46 



and on the banks of the Casanare, the Meta, the 

 Oroonoko, and the Ventuario. Father Gili* 

 has described these commotions in a country 

 entirely granitic, at the mission of Encaramada, 

 where they were accompanied by loud explosions. 

 Great fallings in of the earth took place in the 

 mountain Paurari ; and near the rock Aravacoto 

 a small island disappeared in the Oroonoko. 

 The undulatory motion continued during a 

 whole hour. This seemed the first signal of 

 those violent commotions, which shook the 

 coasts of Cumana and Cariaco for more than 

 ten months. It might be supposed, that men 

 scattered in woods, with no other shelter than 

 huts of reeds and palm-leaves, had nothing to 

 dread from earthquakes; but they terrify the 

 Indians of Erevato and Caura, as a phenomenon 

 that seldom happens, frightens the beasts of the 

 forests, and impels the crocodiles to quit the 

 depth of the waters for the shore. Nearer the 

 sea, where the shocks are frequent, far from 

 being dreaded by the inhabitants, they are re- 

 garded with satisfaction as the prognostics of a 

 wet and fertile year. 



In this dissertation on the earthquakes of 

 Terra Firma and on the volcanoes of the neigh- 

 bouring Archipelago of the West India islands, 

 I have pursued the general plan adopted in this 



* Saggio di Storia Americana, vol. ii, p. 6. 



