228 



does, more than twelve hundred leagues distant 

 from the coast of Portugal. 



Several facts tend to prove, that the causes 

 which produce earthquakes have a near connec- 

 tion with those that act in volcanic eruptions # . 

 We learnt at Pasto, that the column of black 

 and thick smoke, which, in 1797, issued for seve- 

 ral months from the volcano near this shore, 

 disappeared at the very hour, when, sixty leagues 

 to the south, the towns of Riobamba, HambatOj 

 and Tacunga, were overturned by an enormous 

 shock. When, in the interior of a burning crater, 

 we are seated near those hillocks formed by 

 ejections of scoriae and ashes, we feel the motion 



When the shocks are not simultaneous, or do not follow at 

 short intervals, great doubts may be entertained with respect 

 to the pretended communication of the movement. 



* The connection of these causes, already known to the 

 ancients, excited fresh attention at the period of the discovery 

 of America. (Acosta, p. 121.) This discovery not only 

 offered new productions to the curiosity of men, it gave also 

 extent to their ideas on physical geography, on the varieties 

 of the human species, and the migrations of nations. It is 

 impossible to read the first narratives of the Spanish travel- 

 lers, especially those of the Jesuit Acosta, without perceiving 

 with surprise the influence which the aspect of a great conti- 

 nent, the study of extraordinary appearances of nature, and 

 an intercourse with men of different races, have exerted on 

 the progress of knowledge in Europe. The germe of a great 

 number of physical truths is found in the works of the six- 

 teenth century ; and this germe would have fructified, had it 

 not been crushed by fanaticism aud superstition. 



