190 



by the bifurcation of the first of these rivers, is 

 a fertile plain covered with mararaees, sapotas 

 (achras), plantains, and other plants cultivated 

 in the gardens or sharas of the Indians. The 

 town has no remarkable edifice, and the fre- 

 quency of earthquakes forbids such embellish- 

 ments. It is true, that strong shocks occur less 

 frequently in a given time at Cumana, than at 

 Quito, where we nevertheless find sumptuous 

 and very lofty churches. But the earthquakes 

 of Quito are violent only in appearance ; and, 

 from the particular nature of the motion and of 

 the ground, no edifice there is overthrown. At 

 Cumana, as well as at Lima, and in several cities 

 placed tar from the mouths of burning volca- 

 noes, it happens, that the series of slight shocks 

 is interrupted after a long course of years by 

 great catastrophes, that resemble the effects of 

 the explosion of a mine. We shall have occa- 

 sion to return several times to this phenomenon, 

 for the explanation of which so many vain 

 theories have been imagined, and which have 

 been thought to be classed, by attributing them 

 to perpendicular and horizontal movements, to 

 the shock, and to oscillation*. 



* This classification dates from the time of Posidonius, 

 It is the succussio and inclinatio of Seneca (Nat. Quaest. 6 t c. 

 21) : but the ancients had already judiciously remarked, 

 that the nature of these shocks is too variable, to permit any 



