40 EARTHQUAKE. 



calamities, the people devoted themselves to 

 those religious duties which they thought 

 most fitted to appease the wrath of Heaven. 

 Some, assembling in processions, sang fu- 

 neral hymns; others, in a state of distrac- 

 tion, confessed themselves aloud in the 

 streets. In this town was now repeated 

 what had been remarked in the province 

 of Quito, after the tremendous earthquake 

 of 1797; a number of marriages were con- 

 tracted between persons who had neglect- 

 ed for many years to sanction their union 

 by the sacerdotal benediction. Children 

 found parents, by whom they had never 

 till then been acknowledged ; restitutions 

 were promised by persons who had never 

 been accused of fraud ; and families, who 

 had long been enemies, were drawn, toge- 

 ther by the tie of common calamity. If 

 this feeling seemed to calm the passions 

 of some, and open the heart to pity, it had 

 a contrary effect on others, renderins: them 



