215 



In this memoir the author has collected all the historical notices 

 which he has been able to discover respecting the effects of the ma- 

 rine inundations which have accompanied the earthquakes on the 

 coast of Chili and Peru. 



Father Acosta, in a vi^ork written in 1590 *, mentions an earthquake 

 on the coast of Chili which caused the sea to rise out of its bed some 

 leagues, leaving ships dry far inland. He also states among the ef- 

 fects of the earthquake at Lima on the 9th of July, 1586, that after 

 the shock of the earthquake, the sea rose mightily out of its bed, and 

 bursting over the shore nearly two leagues, overwhelmed all the shore, 

 and left the shrubs and trees, as it were, swimming in the waters. 



Frezier f says, that on the 26th of November, 1605, the sea, being 

 agitated by an earthquake, suddenly flooded, and bore down the greater 

 part of Areca. 



Ulloa+, describingthe earthquake at Lima on the 20th of October, 

 observes that during the second concussion the sea retired consider- 

 ably, and returning in mountainous waves, totally overwhelmed Cal- 

 lao, and the neighbouring parts. Lionel Wafer §, who felt the same 

 earthquake in latitude 12° 30' S., and 150 leagues from the coast, 

 speaking of its effects, says, the ships in the road of Callao were car- 

 ried a league into the country, and drowned man and beast for 50 

 leagues along the shore. Wafer also describes a similar catastrophe 

 at Santa, about three degrees to the north of Callao. In passing from 

 the shore to the town, distant about 3 rniles, he crossed a small hill, 

 and in a valley between it and Santa he saw three ships, about 60 or 

 100 tons each, lodged there, and very ruinous. These vessels, he was 

 informed, were deposited during the earthquake of 1678. The water, 

 it is said, retired for 24 hours, and then came in, tumbling and rolling 

 with such violence that it carried these ships over the town, which 

 then stood on the hill Wafer had crossed. 



In 1746 Callao was again destroyed by an earthquake- wave, vast 

 heaps of sand and gravel occupying its position ||. All the ships in the 

 harbour, except four, foundered. One of these, the San Firmin man- 

 of-war, was found in the low grounds of the Upper Chacara, oppo- 

 site to the place where she rode at anchor, and near her the St. An- 

 tonio ; another of these vessels rested on the spot where before stood 

 the Hospital of St. John, and the ship Succour was thrown up towards 

 the mountains. Ulloa says that this terrible inundation extended to 

 the ports of Cavallos and Guanape ; and the towns of Chancay and 



* Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias por el Padre Joseph de Acosta ; 

 Madrid 1793 (sexta edicion). 



t A Voyage to the South Sea and along the Coast of Chili and Peru in 

 the years 1712, 1713 and 1714, by M. Frezier, Engineer in Ordinary to the 

 King of France; London, 1717. 



X A Voyage to South America by Don Juan and Don Antonio de Ulloa, 

 Sic, translated by Adams, 5th edit.; London, 1807- 



§ Lionel Wafer's Voyage to Magellanica, &c., &c., in 1685. 



II A true and particular Relation of the dreadful Earthquake which hap- 

 pened at Lima and Callao on the 28th of October 1746, published by com- 

 mand of the Vice-Roy, and translated from the original, &c.,- London, 1748. 



