MORAL EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE. 139 



Those who were wounded, as well as the patients 

 who had escaped from the hospitals, were placed on 

 the bank of the little river of Guayra, where they 

 had no other shelter than the foliage of the trees. 

 Beds, linen for dressing their wounds, surgical in- 

 struments, medicines, in short, every thing necessary 

 for their treatment, had been buried in the ruins. 

 During the first days nothing could be procured, 

 not even food. Within the city water became 

 equally scarce. The commotion had broken the 

 pipes of the fountains, and the falling in of the earth 

 had obstructed the springs which supplied them. To 

 obtain water it was necessary to descend as far as 

 the Rio Guayra, which was considerably swelled, 

 and there were no vessels for drawing it. 



" There remained to be performed towards the 

 dead a duty imposed alike by piety and the dread of 

 infection. As it was impossible to inter so many 

 thousands of bodies half-buried in the ruins, com- 

 missioners were appointed to'burn them. Funeral- 

 piles were erected among the heaps of rubbish. 

 This ceremony lasted several days. Amid so many 

 public calamities, the people ardently engaged in the 

 religious exercises which they thought best adapted 

 to appease the anger of Heaven. Some walked 

 in bodies chanting funeral-hymns, while others, in 

 a state of distraction, confessed themselves aloud 

 in the streets. In this city was now repeated what 

 had taken place in the province of Quito after the 

 dreadful earthquake of the 4th February, 1797. Mar- 

 riages were contracted between persons who for 

 many years had neglected to sanction their union by 

 the sacerdotal blessing. Children found parents in 

 persons who had till then disavowed them ; restitu- 

 tion was promised by individuals who had never been 

 accused of theft ; and families who had long been 

 at enmity drew together, from the feeling of a com- 

 mon evil. But while in some this feeling seemed to 

 soften the heart and open it to compassion, it had a 



