Vandalia Whig and Illinois intelligencer. [volume] (Vandalia, Ill.) 1832-183?, 1834-05-29

me rest OF the report is occupied with
an examination of the different classes of
prizes and their amounts, in order 10 show
that the sum of 95 100000 francs is not
more than ought to have been granted
The report concludes with bill appropr
atlng the necessary sum Bali. Amer.
EARTHQUAKE AT PASTO IN
SOUTH AMERICA.
| One Of those fearful commissions OF
nature, which sometimes occur to make
man feel his impotence, as compared
with the omnipotent power Of his Crea-
tor occurred in the mountainous districts
Of New Grenada, near the western from
tier, and also near the equator, on the
.2olh and 22nd January, which has been
attended with results of the most terri.
bic fatality. The city of Paste with a
population of from 10000 TO Is 900 in.
habitants, has been almost completely
destroyd, and upwards of fifty lives lost.
The city of Popayan, containing near
$4,000 inhabitants, has also been de-
stroyed. The entire country for leagues
around Paste, has been converted into a
scene of complete desolation and mourn
! ing. A volcanic mountain overhang;
the city of Paste, which is situated in
latitude |, IS, N. long. II, 1l-and as
the ridge Of the Andes, which stretches
a little 10 the westward, was severely
AFFECTED, there is every reason to appre-
bend that the city of Quito and the re.
public of Ecuador, have experienced
the effects of the same calamity. Two
letters addressed to the secretary of
State, give full and melancholy details
of this appalling visitation. From the m
| it appears that the shock was experien-
ced at o'clock in the morning of the
Goth January, when an awful motion Of
the earth commenced, which continued
for nearly four hours without Interrupt
ton, and which on the 22nd were again
succeeded by several others still more
violent-which completed in one chaos
of destruction what parts of the city the
former had spared.
OF all the religious churches in the
city only that of Jesus del Roi and that
of San Andre escaped with the loss only
of their steeples. But the Cathedral
church and the churches consecrated to
San Francisco, San Sabastin, Santiago,
with their respective converts, as also
those of Santo Domingo, Marced and
Monjas, were all dashed 10 pieces. With
the exception of only three or four hou.
ses which have but half escaped destruc-
| ton, all the rest both great and small.
met with the same fate the churches &
converts experienced, and the smaller
honses which remained standing were
either removed from their former foun.
dations, or so unsettled, as not to be in.
habited with safety, whence the alright.
ed population were doomed to suffer the
rgors Of a burning sun by day, never
before known, and the heavy dews by
night in spot where they assembled to
implore the divine mercy for the souls
of those whose dead bodies they had
collected together.
The country around was deso.ate by
the night frost and scorching sun BY
day.
The appearance of the city, after the
violence of the CONFUSION had in some
measure subsidized, is described as most
melancholly-presenting nothing but an
undistinguishable mass of fallen build.
lngs, from which the survivors were en-
deavoring to exhume the numbers who
had been overwhelmed.
The villages in the neighborhood of
the city of Paste, namely Laguna, Mo-
condino, Buesaquillo, Pejundno. Puer
res. Canchalla, Tamondino, Tongevite,
Gualmatan, PandIuco, ard Tescual have
all lost their churches, and the two first
named towns lost some of their thatch-
ed houses and five of their inhabitants.
The parishes Of Malatuy, Yacuan-
quer, Tambo, Buiaco, Funds, and their
neighboring parishes, likewise had their
churches destroyed with their planta-
tions and tiled houses, but that the lam
Pntable loss of life was not incurred
there. which befell Paste and the Parish {
Of Sibundoy.
The commissioners appointed by the