earthquakes as several
parts of South America; for, in the whole of New Spain there are only
five _volcanos_; Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Tuxtla, Jorullo, and Colima.

The _volcano of Jorullo_, in the province of Valladolid, was formed
during the night of the 29th of September, 1759. The great catastrophe,
in which this mountain rose from the earth, and by which a considerable
space of ground changed its appearance, is, perhaps, one of the most
extraordinary physical revolutions in the history of the earth. Geology
points out parts of the ocean, where, at recent periods, near the
Azores, in the Egean Sea, and to the south of Iceland, small volcanic
islands have arisen above the surface of the water; but it gives no
example of the formation, amidst a thousand small burning cones, of a
mountain of scoria, near seventeen hundred feet in height, above the
adjoining plain. Till the middle of the year 1759, fields cultivated
with sugar-canes and indigo occupied the extent of ground between the
two brooks called Cultamba and San Pedro. In the month of June, a
subterraneous noise was heard. Hollow sounds of most alarming
description, were accompanied by frequent earthquakes, which succeeded
one another for fifty or sixty days, to the great consternation of the
inhabitants. From the beginning of September every thing seemed to
announce the complete re-establishment of tranquillity; when, in the
night between the 28th and 29th, the subterraneous noises recommenced.
The affrighted Indians fled to the mountains; and a tract of ground,
from three to four square miles in extent, which goes by the name of
_Malpays_, rose up in the shape of a bladder. The bounds of this
convulsion are still distinguishable in the fractured strata. The
Malpays, near its edges, is only about forty feet above the old level of
the plain; but the convexity of the ground thus thrown up, increases
progressively, towards the centre, to an elevation of more than five
hundred and twenty feet.

The persons who witnessed this astonishing catastrophe, assert that
flames were seen to issue forth, for an extent of more than half a
square league; that fragments of burning rocks were thrown up to
prodigious heights; and that, through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined
by the volcanic fire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to
swell up like an agitated sea. The rivers of Cultamba and San Pedro
precipitated themselves into the burning chasms. The decomposition of
t