EARTHQUAKE. 
league beyond the bar, that air was fuppofed to have 
been difcliarged there alfo. St. Ube’s, a fea-port about 
twenty miles fouth of Lifbon, was entirely fwallowed up. 
Huge pieces of rock were detached at the fame time from 
the promontory at the weft end of the town, which con- 
lifts of a chain of mountains. 
The fame earthquake was felt all over Spain, except 
in Catalonia, Arragon, and Valencia. At Ayamonte, 
(near where the Guadiana falls into the bay of Cadiz,) a 
little before ten o’clock on the firft of November, the 
earthquake was felt ; haying been immediately preceded 
by a hollow rufhing noife. Here the fliocks continued for 
fourteen or fifteen minutes, damaged almoft all the build¬ 
ings, throwing down fome. and leaving others irreparably 
lhattered. In little more than half an hour after, the 
fea and river, with all the canals, overflowed their banks, 
laying under water all the coafts of the ifiands adjacent 
to the city and its neighbourhood. On the adjacent 
Ihore, every thing was irrecoverably loft ; for all that was 
overflowed funk, and the beach became a fea, without the 
leaft refemblance of what it was before. 
At Cadiz, foon after nine in the morning, the earthquake 
began, and lafted about five minutes. The water of the 
citterns under ground walked backwards and forwards, fo 
that a great troth arofe. At ten minutes after eleven, a 
wave was feen coming from the fea, at eight miles dis¬ 
tance, at leaft fixty feet higher than ufual. It dallied 
againft the weft part of the town, which is very rocky. 
Though thefe rocks broke a good deal of its force, it at 
laft came upon the city walls, beat in the breaft-work, and 
carried pieces of the building of eight or ten ton weight 
to the diftance of forty or fifty yards. When the wave 
was gone, fome parts that are deep at low water, were 
left quite dry ; for the water returned wdth the fame vio¬ 
lence with which it came. At half an hour after eleven 
came a fecond wave, and after th.it four other remarkable 
ones ; the firft at ten minutes before twelve ; the fecond, 
half an hour before one ; the third, ten minutes after one ; 
and the fourth, ten minutes before two. Similar waves, 
but fmaller, and gradually leffening, continued with un¬ 
certain intervals till the evening. 
At Gibraltar, this earthquake was not felt till after 
ten. It began with a tremulous motion of the earth, 
which lafted about half a minute. Then followed a vio¬ 
lent fhock ; after that, a trembling of the earth for five 
or fix feconds; then another ftiock, not fo violent as the 
firft, which went off gradually as it began. The whole 
lafted about two-minutes. Some of the guns on the battery 
were feen to rife, others to fink, the earth having an undu¬ 
lating motion. Moft people were feized with giddinefs and 
ficknefs, and fome fell down ; others were ftupified ; and 
many that were walking or riding felt no motion in the 
earth, but were Tick. The fea role fix feet every fifteen 
minutes; and then fell fo low that boats and all the fmall 
craft near the ftiore were left aground, as were alfo numbers 
of fmall fifh. The flux and reflux lafted till next morn¬ 
ing, having decreafed gradually from two in the afternoon. 
At Madrid the earthquake came on at the fame time as 
at Gibraltar, and lafted about fix minutes. At firft every 
body thought they were feized with a fwimming in their 
heads; and afterwards, that the houfes were falling. It 
was not felt in coaches, nor by thofe who walked on foot, 
except very (lightly ; and no accident happened, except 
.that two lads were killed by the fall of a (lone crofs from 
the porch of a church. Malaga alfo felt a violent fltock ; 
the bells rang in the fteeples; the water of a well over¬ 
flowed, and as fuddenly retired. At Seville feveral houfes 
■were ftiuken down; the famous tower of the cathedral 
called La Giralda opened in the four fides ; and the waters 
were fo violently agitated, that all the veffels in the river 
were driven afhore. 
In Africa, the fame earthquake was felt almoft as fe- 
verely as it had been in Europe. Great part of the town 
of Algiers was deftroyed. At Arzilla, in the kingdom 
ot Fez, about ten in the morning, the fea fuddenlv rofe 
Vol. VI. No. 343. 
20<) 
with fuch impetuofity, that it lifted up a veffel in the 
bay, and dropped it with fuch force on the land, that it 
was broken to pieces ; and a boat was found two mufket- 
fhot within land from the fea. At Fez and Mequinez, 
great numbers of houfes fell down, and a multitude of 
the people were buried in the ruins. At Morocco, by 
the falling down of a great number of houfes, many peo¬ 
ple loft their lives: and about eight leagues from the 
city the earth opened and fwallowed up a village with all 
the inhabitants, who were known by the name of the Sons 
of Befumba, to the number of front eight to ten thoufand 
perfons. At Salle, near a third part of the houfes were 1 
overthrown ; the waters rtiihed into the city with great 
rapidity, and left behind them great quantities of fifti. 
At Tangier, the earthquake began at ten in the morning, 
and lafted ten or twelve minutes. The fea came up to 
the walls (a thing never heard of before) ; and went 
down immediately with the fame rapidity with which it 
arofe, leaving a great quantity of fi(h behind. Thefe com¬ 
motions were repeated eighteen times, and lafted till (ix 
in the evening. 
In the city of Funchal, in the ifland of Madeira, a 
ftiock of this earthquake was firft perceived at thirty-eight 
minutes paft nine in the morning. It was preceded by a 
rumbling noife, like that of empty carriages palling haftily 
over a done pavement. The obferver felt the floor im¬ 
mediately to move with a tremulous motion, vibrating 
very quickly. The ftiock continued more than a minute ; 
during which fpace, the vibrations, though continual, 
were weakened and increafed in force twice very fenlibly. 
The increafe after the firft remiflion of the ftiock was the 
moftintenfe. The noif e in the air accompanied the fhock 
during the whole of its continuance, and lafted fome fe¬ 
conds after the motion of the earth had ceafed ; dying 
away like a peal of diftant thunder rolling through the 
air. At three quarters paft eleven, the fea, which was 
quite calm, retired fuddenly fome paces ; then riling with 
a great fwell without the leaft noife, and as fuddenly ad¬ 
vancing, overflowed the fhore, and entered the city. It 
rofe fifteen feet perpendicular above the high-water mark, 
although the tide, which flows there fevenfeet, was then at 
half ebb. The water immediately receded ; qnd after hav¬ 
ing fluctuated four or five times between high and low wa¬ 
ter mark, it fubfided, and the fea remained calm as before. 
In the northern part of the ifland the inundation was 
more violent, the fea there retiring above one thoufand 
paces at firft, and fuddenly returning, overflowed the 
fhore, forcing open doors, breaking down the walls of fe¬ 
veral magazines and ftorehoufes, leaving great quantities 
of fifh afhore and in the ftreets of the viliage of Machico. 
Thefe were the principal phenomena with which this 
remarkable earthquake was attended in thofe places 
where it was violent. The effects of it, however, reached 
to an immenfe diftance ; and were perceived chief!y by 
the agitations of the waters, or fome flight motion of the 
earth. The utmoft boundaries of this earthquake to the 
fouth are unknown ; tlie barbarity of the" African nations 
rendering it impoflible to procure any intelligence from 
them, except where the effects were dreadful. On the 
north, however, we are affured, that it reached as far as 
Norway and Sweden. In many places alfo of Germany 
its effects were very perceptible. Throughout the duchy 
of Holflein, the waters were violently agitated, particu¬ 
larly thofe of the Elbe and Trave. In Brandenburg, 
the water of a lake called I.ibjcc, ebbed and flowed fix 
times .in half an hour, with a dreadful noife, the weather 
being then perfectly calm. The fame agitation was ob- 
ferved in the waters of the lakes called Muplgatz and Noizo ; 
but at this laft place they alfo emitted an intolerable 
ftench. In Holland, the agitations were more remarkable. 
At Alphen on the Rhine, between Leyden and Woerden, 
in the afternoon of the firft of November, the waters 
were 'agitated to fuch a violent degree, that buoys were 
broken from their chains, large veffels fnapped their ca¬ 
bles, fmaller ones were thrown out of the water upon the 
3 H land. 
