322 JOURNAL. 
30th. — Before ten o’clock, and at two, shocks accompanied with 
an unusually loud noise: it is seldom that any shock is entirely with- 
out. Sometimes a sound like an explosion takes place before the 
shock ; sometimes a kind of rumbling noise accompanies it; and we 
often hear the sound without being sensible of any motion, though 
the quicksilver in the decanter is perceptibly agitated. 
Dec. 1st. — The shocks have been slight, but frequent. We rode 
to-day to the village of Placilla, through the estate of Maytens, and 
by the lake of Carices, which bounds the Quintero estate ; the scenery 
is extremely beautiful, and the valley of the lake rich and fruitful. 
Placilla is a pleasant village, and puts me in mind of something in Eng- 
land: it is prettily situated on the little stream of La Ligua*; the 
ranchos are of the better kind, and intermixed with orchards and 
gardens. Corn and pasture surround it, and the mountains rise at 
an agreeable distance. We found the people just coming from Mass, 
which had been celebrated in a ramada, built up in the church-yard ; 
the church and parsonage, the only two brick-and-mortar edifices 
in the village, having been shaken down on the night of the 19th. 
The parsonage, however, is only partially destroyed. We found the 
curate in a little dirty room in a corner of the house, which I sup- 
pose is his study, with about a score of old books with greasy black 
leather covers ; and in the corner a parcel of wool: after giving us 
some rum there, he led us over a heap of ruin to another corner- 
room but little damaged, where he set before us bread, butter, cheese, 
milk, and brandy, insisting that we should take luncheon with him ; 
which we, nothing loath, consented to. I then went to settle accounts 
with the daughter of the judge of the village, — no less a personage 
than my washerwoman. But in ancient times the queens and 
princesses themselves washed for their fathers and brothers ; and, 
I think, like the ladies here, the Princess Nausicaa took the foul 
clothes to the river-side to whiten. It must be confessed, that a 
* The little town of La Ligua, famous for horses, was destroyed on the 19th. 
