Destruction of the citv. 137 



of thundejf, but louder and more prolonged than that 

 heard Within the tropics during thunder-storms. 

 This noise preceded a perpendicular motion of about 

 three or four seconds, followed by an undulatory 

 motion of somewhat longer duration. The shocks 

 were in opposite directions, from north to south and 

 from east to west. It was impossible that any thing 

 could resist the motion from beneath upwards, and 

 the undulations crossing each other. The city of 

 Caraccas was completely overthrown. Thousands 

 of the inhabitants (from nine to ten thousand) were 

 buried under the ruins of the churches and houses. 

 The procession had not yet set out ; but the crowd 

 in the churches was so great that nearly three or 

 four thousand individuals were crushed to death by 

 the falling in of the vaulted roofs. The explosion 

 was stronger on the north side of the town, in the 

 part nearest the mountain of Avila and the Silla. 

 The churches of the Trinity and Alta Gracia, which 

 were more than a hundred and fifty feet in height, 

 and of which the nave was supported by pillars from 

 twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, left a mass of 

 ruins nowhere higher than five or six feet. The 

 sinking of the ruins has been so great that at pres- 

 ent hardly any vestige remains of the pillars and 

 columns. The barracks called El Quartel de San 

 Carlos, situated farther to the north of the church 

 of the Trinity, on the road to the custom-house de la 

 Pastora, almost entirely disappeared. A regiment 

 of troops of the line, which was assembled in it 

 under arms to join in the procession, was, with the 

 exception of a few individuals, buried under this 

 large building. Nine-tenths of the fine town of Ca- 

 raccas were entirely reduced to ruins. The houses 

 which did not fall, as those of the street of San Juan, 

 near the Capuchin Hospital, were so cracked that 

 no one could venture to live in tliem. The effects 

 of the earthquake were not quite so disastrous in 

 the southern and western parts of the town, be- 



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