Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 697 of 779 - First - Home
A Great Drought Prevailed At This Period In The
Province Of Venezuela.
Not a single drop of rain had fallen at
Caracas or in the country to the distance of ninety leagues round,
during five months preceding the destruction of the capital.
The
26th of March was a remarkably hot day. The air was calm, and the
sky unclouded. It was Ascension-day, and a great portion of the
population was assembled in the churches. Nothing seemed to presage
the calamities of the day. At seven minutes after four in the
afternoon the first shock was felt. It was sufficiently forcible to
make the bells of the churches toll; and it lasted five or six
seconds. During that interval the ground was in a continual
undulating movement, and seemed to heave up like a boiling liquid.
The danger was thought to be past, when a tremendous subterranean
noise was heard, resembling the rolling of thunder, but louder and
of longer continuance than that heard within the tropics in the
time of storms. This noise preceded a perpendicular motion of three
or four seconds, followed by an undulatory movement somewhat
longer. The shocks were in opposite directions, proceeding from
north to south, and from east to west. Nothing could resist the
perpendicular movement and the transverse undulations. The town of
Caracas was entirely overthrown, and between nine and ten thousand
of the inhabitants were buried under the ruins of the houses and
churches. The procession of Ascension-day had not yet begun to pass
through the streets, but the crowd was so great within the churches
that nearly three or four thousand persons were crushed by the fall
of the roofs.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 697 of 779
Words from 189351 to 189630
of 211363
