CHRONICLE 



39 



of which the prisoners had been 

 proved to be members, and which 

 was altogether unparalelled in 

 any age or country. They were 

 sentenced to be hanged on the 

 22nd next. 



On Monday the 23rd, at mid- 

 night, about 40 men, numbers of 

 them armed with pistols and 

 other weapons, entered the shear- 

 ing mill of William Thompson and 

 brothers at Rawden, about seven 

 miles from Leeds. Six or seven 

 of the men, principally armed, 

 seized the watchman, and held him 

 on the floor. The commander or- 

 dered those who were not engaged 

 in this service, to " go to work," 

 and they proceeded to destroy 

 the shears, of which they broke 

 from thirty to forty pairs, and ma- 

 terially injured the machinery. 

 They then assembled on an ad- 

 joining eminence, and after an- 

 swering to their numbers, dispersed 

 instantly. This proceeding was 

 performed in about twenty mi- 

 nutes ; in the course of which the 

 depredators destroyed thirty-six 

 windows, and injured three pieces 

 of fine vvoollen cloth. And on 

 Wednesday night the finishing 

 shops of Messrs. Dickinson, Carr, 

 and Shann, were entered, and 

 eighteen pieces of fine cloth, 

 dressed by machinery, torn and 

 cut into shreds. 



26. Earthquake in South Ame- 

 rica. — " The 26th of March has 

 been a day of woe and horror to 

 the province of Venezuela. At 

 four p. ra. the city of Caraccas 

 stood in all its splendor ; a few 

 minutes later, i.jOO houses, 19 

 churches and convents, together 

 witii all the other public buildings, 

 monuments, &c. were crushed to 

 atoms by a sudden shuck of an 



earthquake, which did not last a 

 minute, and buried thousands of 

 the devoted inhabitants in ruins 

 and desolation. 



" That day happened to be Holy 

 Thursday ; and at the precise hour 

 every place of worship was crowded 

 to commemorate the commence- 

 ment of our Saviour's passion by 

 public procession, which was to 

 proceed through the streets a few 

 minutes afterwards. The number 

 of hapless sufferers was thus aug- 

 mented to an incredible amount, 

 as every church was levelled with 

 the ground before any person 

 could be aware of danger. The 

 number of sufferers taken out of 

 the churches (two days after this 

 disaster), amounted alone to up- 

 wards of 300 corpses. An idea of 

 the extent of the number of dead 

 is differently stated, from 4 to 6, 

 and as far as 8,000. Horrible as 

 this catastrophe appears, it would 

 be a matter of some consolation to 

 know that the vicinity of that 

 city offered some support or shelter 

 to the surviving mourners; but 

 the next town and seaport thereto, 

 viz. La Guayra, has in proportion 

 suffered still more, as well as its 

 immediate coast. Huge masses of 

 the mountains detached them- 

 selves from the summits, and 

 hurled down into the vallies. Deep 

 clefts and separations of the im- 

 mense bed of rocks still threaten 

 future disasters to the hapless sur- 

 vivors, who are now occupied in 

 burying and burning the dead, and 

 in relieving the numerous wounded 

 and cripples perishing for want of 

 surgical aid, shelter, and other 

 comforts." 



The subjoined letters from Ca- 

 raccas, and Lu (Juayra, its port, 

 afford sonic interesting particulars 



with 



