CHAPTER XXVI.

Earthquakes in Lima-Destruction of the city-Callao overflowed and destroyed by the sea-Visit Valparaiso-Return to Callao, touching at Coquimbo-Falmouth sails for the United States-Potomac proceeds to the north.

THOSE who dwell in a tranquil country, seldom visited by the slightest terrestrial vibrations, can with difficulty form an adequate idea of those terrible convulsions of the earth which ravage and lay waste the largest and most splendid cities, and overturn the very mountains, in countries less favoured by nature in this respect.

We are accustomed to look upon the earth with a conviction that it is solid and fixed beneath our feet, and few of us can realize that it has been, and is still, in some parts of the world, subject to undulations more terrific than the mightiest surges of the rolling ocean.

Geologists were formerly in the habit of accounting for all the great revolutions the surface of our planet has undergone, by referring them entirely to an aqueous origin. The ocean, from some causes, was supposed to have overwhelmed the land, and to have buried beneath its waves the loftiest mountains-the fossil shells and other marine animal remains upon them were triumphantly pointed at as proofs that the sea had risen to their summits. It was their opinion that the sea alone was liable to change of level, and it never entered into their minds to conceive that the solid earth was also subject to these changes. It is now satisfactorily ascertained that the land is not always terra firma, but is liable to sudden elevation from subterranean causes. That the bottom of the mighty deep has been broken up, and its sedimentary deposites, with all the various organized beings it contained imbedded, were solidified into rocks, and elevated above the surface by powerful causes acting beneath the crust of the globe!

In Europe, the countries most subject to earthquakes are those situated near active or extinct volcanoes. Calabria has been rav

aged by them from one extreme to the other.

Sicily and Naples

ale subject to them; and the force of the shocks depends on the length of time that may have elapsed since the eruption preceding took place, in the neighbouring volcanoes. The cause of this energy in the shocks is supposed to be dependant on the thickness which the crust of cold and solid lava has obtained, and the resistance required to overcome it.

One of the most remarkable earthquakes in Portugal, which took place in seventeen hundred and fifty-five, suddenly destroyed the city of Lisbon; and in the course of six minutes crushed more than sixty thousand persons to death. The quay, constructed of solid marble, sunk down into an enormous chasm, bearing with it all the crowd of people who had assembled upon it to save themselves from their falling houses. The sea now stands one hundred fathoms deep over this spot.

There is no country on the surface of the globe more subject to earthquakes than South America, especially on its western coast, at the base of those gigantic mountains which extend through the country from north to south, and closely approximate the Pacific Ocean. Peru has been most frequently visited by these convulsions; and its capital, Lima, has been often shaken to its foundations. The great earthquake of seventeen hundred and forty-six entirely overturned that city, and crushed many of its inhabitants beneath the ruins of their houses.

But the daring energy of man again rebuilt the city, which, although now better calculated to withstand the shocks of the undulating earth, is still frequently in part laid in ruins; and the inhabitants rush from their homes, and seek refuge in the open plain, from their tottering tenements, which threaten to crush them beneath their walls.

It is surprising to observe how far the human mind can accustom itself to dangers, however imminent, and people can sleep with a feeling of security, when in a moment their dwellings may be tumbled in ruins over their heads,-their houses serving them for tombs. The people who dwell on the flanks of Vesuvius, Etna, or Teneriffe, have become so accustomed to volcanic phenomena, that they view them with little apprehension, although history, as well as their own observation and experience, shows them on what a treacherous soil they live: they still live on, apparently unmindful of their danger; and when their houses are

overturned by an earthquake, or their vineyards are overwhelmed by lava, showers of stone, or volcanic ashes, they return to the very spot, rebuild their fallen houses, and cultivate the new volcanic soil, which in time repays their labour by an abundant harvest or vintage.

So in Lima, earthquakes are of such frequent occurrence, that the ordinary ones excite alarm but for the moment among the inhabitants. There have been, however, commotions of such violence as to overturn extensive districts, and to destroy whole cities, burying their inhabitants in their ruins. In the course of one hundred and twelve days, the city of Lima experienced no less than four hundred and thirty earthquakes.

The history of that event, and the sufferings of the people, are recorded by Father Eusebio, who was not only an eyewitness of the scene, but a sufferer in the catastrophe. We may readily excuse Eusebio for giving free vent to his feelings, in describing such a mournful spectacle, as the horror of the tragedy must have unfitted him for critical observations on the natural phenomena of such an event, and fixed his attention chiefly on human suffering. Notwithstanding the lapse of almost a century, the account of Eusebio contains a freshness and interest which we do not remember ever to have seen given in any account of this wonderful event; and such portions as our limits will permit, cannot fail of being highly interesting to our readers.

It was on the night of the twenty-eighth October, in the year seventeen hundred and forty-six, while the churches in Lima were celebrating, with great pomp and holy zeal, the festivity of those two apostolic saints, Simon and Judas (not Iscariot) a night when the moon seemed blending only benevolence and loveliness in the brightness of her beams-it was on such a night, and on such an occasion, that the dreadful tragedy occurred alluded to above. Beneath that beauty and brightness were concealed deception and ruin! The heavens were serene, the ocean was tranquil, and the earth slept in quiet;—but it was the awful stillness which precedes the earthquake's birth.

It was at half past ten at night, five hours and forty-five minutes before the full moon; when a sudden and terrible concussion of the earth took place, as if the subterranean caverns were broken and the elements of water, and fire, and air, were bursting

up,

Ff

forth; each, in its violence, struggling to destroy that which had been spared from the voracity of the other!

Nothing was able to resist an impulse so sudden and so terrible, where the small as well as the great edifices of the city served only for the sepulchres of many of the inhabitants; and where those who were arrested by fright, or unmindful of the event, were crushed by the falling houses, or suffocated by the dust which arose from their ruins!

The duration of this first and terrible movement of the earth lasted a little more than three minutes; but that time, though short, was sufficient for the destruction of what had cost the labour of two hundred and eleven years in the construction! Magnificent temples and sumptuous palaces-edifices of the most splendid and costly character-were tumbled into heaps of promiscuous ruins!

The following day dawned on immeasurable sorrow. Here was the father grieving for his son ;-there, the son mourning for the loss of his mother! Relations lamenting the death of their kindred, and friends weeping for the destruction of their friends and acquaintances! All was consternation-all lamentation! Men talked-but their words conveyed no meaning; their thoughts and feelings were read in their looks! Volumes of grief were expressed in convulsive sighs! Indeed, it was not a life which they lived-but worse than death which they suffered. Devotion alone found a seat in their hearts, directing their prayers in fervour and in silence to the Most High!

The streets were little else than mountains of earth and rubbish, impeding the movements of the inhabitants, and causing the greatest fatigue to those who attempted to pass. In many places they were inaccessible and insurmountable ;-so much so, that in the most approachable of the different squares, it was impossible to distinguish the paths and the most familiar situations; and such was the wilderness of ruins around, that one house could scarcely be distinguished from another.

The consternation continued-every moment augmenting in horror, from the incessant repetition of shocks, which amounted to nearly two hundred in twenty-four hours-from half past ten o'clock on Friday evening, until the same hour on Saturday-when the inhabitants passed out into the free air of the Plazas Cam

panas (open places), expecting no less, at every concussion of the earth, than a mournful termination of their existence. And well might they think so; as not only the moon, and the spangled firmament in which she rode, were suddenly obscured, but the atmosphere thickened with the heavy volume of dust, thrown off by the continued and terrible movements of the earth!

The morning of the thirtieth arrived, adding sorrow to sorrow, and grief to grief! At four in the afternoon the whole city was again thrown into consternation, at the appalling news that the ocean was bursting from its confines-had overleaped its boundsand was rolling in with such power as soon to overwhelm and destroy every thing that had life in the city! Here language must fail; nor can the most vivid imagination conceive the confusion of the terror-stricken inhabitants of Lima! Who can wonder, if many of them thought the day of doom was at hand? The moon and stars obscured!-earthquakes in quick succession!" distress and perplexity!-the sea and waves roaring!-men's hearts failing them for fear!"*

One tumultuous and simultaneous rush was made for the neighbouring mountains, with the hope of finding on their summits some safety from the approaching waters! The crowd moved on, some shouting in wild and unnatural accents, and others seeking among those whom they met for priests, to whom they might confess their sins, and from whom they might receive absolution for their souls! Indeed, every mortal in the city appeared to be an actor in the general tragedy! The nuns and biatas, and las Esposas de Jesu Christo, accustomed to live in retirement within the cells of their cloisters-were seen leaving the ruins of their convents, and, with the multitude, seeking in flight security for their lives!

Until after five o'clock in the evening, did the flight and consternation of the citizens continue; when it became known that the sea was still confined within its usual boundaries. But no one can be surprised that the population should have believed the report of its heaving in; not only because evil news seldom proves false, but on account of the recent destruction of the castle of Callao, and that of its inhabitants, by the waves of the sea, only

• Luke xx 25.