48 



SANTIAGO. 



tricts were sufficiently felt here to fill the 

 minds of the citizens of Santiago with fearful 

 forebodings^ and the greatest anxiety prevailed 

 until two days ago, about their own safety. 

 Slight shocks have occurred several times since 

 our arrival, and I witnessed the effect produced 

 by them on the nervous sensibility of the people, 

 who, upon one of these occasions, rushed from 

 their houses into the Plaza and the streets, whilst 

 I was myself quite unconscious of any motion 

 of the earth. Experience has taught them to 

 distinguish immediately the sort of motion 

 which they most dread, and the panic is gene- 

 ral before a stranger is in the least aware of any 

 cause for it, from his own sensations. These 

 visitations are so frequent, and so alarming in 

 Chile, that they form the greatest objection to 

 one of the richest countries and finest climates 

 in the world. 



