310 JOURNAL. 



got under weigh and gone along with violence, striking on rocks as 

 they went. Last night, the priests had prophesied a more severe 

 shock than the first. No one went to bed : all that could huddle 

 themselves and goods on board any vessel did so ; and the hills were 

 covered with groups of houseless creatures, sitting round the fires in 

 awful expectation of a mighty visitation. On the night of the nine- 

 teenth, during the first great shock, the sea in Valparaiso bay rose 

 suddenly, and as suddenly retired in an extraordinary manner, and 

 in about a quarter of an hour seemed to recover its equilibrium ; but 

 the whole shore is more exposed, and the rocks are four feet higher 

 out of the water than before. 



Such are our reports from a distance. Nearer home we have had 

 the same prophecy, concerning a greater shock with an inundation 

 to be expected ; and the peasants consequently abandoned their 

 dwellings, and fled to the hills. The shock did not arrive, and that 

 it did not has been attributed to the interposition of Our Lady of 

 Quintero. This same Lady of Quintero has a chapel at the old house, 

 and her image there has long been an object of peculiar veneration. 

 Thither, on the first dreadful night, flocked all the women of the 

 neighbourhood, and with shrieks and cries entreated her to come to 

 their assistance ; tearing their hair, and calling her by all the endear- 

 ing names which the church of Rome permits to the objects of its 

 worship. She came not forth, however ; and in the morning, when 

 the priests were able to force the doors obstructed by the fallen 

 rubbish, they found her prostrate, with her head off, and several 

 fingers broken. It was not long, however, before she was restored to 

 her pristine state, dressed in clean clothes, and placed in the attitude 

 of benediction before the door of her shattered fane. 



We had a thick fog to-day, and a cold drizzling rain all the morning 

 till noon; when it cleared up,and became still and warm. During many 

 of the shocks, I observed wine or water on the table was not agitated 

 by a regular tremulous motion, but appeared suddenly thrown up in 

 heaps. On the surface of the water, in one large decanter, I observed 

 three such heaps form and suddenly subside, as if dashing against the 



