EARTHQUAKES AT CARACAS. 
445 
iands, those which remind the traveller of the most beau- 
tiful districts of France and the south of Germany; 
extend from Silao towards the Villa of Leon: they are in 
the neighbourhood of the mines of Guanaxuato, which 
alone furnish a sixth part of all the silver of the New 
World. 
Chapter XIV. 
Earthquakes at Caracas. — Connection of those Phenomena with the 
Volcanic Eruptions of the West India Islands. 
Ox the evening of the 7th of February we took our 
departure from Caracas. Since the period of our visit to 
that place, tremendous earthquakes have changed the sur- 
face of the soil. The city, which I have described, has dis- 
appeared ; and on the same spot, on the ground fissured in 
various directions, another city is now slowly rising. The 
heaps of ruins, which were the grave of a numerous popula- 
tion, are becoming anew the habitation of men. In retracing 
changes of so general an interest, I shall be led to notice 
events which took place long after my return to Europe. I 
shall pass over in silence the popular commotions which have 
taken plaee, and the modifications which society has under- 
gone. Modern nations, careful of their own remembrances, 
snatch from oblivion the history of human revolutions, which 
is, in fact, the history of ardent passions and inveterate 
hatred. It is not the same with respect to the revolutions 
of the physical world. These are described with least accu- 
racy when they happen to be contemporary with civil dis- 
sensions. Earthquakes and eruptions of volcanos strike the 
imagination by the evils which are tlieir necessary conse- 
quence. Tradition seizes on whatever is vague and mar- 
vellous; and amid great public calamities, as in private 
misfortunes, man seems to shun that light which leads us 
to discover the real causes of events, and to understand the 
circumstances by which they are attended. 
I have recorded in this work all I have been able to 
