46 THE HISTORY OF 



province of Quito, exceeds any thing we have hitherto read or heard of 

 The mountain of Cotopaxi, as described by Ulloa,* is more than thre-*j 

 miles perpendicular from the sea; and it became a volcano at the 

 time of the Spaniards' first arrival in that country. . A new eruption 

 of it happened in the year 1743, having been some days preceded by 

 a continual roaring in its bowels. The sound of one of these moun- 

 tains is not, like that of the volcanoes in Europe, confined to a province, 

 but is heard at a hundred and fifty miles distance.! " An aperture 

 was made in the summit of this immense mountain; and three moro 

 about equal heights, near the middle of its declivity, which was at 

 that time buried under prodigious masses of snow. The ignited sub- 

 stances ejected on that occasion, mixed with a prodigious quantity of ice 

 and snow, melting amidst the flames, were carried down with such 

 astonishing rapidity, that in an instant the valley from Callo to Lata- 

 cunga was overflowed ; and besides its ravages in bearing down the 

 houses of the Indians, and other poor inhabitants, great numbers 

 of people lost their lives. The river of Latacunga was the channel 

 of this terrible flood ; till being too small for receiving such a pro- 

 digious current, it overflowed the adjacent country, like a vast lake 

 near the town, and carried away all the buildings within its reach. 

 The inhabitants retired into a spot of higher ground behind the town, 

 of which those parts which stood within the limits of the current were 

 totally destroyed. The dread of still greater devastations did not sub- 

 side for three days ; during which the volcano ejected cinders, while 

 torrents of melted ice and snow poured down its sides. The erup- 

 tion lasted several days, and was accompanied with terrible roarings 

 of the wind, rushing through the volcano, still louder than the former 

 rumblings in its bowels. At last all was quiet, neither fire nor smoke 

 to be seen, nor noise to be heard ; till, in the ensuing year, the flames 

 again appeared with recruited violence, forcing their passage through 

 several other parts of the mountain, so that in clear nights the flames 

 being reflected by the transparent ice, formed an awfully magnificent 

 illumination." 



Such is the appearance and the effect of those fires which proceed 

 from the more inward recesses of the earth : for that they generally 

 come from deeper regions than man has hitherto explored, I cannot 

 avoid thinking, contrary to the opinion of Mr. Buffbn, who supposes 

 them rooted but a very little way below the bed of the mountain. 

 " We can never suppose," says this great naturalist, " that these sub- 

 stances are ejected from any great distance below, if we only consider 

 the great force already required to fling them up to such vast heights 

 above the mouth of the mountain ; if we consider the substances 

 thrown up, which we shall find upon inspection to be the same with 

 those of the mountain below ; if we take into our consideration, that 

 air is always necessary to keep up the flame; but, most of all, if we 

 attend to one circumstance, which is, that if these substanceswereex- 

 ploded from a vast depth below, the same force required to shoot 

 them up so high, would act against the sides of the volcano, and tear 

 the whole mountain in pieces." To all this specious reasoning, ^ar- 



* Ulloa, vol. i. p. 442. f Utto*, vol. i. p. 442 



