CHAPTER XXII 



CARTHAGO DELETA EST 



The central plateaus of Costa Rica, with their healthful 

 and delightful climate, beautiful scenery, rich fertile soil 

 and abundant and varied productions of grain, fruits, vege- 

 tables and cattle, are truly a Paradise on earth. But there 

 was a serpent in man's first Paradise ajid there is one dark 

 shadow over this lovely land, — the disastrous earthquakes 

 that frequently visit it, particularly Cartago and its im- 

 mediate vicinity. 



The earliest earthquakes of which there are any records 

 occurred in 1608, when the recorder (sindico) of Cartago 

 complained that "the poor people lived in miserable huts 

 without walls and with leaky roofs of rushes, and had no 

 churches, because all had been broken and destroyed," and 

 a little later are definite records of rebuilding and repairing 

 houses and churches injured by the earthquakes. From 

 1608 until 185 1 indeed, almost the only records of the earth- 

 quakes are not of the shocks themselves but of the houses 

 destroyed or the repairs needed and consequently only the 

 more violent shocks are mentioned. Thus in 1620, Cartago 

 was dismantled (desmantelada) of houses, in 1637 and 1678 

 houses were damaged, in 1723, accompanying the eruption 

 of Irazu, there were earthquakes injuring the houses, the 

 destruction of the city being completed by the ashes and 

 sand sifting over it. These records continue at intervals 

 throughout the eighteenth century. On September 2, 1841, 

 Cartago was completely destroyed by violent earthquakes, 

 with a loss of sixteen lives, the total destruction of fifteen 

 hundred houses with eight public buildings and churches, 



