m-JTO:'. V II!" 



I, ■■.:■.■■, iiiiiiiined iibu-. L- i\\u uijiii:jr- ; ii^e Miucks continuing, dur. 

 iiig that interval, with more or less violence every day." 



As this description seems to exhibit all the appearances thai 

 usually make up the catalogue of terrors belonging to an earth- 

 quake, I v.'ill suppress the detail of that which happened at Lis- 

 bon in our own times, and which is too recent to require a de- 

 scription.* In fact there are few particulars in the accounts of 



« Goldsmith here alludfis to the great earthquake of 1755. It appears to have 

 originated beneath the Atlantic Ocean, the waves of which received almost 

 as viiilent a concussion as the land. Its effects were even extended to the 

 waters in many placi-s where the shocks were not perceptible. It ppfvaded 

 Hie greater portions of the continents of Europe, Africa, and America; but 

 its extreme violence was exercised on the south-western parts of the for- 

 mer. Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, had already suffered greatly from an 

 earthquake in 1631 ; and, since the calamity about to be described, has liad 

 three such visitations, in 1761, 1765, and 1772, which were not however at- 

 tended by equally disastrous consequences. In the present instance, it had been 

 remarked, that, since the commencement of the year 1750, less rain had fallen 

 than had been known in the memory of the oldest of their inhabitants, unless 

 during the spring preceding the calamitous event. The summer had been un. 

 a?ually cool, and the weather fine and clearfor the last forty days. Atlengtli, 

 on the 1st of November, about forty minutes past nine in tlie morning, a 

 most violent shock of an earthquake was felt; its duration did nut exceed six 

 seconds ; but so powerful was the concussion, that it overthrew every church 

 and convent in the city, together with the royal palace and the magoificeiit 

 opera-house adjoined to it ; in short, not any building of consequence escap- 

 ed. About one fourth of the dwelling-houses were thrown down : and, at a 

 moderate computation, 30,000 individuals perished. Between the 1st and Sth 

 of November, twenty-two shocks «-ere reckont'd. This earthquake was 

 also felt at Opor*», Cadiz, and other parts of Europe, and equally severe in 

 Africa. A great, part of the city of Algiers was destroyed. In many places 

 of Germany the effects of this earthquake weie very perceptible; but in 

 Holland the agitations were still more remarkable. The agitation of the 

 waters was also perceived in various parts of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 At sea, the shocks of this earthquake were felt most violently. Among otl.«r 

 catastrophes, the captain of the Nancjj frigate, off St Lucar, felt his ship so 

 violently shaken, that he thought she had struck the groimd, but on heaving 

 the lead, found she was in a great depth of water. The earthquakes in Sicily 

 and the two Calabrias began on the Sth of February 1783, and continued until 

 the latter end of the Blay following ; doing infinite damage, and exhibiting 

 at Mesaina, in the parts of Sicily nearest to the continent, and in the two 

 Calabrias, a varietvof phenomena. The earth was in a constant tremor, and 

 its motions were various, being either vertical or whirling round, — horizon, 

 tal or oscillatory, that is, by pulsations or beatings from the bottom upwards. 

 There were many openings, or cracks in the earth ; and several hUis had been 

 lowered, while others were quite level. lu the plains, the chasms were bo 

 deep that many roads were readcred impassable. Huge mountains w«ra 



