312 MITCHILL ON THE EARTHQUAKES AT VENEZUELA* 



" There is not a house in Laguira, nor more than fifty in the whole 

 city of Caraccas, but will have to be pulled down, or the places com- 

 pletely abandoned, which latter, I think, will be the case, and cities and 

 towns built on places adjacent, and of wood. Ten thousand lives are 

 said to be lost in Caraccas, but it is impossible to tell to a certainty. 

 They have been digging out the bodies ever since, and burning them. 

 It is shocking to see, at the close of the day, heads, arms, and legs, that 

 have been left unburnt, as the fire dies away: and the stench is terrible. 

 Every person is ordered out of Caraccas, except labourers, to avoid a 

 pestilence. Three fourths of the wealth of Caraccas are lost; and, as 

 no day has yet passed without a shock, we are waiting with fear and 

 trembling to know wlien it will be entirely over, or what the effects of 

 the next shock will be. All foreigners, and every person having the 

 means, are leaving the place for the islands and elsewhere." 



The next was written by a spectator of the ruins of Laguira, to his 

 correspondent in Philadelphia, and bears the date of the 2d day of 

 April, 1812. The melancholy narration it contains renders it worthy 

 of preservation. 



" Many times in my life have I experienced the goodness of a Merci- 

 ful God toward me, but never so conspicuously as in my preservation 

 during the tremendous exertion of his power, which has shaken the 

 mountains to their foundation, and levelled the greatest part of this 

 city, as also that of Caraccas, with the ground. Thousands and tens of 

 thousands have been buried, and most of them now lie beneath the 

 ruins! The stench arising from the dead bodies is intolerable; such of 

 them as could be come at have been thrown into the sea, or collected 

 into heaps and burnt to ashes. It is imagined that seven eighths of the 

 houses in this city are demolished, and of those which still stand, there 

 are not, perhaps, twenty that will be found tenantable. The custom- 

 house, which was built very strong, is not much injured. The house 



