SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WITH EARTHQUAKES 



69 



what dreams must have visited the pil- 

 lows of these brave fellows on that event- 

 ful night, but to me one of the wonders 

 of this wonderful experience was the 

 matter-of-fact obedience to orders mani- 

 fested by these sorely tried men. 



POINDING OURSELVES HIGH AND DRY 



The morning sun broke on a scene of 

 desolation seldom witnessed. We found 

 ourselves high and dry in a little cove, 

 or rather indentation in the coast-line. 

 We had been carried some 3 miles up the 

 coast and nearly 2 miles inland. The 

 wave had carried us over the sand dunes 

 bordering the ocean, across a valley, and 

 over the railroad track, leaving us at the 

 foot of the seacoast range of the Andes. 

 On the nearly perpendicular front of the 

 mountain our navigator discovered the 

 marks of the tidal wave, and, by measure- 

 ments, found it to have been 47 feet high, 

 not including the comb. Had the wave 

 carried us 200 feet further, we would 

 inevitably have been dashed to pieces 

 against the mountain-side. 



There we lay on as even a keel as if 

 still afloat, with our flag flying and our 

 port anchor and 100 fathoms of chain 

 led out as carefully as we could have 

 placed them there. Was it possible that 

 this, our heaviest anchor and chain, could 

 have drifted with us throughout all the 

 mazes of our voyaging of the afternoon? 

 And why was not the chain parted by 

 the last shock, as were the others? 



We found near us the wreck of a large 

 English bark, the "Chanacelia," which 

 had one of her anchor chains wound 

 around her as many times as it would go, 

 thus showing she had been rolled over 

 and over ; a little nearer the sea lay the 

 Peruvian ship, the "America," on her 

 bilges ; and the sand was strewn with the 

 most heterogeneous mass of plunder that 

 ever gladdened the heart of a wrecker : 

 Grand pianos, bales of silk, casks of 

 brandy, furniture, clothing, hardware ; 

 everything imaginable was there. A 

 rough estimate placed this emptying of 

 the custom-house at $1,100,000. 



"we saved the eeag, sir !" 



Our first work was to establish a cor- 

 don of sentries around the ship, while a 



strong working party stove in the brandy 

 casks and shattered the wine cases, for 

 we did not propose having drunkenness 

 added to the other horrors surrounding 

 us. One of the incidents of the morning 

 was the return of the midshipman and 

 crew from the wrecked Peruvian ship 

 and the laconic report of the youngster 

 in command: "Returned on board, sir. 

 I have to report the loss of the second 

 cutter, 12 oars, and two boat-hooks; but 

 we saved the Hag, sir." 



Most of the surviving Peruvians, when 

 they discovered the "America" was on 

 shore, deserted the ship, and were 

 drowned by the next incoming wave, 

 which, though not a breaker, was high 

 enough to sweep them away, while our 

 ofiicer held his men until daybreak. 



In a few days the savage Araucanian 

 Indians from the mountains descended 

 upon us with long trains of llamas, the 

 camels of the Andes. They broke open 

 boxes, cut the fastenings of bales, and 

 started back to their retreats loaded down 

 with plunder. We were not able to argue 

 with them, but there was an invitation 

 to stop in the shriek of our shells that all 

 understood. By firing in front of them 

 with one of our smaller guns we "hove 

 them to" and made them approach and 

 unload their cargoes near us. Soon we 

 had accumulated an assorted pile of mer- 

 chandise much larger than our ship. 



MUMMIES carried TO WASHINGTON 



The earthquake shocks continued at 

 varying intervals, but none of them so 

 violent or long-continued as at first ; some 

 of them, however, were severe enough to 

 shake the "Wateree" until she rattled like 

 an old kettle, and caused us to abandon 

 the ship and camp on a considerable 

 plateau, some 100 feet high, and over- 

 looking the ship and wreckage. Here 

 we had an opportunity of seeing the dis- 

 astrous results of the earthquake on land. 

 We found in some places immense fis- 

 sures, many of them over 100 feet wide 

 and of unknown depths ; others were 

 mere cracks. Some of them proved the 

 graves of the fleeing inhabitants. In one 

 instance, I remember, we found the body 

 of a lady sitting on her horse, both swal- 

 lowed up while fleeing for their lives. 



