XIV 
EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE 
325 
Quinquina, than the ordinary wear and tear of the sea and 
weather during the course of a whole century. 
The next day I landed at Talcahuano, and afterwards rode 
to Concepcion. Both towns presented the most awful yet 
interesting spectacle I ever beheld. To a person who had 
formerly known them, it possibly might have been still more 
impressive ; for the ruins were so mingled together, and the 
whole scene possessed so little the air of a habitable place, 
that it was scarcely possible to imagine its former condition. 
The earthquake commenced at half-past eleven o’clock in the 
forenoon. If it had happened in the middle of the night, the 
greater number of the inhabitants (which in this one province 
amount to many thousands) must have perished, instead of less 
than a hundred : as it was, the invariable practice of running 
out of doors at the first trembling of the ground alone saved 
them. In Concepcion each house, or row of houses, stood by 
itself, a heap or line of ruins ; but in Talcahuano, owing to 
the great wave, little more than one layer of bricks, tiles, and 
timber, with here and there part of a wall left standing, could 
be distinguished. From this circumstance Concepcion, although 
not so completely desolated, was a more terrible, and, if I may 
so call it, picturesque sight. The first shock was very sudden. 
The mayor-domo at Ouiriquina told me that the first notice 
he received of it, was finding both the horse he rode and himself 
rolling together on the ground. Rising up, he was again 
thrown down. He also told me that some cows which were 
standing on the steep side of the island were rolled into the 
sea. The great wave caused the destruction of many cattle ; 
on one low island, near the head of the bay, seventy animals 
were washed off and drowned. It is generally thought that 
this has been the worst earthquake ever recorded in Chile ; 
but as the very severe ones occur only after long intervals, 
this cannot easily be known ; nor indeed would a much worse 
shock have made any great difference, for the ruin was now 
complete. Innumerable small tremblings followed the great 
earthquake, and within the first twelve days no less than three 
hundred were counted. 
After viewing Concepcion, I cannot understand how the 
greater number of inhabitants escaped unhurt. The houses in 
many parts fell outwards ; thus forming in the middle of the 
