CAL'SED BY EARTHQUAKES. 289 



of a laurel and olive foliage, intermingled with small 

 palm trees. This beautiful vegetation formed a singular 

 contrast with the aridity of the plain, which was laid 

 waste by volcanic lire. 



Till the middle of the eighteenth century, fields culti- 

 vated with sugar-cane and indigo occupied the extent of 

 ground between two brooks, called Cuitamba, and San 

 Pedro. They were bounded by basaltic mountains, of 

 which the structure seemed to indicate that all this coun- 

 try at a very remote period had been already several 

 times convulsed by volcanoes. These fields, watered by 

 artificial means, belonged to the plantation of San Pedro 

 de Jorullo, one of the greatest and richest of the coun- 

 try. In the month of June, 1759, a subterraneous sound 

 was heard. Hollow noises of a most alarming nature 

 were accompanied by frequent earthquakes, w^hich suc- 

 ceeded one another for from fifty to sixty days, to the 

 great consternation of the inhabitants of the plantation. 

 From the beginning of September everything seemed to 

 announce the complete re-establishment of tranquillity, 

 when in the night between the 28th and 29th, the horri- 

 ble subterraneous noise recommenced. The affrighted 

 Indians fled to the mountains of Aguasarco. A tract 

 of ground, from three to four square miles in extent, 

 rose up in the shape of a bladder. The bounds of this 

 convulsion were still distinguishable in the fractured 

 strata. The Malpays near its edges was only thirty-nine 

 feet above the old level of the plain ; but the convexity 

 of the ground thus thrown up increased progressively 

 towards the centre to an elevation of about five hundred 

 and twenty feet. 



Those who witnessed this great catastrophe from the 



J. J 



