Ch. XIX.] GREAT EARTHQUAKE. Sol 



Azores to the "West Indian islands, the coasts of 

 Venezuela, the Cordillera of New Granada, and the 

 valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio. For nearly two 

 years the earthquakes had continued, when they culmi- 

 nated in one great tragedy, which should be read at 

 length in the pages of Humholdt. On March 26th, 1812, 

 when the people of Caraccas were assembled in the 

 churches, beneath a still and blazing sky, one minute of 

 earthquake sufficed to bury, amid the ruins of churches 

 and houses, nearly ten thousand souls. The same earth- 

 quake wrought terrible destruction along the whole 

 line of the northern Cordilleras, and was felt even at 

 Santa Fe de Bogota and Honda, one hundred and eighty 

 leagues from Caraccas. But the end was not yet. While 

 the wretched survivors of Caraccas were dying of fever 

 and starvation, and wandering inland to escape from 

 ever-renewed earthquake shocks, among villages and 

 farms which, ruined like their own city, could give them 

 no shelter, the almost forgotten volcano of St. Vincent 

 was muttering in suppressed wrath. It had thrown out 

 no lava since 1718, if, at least, the eruption spoken of by 

 Moreau de Jonnes took place in the Souffriere. Accord- 

 ing to him, with, a terrific earthquake, clouds of ashes 

 were driven into the air, with violent detonations from 

 a mountain situated at the eastern end of the island. 

 When the eruption had ceased, it was found that the 

 whole mountain had disappeared. Now there is no 

 eastern end to St. Vincent nor any mountain on the east 

 coast, and the Souffriere is at the northern end. It is 

 impossible, meanwhile, that the wreck of such a mountain 

 should not have left traces visible and notorious to this 

 day. May not the truth be, that the Souffriere had once 



