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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The Explosion Was Most Violent Towards The North, In
That Part Of The Town Situated Nearest The Mountain Of Avila And
The Silla.
The churches of la Trinidad and Alta Gracia, which were
more than one hundred and fifty feet high, and the naves of which
were supported by pillars of twelve or fifteen feet diameter, were
reduced to a mass of ruins scarcely exceeding five or six feet in
elevation.
The sinking of the ruins has been so considerable that
there now scarcely remain any vestiges of pillars or columns. The
barracks, called el Quartel de San Carlos, situated north of the
church of la Trinidad, on the road from the custom-house of La
Pastora, almost entirely disappeared. A regiment of troops of the
line, under arms, and in readiness to join the procession, was,
with the exception of a few men, buried beneath the ruins of the
barracks. Nine-tenths of the fine city of Caracas were entirely
destroyed. The walls of some houses not thrown down, as those in
the street San Juan, near the Capuchin Hospital, were cracked in
such a manner as to render them uninhabitable. The effects of the
earthquake were somewhat less violent in the western and southern
parts of the city, between the principal square and the ravine of
Caraguata. There, the cathedral, supported by enormous buttresses,
remains standing.
It is computed that nine or ten thousand persons were killed in the
city of Caracas, exclusive of those who, being dangerously wounded,
perished several months after, for want of food and proper care.
The night of the Festival of the Ascension witnessed an awful scene
of desolation and distress.
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Page 698 of 779
Words from 189631 to 189908
of 211363
