EARTHQUAKES AND VOLCANOES. 393 
“ Finally, at ten minutes to eleven, without premonition 
of any kind, the earth began to heave and tremble with 
such fearful force that in ten seconds the entire city was 
prostrated. The crashing of houses and churches stunned 
the ears of the terrified inhabitants, while a cloud of dust 
from the falling ruins enveloped them in a pall of im¬ 
penetrable darkness. Not a drop of water could be got 
to relieve the half-choking and suffocating, for the wells 
and fountains were filled up or made dry. The clock- 
tower of the cathedral carried a great part of that edifice 
with it in its fall. The towers of the church of San 
Francisco crushed the episcopal oratory and part of the 
palace. The church of Santo Domingo was buried be¬ 
neath its towers, and the college of the Assumption was 
entirely ruined. The new and beautiful edifice of the 
university was demolished, the church of the Merced 
separated in the centre, and its walls fell outward to the 
ground. Of the private houses a few were left standing, 
but all were rendered uninhabitable. It is worthy of 
remark that the walls left standing are old ones ; all 
those of modern construction have fallen. The public 
edifices of the Government and city shared the common 
destruction. 
“ The devastation was effected, as we have said, in the 
first ten seconds; for although the succeeding shocks 
were tremendous, and accompanied by fearful rumblings 
beneath our feet, they had comparatively trifling results 
for the reason that the first had left but little for their 
ravages. Solemn and terrible was the picture presented 
on the dark funereal night of a whole people clustering 
in the plazas and on their knees crying with loud voices 
to Heaven for mercy, or in agonizing accents calling for 
