45 



Notwithstanding the intimate connection, that 

 manifests itself in the action of the volcanoes of 

 the smaller West India islands and the earth- 

 quakes of Terra Firma, it often happens, that 

 shocks felt in the volcanic Archipelago are not 

 propagated to the island of Trinidad, or to the 

 coasts of Caraccas and Cumana. This pheno- 

 menon has nothing in it surprising : even in the 

 Caribbees the commotions are often confined to 

 one place. The great eruption of the volcano 

 in St. Vincent's did not occasion an earthquake 

 at Martinico or Guadaloupe. Loud explosions 

 were heard there, as well as at Venezuela, but 

 the ground remained tranquil. 



These explosions, which must not be con- 

 founded with the rolling noise that every where 

 precedes the weakest commotions, are often 

 heard on the banks of the Oroonoko, and par- 

 ticularly, as we were assured, on the spot be- 

 tween the Rio Arauca and Cuchivero. Father 

 Morel! o relates, that at the mission of Cabruta 

 the subterranean noise so much resembles dis- 

 charges of small cannon (padereroes), that it has 

 seemed as if a battle were heard at a distance. 

 On the 21st of October, 1766, the day of the 

 terrible earthquake that desolated the province 

 of New Andalusia*, the ground was agitated at 

 once at Cumana, at Caraceas, at Maracaybo^ 



* See chap, iv, vol. ii„ p. 216, 



