PHENOMENA OF EARTHQUAKES. 157 
CHAPTER XIII. 
Earthquakes of Caraccas. 
Extensive Connexion of Earthquakes—Eruption of the Volcano of 
_ St Vincent’s—Earthquake of the 26th March 1812—Destruc- 
tion of the City—Ten Thousand of the Inhabitants killed—Con- 
sternation of the Survivors—Extent of the Commotions. 
Tue valley of Caraccas, a few years after Hum- 
boldt’s visit, became the theatre of one of those phy- 
sical revolutions which from time to time produce 
violent alterations upon the surface of our planet ; 
involving the overthrow of cities, the destruction of 
human life, and a temporary agitation of those ele- 
ments of nature on which the system of the uni- 
verse is founded. In the narrative of his Journey 
to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, 
he has recorded all that he could collect with cer- 
tainty respecting the earthquake of the 26th March 
1812, which destroyed the city of Caraccas, together 
with 20,000 inhabitants of the province of Venezuela. 
When our travellers visited those countries, they 
found it to be a general opinion, that the eastern 
parts of the coasts were most exposed to the de- 
structive effects of such concussions, and that the 
elevated districts, remote from the shores, were in 
a great measure secure; but in 181] all these ideas 
were proved groundless. 
At Humboldt’s arrival in Terra Firma, he was 
