12 



raccas, were preceded at Louisiana by a year 

 almost exempt from thunder storms*. Every 

 mind was again struck with this phenomenon. 

 We cannot deem it strange, that in the country of 

 Franklin a great predilection is retained for ex- 

 planations founded on the theory of electricity. 



The shock felt at Caraceas, in the month of ' 

 December, 1811, was the only one, that preceded 

 the horrible catastrophe of the 26th of March, 

 1812. The inhabitants of Terra Firma were 

 ignorant of the agitations of the volcano in the 

 island of St. Vincent on one side, and on the 

 other, of those that were felt in the basin of the 

 Missisippi, where, on the 7th and 8th of February, 

 1812, the earth was day and night in perpetual 

 oscillation, A great drought prevailed at this 

 period in the province of Venezuela. Not a single 

 drop of rain had fallen at Caraccas, or in the 

 country ninety leagues round, during the five 

 months which preceded the destruction of the ca- 

 pital. The 26th of March was a remarkably hot 

 day. The air was calm, and the sky unclouded. 

 It was Holy Thursday, and a great part of the 

 population was assembled in the churches. No- 

 thing seemed to presage the calamities of the 

 day. At seven minutes after four in the after- 

 noon the first shock was felt ; it was sufficiently 

 powerful, to make the bells of the churches toll ; 



* Trans, of New York, vol. i, p. 285 ; Drake, p. 210. 



