280 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



gold dollars, or one hundred bushels of wheat, was of- 

 fered by the town council to any person that could kill 

 it ; but the animal escaped, even from a general hunt- 

 ing-party of the whole city, with Alvarado at the head 

 of it. After five or six months' continual depredations, 

 he was killed on the thirtieth of July by a herdsman, 

 who received the promised reward. The next great 

 disaster was a fire that happened in February, 1536, 

 and caused great injury ; as the houses were at that 

 time nearly all thatched with straw, a large portion of 

 them was destroyed before it could be extinguished. 

 The accident originated in a blacksmith's shop ; and, to 

 prevent similar misfortunes in future, the council pro- 

 hibited the employment of forges within the city. 



" The most dreadful calamity that had as yet afflict- 

 ed this unfortunate place occurred on the morning of 

 September 11, 1541. It had rained incessantly, and 

 with great violence, on the three preceding days, par- 

 ticularly on the night of the tenth, when the water de- 

 scended more like the torrent of a cataract than rain ; 

 the fury of the wind, the incessant appalling lightning, 

 and the dreadful thunder, were indescribable." . . . '^At 

 two o'clock on the morning of the eleventh, the vibra- 

 tions of the earth were so violent that the people were 

 unable to stand ; the shocks were accompanied by a 

 terrible subterranean noise, which spread universal dis- 

 may ; shortly afterward, an immense torrent of water 

 rushed down from the summit of the mountain, forcing 

 away with it enormous fragments of rocks and large 

 trees, which, descending upon the ill-fated town, over- 

 whelmed and destroyed almost all the houses, and bu- 

 ried a great number of the inhabitants under the ruins ; 

 among the many, Doiia Beatrice de la Cueba, the widow 

 of Pedro Alvarado, lost her life." 



