PHENOMENA OF EARTHQUAKES. 137 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Earthquakes of Caraccas. 



Extensive Connexion of Earthquakes — Eniption of the Volcano of 

 St Vincent's— Eartliquake of the 26th March 1812— Destruc- 

 tion of the City — Ten Thousand of the Inhabitants killed Con- 

 sternation of the Jjurvivors — Extent of the Commotions. 



The valley of Caraccas, a few years after Humboldt's CHAP, xili 

 visit, became the theatre of one of those physical revolu- EarthquaJies 

 tions which from time to time produce violent alterations 

 upon the surface of our planet ; involving the overthrow 

 of cities, the destruction of human life, and a temporary 

 agitation of those elements of nature on which the system 

 of the universe is founded. In the narrative of his 

 Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Conti- 

 nent, he has recorded all that he could collect Avith 

 certainty respecting the earthquake of the 26th March 

 1812, which destroyed the city of Caraccas, together witli 

 20,000 inhabitants of the province of Venezuela. 



Wlien our travellers visited those countries, they found False ideas oi 

 it to be a general opinion, that the eastern parts of the *''6°*"^'^s- 

 coasts were most exposed to the destructive effects of 

 such concussions, and that the elevated districts, remote 

 from the shores, were in a great measure secure ; but in 

 1811 all these ideas were proved groundless. 



At Humboldt's arrival in Terra Firma, he was struck 

 with the connexion whicii appeared between tlie destruc- 

 tion of Cumana in 1707 and the eruption of volcanoes in 

 the smaller West India islands. A similar principle was 

 manifested in 1812, in the case of Caraccas. From the 



