76 HISTORY OF 



attempted a settlement there, have as often been obliged to de- 

 sist. The Peak of Teneriffe is, as every body knows, a volcano, 

 that seldom desists from eruptions. But of all parts of the 

 earth, America is the place where those dreadful iiTegularities 

 of nature are the most conspicuous. Vesuvius, and Etna itself, 

 are but mere lire-works in comparison to the burning moun- 

 ains of the Andes ; which, as they are the highest mountains 

 of the world, so also are they the most formidable for their erup. 

 tions. The moimtain of Arequipa, in Peru, is one of the most 

 felebrated; Carassa and Malahallo are very considerable ; but 

 that of Cotopaxi, in the province of Quito, exceeds any thing 

 we have hitherto read or heard of. The mountain of Cotopaxi, 

 as described by Uiloa,' is more than three miles perpendicular 

 from the sea ; and it became a volcano at the time of the Spa- 

 niards' first arrival in that country. A new eruption of it hap- 

 pened in the year 17i3, having been some days preceded by a 

 continual roaring in its bowels. The sound of one of these 

 mountains 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 moun- 

 tain ; and three more about equal heights near the middle of its 

 declivity, which was at that time buried under prodigious masses 

 of snow. The ignited substances ejected on that occasion, mix- 

 ed 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 Latucunga was over- 

 flowed ; 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 Latucunga was the charuiel 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 towts, and ciirried away all the buildings udthin its 

 reach. The inhabitants retired into a spot of higher ground be- 

 hind the town, of which those parts which stood withii the 

 limits of the current were totally destroyed. The dread of still 

 greater devastations did not subside for three days ; during which 

 the volcano ejected cinders, while torrents of melted ice and 

 snow poured down its sides. The eruption lasted several days, 



1 Ulloa vol. i D. 412. 2 Ibid. 



