The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1868-09-25
MisGelIamenMs.
From tho Baltimore Commercial.
EARTHQUAKES.

| The terrible earthquake with which the
western coast of South America has been
visited is, from the accounts received, one
of the most awful of any that has visited
that or any other part of the world. With
every allowance for exaggeration, of which
there must necessarily have been yery
much, still the destruction of life and prop
erty must have exceeded anything since the
great earthquake at Lisbon. Not one city,
but several, have been suddenly laid in
ruins, and many thousands of people de-
stroyed almost In a moment, while hun
dreds of millions worth of property is re-
ported as swept out of existence. Accounts
of tidal waves bearing war steamers and
vessels, helpless to save themselves from de-
struction, far inland and leaving them there
high and dry to rot and fall to pieces, are
almost beyond the conception of people
living in a country like this 80 happily ex-
empt from such awful visitations.
In distance, this earthquake must have
extended its remorseless destruction of life
and property for more than one thousand
miles, and that in an almost incredible
short space of time-four or five minutes
intimation only before ruin and destruction
burst upon the heads Of the frightened peo-
pie. " % ~. ~ - q
Earthquakes are common in this part of
South America, Humboldt says as common
as showers in Europe. It has not been
many years since Quito experienced one of
very great severity, but now that city
has been laid in utter ruin. We hope that
further details may qualify to some extent
the horrible picture ysa .a.a,i .rsI,-s <
The terrible earthquake which has Just
devastated Southern Peru and large part
Of the State of Ecuador must be classed
among the most terrible commissions of the
kind eyer known, and the destruction of
life and property ding it is not exceed
ed by that of any similar catastrophe on
the American continent-ap least since the
period of the discovery of,America---with
the exception of the ruin which, was
wrought in February 1907, when the whole
country between Santa Fer and Panama,
was destroyed by an earthquake, and 49,
900 people buried in an instant. /
Of modern earthquakes, the present one
is surpassed in its destructive effectsby on
ly two beside that just mentioned--the
earthquake of Lisbon, 1866, when 10000
persons are believed to have persisted in
the short space of six minutes, and that of
Calabria, in the end of the last century,
when 10000 were destroyed. The earth
quake in the Kingdom of Naples in 1857
was attended with the loss, it is estimated,
of fully 10000 lives In the number of
towns which have ceased to exist, both in
Peru and Ecuador, we are reminded of the
earthquake in the island of Java in 1772,
when forty villages with all their inhabi-
tants were overwhelmed in one common
ruin, and the startling fact that in Ecuador,
where the town of Golacha stood previous
to the earthquake, there is now a lake,
brings to recollection the destruction by an
earthquake in the City of Port Royal ia
maica, which instantly sunk with the great
er part of the buildings beneath the waves.
Earthquakes of tremendous violence,
working fearful destruction, have been of
frequent occurrence in South and Central
America. In October, 1916, Lima and
Callao were demolished by one, and $4,000
persons buried in the ruins; in April, ITS,
the city of Quito was destroyed in July,
1878, Guatemala, with 5000 of its inhabi-
tants, was swallowed up; in February, 1897,
occurred the terrible earthquake above allu-
ded to in March, 1919, the City of Caracas,
the capital of Venezuela, was reduced,
with all its splendid churches, to a heap of
ruins, beneath which $4,000 of the inhabi-
tants were crushed to death on the Sd
day of April, 1871, Valparaiso was terribly
shaken, and more than 400 houses destroy
ed in April, 1854, st. Salvador was de-
stroyed; in June, 1868, the Valley of Mex
leo was convulsed, and property to the val
ne ofseveral millions of dollars destroyed
in March, 1889, Quito in Ecuador, suffered
terribly, about 5000 persons having been
killed, and an immense amount of property
destroyed in March, 1861, the greater
part of the city of Mendoza, in the Argen-
tine Republic, was overthrown, and 1000
lives lost and in December, 1862, 100
buildings and IA churches were destroyed
in Guatemala. Toward the end of last
year several severe shocks were experien-
ced in Central America, but they were un-
attended with any damage of q serious
character.
The West India Islands hare also from