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giving an account of the Earthquake of September 16, 

 1852. 



The first shock occurred at 7 o'clock on the evening of Sep- 

 tember 16, 1852. The inhabitants all ran into the streets, 

 expecting every moment the houses to fall into ruins, foreigners 

 looking on with awe and astonishment, and the natives, better 

 aware of the danger, on their knees devoutly praying. The 

 houses are built of stone, with very thick walls, and rather low 

 in order to withstand better such shocks of earthquakes, and yet 

 many of them were completely destroyed. In one of the strong- 

 est houses, an occupant writes, that the lower story did not move 

 much, but the upper one swayed to and fro, to use his expres- 

 sion, " like a blade of grass in the wind." The noise made by 

 the breaking of walls, the falling of furniture, and the cracking 

 and creaking of the timbers was such as to impress every one 

 with an exaggerated idea of the destruction of property. The 

 shock lasted about one and a half minutes ; during the evening 

 there were four more distinct shocks, at regular intervals of 

 about an hour, namely, at eight, nine, ten, and eleven, and 

 another at four the next morning. At each shock the great bell 

 of the cathedral would toll, followed by all the bells of the city. 



At night the city was almost deserted, from the greater danger 

 of remaining in houses with tiled roofs ; the inhabitants fled to 

 the native houses of the suburbs with thatched roofs, and many 

 slept in boats on the river. For two or three days after, there 

 were several slight shocks, and for weeks several ships in the 

 river were used as lodging houses. 



This was the longest and most severe earthquake that has 

 visited these islands for two hundred years. The damage to 

 property was considerable, though the loss of life was small ; 

 only three or four lives are known to have been lost. Almost 

 every stone house sufl^ered more or less, according to its strength ; 

 nearly all the government barracks, the custom house, colleges, 

 palace, theatre, and many private dwellings, were rendered 

 completely untenantable. Two churches were destroyed ; one, 

 the oldest in Manilla, founded nearly three hundred years ago by 

 the Jesuits, very large, with walls and arches four feet thick, was 

 thrown down into one immense mass of ruins. The movement 

 was not slow and gradual, like a long heavy swell, but a quick 



