CARTHAGO DELETA EST 49 1 



quake, as the houses near the track were of wood and wooden 

 buildings, including the few in Cartago of that material, 

 suffered very little or not at all. 



The early reports of the number killed, as given for ex- 

 ample in the National Geographic Magazine for June, 1910, 

 stated that over six hundred bodies had been taken from the 

 ruins of Cartago and a hundred and twenty more from Pa- 

 raiso. Fortunately this seems to have been an exaggera- 

 tion. The official report in La Gaceta for October 29, 1910, 

 accepted by Don Cleto Gonzalez-Viquez, gives the total 

 number of killed in the two places as two hundred and 

 seventy-two. 



To a country of the size and population of Costa Rica, 

 the total destruction of a prosperous and flourishing city, 

 the second in importance in the republic, might have been 

 considered an overwhelming misfortune. But the spirit 

 of the Costa Ricans was undaunted. "Let us reconstruct 

 Cartago!" was at once the cry, and reconstruction did begin 

 immediately. For ourselves, — in spite of its sorrowful 

 conclusion, our Costa Rican year was the best we have lived 

 and our most cherished dream is of returning to the En- 

 chanted Land. 



