132 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA 



This earthquake occurred in the mouth of September, 1812, and destroyed 

 the Mission San Juan Capistrano, in Los Angeles County, and the Mission 

 Purissima (Viejo) in the County of Santa Barbara. The following is the history 

 of that event as obtained from the older native inhabitants and foreign residents 

 on the coast at that time. 



The day was clear and uncommonly warm ; it being Sunday the people had 

 assembled at San Juan Capistrano for evening service. About half an hour 

 after the opening of service, an unusual loud, but distant rushing sound was 

 heard in the atmosphere to the east and also over the water, which resembled 

 the sound of strong wind, but as it approached no perceptible breeze accom- 

 panied it. The sea was smooth and the air was calm. So distant and loud was 

 this atmospheric sound that several left the building attracted by its noise. 



Immediately following the sound, the first and heaviest shock of the earthquake 

 occurred, which was sufficiently severe to prostrate the Mission Church of San 

 Capistrano almost in a body, burying in its ruins the most of those who re- 

 mained behind, after the first indication of its approach was heard. 



The shock was very sudden and almost without warning, save from the rush- 

 ing sound above noted, and to the severity of the first shock at that moment is 

 to be attributed the loss of life that followed. 



The number reported to have been killed outright, is variously estimated from 

 thirty to forty-five (the largest number of persons agree on the smallest number 

 of deaths given), but in the absence of records such statements should be re- 

 ceived with many grains of allowance, where memory alone is the only means 

 left, aud the term of forty-three years has elapsed before the period at which this 

 account was placed on paper. A considerable number are reported to have been 

 badly injured. 



There is a universal agreement on this point with those from whom these 

 facts were derived, viz. : that the first shock threw down the entire building, and 

 that a large number of persons were in it at that moment, and under the circum- 

 stances it would be most singular if no deaths were caused by such an event. 



It is now nine years since the above facts were published, and in March, 1864, 

 a writer to me unknown, corroborates this statement relating to that Mission in 

 these words. " The church thrown down at San Juan Capistrano by an earth- 

 quake in 1812, was a well built-affair of stone and cement. The cupola or 

 short steeple falling over the church completely destroying the building." 



The motion of the earth is described as having lifted vertically, attended by a 

 rotatory movement. No undulatory motion is described by any one. Dizziness 

 and nausea seized almost every person in the vicinity. 



A heavy, loud, deep rumbling, accompanied the successive shocks that fol- 

 lowed, which were five in number, all having the motion above described, though 

 comparatively light in their effects to the first. The sounds attending the phe- 

 nomena came apparently from the South and East. 



In the valley of San Inez, to the south and west of Santa Barbara, the church 

 now known as the "Mission Viejo" (La Purissima), was also completely de- 

 stroyed. At this locality there were also a number of lives lost, but what 

 number is as yet very uncertain. The distance between Capistrano and San 



