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great catastrophe of the 4th of February, 1797^ 

 took place on these coasts. While the ground 

 was in a state of continual oscillation, the at- 

 mosphere seemed to dissolve itself into water. 

 The rivers were swollen by these sudden tor- 

 rents of rain, the year was extremely fertile, and 

 the Indians, whose frail huts easily resist the 

 strongest shocks, celebrated from ideas of an 

 old superstition, with feasting and dances, the 

 destruction of the world, and the approaching 

 epocha of it's regeneration. 



Tradition states, that in the earthquake of 

 1766, as well as in another very remarkable one 

 in 1794, the shocks were mere horizontal oscil- 

 lations ; it was only on the disastrous day of the 

 14th of December, 1797, that for the first time, 

 atCumana, the motion was felt by the raising up 

 of the ground. More than four-fifths of the city 

 were then entirely destroyed; and the shock 

 attended by a very loud subterraneous noise, re- 

 sembled, as at Riobamba, the explosion of a mine 

 at a great|depth. H appily the most violent shock 

 was preceded |by a slight undulating motion, so 

 that thegreater part of the inhabitants could 

 escape into the streets, and a small number only 

 perished of those who had assembled in the 

 churches. It is a generally received opinion at 

 Cumana, that the most destructive earthquakes 

 are announced by very feeble oscillations, and 

 by a hollow sound, which does not escape the 



