Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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On The Evening Of The 7th Of February We Took Our Departure From
Caracas.
Since the period of our visit to that place, tremendous
earthquakes have changed the surface of the soil.
The city, which I
have described, has disappeared; and on the same spot, on the
ground fissured in various directions, another city is now slowly
rising. The heaps of ruins, which were the grave of a numerous
population, are becoming anew the habitation of men. In retracing
changes of so general an interest, I shall be led to notice events
which took place long after my return to Europe. I shall pass over
in silence the popular commotions which have taken place, and the
modifications which society has undergone. Modern nations, careful
of their own remembrances, snatch from oblivion the history of
human revolutions, which is, in fact, the history of ardent
passions and inveterate hatred. It is not the same with respect to
the revolutions of the physical world. These are described with
least accuracy when they happen to be contemporary with civil
dissensions. Earthquakes and eruptions of volcanoes strike the
imagination by the evils which are their necessary consequence.
Tradition seizes on whatever is vague and marvellous; and amid
great public calamities, as in private misfortunes, man seems to
shun that light which leads us to discover the real causes of
events, and to understand the circumstances by which they are
attended.
I have recorded in this work all I have been able to collect, and
on the accuracy of which I can rely, respecting the earthquake of
the 26th of March, 1812.
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