452 
SCENE OF CESOLATlofr. 
( aracas were entirely destroyed. The walls of some liousea 
not thrown down, as those in the street San Juan, near the 
Capuchin Hospital, were cracked in such a maimer as to 
render them uninhabitable. The effects of the earthquake 
were somewhat less violent in the western and southern 
parts ol the city, between the principal square and the 
ravine of Caraguata. There, the cathedral, supported bv 
enormous buttresses, remains standing. 
It is computed that nine or ten thousand persons were 
killed m the city of Caracas, exclusive of those who, heino- 
dangerously wounded, perished several months after, for 
want of food arid proper care. The night of the Festival of 
the Ascension witnessed an awful scene of desolation and 
distress. The thick cloud of dust which, rising above the 
nuns, darkened the sky like a fog, had settled on the ground. 
A o commotion was felt, and never was a night more calm or 
more serene. The moon, then nearly at the full, illumined 
the rounded domes ot the Silk, and the aspect of the sky 
formed a perfect contrast to that of the earth, which was 
co\ ered w ith the bodies of the dead, and heaped with ruins 
Mothers were seen hearing in their arms their children 
whom they hoped to recall to life. Desolate families were 
wandering through the city, seeking a brother, a husband, or 
a friend, of whose fate they were ignorant, and whom they 
believed to he lost in the crowd. The neople pressed along 
the streets, which could be traced only by long lines of 
rums. ° 
All the calamities experienced in the great catastrophes 
of .Lisbon, Messina, Lima, and Eiobamba were renewed at 
Caracas on the fatal 26th of March, 1812. Wounded per- 
sons, buried beneath the ruins, were heard imploring by their 
cries the help of the passers-by, and nearly two thousand 
were dug out. Never was pity more tenderly evinced; never 
was it more ingeniously active than in the efforts employed 
to save the miserable victims whose groans reached the ear. 
Implements for digging and clearing away the rains were 
entirely wanting; _ and the people were obliged to use their 
bare hands, to disinter the living. The wounded, as well as 
tue invalids who had escaped from the hospitals, were laid 
on the banks ot the small river Guayra, where there was 
no shelter but the foliage of trees. Beds, linen to dress the 
