64 



EARTHQUAKES. 



CHAP. V 



Destruction 

 of tbe city. 



Prp\1ous 

 indications 



Irregular 

 occurrences. 



Atmospheric 

 (adlcutiong. 



tants encamped in the streets, and tliey did not begin to 

 rebuild tbeir liouses until tbe earthquakes took place 

 only once in four weeks. These commotions had been 

 preceded by a drought of fifteen months, and were 

 accompanied and followed by torrents of rain which 

 swelled the rivers. 



On the 14th December 1797, more than four-fifths of 

 the city were again entirely destroyed. Previous to 

 this, the shocks had been horizontal oscillations ; but 

 the shaking now felt was that of an elevation of the 

 ground, and was attended by a subterraneous noise, like 

 the explosion of a mine at a great depth. The most 

 violent concussion, however, was preceded by a slight 

 undulating motion, so that the inhabitants had time to 

 escape into the streets ; and only a few perished, who 

 had betaken themselves for safety to the churches. 

 Half an hour before the catastrophe, a strong smell of 

 sulphur was experienced near the hill of the convent of 

 St Francis ; and on the same spot an internal noise, 

 which seemed to pass from S.E. to N.W., was heard 

 loudest. Flames appeared on the banks of the I\Ian- 

 zanarcs and in the Gulf of Cariaco. In describing this 

 frightful convulsion of nature, our author enters upon 

 general views respecting earthquakes, of which a very 

 brief account may be here given. 



The great earthquakes which interrupt the long series 

 of small shocks do not appear to have any stated times 

 at Cumana, as they have occurred at intervals of eighty, 

 of a hundred, and sometimes even of less than thirty 

 years ; whereas, on the coasts of Peru, — at Lima, for 

 example, — there is, without doubt, a certain degree of 

 regularity in the periodical devastations thereby occa- 

 sioned. 



It has long been believed at Cumana, Acapulco, and 

 Lima, that there exists a perceptible relation between 

 eartiiquakes and the state of the atmosphere which pre- 

 cedes these phenomena. On the coasts of New Anda- 

 lusia the people become uneasy when, in excessively 

 liot weather and after long drought, the breeze suddenly 



