The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-09-11 00:00:00

HUMBOLD7'S TRAVELS.

The following interesting description of the lost
dreadful catastrophe which here! the city of Co-
nceits, is taken from Humesldes Trerels, jest
published :
" A great.drooght prevailed at this period in the
province of Venezuela. Not a single drop of
rain had fallen at Caraccas, or in the country ninety
leagues round, during the live months which pre-
ceded the destruction of the capital. The ,26th of
March was a remarkanlv hot dry. The ai► was
calm and the sky unclouded. It was Holy Thurs.

dap, and s great Fin of the population veer assem-
bled in the churches. Nothing seemed to pres4ge

the calamities of the day. At seven minutes after
four in the afte►noon the first shock was felt ; it

was sufficiently powerful to make the bells of the
c;surclies toll ; it lasted five or rix seconds, during
which time, the ground was in a continual undu—
lating movement, and seemed to heave up like •
boiling liquid. The danger was thought to be
past, when a tremendous subterraneous noise was
heard, resembling the rolling of thunder, hot
louder, and of longer continuance, than that heard

within the tropics its time of storing. This noise
preceded a perpendicular motion of three or four
seconds, followed by an undulatory movement
somewhat longer. The shocks were in opposite
directions, from north to south and from east to
west. Nothing could resist the movement from
beneath upward, and undulations crossing each
other. The town of Caraccas was entirely over-
thrown. Thousands of the inhabitants (between
and ten thousand) were buried under the ruins
of the houses
,and chinches. The procession had
not yet set out ; but the crowd was so great in the
churches, that nearly three or four thousand persons
were crushed by the fall of their vaulted roofs.
The explosion was stronger toward the north, in
that part of the town situate nearest the moun-
tain of Avila, and the Sills. The churches of La
Trinidad and Alta Gracia, which were more than
150 feet high. and the naves of which wve sup-
ported by pillars of twelve or fifteen feet diameter. ,
left 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 re-
main any vestiges of pillars or column.. The bar-
racks culled El Qnartel ael Ssti Carlos, situate
farther north of the church of the Trinity, on the
road from the Custom-house de Is Pastors, almost
entirely disappeared. A regiment of troops of the
line, that was assembled under arms, ready to join
the procession, was, with the exception of a few
men, buried under the ruins of this great edifice.
Nine-tenths of the fine town of Caracca■ were en-
tirely destroyed. The walls of the houses that
were not thrown down, as those of the street San
Juan, near the Capuchin Hospital, were cracked in
such a manner, that it was impossible to run the
risk of inhabiting them. The effects of the earth-
quake were somewhat less violent in the western
and southern parts of the city, between the princi-
pal square and the raviu of Caragnata. There the
cathedral, supported by enormous buttresses, re-
mains standing.
" Estimating at nine or ten thousand the num•
ber of the dead in the city of Cowes', we do not
include those unhappy persons, who, dangerously
wounded, perished several months after, for want
of food and proper care. The night of Holy
Thursday presented the moat distressing scene of
desolation and sorrow. That thick cloud of dust.
which, rising above the ruins, darkened the sky
like a fog, had settled on the ground. No shock
was felt, and never was a night more calm, or more
re ne.

The mooti, yearly full, illumined the

rounded domes of the Sills, and the aspect of the
sky formed a perfect contrast to that of the earth,
covered with the dead, and heaped with ruins.
Mothers were seen bearing in their arms their chil-
dren, whom they hoped to recsl to life. Desolate
families wandered through the city seeking a bro-
ther, a husband, 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 no more be recognised but by long lines of

ruins.
" All the calamities experienced in the great ca-
tastrophes of Lisbon, Messina, Lima, and Rio.
baroba were renewed on the fatal day of the 46th
of March, 1814 ; the wounded, buried under the
ruins, implored by their cries the help of the
passers by, and nearly two thousand were dug out.
Never was pity displayed in a more affecting mall..
tier ; never had it been seen more ingeniously ac-
tive, than in the efforts employed to save the mi-
serable victims, whose groans reached the ear. lm-
!dements 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 sick who had escaped from
the hospitals, were laid on the banks of the small
river Guayra. They found no shelter but the 10.
liege of trees. Beds, linen to dress the wounds,
instruments of surgery, medicines, and objects-of
the moat urgent necessity, were buried un.ler the
ruins. Every thing, even food, was wanting dor-
' ing the first days. Water became alike scarce in
the interior of the city. The commotion had rent
the pipes of the fountains ; the falling in of the
earth had choked up the springs that supplied
them; and it became necessary, in order to have
water, to go down to the river Guayra, which was