JVI I S C E L L A N I E S. 



509- 



feet in circumference, and of which 

 scarcely a vestige remained. 



A superb range of barracks two 

 stories high, capable of containing 

 4000 men, and serving as a depot 

 for the artillery, shared the same 

 ruin : a regiment of the line, in 

 the act of marching to join in a 

 religious procession, was almost 

 wholly swallowed up ; a few men 

 [ only being left alive. 



It is impossible to paint the ter- 

 ror and desolation which this ca- 

 tastrophe occasioned : disorder,con- 

 fusion, despair, misery, and fana- 

 ticism were at their height. At 

 first every person fled as well as 

 they were able, prostrating them- 

 selves to supplicate heaven for 

 mercy ; in this state the indivi- 

 duals who escaped death, muti- 

 lated or wounded, covered with 

 dust, their clothes torn, and car- 

 rying in their arms their children, 

 or the sick and wounded, pre- 

 sented a most heart-rending spec- 

 tacle. After the first moments of 

 terror, in which self-preservation 

 made every other consideration 

 give way, the most painful recol- 

 lections agitated those who had 

 escaped: every one with distracted 

 anxiety sought for a relation or a 

 friend, and inquired for them with 

 looks of terror and affright : among 

 the bloody and desolate ruins, 

 those who remained of the unfor- 

 tunate population were seen en- 

 deavouring to dig up, without 

 other instrument than their weak 

 and trembling hands, the living 

 and the dead who were covered by 

 the fragments : every one ran to 

 and fro over this vast burial-place, 

 throwing themselves occasionally 

 on the rubbish, and listening with 

 an attentive ear to the groans of 

 the unfortunate whose lives were 



preserved, although shut up, per- 

 haps irrecoverably, in the very 

 buildings where they had enjoyed 

 tranquillity and happiness but a 

 few minutes before. 



The remainder of the day and 

 the whole of the night were de- 

 voted to this interesting and pious 

 occupation. Next day, it was ne- 

 cessary to perform the last offices 

 to the dead, but it was impossible 

 to bestow on them the rites of 

 sepulture ; instruments and a suffi- 

 cient number of persons were not 

 to be found : in order to avoid the 

 effects of a pestilence, therefore, 

 from an infected atmosphere, the 

 bodies were piled up at different 

 stations and burnt with the timber 

 of the ruins. The first sad moments 

 after the catastrophe were thus 

 spent: other labours, equally if 

 not more distressing, remained to 

 be performed. 



Almost all the provisions, furni- 

 ture, linen, and the usual neces- 

 saries of life were destroyed, or 

 had been stolen by the lower class 

 of the populace, or the negroes : 

 every thing was in short wanting. 

 The violence of the earthquake 

 had destroyed the water-pipes, and 

 the rivulets were either dried up, 

 or diverted from their usual course: 

 there was in fact no water near the 

 city; there were no vessels in 

 which to collect it, and it was 

 necessary to travel far off before a 

 quantity sufficient to allay one's 

 thirst was obtained, even by using 

 the hands to carry it to the 

 mouth. 



Pressed by thirst and hunger 

 and the want of an asylum, those 

 who possessed country houses fled 

 towards them on foot ; but alas ! 

 nothing was spared — all was ruin 

 and desolation ; and ihey rcturtied 



