Dreadful Earthquake. 391 



counts that have been received mention, that from Luckput Bun- 

 der to Butchao, the whole of the towns and villages are more or 

 less in ruins. The towns of Mandavie, Moondria, and Anjar have 

 suffered extensively and severely ; but the city of Bhooj and the 

 fort of Bhoojia, between which our force is encamped, are re- 

 duced the former to ruins, and the latter so breached as to be 

 useless as a fortification. This, however, is the least part of the 

 evil : at the moment of the crash, it is apprehended, and I fear 

 not any way exaggerated, that 2000 of the inhabitants were buried 

 in the mass. 



" Even now the effects of this horrible visitation are felt, though 

 three days since the first shock, in constant and hourly vibrations 

 of the earth. The inhabitants have been obliged to forsake what 

 were once their halls, and encamp outside upon some small hills. 

 Their distress cannot be well described — bruised, maimed, and 

 agitated with fear, they go daily into the city to work upon their 

 several houses, and try to extricate the mangled remains of wives, 

 children, and relations, whilst in their pious labour the putrid 

 stench nearly exhausts them ; and cattle, which have fallen in 

 numbers, add greatly to the noisome evil. The walls, from the 

 sandy nature ol' the stone, are crumbled in a mass, and the nar- 

 row streets of Bhooj entirely lost, thus adding to the difficulties 

 of the sufferers. 



"The upper stones of the palace fell, and buried, amongst others, 

 the mother of the deposed Rao ; what houses stand are so shat- 

 tered as to be liable to fall in the ri'ins; and the very complete 

 wreck of the wall on the southern side, as well as the demolition 

 of nearly all the towers and gateways, render it impossible for 

 Bhooj to be a city again. 



" The loss of lives cannot be confined to the city. I fear, in all 

 the towns and villages mortality has been great. I am inclined 

 to think, from the circumstance of a volcano having opened on a 

 liill thirty miles from Bhooj, that the country will experience a 

 repetition of the evil. 



" From our camp being in a plain, no very material damage has 

 been sustained: the tiles of a few temporary erected houses were 

 knocked off, and the walls shattered. 



" I shall attempt to give you the sensation felt by those both in 

 camp and city. In the latter, 1 was informed by a gentleman, 

 who nearly suffered by a house falling over him, that riding on, 

 without an idea of what was to happen, u])ou the first notice, a 

 heavy appalling deadened noise, the motion of the earth, walls of 

 the houses on each side of the street tottering and falling outwards, 

 impressed upon him an idea, and he called out, that a mine was 

 sprung ; whereas, another gentleman imagined the bank of the 

 tank was forced by the water : these ideas were accompanied with 

 B b 4 an 



