He commanded:the galleys to put off from land, and embarked with a design not only to relieve the ■peoxJle'of • Retinaj, but many others in dis tress, as the shore was interspersed with a variety of pleasant villages. He sailed imme diately to places which were abandoned by other people. .... .-■ He now found that the ashes beat iuto the ships much hotter, ami in greater quantities ; and as he drew nearer pumice stones, with black flints, burnt and torn up by the flames, broke in upon them: and now the hasty ebb of the sea, and ruins tumbling from the mountains, hindered their nearer ap proach to the shore. Pausing a little upon this, whether he should not return" back, and insti gated to it by the pilot, he cries out: ' Fortune' assists the brave! let us make the best of our, way to Poniponianus,' who was then at Stabite" —where he perished during the night. Iv the second letter Pliny describes more minutely the phenomena which attended the eruption:—" There had been,' for many1 days before, some shocks of an earthquake, which the less surprised us, as they are extremely fre quent in Campania; but they were so particu larly violent that night that they not only shook everything about us, but seemed indeed to threaten total destruction. '"■''. , Though it was now morning, the light was exceedingly faint and languid; the buildings all around us tottered; and though we' stood upon open ground, yet, as the place was narrow and con fined, there was no remainin fa ' there without danger: we therefore resolved to quit the town. The people followed us in 'the utmost conster nation ; and as, to a mind distracted with terror, every suggestion seems more prudent than its own, they pressed in great crowds about us in our way out: Having got to a convenient dis distauce from Jthe •'•. houses," we stood still iv t!ie midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots which we had ordered to be: drawn out were so agitated;backwards and forwards, though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them steady even by supporting them with large stones. 