3 



which more than twenty thousand persons pe- 

 rished almost at the same Instant in the province 

 of Venezuela. The intercourse which I have 

 kept up with persons of all classes has enabled 

 me, to compare the description of many eye- 

 witnesses., and to interrogate them on objects, 

 that may throw light on physical science in ge- 

 neral. The traveller, being the historian of na- 

 ture, should authenticate the dates of great 

 catastrophes, examine their connection and mu- 

 tual relations, and mark in the rapid course of 

 ages, in this continual progress of successive 

 changes, those fixed points, with which other 

 catastrophes may one day be compared. All 

 epochas approach each other in the immensity 

 of time comprehended in the history of nature. 

 Years passed away seem but a few instants ; and 

 if the physical descriptions of a country do not 

 excite a very powerful and general interest, they 

 have at least the advantage of never becoming 

 old. Similar considerations, no doubt, led Mr. 

 de la Condamine to describe in his Voyage a 

 VEquateur, the memorable eruptions* of the 

 volcano of Cotopaxi, which took place long after 

 his departure from Quito. Following the exam- 

 ple of this celebrated traveller, I think I shall 

 the less deserve blame, as the events which I am 



* Those of the 30th of November 1744, and of the 3d of 

 September, 1750. {tntrad. Hut., p. 156, and 160.) 



