EARTHQUAKES. KG 



after the event ; and by that timo we may suppose they were able to speak of it with calm new 

 and impartiality. Within that period there had been more than three hundred tr< mors, and 

 desolation was Bpn-ml throughout this part of Chile in coiiM-<ju<-nce of exposure, and dweanes 

 incident thereto. The Indians had suffered very little. Their ranches were built of straw or 

 boards, which yielded to the passing convulsion. When the Spaniards commenced the erection 

 of massive temples and dwellings on the territory from which they had been expelled, these 

 children of nature warned them of the consequences, telling them it was labor lost, for the 

 nuyun would come and bury them ;* and twice had thus their prophecy been fulfilled. At the 

 mouth of the Chuapa the subterranean noise lasted three quarters of an hour, and the surface 

 shook with such violence that those who were near believed a dissolution of the elements at 

 hand. The inhabitants of Cuyo, on the opposite side of the Andes, assert, that after the 

 violence of the shock had passed, for half an hour the noise was so terrific that they thought 

 the very mountains torn from their bases and warring against each other. Immense rocks 

 were thrown from lofty elevations ; the highways were blocked up and changed; the springs 

 dried, so that they yielded no water for a long time ; and a flood ensued in the rivers of Col- 

 chagua, which rose to near the height of the trees upon their banks, sweeping away 60,000 

 head of cattle. So extraordinary was the agitation of the sea in all the ports along the coast, 

 that the fishermen fled to the hills for safety. On the same day the waves rolled so furiously 

 against a sea-wall in the port of Callao, 1,500 miles distant, as to destroy a portion of it. It 

 was supposed that the shock was felt at Cuzco, in Peru, at the same hour. About 6 p. u. on 

 the 16th June following, a ball of fire issued from a black cloud obscuring a part of the heavens, 

 and, bursting in the air like a rocket, returned to the cloud, where it remained, much resem- 

 bling a comet. This was seen as far south as Concepcion, then estimated to be 80 leagues 

 distant ; but the noise at its explosion was not much greater than that of a musket. In another 

 letter to the same august personage, the officers of the Treasury intimate a connexion between 

 volcanoes and earthquakes, the latter occurring when the former burst into activity ; but no 

 one mentions that either of the neighboring summits exhibited signs of fire before or after. 



1657. 



At 8 P. M. on the 15th March, nearly all Concepcion was again overthrown. But it was 

 not alone the excessive vibration of the earth which afflicted the unfortunate Penquistas : 

 after that ceased, the sea retired many leagues from the old shore-line; and two hours later,f 

 returning with impetuosity to the beach, swept everything before it, with the reflux bearing 

 men, cattle, and household effects upon its billows. Such as succeeded in gaining the hills 

 remained there until danger had ceased, listening to the shrieks of those whom the waters 

 buffeted, or who were buried beneath walls ; nor was it until daylight that the horrors of the 

 scene were fully appreciated. Another statement is, that the shock occurred between 8 and 9 

 in the morning ; and though the sea sent its waves over the town three times, only four persons 

 perished. A venerable man had sent a warning to the inhabitants that the town would be 

 destroyed by an earthquake that very morning, and in consequence they made timely escape. J 



1688. 



A part of Santiago was destroyed shortly after 1 p. M., July 12. The people were already 

 suffering under terrors of Hollande&e pirates, small-pox, and famine; and the earthquake 

 filled to the brim their cup of wretchedness. 



* Gay. Historia Fisica y Politica de Chile. Tom. II. 



t Eyzaguirre. Historia Eclesiastica, Politica, y Literaria de Chile. 1660. Tom. 1. 



J P. C. Figuerou Historia de Chile, MS. 



