Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/277

Rh dashed down precipices, or were hurried off before the blast to perish in the sea, far away! Sheds and buildings were scattered about on every side, or crushed by falling rocks, and, together with their inmates, were ground to dust in the convulsion! Human bodies were hurled into the air and driven from point to point, until they found a grave fathoms deep below the ground! Blue and yellow flames burst from the edges of sinking-rocks; while hot springs of water gushed upwards from sulphureous caverns! Shrieks and howls from dying animals, awful in themselves, were drowned in the overwhelming uproar. Rain poured down in torrents, and pillars of steaming vapour seemed to unite both earth and sky! Thick darkness reigned but for a moment as sheet after sheet of vivid lightning made the horizon visible, and cast a burning distinctness over the whole scene! Oh! what a time it was! Mother of Heaven! what an awful time it was!

"My own house was one of the first destroyed: it was shivered to pieces in an instant and the whole of its inhabitants were either buried among its ruins, or violently precipitated on the rocks. I was whirled into a