DESTRIXTION OP THE CITY. I"0 



could resist the motion from beneath upwards, and tlie chap. xiu. 

 undulations crossing each other. The city of Caraccas ovei-tiirow c 

 was completely overthrown. Thousands of the inhahi- Caiacciva. 

 tants (from nine to ten thousand) were buried under the 

 ruins of the churches and houses. The procession had 

 not yet set out ; but the crowd in the churches was so 

 great, that nearly three or four thousand individuals 

 were crushed to death by the falling in of the vaulted 

 roofs. The explosion was stronger on the north side of 

 the town, in the part nearest the mountain of Avila and 

 the Silla. The churches of the Trinity and Alta Gracia, 

 which were more than a hundred and fifty feet in height, 

 and of which the nave was supported by pillars from 

 twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, left a mass of ruins 

 nowhere higher than five or six feet. The sinking of 

 the ruins has been so great, that at present hardly any 

 vestige remains of the pillars and columns. The barracks 

 called El Quartel de San Carlos, situated further to the 

 north of the church of the Trinity, on the road to the 

 customhouse de la Pastora, almost entirely disappeared. 

 A regiment of troops of the line, which was assembled Bnrialofa 

 in it under arms to join in the procession, was, with the legimeut of 

 exception of a few individuals, buried under this large 

 building. Nine-tenths of the fine town of Caraccas 

 were entirely reduced to ruins. The liouses which did 

 not fall, as those of the street of San Juan, near the 

 Capuchin Hospital, were so cracked that no one could 

 venture to live in them. The eff"ects of the earthquake 

 were not quite so disastrous in the southern and western 

 parts of the town, between the great square and the ra- 

 vine of Caraguata ; — there the cathedral, supported by 

 enormous buttresses, remains standing. 



" In estimating the number of persons killed in the Desolate 

 city of Caraccas at nine or ten thousand, we do not in- scenes. 

 elude those unhappy individuals who were severely 

 wounded, and perished several months after from want 

 of food and proper attention. The night of Holy 

 Thursday presented the most distressing scenes of desola- 

 tion and sorrow. The thick cloud of dust, which rose 



