240 



PANAMA— AN EARTHQUAKE. [1826, 



than that of the Pacific, it would naturally take its course to that 

 ocean, wearing for itself a channel that might effectually divide the 

 continent, and render a passage to the Indies as facile, as safe, more 

 pleasant, and nearly as brief, as almost any other foreign voyage. 



" I think a canal might be dug parallel to the river, and near its 

 banks as far as Cruces, and thence continued on the Pizarro Road. 

 The mountains back of Panama, the lowest of the chain of the Andes, 

 would not, I think, offer a formidable barrier — the road at present 

 half-circles the base of one of them, and the canal might follow its 

 track. Kirkland does not agree with me in my views, although he 

 offers nothing decidedly in confutation. He has applied to Congress 

 for a charter, with exclusive privileges for one hundred years ; they 

 object to the time, and he is now awaiting an answer from Bolivar, 

 who by the last accounts had triumphantly entered Pasto. Peru's 

 independence is now considered secure. 



" I did not mean thus to attenuate. It must be my garrulity ; for on 

 reviewing the preceding, I find I have offered merely an adumbration 

 of that which I conceived, and doubtless correctly. It could have 

 been fully embraced in half the space. It may reach you, however, 

 at a period when it will not be unacceptable ; for at this moment the 

 dullest correspondent that ever taxed me would be welcome in a closely- 

 written treble post-folio sheet. Yesterday I accompanied a party to 

 visit the ruins of the former town. We embarked in the boat of an 

 English schooner, but although we were on the waters of the Pacifier, 

 the surf was too unruly to permit our landing. The town was de- 

 stroyed by an earthquake, and the appearance of the ruins gave indi- 

 cation of fearful violence. 



"The mosquitoes here are very annoying. I have not yet pro- 

 cured a net, and find it almost impossibly to sleep. Last night, or 

 rather this morning, I was fairly wearied into slumber, into which I 

 had just sunk when the captain alarmed me. ' Did you not hear it V — 

 * Hear what V said I, vexed at the interruption of an enjoyment obtained 

 through so much difficulty ; ' the car rattling o'er the stony street ?' — 

 4 No, the earthquake.' — I had heard and felt nothing. He said there 

 had been two very severe shocks, and the third would likely prove 

 more so. I arose and went into the large hall where Kirkland and all 

 in sleeping costume were assembled. What a group for a painter ! 



" The boldest held his breath for a while. Some time elapsed, the 

 shock was not repeated, and we dispersed. Just as I had adjusted 

 myself for Somnus, I experienced a slight easy undulation of my couch, 

 which I can compare only to the gentle rocking of a cradle by a 

 mother, in which lay her infant invalid. It was the last shock of the 

 leveller whose mysterious visitings quail the stoutest heart. 



" I learned this morning that the large square was completely filled 

 by the panic-struck inhabitants when the shock was felt. They 

 scarcely ever think about their liability to such visitations, but when 

 they come are filled with dread. And how can it be otherwise? 

 When the 'sound and firm-set earth' totters beneath us, we gaze 

 upon the lofty towers of our vain creation, and the pride with which 

 we surveyed them is turned into a fearful, horrible apprehension, that 



