158 - EARTHQUAKE OF CARACCAS. ~ 
struck with the connexion which appeared between 
the destruction of Cumana in 1797 and the erup- 
tion of volcanoes in the smaller West India islands. 
A similar principle was manifested in 18]2, in the 
ease of Caraccas. From the beginning of 1811 till 
1813, a vast extent of the earth’s surface, limited by 
the meridian of the Azores, the valley of the Ohio, 
the cordilleras of New Grenada, the coasts of Ve- 
nezuela, and the volcanoes of the West Indies, was 
shaken by subterranean commotions, indicative of 
a common agency exerted at a great depth in the 
interior of the globe. At the period when these 
earthquakes commenced in the valley of the Missis- 
sippi, the city of Caraccas felt the first shock in 
December 1811, and on the 26th March of 1812 it 
\ was totally destroyed. © 
“. “The inhabitants of Terra Firma were ignorant 
of the agitation, which on the one hand the vol- 
cano of the island of St Vincent had experienced, 
and on the other the basin of the Mississippi, where, 
on the 7th and 8th of February 1812, the ground 
was day and night in a state of continual oscillation. 
At this period the province of Venezuela laboured 
under great drought ; not a drop of rain had fallen 
at Caraccas, or to the distance of 311 miles around, 
during the five months which preceded the destruction 
of the capital. The 26th March was excessively hot ; 
the air was calm and the sky cloudless. It was 
Holy Thursday, and a great part of the population — 
was in the churches. The calamities of the day 
were preceded by no indications of danger. At 
seven minutes after four in the evening the first 
commotion was felt. It was so strong as to make 
the bells of the churches ring. It lasted from five 
