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The following description of the greatEarth-quake of the 26th of March, 1812, bywhich the city of Caraccas, in South Ameri-ca, was destroyed, is taken from the 4thvolume of de Humboldt’s travels, publishedin England during the present year.
N. Y. Dai. Adv.
“A great drought prevailed at this periodin the province of Venezuela. Not a singledrop of rain had fallen at Caraccas, or in thecountry ninety leagues round, during the fivemonths which preceded the destruction ofthe capital. The 26th of March was a re-markable hot day. The air was calm, andthe sky unclouded. It was holy Thursday,|Spaltenumbruch|and a great part of the population was as-sembled in the churches. Nothing seemedto presage the calamities of the day. Atseven minutes after four in the afternoon thefirst shock was felt; it was sufficiently pow-erful to make the bells of the churches toll;it lasted five or six seconds, during whichtime, the ground was in a continual undula-ting movement, and seemed to heave up likea boiling liquid. The danger was thoughtto be past, when a tremendous subterrane-ous noise was heard, resembling the rollingof thunder, but louder, and of longer contin-uance, than that heard within the tropics intime of storms. This noise preceded a per-pendicular motion of three or four seconds,followed by an undulatory movement some-what longer. The shocks were in oppositedirections, from north to south, and fromeast to west. Nothing could resist the move-ment from beneath upward, and undulationscrossing each other. The town of Carac-cas was entirely overthrown. Thousands ofthe inhabitants (between nine and ten thou-sand) were buried under the ruins of thehouses and churches. The procession hadnot yet set out; but the crowd was so greatin the churches, that nearly three or fourthousand persons were crushed by the fallof their vaulted roofs. The explosion wasstronger towards the north, in that part ofthe town situate nearest the mountain ofAvila, and the Silla. The churches of laTrinidad and Alta Gracia, which were morethan one hundred and fifty feet high, and thenaves of which were supported by pillars oftwelve or fifteen feet diameter, left a massof ruins scarcely exceeding five or six feetin elevation. The sinking of the ruins hasbeen so considerable, that there now scarce-ly remain any vestiges of pillars or columns.The barracks, called In Quastel de San Carlos,situate farther north of the church of theTrinity, on the road from the Custom-housede la Pastora, almost entirely disappeared.A regiment of the troops of the line, thatwas assembled under arms, ready to join theprocession, was, with the exception of afew men buried under the ruins of this greatedifice. Nine-tenths of the fine town ofCaraccas were entirely destroyed. Thewalls of the houses that were not throwndown, as those of the street San Juan, nearthe Capuchin Hospital, were cracked in sucha manner, that it was impossible to run therisque of inhabiting them. The effects ofthe earthquake were somewhat less violentin the western and southern parts of the city,between the principal square and the ravineof Casagusta. There the cathedral support-ed by enormous buttresses, remains stand-ing.
“Estimating at nine or ten thousand thenumber of dead in the city of Caraccas, wedo not include those unhappy persons, who,dangerously wounded, perished severalmonths after, for want of food and propercare. The night of Holy Thursday presen-ted the most distressing scene of desolationand sorrow. That thick cloud of dust, which,rising above the ruins, darkened the sky likea fog, had settled on the ground. No shockwas felt, and never was a night more calm,or more serene. The moon, nearly full,illuminated the round domes of the Silla,and the aspect of the sky formed a perfectcontrast to that of the earth, covered withthe dead, and heaped with ruins. Motherswere seen bearing in their arms their child-ren, whom they hoped to recal to life. Des-olate families wandered through the cityseeking a brother, a husband, a friend, ofwhose fate they were ignorant, and whomthey believed to be lost in the crowd. Thepeople pressed along the streets, which couldno more be recognized but by long lines ofruins.
“All the calamities experienced in thegreat catastrophes of Lisbon, Messina, Lima,and Riobamba, were renewed on the fatalday of the 26th of March, 1812. The woun-ded, buried under the ruins, implored bytheir cries the help of the passers by, andnearly two thousand were dug out. Neverwas pity displayed in a more affecting man-ner; never had it been seen more ingenious-ly active, than in the efforts employed tosave the miserable victims where groansreached the ear. Implements for diggingand clearing away the ruins were entirelywanting; and the people were obliged touse their bare hands to disinter the living.—The wounded, as well as the sick who hadescaped from the hospitals were laid on thebanks of the small river Guayra. Theyfound no shelter but the foliage of trees.—Beds, linen to dress the wounds, instrumentsof surgery, medicines, and objects of themost urgent necessity, were buried underthe ruins. Every thing even food, was want-ing during the first days. Water becamealike scarce in the interior of the city. Thecommotion had rent the pipes of the foun-tains, the falling in of the earth had chok-ed up the springs that supplied them; andit became necessary, in order to have water,to go down to the river Guayra, which wasconsiderably swelled: and then vessels toconvey the water were wanting.
“There remained a duty to be fulfilled to-ward the dead, enjoined at once by piety,and the dread of infection. It being impos-sible to inter so many thousand corpses halfburied under the ruins, commissaries wereappointed to burn the bodies; and for thispurpose funeral piles were erected betweenthe heaps of ruins. This ceremony lastedseveral days. Amid so many public calam-ities, the people devoted themselves to thosereligious duties, which they thought werethe most fitted to appease the wrath ofHeaven. Some, assembling in processions,sang funeral hymns; others, in a state ofdistraction, confessed themselves aloud inthe streets. In this town was now repeatedwhat had been remarked in the province ofQuito, after the tremendous earthquake of1797; a number of marriages were con-tracted between persons, who had neglectedfor many years to sanction their union bythe sacerdotal benediction. Children foundparents, by whom they had never till thenbeen acknowledged; restitutions were pro-mised by persons, who had never been ac-cused of fraud, and families, who had longbeen enemies, were drawn together by thetie of common calamity.”
