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JOURNAL. 



30/7;. — Before ten o'clock, and at two, shocks accompanied with 

 an unusually loud noise : it is seldom that any shock is entirely with- 

 out. Sometimes a sound like an explosion takes place before the 

 shock ; sometimes a kind of rumbling noise accompanies it ; and we 

 often hear the sound without being sensible of any motion, though 

 the quicksilver in the decanter is perceptibly agitated. 



Dec. 1st. — The shocks have been slight, but frequent. We rode 

 to-day to the village of Placilla, through the estate of May tens, and 

 by the lake of Carices, which bounds the Quintero estate ; the scenery 

 is extremely beautiful, and the valley of the lake rich and fruitful. 

 Placilla is a pleasant village, and puts me in mind of something in Eng- 

 land : it is prettily situated on the little stream of La Ligua*; the 

 ranchos are of the better kind, and intermixed with orchards and 

 wardens. Corn and pasture surround it, and the mountains rise at 

 an agreeable distance. We found the people just coming from Mass, 

 which had been celebrated in a ramada, built up in the church-yard ; 

 the church and parsonage, the only two brick-and-mortar edifices 

 in the village, having been shaken down on the night of the 19th. 

 The parsonage, however, is only partially destroyed. We found the 

 curate in a little dirty room in a corner of the house, which I sup- 

 pose is his study, with about a score of old books with greasy black 

 leather covers ; and in the corner a parcel of wool : after giving us 

 some rum there, he led us over a heap of ruin to another corner- 

 room but little damaged, where he set before us bread, butter, cheese, 

 milk, and brandy, insisting that we should take luncheon with him ; 

 which we, nothing loath, consented to. I then went to settle accounts 

 with the daughter of the judge of the village, — no less a personage 

 than my washerwoman. But in ancient times the queens and 

 princesses themselves washed for their fathers and brothers ; and, 

 I think, like the ladies here, the Princess Nausicaa took the foul 

 clothes to the river-side to whiten. It must be confessed, that a 



The little town of La Ligua, famous for horses, was destroyed on the 19th. 



