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 699 of 779 - First - Home
The Thick Cloud Of Dust Which, Rising
Above The Ruins, Darkened The Sky Like A Fog, Had Settled On The
Ground.
No commotion was felt, and never was a night more calm or
more serene.
The moon, then nearly at the full, illumined the
rounded domes of the Silla, and the aspect of the sky formed a
perfect contrast to that of the earth, which was covered with the
bodies of the dead, and heaped with ruins. Mothers were seen
bearing in their arms their children, whom they hoped to recall to
life. Desolate families were wandering through the city, seeking a
brother, a husband, or a friend, of whose fate they were ignorant,
and whom they believed to be lost in the crowd. The people pressed
along the streets, which could be traced only by long lines of
ruins.
All the calamities experienced in the great catastrophes of Lisbon,
Messina, Lima, and Riobamba were renewed at Caracas on the fatal
26th of March, 1812. Wounded persons, buried beneath the ruins,
were heard imploring by their cries the help of the passers-by, and
nearly two thousand were dug out. Never was pity more tenderly
evinced; never was it more ingeniously active than in the efforts
employed to save the miserable victims whose groans reached the
ear. Implements for digging and clearing away the ruins were
entirely wanting; and the people were obliged to use their bare
hands, to disinter the living. The wounded, as well as the invalids
who had escaped from the hospitals, were laid on the banks of the
small river Guayra, where there was no shelter but the foliage of
trees.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 699 of 779
Words from 189909 to 190183
of 211363
