JOURNEY " 



TO THE 



EQUINOCTIAL REGIONS 



OF 



THE NEW CONTINENT. 



BOOK V. 

 CHAPTER XIV. 



Earthquakes at Caraccas. — Connection of this 

 phenomenon with the volcanic eruptions of the 

 West India islands. 



We left Caraccas on the 7th of February, in the 

 cool of the evening, and began our journey to 

 the Oroonoko. The remembrance of that depar- 

 ture is more painful to us now, than it was some 

 years ago. Our friends have perished in the 

 sanguinary revolutions, which have successively 

 given liberty to those distant regions, and de- 

 prived them of it. The house which we inha- 

 bited is now a heap of ruins. Tremendous 

 earthquakes have changed the surface of the 

 soil. The city, which I have described, has dis- 



VOL. IV. B 



