There Is Now Lying In The Middle Of The
Courtyard A Little Mountain Of Mortar, Which Rivals In Hardness
The Rock On Which It Is Placed.
It was brought from
Chile, and cost 7000 dollars.
The revolution having broken
out, prevented its being applied to any purpose, and now it
remains a monument of the fallen greatness of Spain.
I wanted to go to a house about a mile and a half distant,
but my guide said it was quite impossible to penetrate the
wood in a straight line. He offered, however, to lead me, by
following obscure cattle-tracks, the shortest way: the walk,
nevertheless, took no less than three hours! This man is
employed in hunting strayed cattle; yet, well as he must
know the woods, he was not long since lost for two whole
days, and had nothing to eat. These facts convey a good
idea of the impracticability of the forests of these countries.
A question often occurred to me - how long does any vestige
of a fallen tree remain? This man showed me one which
a party of fugitive royalists had cut down fourteen years
ago; and taking this as a criterion, I should think a bole a
foot and a half in diameter would in thirty years be changed
into a heap of mould.
February 20th. - This day has been memorable in the
annals of Valdivia, for the most severe earthquake experienced
by the oldest inhabitant. I happened to be on shore,
and was lying down in the wood to rest myself. It came on
suddenly, and lasted two minutes, but the time appeared
much longer. The rocking of the ground was very sensible.
The undulations appeared to my companion and myself to
come from due east, whilst others thought they proceeded
from south-west: this shows how difficult it sometimes is to
perceive the directions of the vibrations. There was no
difficulty in standing upright, but the motion made me almost
giddy: it was something like the movement of a vessel in a
little cross-ripple, or still more like that felt by a person
skating over thin ice, which bends under the weight of his body.
A bad earthquake at once destroys our oldest associations:
the earth, the very emblem of solidity, has moved beneath
our feet like a thin crust over a fluid; - one second of time
has created in the mind a strange idea of insecurity, which
hours of reflection would not have produced. In the forest,
as a breeze moved the trees, I felt only the earth tremble, but
saw no other effect. Captain Fitz Roy and some officers
were at the town during the shock, and there the scene was
more striking; for although the houses, from being built of
wood, did not fall, they were violently shaken, and the boards
creaked and rattled together. The people rushed out of
doors in the greatest alarm. It is these accompaniments that
create that perfect horror of earthquakes, experienced by all
who have thus seen, as well as felt, their effects.
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