hquake. I have known individuals in Lima, natives of the coast,
who were seldom wrong in predicting an earthquake, from their
observation of the atmosphere. In many places great meteors have been
seen before the commotion. Before the dreadful earthquake of 1746,
there were seen fiery vapors (_exhalaciones encendidas_) rising out of
the earth. On the island of San Lorenzo these phenomena were
particularly remarked.

Many persons have an obscure perception--a foreboding, which is to
them always indicative of an approaching earthquake. They experience a
feeling of anxiety and restlessness, a pressure of the breast, as if
an immense weight were laid on it. A momentary shudder pervades the
whole frame, or there is a sudden trembling of the limbs. I, myself,
have several times experienced this foreboding, and there can scarcely
be a more painful sensation. It is felt with particular severity by
those who have already had the misfortune to have been exposed to the
dangers of an earthquake.

I will here only briefly mention the celebrated earthquake of 1746, as
all its details are fully described in many publications. The reader
need scarcely be reminded that it happened on the 28th of October, the
day of St. Simon and St. Jude. During the night, between ten and eleven
o'clock, the earth having begun to tremble, a loud howling was heard,
and, in a few minutes, Lima became a heap of ruins. The first shock was
so great, that the town was almost completely destroyed by it. Of more
than 3000 houses, only twenty-one remained. Still more horrible was the
destruction in the harbor of Callao. The movement of the earth had
scarcely been felt there, when the sea, with frightful roaring, rushed
over the shore, and submerged the whole town with its inhabitants. Five
thousand persons were instantly buried beneath the waves. The Spanish
corvette San Fermin, which lay at anchor in the port, was thrown over
the walls of the fortress. A cross still marks the place where the stern
of the vessel fell. Three merchant vessels, heavily laden, suffered the
same fate. The other ships which were at anchor, nineteen in number,
were sunk. The number of lives sacrificed by this earthquake has not
been, with perfect accuracy, recorded.[38] Humboldt, in his Cosmos,
mentions that during this earthquake a noise like subterraneous thunder
was heard at Truxillo, eighty-five leagues north of Callao. It was first
observed a quarter of an hour after the commotion