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Alexander von Humboldt: „Earthquake at Caraccas“, in: ders., Sämtliche Schriften digital, herausgegeben von Oliver Lubrich und Thomas Nehrlich, Universität Bern 2021. URL: <https://humboldt.unibe.ch/text/1819-Baron_Humboldts_Personal_Heft1-17-neu> [abgerufen am 19.04.2024].
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| Titel | Earthquake at Caraccas | ||||
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| Jahr | 1822 | ||||
| Ort | London | ||||
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Nachweis in: William Jillard Hort, The English Reading Book, in Prose: Adapted to Domestic and to School Education, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown 1822, S. 181–185.
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| Sprache | Englisch | ||||
| Typografischer Befund | Antiqua; Schmuck: Kapitälchen. | ||||
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|181|
The shock felt at Caraccas in the month ofDecember, 1811, was the only one that precededthe horrible catastrophe which desolated thatunfortunate city in March, 1812. The inhabit-ants of Terra Firma were ignorant of the agi-tations of the volcano in the island of St. Vin-cent, on one side, and of those felt in the basinof the Mississippi on the other, on the seventhand eighth days of February, 1812, in whichplaces the earth was during that time in perpe-tual oscillation day and night. A great droughtat this period prevailed throughout the provinceof Venezuela; no rain had fallen at Caraccas, orin the country ninety leagues round, during thefive months which preceded the destruction ofthat city. The twenty-sixth of March was re-markable for excessive heat; the air was calm,the sky unclouded; it was Holy Thursday, anda great part of the population was assembled inthe churches. No presage of the impendingcalamity was observable. Soon after four in theafternoon the first shock was felt; it was suffici-ently strong to make the bells of the churchestoll; and during five or six seconds the groundwas in continual undulating movement, andseemed to heave like a boiling liquid.
|182|
The danger was supposed to be passed, whena horrible subterraneous sound struck terror intoevery heart. It resembled the rolling of thunder,but louder, and of longer continuance, than thatwhich usually accompanies tropical storms. Thisnoise was followed by a perpendicular movement,which was instantly succeeded by a somewhatlonger waving motion. The shocks were repeatedin opposite directions from north to south, andfrom east to west. These crossing impulses wereirresistible; Caraccas was entirely overthrown;thousands of its unfortunate inhabitants wereburied under the ruins of their houses andchurches. The solemn procession had not begunits march, but so great was the crowd in thechurches, that multitudes were crushed by thefall of their vaulted roofs. The explosion to-wards the north was stronger in that part of thetown nearest to the mountain of Avila, and theSilla. The churches of La Trinidad and AltaGracia, which were more than 150 feet high,and whose naves were supported by columns oftwelve or fifteen feet diameter, yet left a mass ofruins scarcely exceeding five or six feet in ele-vation. So wonderfully, indeed, have they sunk,that there now hardly remain any vestiges ofpillars. The barracks, situated farther north,almost entirely disappeared; a regiment of troops,assembled under arms, ready to join the proces-sion, with the exception of a very few, werecrushed beneath the ruins of that spacious build-ing. The cathedral, supported by enormousbuttresses, withstood the fury of the shock. Thenight of that fatal day presented the most dis-
|183|tressing scenes of desolation and sorrow; thethick, black cloud of dust, which rising from thecrush of so many edifices thrown down, darkenedthe face of heaven like an impenetrable fog, hadsettled on the ground; all nature seemed calmand tranquil; the moon nearly full, illuminatedthe rounded dome, like summits of the Silla; theaspect of the sky formed a perfect contrast tothat of the earth, loaded with ruins, and heapedwith dead bodies; mothers were seen bearing intheir arms their children, whom they hoped torecall to life; desolate families wandered throughthe city, seeking a brother, a husband, a father,of whose fate they were ignorant, and whom theybelieved to be lost in the crowd. The peoplehurried tumultuously along the streets, whichcould be recognized only by long lines of ruins.Many lay wounded under heaps of rubbish, im-ploring with cries the aid of those who werepassing by; and nearly two thousand mutilatedwretches were extricated from that dreadful situ-ation. Never was pity displayed in a more affect-ing manner; never was it seen more ingeniouslyactive than in the efforts made to save the miser-able victims, whose groans reached the ear, andpierced to the heart. Implements for diggingand clearing away the wreck of private and pub-lic buildings were unfortunately wanting. Thecompassionate used their bare hands to disintertheir yet living fellow-citizens. The maimed aswell as the sick, who had escaped from the shat-tered hospital, were laid on the banks of thesmall river Guayra; the foliage of the trees wastheir only shelter; beds, linen for their wounds,
|184|surgical instruments, medicines, all the most ne-cessary articles for the mitigation of such misery,were involved in the common mass of devast-ation. During the immediately succeeding days,even food was wanting; in the interior of thedesolated city water became alike scarce; thecomplete subversion had rent the pipes of thefountains; the falling in of the earth had chokedup the springs that supplied them; it was neces-sary to seek water from the river Guayra, whichwas considerably swelled, and vessels could notbe found for its conveyance.
There remained a duty towards the dead to befulfilled, enjoined at once by piety and the dreadof infection. It being impossible to inter so manythousand corpses, commissaries were appointedto burn the bodies, for which purpose funeralpiles were erected between the heaps of ruins.This mournful operation lasted several days.Amid so many public griefs, the people stillattended to religious duties; some walking inprocession, chaunted funeral hymns; some wereoffering up their humble supplications; whileothers, in a state of distraction, were confessingthemselves aloud.
Shocks of earthquake, so violent as to subvertin the space of one minute, such a city as Carac-cas, could not be confined to a small portion ofthe continent; their destructive effects extendedas far as the provinces of Venezuela, Varinas,and Maracaybo, along the coast; and still fartheramong the inland mountains. La Guayra, May-quetia, and other places so situated, were entirelyruined. Fifteen or eighteen hours after the great
|185|catastrophe, the earth remained tranquil; thenight was fine and calm, and the commotions didnot recommence till the day after. They werethen attended with a very loud and long conti-nued subterranean noise, called bramids. Theinhabitants of Caraccas wandered into the coun-try; but the villages and farms having sufferedas much as the city, they could find no sheltertill they were beyond the mountains of LosTeques, in the vallies of Aragua, and in theLlanos, or Savannas. No less than fifteen oscil-lations were often felt in one day. On the fifthof April took place another earthquake, almost asformidable as that which overthrew the capital.For several hours the ground was in a state ofperpetual undulation. Large masses of earthfell in the mountains, and enormous rocks weredetached from the Silla of Caraccas. After therecital of such calamities, it is soothing to fix theview upon consolatory remembrances.
When this dreadful desolation of Caraccaswas known in the United States, the congressassembled at Washington, unanimously decreedthat five ships laden with flour should be sent tothe coast of Venezuela, to be distributed amongthe poorest inhabitants.
earthquake at caraccas.