THere are come letters written to certaine Marchants of credite in this towne being strangers, some dated the twentieth of De­cember last, other some the second of Ianuarie, and other on the sixt of the same moneth, wherein are set downe the seuerall accidents hereafter follow­ing, the which are worthie to be reade and noted of euerie good Christian, to the end, that with loue one towards an other, and godly feare towards the ma­iestie of God, wee seeke in all dutifull manner to serue him, who suffereth not [Page 6] such plagues, but by his especiall secret iudgement for the punishment of the vngodly and example of his chosen people.

On the thirtenth of December, 1587. and according to our course o [...] writing on the third of the same moneth, being Sunday, about two of the clocke in the after noone, the aire being verie thicke and darkish with often lightenings and thunder, that di [...] beate vpon one of the tower of th [...] castle of S. Elmo in the citie of Napels, wherein there was thrée thousant barrels of gunne pouder, the which being by this meanes set on fire, made such a terrible noise, that it séemed the whole went topsie turuey, and ouer­threw in like sort all the houses that were within the same castell: Of the which houses there remained not any stone one vpon another, so that, if in some part of the castle the walles had not remained and some rampiers, there woulde haue beene no remem­brance of any Castle or Tower that should haue béene there. And there [Page 7] escaped not aboue tenne persons that were within the saide castell, and al­readie there are two hundred bodies deade, being men, women and children: it hath also spoiled many other, as it is thought, houses and churches to the number of one thousand, and hath not left so much as the verie stones that were paued in their places, there is al­most not one house in this poore citie, as it now may be termed, but hath felt in some sorte, part of this punishment: and in conclusion, he that hath not séene this miserable act, will hardly belieue it, nor the miserable hurt that was there done. But that, that is more miraculous and worthie to be noted, is that the wife of the Captaine of the saide castell, two dayes before this chaunced, saide often times to her hus­band, that she woulde not tarrie in the castell, her husband asking her, where­fore, she aunsweared that for thrée se­uerall times one after an other, she dreamed, that she should with the ca­stell be blowen vp into the ayre, of the which her spéeches, her husbande for [Page 8] twise or thrise made b [...]t a Iest, but in the end, his wife was so importunate, y ^t eight dayes before, he was content to house himselfe, with al his whole hous­hold in the city, somewhat far off from the castell: & by this meanes they auoy­ded the danger which otherwise might haue fallen vpon them, beings as it should séeme by the speciall fauor of God. And the common opinion of all men is, that if the said tower had stoode towarde the citie, as it was towarde the sea, it had spoiled the most parte of the citie. God the author of all good­nes blesse and defend both them and vs from such like extremities, and giue vs grace so to leade our liues, that we may be readie whensoeuer it shal please him to call vs.

From Genoa y ^e second of Ianuary, 1588. the which is according to our order the xxiii. of December before, they doo write as followeth: Here is arri­ued from Spaine a ship called Piuma, the which had taken in, in the Ile of Maiorica thrée men that had been ta­ken before by the Turkes and made [Page 9] slaues, the which men told shem of the losse of thrée Gallies, in order as fol­loweth.

Signior Giannettino Spinola in the Ile of Euisa, with the Gallies of the prince D'Oria, that came out of Spain, beeing now aduertised, how that there were seuen smal Gallies of Tur­kish Pirates in the Ile of Spalmado­re, from thence seuen or eight miles off, he was desirous to go and fight with them, and presently hee furni­shed eight Gallies with his best and readiest men to fight, as well of Sol­diers and Marriners, as others: and thus they set themselues forwarde to­wards the saide Ile of Spalmadore, but for that the wind was both great, and also contrarie vnto them, the one of the saide Gallies could not passe the point of the saide Ile, and so hee tur­ned backe againe, the other seuen with great force went forward, and founde the seuen Turkish Pirates and their Gallies, who looked for nothing lesse than this, notwithstanding they tooke courage vnto them, and foure of those [Page 10] Turkish Gallies gaue themselues to fight, and the other thrée fled. The foure small Gallies of the Turkes hauing ioyned themselues with thrée Gallies of Genoa, and fighting on both sides most valiantly, there arose such a great tempest, that these Gallies beeing in­tangled togither were driuen vpon a Rocke, and so spoiled their Gallies, and many of their men were drowned, the other who saued themselues being come on land, they fell to fighting afresh.

And the other thrée Gallies that were fled, winding about the Iland, found faire weather, and imagining what chaunced, they landed two hun­dred fourescore and ten men, the which they sent to finde the other that were a fighting: they adioyning themselues with their other fellowes Turkes fiue the most part of the Spaniardes, and got againe many other Turkes that were slaues to the Spaniards: and it is thought that the Turkes car­ried away a great quantitie of money, but of this there is no certaintie. The [Page 11] one of the thrée Gallies was of Cigala, the other of Centurione, and the third of Grillo, all marchants of Genoa, who were fraught by Spaniards, the which thing is not to them alone a great hinderance, but also to such others as were interessed in the mony.

He that wrote, wrote to the Lords of Genoa in this order. It is not long since I wrote vnto your Exellencies, how that in this town there haue béene discouered thinges neuer heeretofore heard off. That is, of a sect or schoole of witches, and that many of them being examined of the fact, confessed. Now I write againe vnto you, signifying that after that the Vicars of the Reuerend Signior Albengo, and the Inquisition haue taken this matter in hand, there remained about eightéene or twentie condemned, the greater part of them haue confessed voluntarily, & without any torment at all, besides which there remaineth as yet foure suspected, who haue not yet confessed any thing, and besides, there is in prison a witch, who hath confessed very much. So that [Page 12] the aforesaide Vicars procéede in their busines maruellous well, not respec­ting rich nor poore, and this day as vp­on other daies they sit in counsell for the same purpose. The common peo­ple of this place doo shew themselues in such sort destrous of the cutting off of these witches, that they haue taken vp money at interest to helpe the said Vi­cars. Tomorrow y ^e said Vicars depart hence, to go to Albenga there to cōsult, with the Reuerend Signior of Alben­ga, and so they meane presently to turn againe hither to make an end.

And truely (right honourable Lords) y ^e dealings of these euil persons are most straunge, in so much that they can cause tempests with thunder and lightnings and such other like euil, all the which seeme them, as they make shew, to bee of account, for that they presume to be able to doe farre greater things: and that is more, they kill their owne children and kinsmen: and euen as it were in a trise, they will leape vpon the backe of the diuel, who shall be in the likenes of a Ram: and goe to [Page 13] their congregation for to conclude vp­pon the doing of much euil, euen in the presence of the diuel, who sitteth there as chiefe iudge in likenesse of a king, before whom they doe openly deny God, and bequeath them selues to the diuel. These ought to be warnings vnto euerie good Christian to be ready, and prepared against the deceiptful en­tisements of the diuel, the continuall e­nimie of mankind, and who (as saith S. Iohn in his Gospel) was a murde­rer euen from the beginning, and as S. Peter saith in his epistle, he goeth a­bout like a roaring Lyon, séeking to de­uour, and therefore we haue great néed earnestly to pray vnto almightie God, that he will assist vs with his holy spi­rite, and so to guide vs, that we be the better able to resist the vile temptati­ons of Sathan, and folowing his holy steps, his name may be in vs glorified, and we in the end made partakers of his heauenly blessing, through Iesus Christ our Lord.