eart who could view it
with indifference; yet such was the apathy occasioned by terror, that
scarcely any one offered assistance to his neighbour, and frequently
neglected his own safety. When all was quiet I went out to examine the
city. The first thing which attracted my notice was the turret of the
stately cathedral partly demolished, and the building split and cracked
in various places; the precious stones, consisting of diamonds,
emeralds, and topazes, which adorned the interior, were scattered in all
directions, and many of them broken, particularly a very large emerald
weighing some ounces. This edifice had but just been repaired from the
effects of the earthquake in the preceding year, and was, by this last,
reduced to a tattered ruin. In all the streets which ran in the
direction of N.W. and S.E., many houses were "levelled with the dust,"
and others "rent in twain;" and some of the unfortunate inhabitants
buried beneath their ruins. In all, fourteen persons have lost their
lives; and the damage done to the city is estimated to be at least six
millions of dollars, although it did not contain a larger population
than 30,000 souls. Deserted streets, heaps of ruins, and tottering
houses, threatening to crush the beholder, give but a faint idea of this
desolate picture. General Soublette and General Bolivar were both
present at the last fatal earthquake in Caraccas, and they both assert
that this, of which I have now given a description, was at least as
powerful, although the suffering in the town of Caraccas was much
greater; and they attribute the happy escape of thousands of lives to
the difference in the construction of houses in the two places. General
Bolivar, as well as myself and others, were affected with sickness at
the stomach after the shock. During the night of the earthquake in
Bogota, on the 16th of November, 1827, tremulous motions of the earth
were continually felt, and the following day, and every other since; and
even whilst I am now writing, slight undulating motions are perceptible.

Every person is still in the greatest alarm, dreading a second severe
shock, which happened last year at the distance of four days from the
first grand shock; should this happen now, scarcely one stone will
remain upon another in Bogota.

* * * * *

THE DRAUGHTSMAN;[3] OR, HINTS ON LANDSCAPE PAINTING.

[Footnote 3: Vide MIRROR, vol. iv. pp 2, 22, 61, 102.]

OBSERVATIONS ON,