Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-12-31
Earthquake I'm Portugal.
A private letter just received from Portugal
reontainsths' following graphic description Of


LISBON Thursday. Nov. IL. 1858. q
Mr. DEAR --: 1t is of Gods great mercy
that this steamer does not carry yen the news
of the sudden destruction of all Won hold dear
on this side The Atlantic. At 10 Minutes past
2 this morning fearful earthquake shook
Lisbon TO its centre IL lasted minute and
some seconds. and was vertical. T. and /
were asleep; we awoise.- of course. and sat
quite. motionless, holding each other ny the
nand. feeling the house shaking violently and
expecting instant death by the giving away of
everything. The sonnd that accompanied 1t
Z was awful--awe predominated in opr minds.
t. tells me that / said softly. "God have mer-
ey upon u.s. butt was moi conscious Of speak
Ing. He says that the most fearful part of il
all. to him.. was the increasing violence of
sound and motion--the rapid eresoendo- Each
instant we expected the roof And walls to fall
In upon us; then the sound diminished sensi-
bly,, and again increased in violence. A min
snte seems short time. hut il was "a lifetime
then. T. says he never before felt himself in
the immediate presence of destruction. and his
thought was death is Immediate and inevita-
BILE: now ] shall learn the great mystery"
When it was over he said, SIX, that was very
awful" jumped up and raa to NJ; T.
followed; we fonnd her calm, hut filed with
tsolemn awe--one fitted so directly from the
hand of God that tears and lamentations could
find no place. We knew that we were on the
brink of the grave-a few seconds only between
MS and sudden death. The partition walls of
MS dressing-rooms, bedroom, her maids
chamber. The two spare rooms, and the dining
room-in fact, all that support the walls Of
that side of the house, are cracked from top to
bottom, with rents in which you may lay vonr
band. A few seconds more and the whole
would have come down with a mighty crash.
IN. BIO understand the mightiness of
the shock. one must remember that the walls
of the Lisbon hosises are not like those of the
Fifth Avenue card-paper palaces, solid mass
ca of masonry, some three and fonr feet Thick
People were flying to and fro. thinking and
talking Of nothing else Many persons were
killed by the falling of walls; many houses
have been shaken entirely down. One of the
columns of the beautiful Estrella Church has
fallen, AS well as several of the Saints from
their inches within.
1t is believed that if the earthquake had
lasted a few seconds longer, it would have
been as fatal as that of Nov. /. 1855. At 81
there was another shock much lighter. and
vet far beyond anything you have ever cxpe-
rienced in Portugal. When one met friends
to-day it was with much emotion, grasp of
the hand, and. Thank God, we are still
alivei" The shock was felt very distinctly
in the fleet. On the Coligny. the commander
rushed on deck. believing that another vessel
had dashed into him and carried away part of
the ship.
The day previous, Dr. Pezado, Chief of the
Observatory of the Polytechnic School, had
announced that it was almost certain that an
earthquake would take place within twenty
four hours; he judged from the variations of
the magnetic needle. He timed it, and found
its duration one minute and four seconds. If
this seems short, take your watch and try to
think the house is falling. for that time !
can give you no idea of the sound; besides
the creaking and groaning of all the timbers.
there was rattling beyond the noise of any
machinery have ever heard, and through
the air the voice Of a mighty rushing wind,
though not breath stirred. In the different
towns near Lisbon It has been very bad at
Villa France many houses fell, and some per-
sons were killed.
NorembeT l3.-The news to-day from Oportn
is very sad; the shock was felt there most Sc
verely. Several public buildings were de-
stroyed and sixty persons killed. At Trafaria
a new church fell.
The barracks at Val de Perreira are greatly
damaged, and will have to be rebuilt. A Gu
rious thing took place on board Brazilian
steamer. Siiling from Southampton on the
9th, she was in the Bay of Bscay on the Ilth.
That morning the needle of the compass went
round and round in a manner most inexpli-
cable and alarming. The captain scarcely
knew where he was. and declared TO the pas
sengers that something very remarkable was
taking place on land; | cannot say terra frma,
my confidence in its stability has been shaken!
T. aud / are discussing very seriously wheth-
er we shall remove to another house. 1t is
one thing not to he over timid, and another
not to be foolhardy. There is no real cour-
age in Drawing an earthquake. My nerves are
considerably shaken, even dmoraLized, as the
French would say. and the rattle of door
or a window sounds to my ear like the pre-
cursor of another fearful visitor and makes
my heart beat with a quicker pulse And so
/ will follow the Viscountess' example. and
resolve mot to talk any more about it,"