The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-09-04
The Destruction of Lisbon.


AS it was the feast of All Saints the
churches were thronged from an early
hour, and all their affairs brilliantly illu-
minated with thousands of tapels and de-
corated with garlands of various tinted
mIslins and thin silks. At 6:45 o'clock
the first shock was felt 1t was so slieh.
that many persons attributed it to the pas
sage of heavy wag ons in the street and
even To mere fancy. Three minutes after
ward second shock occurred, 50 violent
that it seemed as if the heavens and the
earth were passing away.
The agitation lasted fully ten minutes
and ere it diminished the greater portion of
the city was in ruins. The dust raised OBJ
scured the sUn an Egyptian darkness pre-
vailed, and to add to the universal horror,
the fearful screams of the living, and the
groans of the dying rose through the air.
In twenty minutes all became calm again,
and people began to look around them and
consider the best means of escape. Some
were for going to the hills, but were soon
discouraged from so doing by the rumors
that those who had already gone thither
dense fog of dust which still lose from the
falling buildings. They then rushed to-
wards the quays which line a part of the
Tagus, but only to learn the horrible news
that these had sunk into the earth with all
the people and editiceS upon them. Those
who thought to put out to sea were told to
look at the river and 10 in its center they
beheld a whirlpool which was sucking in
all the vessels and boats in its vicinity, not
a fragment of any of them being ever seen
again. The royal palace had been entirely
swallowed up, and over its site is now the
vast squire of the Paco, OF Black Horse,
one of the largest public places i'll Europe.
The great library of the Holy Ghost was
in flames, and its priceless Moorish and He
brew manuscripts were fast becoming ash
es. The opera house had fallen in, the In
QUESTION was no more, and the great church
of San Domingo was but heap of stones,
beneath which lay crushed to atoms the
entire congregation.
The Irish Church of St. Paul was the
dcath-place of one thousand persons, and
the palace of Benposta, where Catharine
of Braganza, widow of Charles H., lived
and died, had fallen over from the heights
on which it was built and utterly destroy
ed the poor but populous part Of the town
which lay beneath it. In word, where
but an hour since was Lisbon was now
nothing but desolation AS to the people,
WHO can describe their condition At
least seventy Thousand persons had per-
islrd, and the majority of the survivors
were cruelty wounded, and i'll agony of
mind and body. Some went mad with
fright, other lost forever the power of
speech, sinners went about confessing their
secret crimes, and fanatics, believing the
last day had come cried out to the horror
stricken multitude to ''repent, for Christ
was coming to judge the quick and the
dead''
AS the day waxed on, the wretched Lis
bonese grew calmeF, and it was universally
declared that the safest places, now that
the dust was diminishing, were the heights
overlooking the city, and thither the ma
jority fled. Here they found their court
assembled, for the royal family were for
tunately at Belem, where, strange to say,
the earthquake was scarcely felt at all, and
had has.ened at once to the hills. The car
dinal patriarch was here also, and so was
Pombal and these two men, with surpris-
ing presence of mind, by their admirable
courage, were enabled before night to in
spire some feeling of order among the ex-
cited throng. The King and Queen be-
haved nobly, and the young Duke of La
rooms deserves to be immortaized for his
splendid conduct. He organized band of
noblemen who went about aiding the
wounded, rescuing the children, and even
burying the dead
1t was a strange and awful sight to see
this multitude gathered together on the
summit of the hills which once overlooked
their magnificent capital, and which now
looked down upon mere mass of smoul-
dering ruins. AS the day declined and
night came on, the cardinal issued proc
lamation ordering all to kneel in prayer
and eutreat the mercy of God upon them
and then rose on the air the wailing tones
of that saddest of psalms, the Miserere.
When the shades of night had fully fallen,
frightful discovery was made-the city
was in flames in a hundred places. The
confagration was greatly increased by the
strong wind blowing from the sea.
There was no hope of saving anything,
and it was but too well known that thous-
ands of human beings who bad taken re-
fuge in the cellars and crypts were being
roasted alive. If the anxiety of the escaped
was dreadful to witness, the scenes within
the city itself were even more terrible.
Robbers, escaped Jail birds, low sailors and
degraded negroes formed bands and went
about amid the ruins, pillaging the wound
ed of their trinkets, and even numbering
those who ventured to oppose their ghast-
/ ly deeds. The lewd Inhabitants of the
| brothels broke from the rigid restraint In
| which they were confined by the laws