The Sun.
London, England, 1823-01-01 00:00:00

EARTHQUAKES IN SYRIA.

To the Right, Worshipful the Company 'of Merchants of Eng-
land trading into the Levant Seat, London.
Near the Ruins of Antioch,
13th Sept., 1822.

.RIGHT Niroßsurrrtm Stus,—lt has fallen to my lot to
relate to your Worships the particulars of an event that has
thrown most of the families of this part of Syria into sorrow and
mourning,, and all into the greatest difficulties and distress.
On the l3th of Augwit, at half-past nine in the evening,
Aleppo, Antioch, Idlib, Riha, Gisser Shogr, Darcoush, Ar-
menas,—every village, and every detached cottage, in this
Pachalic, and some towns in the adjoining ones, were in ten or
twelve seconds entirely ruined by an earthquake, and are be-
come heaps of stones and rubbish, in which, at the lowest com-
putation, twenty thousand human beings (about a tenth of the
population) were destroyed, and an equal-number maimed or
wounded. The extreme points where this terrible phenomenon
was violent enough to destroy the edifices, seem to be Diabekir
and Merkab (twelve..leagues south of Latachia), Aleppo, and
Scanderoon, Killis, and Kahn Shekoon. All within those
points have suffered so nearly equal, except Orfa and Latachia,
.which have not suffered much, that it is impossible to fix on a
central point. The shock was sensibly felt at Damascus, Adeno,
and Cyprus. To the east of Diabekir, and north of Kills, I
am not well inforined how far the effect extended in those radii
of the circle. The shock was felt at sea so violently, within two
leagues of Cyprus, that it was thought the ship had grounded.
—Flashes of volcanic fire were perceived at various times
throughout the night, resembling the light of the full moon ;
but at no place, to my knowledge, has it left a chasm of any
extent,—although in the low grounds slight crevices arc every-
where to be seen, and out of many of them water issued, but
soon after subsided.

There was nothing remarkable in the weather, or state of the
atmosphere. Edifices on the summits of the highest mountains
were not safer than buildings situated on the banks of rivers,
or on the beactiof the sea.

Although alight shocks of earthquakes had been from time to
time felt in this country, it iv certain that for several centuries
none had clone any material damage, except one 27 years ago,
when a single town, Latachia, was partially thrown down. In
1735 an earthquake was felt at Aleppo and Antioch, which so
alarmed' the inhabitants, that they all abandoned their houses
for 40 days ; but very little injury was sustained, and no lives
lost.

The appearance of some very ancient edifices render it pro-
bable that this country has not saffered from earthquakes since
the memorable one recorded by Gibbon, about 16 centuries ago
(I speak from a very bad memory),, in which one-third of the
inhabitants of Antioch perished, when that celebrated city was
supposed to contain a population of 700,000 to 800,000 souls.
It is impossible to convey an adequate idea of the scenes of
horror that were simultaneously passing in the dreadful night
of the 13th Auguet. Here hundreds of decrepid parents, half
buried in the ruins, were imploring the succour of their sons,
not always wiling to risk their own lives by giving their assist-
ance There, distracted mothers were franticly lifting heavy
stones, from heaps that covered the bodies of their lifeless
infants The awful darkness .of the night—the continuance of
the most violent shocks, at short intervals—the crash of falling
walls.—the shrieks—the groans—the accents of agony and
despair, of that long night, cannot be described !
When at length the morning dawned, and the return of light
permitt,ud the people to' quit the spot on which they had been
providentially saved, a most affecting scene ensued : You might
have seen many, unaccustomed to pray, some prostrate, some
on their knees, adoring their Maker. Others there were run-
ning into one another's arms, rejoicing In their existence An
air of cheerfulness and brotherly love animated every coun-
tenance.

In a public calamity, in which the Turk, the Jew, the Chris-
tian, and the Idolator, were indiscriminate victims, or objects of
the care of an impartial Providence, every one forgot, for a time,
his religious animosities ; and, what was a still more universal
feeling in that joyful moment, every one looked upon the
heaviest losses with the greatest indifference. But as the sun's
rays increased in intensity, they were gradually reminded of the
natural wants of shelter and of food, and became at length alive
to ttie full extent of the dreary prospect before them,—for a
greater mass of human misery has not been often produced by
ang of the awful convulsions of nature. A month has now
elapsed, and the shocks continue to be felt, and to strike terror
into every breast, night and day. The fear that they may not
cease before the rainy season commences, has induced those
whose business cannot allow of their quitting the rains of their
towns, instead of rebuilding their houses, to construct tern.
porary hovels of wood; without walla; and many families, who
thought themselves, before this calamity, straitly lodged in a
dozen of apartments, now exult at the prospect of passing the
winter in a single room 20 feet square.
• The spacious mansion, that has been the residence of the
British Consul at Aleppo for 230 years, is completely ruined,
although not entirely fallen, and would require 10,0001. to
repair it.
The houses of all the other public agents and private Eu.
ropean individuals at Aleppo. have been likewise entirely ruin-
ed. At Aleppo the Jews suffered the most, on account of their
quarter being badly built, with narrow lanes. Out of a popu.
latlon of less than 3,000 souls, 600 lives were lost. Of. the
Europeans, only one person of note.. Signor Eadra de Piceiotto,
Austrian Consul-General, and ten or twelve women and child-
ren, perished ; but the greater part arc now suffering from
opthalmia and dysenteries, occasioned by their being exposed
to the excessive heats of the day anti the cold dews of the night.
When it is considered, that two-thirdaof the families in Aleppo
have neither the means of making a long journey, to iemove to
a town out of the effect of the earthquake, nor of building a
shed to 'keep off* the rain, it is impassible to conceive all the
misery to'which they are doomed the ensuing winter, or ever
to find more deserving objects of the compassion and charity of
the opulent, whom it has pleased God to place in happier regions
of.the'globe.
Here planks and fuel are cheap, and the people have the
resource of tiles, which they were taught to make by the
Crusaders, in their long residence at Antioch: But in
Aleppo, where wood is very dear, they have no contrivance
to keep out rain but freestone walls, and flat rod, made of a
very expensive cement.
he'l roof of the vaulted room in which the voluminous
archives of the British Cancellaria in Aleppo are kept, has not
fallen in, and it is hoped it may preserve them from wet till
the spring, when it will be necessary to remove them.
In the mean time, your Worships will be pleased to inform
me what is your wish should be done with these books and
. .

I have the honour to be, &e. &e.
JOHN BARKER.

Near to the Ruins of Antioch, 20th Sept. 18'22.
Right 'Worshipful Sirs--I .had last. the honour to address
your Worships on the 13th instant. I fun sorry to say that
shocks of the Earthquakes continue to be, felt to this day, the
thirty-eighth after the principal shock, and no change has taken
place in the state of desolation that that dreadful catastrophe
has ptoducr.d,
I have the honour to be, &c.

JOHN BARKER.

Rear the Ruins of Antioch, 113th Oct. 1822.
Right Worshipful Sirs—l had last the honour to address
your Worships on the '2oth ultimo. Till the 9th instant shocks
of Earthquakes continued, to be felt ; since thatday they have
entirely ceased but confidence in a continuance of safety from
that dreadful calf it is not restored l, and although the rains
and cold weather render our temporary sheds very inconvenient
habitationsl, nobody is yet inclined to sleep under a roof sup-
ported by walls.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c.

JOHN BARKER.

Extraet of a Leiter• froth Count Barker 10 6711141 General
Cartwright, o Constantivople, dated 19th Pctober.-
"At half-past five, P. 2+l, a violent shock of Earthquake, has
destroyed all our hopes of kit being terminated."