WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES- — VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 509 



with no dawn or light to be seen. The Indians had gone off into the 

 sierra at the beginning of the disturbance ; it is said that many of 

 them used to worship up there and sacrificed there to the Devil, 

 offering up to him at times Indians whom they threw into the crater 

 for him to swallow them. 



1404. It is stated as a certainty that many of the Indians talked 

 with the Devil; the padres who instructed them, weaned them (by 

 their counsels and their chastisements) from such wickedness ; but 

 they were such great sorcerers that they said the Devil had told them 

 that the volcano was about to erupt, and as it came to pass later, 

 they say that five of them hanged themselves at the instigation of 

 the Evil One ; if they had not done that, there would have been 

 great calamities and tribulations among them. In some directions the 

 ashes traveled over 600 leagues, for some fell in Nicaragua ; they 

 burned up and laid waste the whole country, and great numbers of 

 stock perished. A stream of fire ran down the Rio de Tambo, roasting 

 fish in the sea for a distance of over 2 leagues from its mouth. It 

 caused other frightful damage over all that region ; the cattle which 

 survived the tempest itself, perished later of hunger, for the ground 

 was buried in ashes a vara deep, varying according to the localities, 

 and so they had nothing to eat. This tempest lasted till March 15, 

 having started on the i8th of February. May Our Lord be glorified 

 for all His works. [Although the land was left so exhausted and 

 sterile, it has nevertheless already recovered and is as rich and prolific 

 as before; but all the charm of abounding fertility and delightful 

 climate possessed by Arequipa, is counterbalanced by its liability to 

 shocks and earthquakes ; besides those already mentioned, in the 

 year 1599 when there was a tidal wave with the earthquake, and 

 that of the volcanic eruption of 1600, and another in 1582 which 

 nearly leveled and ruined the whole city, and others which have 

 occurred less important and destructive, in the year 1618 there was 

 another earthquake, in which, at the city of Arica, the sea backed 

 off and withdrew, and then rushed back and overflowed .... near 

 the sea.] (One fine illegible; cf. end of 1[ 1396). 



Chapter LIII [54] (55) 



What the Cause and Origin of Earthquakes May Be. 



1405. In my opinion the reason why earthquakes are so common 

 in the Indies is that in large part they are caused by the heated vapors 

 which are produced in the bowels and cavities of the earth. Together 

 with the sulfur which is also generated in those regions, they form 



