320 Ey eee refpetting an Ear thouake i in Port 
though faintly, for the whole month of February and March ; 4 
but, at three quarters paft two in the morning of the 5th of : 
April, the villages already ruined were again expofed to fuch ~ 
violent fhocks as would have been fufficient to deftroy them. ~ 
This extraordinary phenomenon was felt throughout the ex- 
tent of 140 leagues from eaft to weft, from the fea as far as 
the river Napo; and without doubt farther, for we are little © 
acquainted with thefe difiricts which are inhabited by the- 
favages. The diftance north-eaft and fouth-weft between ~ 
Popajan and Piura, is reckoned to’ be 170 leagues; but in ~ 
the centre of that diftri€t, 1 degree 16°6 from thefe places, 
is fituated the part totally deftroyed, and which comprehends 
forty leagues from north to fouth between Guarandam and 
Machache, and twenty leagues from eaft to wefi. But, as 
if an earthquake alone had not been fuffiicient to ruin this 
fertile and populous country, another misfortune, hitherto 
unknown, was added. .The earth cepened, and formed im- 
menfegulphs; the fummits of the mountains tambled dewn 
into the’ valleys, and from the fiffures in their fides there 
iffued an immenfe quantity of fetid water, which in a little 
time filled up valleys a thoufand feet in depth and fix buns 
dred in-breadth. » It covered the villages, buildings, and in- 
habitants ; choaked up the fources of the pureft fprings, and, 
being condenfed by deficcation, in the courfe of a few days, 
into an earthy and hard pafte, it intercepted the courfe of 
rivers, made them flow backwards for the {pace of eighty- 
feven days, and converted whole difiricts of dry land into 
lakes. Very extraordinary phenomena, whieh will doubtlefs 
be one day mentioned ‘in -hiftory, occurred during thefe 
earthquakes; I {hall, however, content myfelf with men- 
tioning only two of them. At the fame moment that the 
earth {hook, the lake of Quirotoa, near the village of In- 
filoc, in the jurifdiction of Lacatunga, took nee and the 
vapour which rofe from it fuffocated the cattle and flocks ~ 
that were feeding in the neighbourhood. Near the village 
of Pelileo, a large mountain named Moya, which was over- 
turned im an inftant, threw out a prodigious ftream of the. 
before-mentioned thick fetid matter, which deftroyed and 
covered the miferable remains of that city, Naturalifts will 
* one 
