The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1877-12-13
A VICTIM OF EARTHQUAKES.
An Account .of the Earthquakes that have
Visited Lisbon, the Portuguese Capital.

visited Lisbon, the Portuguese Capital.
1t is as city against which the internal
forces of nature have conspired with un-
paralleled frequency and fury that Lis
bon is popularly known in other coun-
tries. With the memory of previous
disasters from the same cause, extending
back more than eight hundred years, It
was hardly to be expected that the re-
cent shocks would not excite considera-
BILE alarm among the population. Be-
tween the years 1909 and 1146 three
cases of earthquake occurred. In 1856
the visitation was repeated with in
creased severity. In .537 the earth was
convulsed at intervals of three successive
days, when twenty-five hundred houses
were destroyed, and thirty thousand
persons perished. In 1879 three streets
were destroyed, and in 1899 and 1929
the earthquakes were marked by peculiar
violence. But it was on the 1st of No
vember, 1856, at ten o'clock in the morn
ing, the weather being bright and
serene, that the capital, then in the
height of its splender, was overwhelmed,
in less than quarter of an hour, by the
most stupendous catastrophe recorded
in human annals. First there was a
tremulous motion, 50 slight as hardly to
attract attention. In two minutes after
ward the earth shook with such violence
that the houses were split in every
direction, and the sun was obscured by
the clouds of dust which arose. At
length the third aad most disastrous
shock succeeded, wich laid the city in
ruins in q moment. An eyewitness re-
lates "the screamsAof the living, the
groans of the dying, and the profound
darkness increased the horror" In
twenty minutes the silence of the grave
reigned over locality which had shortly
before been q scene Of cheerful activity.
But the havoc had not yet reached its
height. Fires broke out in various
quarters of the city, and were famed by
strong wind. So intent were the hap
they left the spreading flames to take
their course. On themorning of the 7th
of the same month, at five o'clock, all
the terrors of the previous week were
repeated under greatly aggravated cir
cumstances. The sea rose nine feet
higher than the greatest recorded river
food which has ever inundated Portugal.
The affrighted crowd congregated on
the banks of the Tagus were overtaken
by monstrous wave, and, with houses
and streets, were overwhelmed in the act
of endeavoring to escape. A vast
throng of persons fled for refuge from
the falling ruins to the marble quay now
known as the Praca de Commercio,
which suddenly sank with the dense iv-
ing mass collected upon it, and not one
OF the bodies ever rose to the surface
Boats and vessels crowded with wretched
| fugitives were swept down by a whirlpool,
and no trace of them was ever found.
The results of this abnormal movement
of nature could not be confined within
the limits of the locality in which it pro-
duced the greatest devastation. 1t ex-
tended to Morocco and one-half of Fez,
| including twelve thousand Arabs, was
destroyed. It's influence was felt as far
north as the Orkney Islands. and ships
in mid-Atlantic were tossed by the fear
full agitation of the clements it had gen.
Grated. The number of victims to which
the disaster proved fatal is estimated at
fifty thousand, and the value of the
property sacrificed at 800, 900, 900. Sc
crushing was the effect of this misfor.
tune, with it's attendant consequences, to
the court, that the question was gravely
debated whether the seat of government
should not be removed to Brazil. But
the ill-fated capital gradually emerged
from its ruins, and, though severe shocks
have occurred since the great earth
quakes in the years 1761, 1896 and 1907
no visitation has been so serious as tt
interrupt the growth of the city. Indeed
by sort of poetic law of compensation
the most handsome portion of it to-day ii
in the valley created by the earthquake,
through the collapse of the hill on which
the principal section of the old city stood
AS the visitor crosses the Black Hors'
square, and wends his way to the Prac.
de Dom Pedro w. and the public gar
dens, it requires a strong effort Of fame,
to realize that any such occurrence as w
have described could have taken plac'
on that spot.