surrosjiD secuiuii: oj? caeacas. 
4-iG 
collect, and on the accuracy of which I can rely respecting 
the earthquake of the 2Gth of March, 1812. By that catas- 
trophe the town of Caracas was destroyed, and more than 
twenty thousand persons perished throughout the extent of 
the province of Venezuela. The intercourse which I have 
kept up with persons of all classes has enabled me to com- 
pare the description given by many eye-witnesses, and to in- 
terrogate them on objects that may throw light on physical 
science in general. The traveller, as the historian of nature, 
should verify the dates of great catastrophes, examine their 
connection and their mutual relations, and should mark in 
the rapid course of ages, in the continual progress of suc- 
cessive changes, those fixed points with which other catas- 
trophes may one day be compared. All epochs are proxi- 
mate to each other in the immensity of time comprehended 
in the history of nature. Years which have passed away 
seem but a few instants ; and the physical descriptions of a 
country, even when they offer subjects of no very powerful 
and general interest, have at least the advantage of never 
becoming old. Similar considerations, no doubt, led M. dc 
la Condamine to describe in his Voyage a i’Equateur, the 
memorable eruptions of the volcano of Cotopaxi,* which 
took place long after his departure from Quito. I feel the 
less hesitation in following the example of that celebrated 
traveller, as the events 1 am about to relate will help to 
elucidate the theory of volcanic reaction, or the influence 
of a system of volcanos on a vast space of circumjacent 
territory. 
At the time when M. Bouplaud and myself visited the 
provinces of New Andalusia, New Barcelona, and Caracas, 
it was generally believed that the most eastern parts of 
those coasts were especially exposed to the destructive 
effects of earthquakes. The inhabitants of Cumana dreaded 
the valley of Caracas, on account of its damp and variable 
climate, and its gloomy and misty sky; whilst the inhabitants 
of the temperate valley regarded Cumana as a town whose 
inhabitants incessantly inhaled a burning atmosphere, and 
whose soil was periodically agitated by violent commotions. 
Unmindful of the overthrow of Biobamba and other very 
* Those of the 30th of November, 1741, and of the 3rd of Sep. 
tember, 1750. 
