1835.] GREAT EARTHQUAKE. 801 
officers, and landed near the fort called Niebla. The buildings 
were in a most ruinous state, and the gun-carriages quite rotten. 
Mr. Wickham remarked to the commanding officer, that with 
one discharge they would certainly all fall to pieces. The poor 
man, trying to put a good face upon it, gravely replied, * No, I 
alu sure, sir, they would stand two!” The Spaniards must have 
intended to Lave made this place impregnable. There is now 
lying in the middle of the courtyard a little mountain of mortar, 
which rivals in hardness the rock on which it is placed. It was 
brought from Chile, and cost 7000 dollars. The revolution 
having broken out, prevented its being applied to any purpose, 
and now it remains a monument of the fallen greatness of 
Spain. 
I wanted to go to a house about a mile and a half distant, but 
my guide said it was quite impossible to penetrate the wood in a 
straight line. He offered, however, to lead me, by following 
obscure cattle-tracks, the shortest way: the walk, nevertheless, 
took no less than three hours! This man is employed in hunting 
strayed cattle; yet, well as he must know the woods, he was not 
long since lost for two whole days, and had nothing to eat. 
These facts convey a good idea of the impracticability of the 
forests of these countries. A question often occurred to me— 
how long does any vestige of a fallen tree remain? ‘This man 
showed me one which a party of fugitive royalists had cut down 
fourteen years ago; and taking this as a criterion, I should think 
a bole a foot and a half in diameter would in thirty years be 
changed into a heap of mould. 
February 20th.—This day has been memorable in the annals 
of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake experienced by the 
oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on shore, and was lying 
down in the wood to rest myself. It came on suddenly, and 
lasted two minutes, but the time appeared much longer. The 
rocking of the ground was very sensible. The undulations ap- , 
peared to my companion and myself to come from due east, 
whilst others thought they proceeded from south-west : this shows 
how difficult it sometimes is to perceive the direction of the 
vibrations. There was no difficulty in standing upright, but the 
motion made me almost giddy: it was something like the move- 
ment of a vessel in a little cross-ripple, or still more like that felt 
