the latter of which was more than one hundred and fifty
feet high, and the nave of which was supported by pillars twelve or
fifteen feet thick, were reduced to a mass of ruins not more than five
or six feet high. The subsidence of the ruins was such that scarcely a
vestige of pillar or column could be found. The barracks of San Carlos
disappeared altogether, and a regiment of infantry, under arms to take
part in a procession, was swallowed up with the exception of a few
men.

Nine-tenths of the town was annihilated. The houses which had not
collapsed were cracked to such an extent that their occupants did not
dare to re-enter them. To the estimate of 10,000 victims caused by the
earthquake, must be added the many who succumbed, weeks and months
afterward, for want of food and relief. The night of Holy Thursday to
Good Friday presented the most lamentable spectacle of desolation and
woe which can well be conceived. The thick layer of dust, which,
ascending from the ruins, obscured the air like mist, had again
settled on the ground; the earthquake shocks had ceased, and the night
was calm and clear. A nearly full moon lighted up the scene, and the
aspect of the sky was in striking contrast with that of a land strewn
with corpses and ruins.

Mothers might be seen running about with their children whom they were
vainly trying to recall to life. Distracted families were searching
for a brother, a husband, or some other relative, whose fate was
unknown to them, but who, they hoped, might be discovered in the
crowd. The injured lying half buried beneath the ruins were making
piteous appeals for help, and over 2,000 were extricated. Never did
human kindness reveal itself in a more touching and ingenious fashion
than in the efforts made to relieve the sufferers whose cries were so
heart-breaking to hear. There were no tools to clear away the
rubbish, and the work of relief had to be performed with the bare
hands.

The injured and the sick who had escaped from the hospitals were
carried to the banks of the river Guayra, where their only shelter was
the foliage of the trees. The beds, the lint for binding up wounds,
the surgical instruments, the medicines and all the objects of
immediate necessity were buried beneath the ruins, and for the first
few days there was a scarcity of everything, even of food. Water was
also very scarce inside the town, as the shock had broken up the
conduits of the fountains and the upheaval had blo