WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 505 



unable to support themselves ; and so until the land recovered, I was 

 assured that the women sold their jewels to keep alive, since the 

 land had been left so exhausted and sterile. But now it has come 

 back and is as fertile and prolific as ever. All the charm of Arequipa's 

 luxury and perfect climate is counterbalanced by its liability to 

 tremors and earthquakes. Besides what has been mentioned, there 

 was an earthquake in 1599 where the sea rushed inland [having first 

 withdrawn from the coast] and ruined many farms and part of the 

 town of Camana ; and the great shock referred to when the volcano 

 in Los Ubinas erupted. There was another in the year 1582, in 

 which perished, to enjoy eternal life, Santa Teresa de Jesus, a nun 

 of my Holy Order, [She was like a Spanish apostle and had the 

 courage of a man, illumined by the light of the Holy Ghost ; she 

 founded anew the Order of the most devout Barefoot Carmelite 

 Nuns. The earthquake in this year of 1582] This temblor did 

 enormous damage, wrecking the city of Arequipa and other places 

 in its neighborhood. And in 1618, there was another at the city of 

 Arica, on which occasion I myself was present ; the sea drew far 

 back and then rushed in again, bursting its normal bounds, and on 

 its way it carried off a whole row of houses in the city of Arica, 

 which were near the sea. 



Chapter LI [52] (53) 



Another Account of the Great Earthquake from the Volcano of 

 Los Ubinas de Arequipa, and of the Length of Time the Storm 

 Lasted. 



1397. After writing the above account of the volcano of Los 

 Ubinas, which is at the headwaters of the Rio de Tambo, some 

 16 leagues from the city of Arequipa, I was given the following 

 description by Pedro de Vivar, a soldier in His Majesty's Castilian 

 Guards, who was present in the city of Arequipa; on that occasion 

 they pulled him out of a buried house, almost suffocated by the 

 huge amount of ashes which had fallen on it. He wrote just how 

 everything happened ; it runs as follows. [Our Lady of Atocha 

 wrought a miracle in his case, as will be seen in her church.] 



1398. On February 18 in the year 1600, at 9 o'clock of a Friday 

 night, heavy shocks began which continued on each other's heels till 

 6 o'clock of the following Saturday afternoon. The ground shook 

 so hard that people did not dare to go into their houses, for fear 

 they would fall on top of them. On that same day, which seemed 

 to them the day of awful judgment, they went to glorious Santa 



