Star.
London, England, 1828-08-23 00:00:00

AMEMANPAPERS.

The following acc^unt f the earthquake at Lima we
extract from the Rode" Daily Advertiser:
EARTHQUAKK AT LIMA.
• We are pet mitted to publi h the following extract of
a letter from Mr. S W.Pomeroy, jun. to his fathrr,
giv-
ia; aft interesting description of a violent earthquake at
Lima. ontbe morning of the Stith of Match. The letter
is dated •

LIMA. Aruc et.
" I wet • you last under date of the 20th ultimo.—
Since. that time this city has been visited by one of those
cheacifid earthquakes which are looked for about once
a century, and had it continued a few seconds longer,
the whole of Lima must inevitably have been laid in
• rah,. The calamity occurred on the morning of the
. s.oth of March, at abut half past seven o'clock, and
. although only of thirty or forty seconds duration. was
of such prodigious violence as to prostrate mans build-
ings and injure all, including the stupendous churches,
. some of which ate so much shattered that it is contem-
plated to take them down. their massive walls of six
• and nine feet thickness being literally rent from the top
to the bottom. A great number of houses have been
. pulled down by order of the 3uthmities. and several
have. since the shock, fall. n of their own accord. in
. one instance burying two or three persons in their tuins.
" The amount of injury to the city is estimated by an
.• axial survey at 6,000,000 dollars, a sum quite within
r Wands. 'alien it is reci.llected that horn the natute of
• the buildings they cann4:4 be repaired in many instances,
but moat be mho It. The how oc:upied by Alsop,
. Wetllllol,, and Co. is consideted one of the strongest in
Lima,. nod is said to have cost .90.000 dollars. Sonic
• of he rooms are cracked perpendicularly in litany places,
and in lathers the upper part of the house (whiekts, corn.
.1 of bamboo sticks and mud, of about two faac in
d
• diicknesi4 separated itself fions the " adobe" or stm.
dried Wel.. or naiad+ the walls, to the height of three
. feet above the &or of the second story, are composed;
arid had the shock continited three seconds longer, the
▪ 1,4101 e tap, with its brick roof...would have fallen in.
a Ahem thirty persons perished ; that is the noisier,
of bodies Which have been dug out from the rillihkh.'
but oil ors mosopposed to be still ontimeoverod. Had

It beets in the ni4! t, the loss of lives would. no doubt,
have been grease,. I was awakened from a sound sleep
by the most terrific noire. and, jumping up, saw the
walls of my.ruurn vibrating very violently. I cancluOed
that no time was to he loss, and Made the h in of my
way into the street, amidst falling plaster, and stum.i
bling along over the floors like a drunken man. In the
street all was dismay ; the Iteart•appalling noise which
ushered in this frightful phenomenon, and the sound of
the cr.ickii.g walls, were still singing in our ears. The
poor natives weer upon their knees (many-ot-tHeth ju,t
as they had risen fr..m. their beds) beating their breasts,
and calling upon GOD, the ViROIN, and all the Saints,
to save them, and expecting every instant another and
an heart-rending shuck. Indeed, when I reflected that
this was a danger against which no place afforded se-
entity (as the earth was expected to open as it had done
during the great eatthqu.ske of 1740). I was very well
disposed to join the cry of misericordia: and seek pro-
tection from Hut 0 who but looketh upon the earth.
and it treinbleth.'

" The great shock was followed by five or six slig' t
tremblings in as many days, which excited great terror,
and 1 must confess I have been more alarmed by these
harmless shocks than by the great convulsion; and it
is remarked generally, that a petson who ha' neverex-
perreuced an earthquake cannot, when the alarm rf
Temblor' is given, en;er at all into the feelings of him
who has witnessed one: the first has merely a vague
idea of danger—the last, the full possession of extreme
' danger and dism .7.
" The exci.ement ha,, in a great mea•ure. abated ;
but for a week sir ten days after the shock, Son would
see every night hundrrd4 stretched upon mats in the
squares, alameda, arid wherever an °fen space could he-
found, almost afraid to close their eyes, and vatting
upon 'heir knees at the least alarm t repeat their acres.
Even now /trans we 'evil sleeping at the open doors,
and when the subject is mentioned, cross themselves,
adding, perhaps, their common exclamation, • Jesus
Maria.'

" The depth of superstition and ignorance to which
the common people of this country are degraded, may
be seen by their implicit belief in the stories inculcated
hy the Priests, as the causes of this calamity. Of course
these designing men lose no opportunity to endeavour
to regain their former ascendancy; and feeling that
their octopi: it is almost gone, du not hesitate about
Vie means fir elf cling their object They look upon
fin tiers as deci,!e.l etteiiiies ; not only as heretics. hilt
as necessarily ifisparting to the people with whom they
have inter cow se, a poi lion of their liberal notions. The
residence of the h relics in the country was fii st preached
up publicly as the cause ; that the earth, and gnant at
their being suffered to remain among the Catholics,
would as it were shake them from her bosom; and we
could nor walk the streets for a day or two after, with•
out hearing kouts of cholas and negroes gravely assign-
ing this as the earthqualt-'s origin. It is said General
La Mar ordered the Mnnks to take heed, under pain of
his displeasure, and since that they have been mote
cautious. Some other reasons were assigned even more
absurd and ridiculous.

" At C •1140 tie stick WAS felt after the dust was
seen to rue from Lima, so that it would seem that i•
proceeded born the mountains to Vie sea. These pet.
sons n board vessels in the harbour described the sen-
sation to be the same as when a ship thumps violently
against the bi ttom and the 'wise like that produced by
• twenty chain cables running through the hawse-holes.
The water was very turbid, and fog a considerahletime
atterwants large air butibles came up in every direction.
Several villages on the coast to the nnith.asd have
been destroyed. It was not experienced at tie south-
ward nut a few miles. 1 have a letter of the 12.hApril.'
from Arica, where it was not telt at all.
14 I have almost fill-d my sheet with this engrossing
subject. Thete has hitherto been a stated period for
the occurrence of these heavy s',ocks, and people here
terl very confident that in their lives such another will
not happen."