166 SPOETING ADVENTUKES 



placed at the corners of the streets, with orders 

 to fire at any one lurking about after dark ; and 

 judging by the way the rifle balls whistled about 

 during the night they must have kept a bright 

 look-out. 



During our stay in the city some forty-eight 

 hours we experienced seven or eight shocks of 

 earthquake of more or less severity; they seemed 

 to come on about sunset and again at daybreak. 

 These did no further damage, indeed there was 

 not much more that could be done, unless the 

 earth opened and swallowed us all up ; with this 

 we were actually threatened, some of the cracks 

 being of considerable width and depth. Notwith- 

 standing these warnings, a decree was issued by 

 order of the President on the day following the 

 disaster, saying that the city would be rebuilt 

 upon its old site. One cannot help admiring the 

 pluck of the old soldier, a quality, however, 

 which when carried to excess smacks somewhat 

 of obstinacy. The city of San Salvador had 

 already been entirely destroyed by earthquakes 

 no less than eight times within 150 years, 



