Page:Awful phenomena of nature -- earthquakes.pdf/11

11 EARTHQUAKE AT THE CARACCAS.

The following statement of this calamitous event is taken from a supplement to the St. Thomas’s gazette, dated 9th April, 1812.

The 26th March has been a day of woe and horror to the province of Venezuela. At four the city of Caraccas stood in all its splendour. A few minutes latter, 4500 houses, 19 churches and convents, together with all the public buildings, monuments, &c. were crushed to atoms by a sudden shokeshake [sic] of an earthquake, which did not last a minute, and burried thousands of its inhabitants in ruins and desolation. That day happened to be Holy,or Maunday-Thursday; and at the precise hour, every place of worship being crowded to commemorate the commencement of our Saviour’s passion by public procession, which was to proceed through the streets a few minutes afterwards, augmented the number of hapless sufferers to an incredible amount, as every church was levelled to the ground before any person could be aware of the danger. The number of sufferers taken out of one of the churches amounting (two days after this disaster) alone, to upward of 300 corpses, besides those it may be presumed could not yet have been taken out of such ruins, gives an idea of the extent of the calamity. The number of dead