micipsa was king, eighty thousand persons perished. Upon that part of the sea-coast which bor"dered upon the region of Carthage and "Utica, the number of those who were car"ried off by this pestilence is said to have "been two hundred thousand.'

27

66

The prophets, in describing cruel and destructive nations, often borrow their allusions from locusts: so great was the terror of them. Hence Joel, when he mentions the inroad of the Assyrians, and their confederates, upon Israel, accompanies it with references to this purpose Ch. i. ver. 6. A nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number

V. 7. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away (i. e. made it quite useless): the branches thereof are made white.

Ver. 12. The vine is dried up, and the figtree languisheth, the pomegranate-tree, the palmtree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.

'See Bochart Hierpzoic. pars posterior, 1. iv. c. 3. p. 463, 464,