304 CONCEPCION. [chap. xiv. 



inhabitants (which in this one province amount to many thou- 

 sands) must have perished, instead of less than a hundred : as it 

 was, the invariable practice of running out of doors at the first 

 trembling of the ground, alone saved them. In Concepcion 

 each house, or row of houses, stood by itself, a heap or line of 

 ruins ; but in Talcahuano, owing to the great wave, little more 

 than one layer of bricks, tiles, and timber, with here and there 

 part of a wall left standing, could be distinguished. From this 

 circumstance Concepcion, although not so completely desolated, 

 was a more terrible, and, if I may so call it, picturesque sight. 

 The first shock was very sudden. The mayor-domo at Quiri- 

 quina told me, that the first notice he received of it, was finding 

 both the horse he rode and himself, rolling together on the ground. 

 Rising up, he was again thrown down. He also told me that 

 some cows which were standing on the steep side of the island 

 were rolled into the sea. The great wave caused the destruc- 

 tion of many cattle ; on one low island, near the head of the 

 bay, seventy animals were washed off and drowned. It is gene- 

 rally thought that this has been the worst earthquake ever re- 

 corded in Chile ; but as the very severe ones occur only after long 

 intervals, this cannot easily be known ; nor indeed would a much 

 worse shock have made any great difference, for the ruin was 

 now complete. Innumerable small tremblings followed the great 

 earthquake, and within the first twelve days no less than three 

 hundred were counted. 



After viewing Concepcion, I cannot understand how the greater 

 number of inhabitants escaped unhurt. The houses in many 

 parts fell outwards ; thus forming in the middle of the streets 

 little hillocks of brickw^ork and rubbish. Mr. Rouse, the English 

 consul, told us that he was at breakfast when the first movement 

 warned him to run out. He had scarcely reached the middle of 

 the court-yard, when one side of his house came thundering down. 

 He retained presence of mind to remember, that if he once got 

 on the top of that part w hich had already fallen, he would be 

 safe. Not being able from the motion of the ground to stand, 

 he crawled up on his hands and knees ; and no sooner had he 

 ascended this little eminence, than the other side of the house 

 fell in, the great beams sweeping close in front of his head. 

 With his eyes blinded, and his mouth choked with the cloud of 



