GUATEMALA. 
394 
their children and friends whom they believed to be 
buried beneath the ruins. A heaven opaque and ominous; 
a movement of the earth rapid and unequal, causing a 
terror indescribable ; an intense sulphurous odor filling 
the atmosphere, and indicating an approaching eruption 
of the volcano ; streets filled with ruins, or overhung by 
threatening walls; a suffocating cloud of dust almost 
rendering respiration impossible, — such was the spectacle 
presented by the unhappy city on that memorable and 
awful night. 
“ A hundred boys were shut up in the college, many in¬ 
valids crowded the hospitals, and the barracks were fall 
of soldiers. The sense of the catastrophe which must have 
befallen them gave, poignancy to the first moment of reflec¬ 
tion after the earthquake was over. It was believed that 
at least a fourth part of the inhabitants had been buried 
beneath the ruins. The members of the Government, 
however, hastened to ascertain, so far as practicable, the 
extent of the catastrophe, and to quiet the public mind. 
It was found that the loss of life was much less than was 
supposed; and it now appears probable that the number 
of killed will not exceed one hundred, and of wounded, 
fifty. Fortunately the earthquake has not been followed 
by rains, which gives an opportunity to disinter the public 
archives, as also many of the valuables contained in the 
dwellings of the citizens. The movements of the earth 
still continue, with strong shocks ; and the people, fearing 
a general swallowing up of the site of the city, or that it 
may be buried under some sudden eruption of the volcano, 
are hastening away.” In 1859 the city was again in order, 
as the seat of government, after an ineffectual attempt to 
remove it to the plain of Santa Tecla, ten miles distant. 
