140 



COMMOTIONS OF THE EARTH 



contrary effect on others, rendering them more obdu- 

 rate and inhuman. In great calamities vulgar minds 

 retain still less goodness than strength ; for misfor- 

 tune acts like the pursuit of literature and the in- 

 vestigation of nature, which exercise their happy 

 influence only upon a few, giving more warmth to 

 the feelings, more elevation to the mind, and more 

 benevolence to the character. 



" Shocks so violent as these, which in the space 

 of one minute overthrew the city of Caraccas, could 

 not be confined to a small portion of the continent. 

 Their fatal effects extended to the provinces of 

 Venezuela, Varinas, and Maracaybo, along the coast, 

 and were more especially felt in the mountains of 

 the interior. La Guayra, Mayguetia, Antimana, 

 Baruta, La Vega, San Felipe, and Merida were 

 almost entirely destroyed. The number of dead 

 exceeded four or five thousand at La Guayra and 

 at the villa de San Felipe, near the copper-mines of 

 Aroa. The earthquake would appear to have been 

 most violent along a line running from E.N.E. to 

 W.S.W., from Guayra and Caraccas towards the 

 high mountains of Niquitas and Merida. It was felt 

 in the kingdom of New-Grenada, from the ramifica- 

 tions of the lofty Sierra of Santa Martha to Santa 

 Fe jle Bogota, and Honda on the banks of the Mag- 

 dalena, 620 miles distant from Caraccas. In all parts 

 it was more violent in the cordilleras of gneiss and 

 mica-slate, or immediately at their base, than in 

 the plains. This difference was particularly remark- 

 able in the savannas of Varinas and Casanare. In 

 the valleys of Aragua, situated between Caraccas 

 and the town of San Felipe, the shocks were very 

 weak. *La Victoria, Maracay, and Valencia scarcely- 

 suffered, notwithstanding the proximity of the capi- 

 tal. At Valecillo, not many leagues distant from 

 Valencia, the ground opened and emitted so great a 

 mass of water that a new torrent was formed. The 

 same phenomenon took place near Porto Cabello 



