M. Humboldt on the Earthqualce of the Caratcas. 278 
cumjacent country ; but we may afterwards have another op- 
portunity of resuming this branch of the subject. 
‘‘ The 26th of March was a remarkably hot day. The air 
was calm, and the sky unclouded. It was Ploly Thursday, and 
a great part of the population was assembled in the churches. 
Nothing seemed to presage the calamities of the day. At seven 
minutes after four in the afternoon the first shock was felt ; it 
was sufficiently powerful, to make the bells of the churches toll ; 
it lasted five or six seconds, during which time, the ground was 
in a continual undulating movement, and seemed to heave up 
like a boiling liquid. The danger was thought to be past, when 
a tremendous subterraneous noise was heard, resembling the 
rolling of thunder, but louder, and of longer continuance, than 
that heard within the tropics in time of storms. This noise pre- 
ceded a perpendicular motion of three or four seconds, followed 
by an undulatory movement somewhat longer. The shocks 
were in opposite directions, from north to south, and from east 
to west. Nothing could resist the movement from beneath up- 
ward, and undulations crossing each other. The town of Ca- 
raccas was entirely overthrown. Between nine and ten thou- 
sand of the inhabitants were buried under the ruins of the 
houses and churches. The procession had not yet set out; 
but the crowd was so great in the churches, that nearly three 
or four thousand persons were crushed by the fall of their 
vaulted roofs. The explosion w^as stronger tow^ards the north, 
in that part of the town situated nearest the mountain of Avila, 
and the Silla. The churches of la Trinidad and Alta Gracia, 
which where more than 150 feet high, and the naves of which 
were supported by pillars of twelve or fifteen feet diameter, left 
a mass of rums scarcely exceeding five or six feet in elevation. 
The sinking of the ruins has been so considerable, that there 
now scarcely remain any vestiges of pillars or columns. The 
barracks, called El Qiiart'el de San Carlos^ situate farther 
north of the Church of the Trinity, on the road from the Cus- 
tom-house de la Pas tora, almost entirely disappeared. A regi- 
ment of troops of the line, that was assembled under arms, 
ready to join the procession, was, with the exception of a few 
men, buried under the ruins of this great edifice. Nine-tenths 
of the fine town of Caraccas were entirely destroyed. The 
