508 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I02 



glorious San Jacinto ; this also was escorted by the whole city ; they 

 marched with the greatest difficulty because of the huge amount of 

 ashes which had rained down and which kept falling and miring 

 down ; a further great affliction was that all these processions took 

 place at the time of that deep darkness, from which there was no 

 escape. 



1402. On Sunday, February 27, another procession left the Augus- 

 tinian convent ; they carried a very sacred image of Our Lady of 

 Grace, and a very holy Christ. This procession went to the Jesuit 

 convent, and the Augustinian Prior, Fray Diego Gutierrez de la 

 Merced, preached a sermon. Another procession marched to the 

 plaza ; they carried the image of Our Lady of Consolation, with 

 great solemnity and prayerfulness ; all the religious orders escorted 

 it to the parish church, where it remained, as well as glorious Santa 

 Marta. 



Monday was very dark, and it did not grow light till toward noon. 

 They said that on that day the volcano of Omate, or Los Ubinas, 

 erupted, which is 16 leagues from the city. On that day it grew 

 dark at 4 p.m. ; this lasted 2 hours, and then it cleared up somewhat. 

 On Tuesday the sun was visible though shrouded by mists and ashes 

 which kept raining down; the following days were rather light, 

 although the sun did not appear till the following Saturday, when 

 they took out the images of Our Lady of Consolation and glorious 

 Santa Marta and St. Francis in procession ; and seeing that it was 

 rapidly growing dark and much ashes kept falling, they all went back 

 and visited the stations, as on previous days. This darkness was 

 intense ; it lasted till Sunday when they were singing Mass, and Our 

 Lord was pleased to let it clear up. Then they celebrated a Novena 

 of sung Masses, the Mercedarian friars before the most sacred 

 image of Our Lady of Consolation, which is most highly venerated 

 in that city, and miracle working ; they kept it in the Franciscan 

 convent. And now they began to learn of the blessings they received 

 through her intercession with God Our Lord. 



1403. The whole city joined in this great Novena before this most 

 holy image and glorious Santa Marta and it cleared up, although 

 every day ashes kept pouring down ; during these tempests they took 

 the Holy Sacrament and the other images and put them in the church 

 tower, which was very strongly built of stone and mortar, for fear 

 that the church might fall in because of the heavy shocks. 



The volcano threw out great quantities of red-hot pumice stone 

 on the 15th day of the storm, burning up and annihilating an Indian 

 village which was nearby; it was like night there all those 15 days, 



J 



