Year: 1861

A correspondent writing from Valparaiso
gives the following thrilling account of the
earthquake at Mendoza:


All the accounts received from Mendoza
go beyond the statements at first made
concerning that fated town. Every letter
that comes giving details shows the horror
of the calamity to be more and more COM.
plete. Ruin, desolation and death charac.
terize the scene. At the most moderate
calculation it is now judged that ten thou
sand lives have been lost. The town was
all peace and activity. Customers were in
the shops, visitors in the parlors, loungers
about the corners, a bright moon shone-
when in five seconds the whole town was
just heap of ruins. The cloud of dust from
the fallen walls was so dense that for half an
hour the moon was Invisible, an intense
darkness adding to the confusion and dismay
of survivors.


Ere long the light of burning buildings or
remains of buildings began to CLEAN. Three
different shops took fire from the lamps.
| Some persons who had been buried under
the walls, but were still alive, were burned.
On every hand rose cries for help. But
those buried under the ruins were actually
more in number than the survivors,. Few
remained to render aid; fewer still were
disposed to render it.


| 1t is said that some were so terrified as to
60 away from the town by the ranting of a
Jesuit, that the world w s coming at once
to an end, and the day of judgment at hand.
The superstitious prophet told the people
the earth would shortly sink under them,
and they left the city.


Robbery then set in. The shops, the
houses, were scenes of unhindered piIlage
The savage robbers would rob, and then
kneel for prayer, crying in loud voices for
mercy, and up at the work of depreciation
once again. All the time cries for assist
ance were assailing their ears on every
hand; here woman's voice, there feeble
cry OF an old man, but all in vain. They
would not hear.


From the town of San Juan two hun
dred soldiers came with spades and picks,
but the Governor of Mendoza actually for
bade their entering the town! Troops
from Mendoza had attacked San Juan re-
Gently, and he affected to fear that they had
come for vengeance. 1t is currently thought
many lives might have been saved had
proper excavations been made at once.


One man who at the time of the shock
was away from his home, returning after
few days, found his children uninjured under
a bedstead, that is to say without scar or
bruise, but lifeless, probably from suffoca-
ton.


A nun was taken out alive who had been
eight days under the ruins. She was in
state of extreme prostration, but still liv-
ing however, she did not survive, such had
been the shock to her system, and such her
exhaustion.


A man was actually taken out who had
been sixteen days buried under the ruins.
He had sustained bruise on the head in
which worms had bred. His hip had been
injured so that decay had commenced in it,
and yet he was alive Hopes were enter
tanned that he might be brought around.
However, all failed the poor fellow died
six days after be was taken out.


A man named Godoy, with his wife, was
for some time buried in their own dining
room ruins. As they had little bread and
wine, they sustained life till relief came.


A man 80 years of age was partly COW
cred up by the ruins, even up to his neck.
He was rescued by serving woman, to
whom he offered an immense reward if she
would extricate him.


The probability ia that Mendoza will
never be rebuilt. Certainly it will not on
the former site.


"A warrant is out In Tennessee, for the