The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-09-20
The Lats narfl,arIa,Is.,e... ! !, = 7,

sCetaiiB OI the terr1ple effects or the
recent earthquake on the Pacific
coast. We have published the most
Important of them. y One letter men,
tions that twenty valuable b.silves
mines In the interior of Peru4weres
lconaple etely sunk, s'the earth opening
and huge water-spouts coming up.0
AT Uobija. the loss of life was slight.
1t was built on q bluff fifty feet
above the sea-. The houses tottered
and tumbled over into the ooenn,
while the inhabitants fled to the
high hills close at hand and escaped.
Bands of thieves, as is always the
case when cslamities involving de-
struotion Of property occur in COM
munitles, were roaming about the
villages and country residences,
searching the ruins, picking up every
thing valuable they could find, and
even robbing the bodies of the dead.
A curious illustration of their greed
and readiness to pocket valuable
articles and gulp down everything
edible and drinkable that falls in
their way, is mentioned. A box Of
sarsaparilla washed ashore from
some ship, and they drank every
bottle of it, taking it to be bever-
age for ordinary use. Whether it
was the compound of old DIR. Jacob
Townsend or the young Townsend,
is not stated; but one or the other
bad better institute inquiry us TO the
effects of this box; it might turn out
to their advantage. It could not,
however, convert the thieves TO hon
est men. The Townsend quacks
could hardly invent o cure for that;
it would be out of their line.
The most original statement of all
is gathered by letter-writer of Lima
from General Fitzpatrick, our Minis
ter to Chill, who had arrived at Lima,
on his way home, and who had
brought reports of the effects of the
earthquake, as far down aslthe State
to which he was accredited. He
stated that, on the South side of the
ruined city of africa, "as the earth
opened and yawned, there came up
800 mummies, who stood in long
lines, facing the sea-" The writer
calls them "mummies," though he
afterwards calls them skeletons. The
hideousness of the array would be
equally decided with the one as the
other. The narrator says that each
of the skeletons was entire, the
hands doubled up and supporting
the chin, the knees drawn up, and
the feet supporting the feshless
frame. This was the manner of
burial Of the aborigines. The place
where this unearthing of the skele-
tons occurred was an old cemetery,
and the skeletons are, doubtless, the
remains of the Incas and Indians.
The writer we'll lmay say: GAS the
ground receded, what o ghastly spec
tacle, amid the throes Of an earth
quake, was the coming up again to
earth of these long-buried skeleton
remains!" 1t was sort of mockery,
by the dead, of the living, this sud-
den appearance of 500 skeletons in
the midst of the calamity, glaring
with their sightless orbs upon the
scenes of horror and despair amongst
the living! What commentary upon
mani
A Peruvian gentleman, who was in
AAANeS Suliht GhO Cdi tIl1udAo, heAS
given the New York papers many
horrible details and incidents. He
says: ''No one who did not witness
it, can form any idea of its horror"
Groans and outcries, falling build
ings and shivered timbers, the air so
filled with dust and ashes, SO choked
with the fine dirt of the adobe build
lngs, and so strong an electric smell
in the air, similar to the strongest
birthstone, that the only way people
could breathe or escape ut all was by
each one throwing him or herself flat
on the ground, and burying the face
flat in the very earth, which groaned
and opened around them. Parents
crying for their children; mothers
screaming to their husbands; and
binding cloud of dust and birthstone,
and the crash of tumbling houses, the
roar OF the terrible incoming sea, and
the shrieks of the wounded, dying
in the falling ruins. In Morqua, the
ground opened, and as it closed
again instantly, it caught the ill-fated
people, leaving them partly projected
from the earth. Here are to be seen
hands protruding, feet and toes stick
ing out above the earth. The top of
q head, and even the whole head and
neck of some Of the people, fingers
and arms, with the bodies to which
thew beIODC ahut into tho canine,