320 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
lightning and thunder above and violent 
shocks of earthquakes underneath. The 
cloud of ejecta, carried on by the wind, 
extended itself toward west and south, 
with the result that we saw already some 
stones fall close to our shore. I there- 
fore shouted to all those who were still 
in the town to take to flight, and we all 
ran off in a hurry ; otherwise we would 
have been engulfed on the spot, as the 
waves of the angry lake began already 
to flood the houses nearest to the beach. 
"We left the town, fleeing from this 
living picture of Sodom, with incessant 
fear lest the raging waters of the lake 
overtake us, which were at the moment 
invading the main part of the town, 
sweeping away everything which they 
encountered. On the outskirts of the 
town I came upon a woman who was so 
exhausted by her burden of two little 
children and a bundle of clothing that 
she could proceed no farther. Moved by 
pity, I took one of the toddlers from her 
and carried him, and the little indio, who 
had been wailing while in the arms of 
his mother, stopped short when I took 
him into mine and never uttered a sound 
while I was carrying him a good piece 
of the way. 
"Having reached l secure place on ele- 
vated ground at a distance of about half 
a league [2 kilometers] from the town, 
we halted in a hut to rest a little and take 
some food. From this spot the volcano 
could be contemplated with a little more 
serenity of mind. It still continued in 
full fury, ejecting immense masses of 
material. ' Now I also observed that the 
earth was in continuous swaying motion, 
a fact which I had failed to notice dur- 
ing the excitement and fear of the flight. 
"Shortly afterwards the volcano sub- 
sided almost suddenly ; its top was clear 
and apparently calm. We therefore re- 
turned on the following day, the 29th, 
to the town with the intention of survey- 
ing the havoc wrought during the pre- 
ceding night. 
"The 29th had dawned calm, but while 
we were still trying to persuade our- 
selves that the tragedy was over and the 
volcano had exhausted its bowels, at 
about 8 o'clock we heard a crash, and 
then I noticed that smoke was rising 
from the point of the island which looks 
toward east. The smoke spread very 
gradually as far as the crater of the vol- 
cano, while there were many whiffs 
issuing from points in the direction of 
another headland. I realized that the 
island had opened in these places, and 
fearing that if a crater should open be- 
low the water an explosion might follow 
much more formidable than the preced- 
ing ones, I mounted a horse and retired 
permanently to the sanctuary of Caysa- 
say. 
The; sky was shrouded in thk bIvACk- 
ness oe night for three days 
"Between 3 and 4 o'clock in the after- 
noon of the said 29th, it began to rain 
mud and ashes at Caysasay (12 miles 
from the volcano ) and this rain lasted 
three days. The most terrifying circum- 
stance was that the whole sky was 
shrouded in such darkness that we could 
not have seen the hand placed before 
the face had it not been for the sinister 
glare of the incessant lightnings. Nor 
could we use artificial light, as this was 
extinguished by the wind and copious 
ashes, which penetrated everywhere. All 
was horror during those three days, 
which appeared rather like murky nights, 
and we did not occupy ourselves with 
anything but see to it that the natives 
swept off' the roofs the large quantities 
of ashes and stones which kept on ac- 
cumulating" upon them and threatened to 
bring them down upon us, burying us 
alive beneath their weight. But fearing 
that even these precautions might prove 
unavailing, we three Europeans — viz.. 
Father Prior, the alcalde, and myself — 
the only ones who were at the time in 
the Convento of Caysasay, took refuge 
on the landing of the stairs as the safest 
place, and awaited there whatever God 
might dispose with regard to us. To all 
this was added incessant thunder and 
lightning, and it really looked as if the 
world was going to pieces and its axis 
had been displaced. 
"During the night of the 30th we had 
not a moment of repose, as every mo- 
ment we heard the loud crash of houses 
collapsing under the load of stones, mud. 
