the number was very great, for though the
cathedral was exceedingly large, I could not see a
space large enough for a single additional person
beyond a few feet from the door by which I
entered. Some notion may be formed of the
number present, from the fact that at this
time there were not less than twenty-five priests
officiating in different parts of the sacred edifice.
The air was so bad, that I did not remain more
than two or three minutes, though the service had
not long begun. There were several poor
creatures round the entrance waiting for alms. I
stooped to put a coin in the hand of an old woman.
As I was doing this, my watch fell from my pocket
into her lap. This circumstance enables me to
state, within a very few minutes, the time when
the first shock was felt. I looked at my watch
as I picked it up, and it then marked five
minutes after seven. I was in-doors ten minutes
later, and had just drunk a glass of wine, and
was in the act of placing the glass on the table,
when suddenly, without the slightest warning,
the floor and every article in the room began to
shake violently. I was unable to stand
upright, or to move in any direction, though I
instinctively held out my hands and tried to
grasp the different articles of furniture which
were falling about. There was a brief pause,
but I was in such a bewildered state, that I had
not thought of trying to escape into the street
before a second shock came. This was unlike
the other in its movement, being a kind of rocking
motion, whereas the first is best described by
saying that it resembled the motions observable
on the surface of water when it is boiling
violently. Another and another shock followed,
in which the movement was different from either
of the preceding. The house was whirled in a
circular direction, backwards and forwards.
Great cracks opened in the walls, and the
matting which covered the floor was rent in
many places. A large looking-glass which
was fastened to the wall was thrown down, the
window-frames were broken to pieces, and all
the panes shaken out, and above the din which
this caused I could hear the cracking of timber
and the crash of masonry. The house was
two stories high. At the last shock of which
I have any recollection, I felt the floor sinking
beneath my feet, and I fell violently on
my face. The wall on one side of the room,
however, still remained upright after the others
had fallen away, and to this the floor held fast.
As I dropped, my fingers slipped into an opening
between the boards of which the floor was
constructed, and I clung fast. I was very
much battered by portions of the ceiling and
roof striking me, but I was almost unconscious
of this at the time, in consequence of the fear
I was in lest the remaining wall should fall
and bury me. Looking down into the street, I
saw that the floor sloped down till it seemed on
its lowest side to rest on the ruins. Without
hesitating a moment, I loosed my hold and
dropped, rolling over and over among the
rubbish. I rose and looked round, but so complete
was the ruin and desolation on every side, that
I had the greatest difficulty in distinguishing the
direction I wished to take.

However much a man's heart may be hardened
to the sufferings of others by the knowledge that
his own life is in imminent danger, it was
impossible to see the dreadful spectacles that met
my eyes on all sides without horror. Limbs
projected here and there from among the ruins;
sometimes, a leg, or an arm, but in many cases
the head and shoulders, were visible, often
frightfully mutilated. Life still remained in many of
these poor creatures, and their groans were
heartrending; but I could give them no help
alone, and there were none to assist me; the
few persons who were uninjured staggered
along over the ruins without pausing, and looked
like phantoms through the dust which filled the
air. I was so much bruised that I made my way
very slowly. At last, finding I was becoming
exhausted, I sat down on a heap of rubbish, which,
as far as I could make out from the appearance
of the fragments, had once been a church; as
indeed it had been, and one of ten destroyed by
the same catastrophe.

I tried my utmost to shut out the sound of
the screams and groans which filled the air all
night, by tying my handkerchief tightly over my
ears; but I found it impossible to sleep, and as
soon as the sun rose I got up, stiff and weary,
and made my way towards a group of men
and women who were assembled about a heap
of ruins, the magnitude of which enabled me
to recognise them as the remains of the cathedral.

Of all the sights on that dreadful morning,
there was none which equalled this. The service
in the cathedral not only began later than
in the other churches, but was longer; so that
while those who had attended the latter had for
the most part left them, the whole congregation
was present in the former. The earthquake was
so sudden, that probably not a dozen persons
escaped out of the building before it came
crashing down, burying every one of the two
or three thousand persons within it beneath its
heavy roof and massive walls. When I reached
the ruins, men and women were already working
at those parts where appearances indicated the
possibility of most speedily reaching bodies. The
largest group was collected round a chapel, a
small portion of which was upheld by the peculiar
way in which a beam had fallen. Women were
sobbing, and men were listening anxiously at a
small opening where a window had formerly
been. Seeing I was a foreigner, the Spaniards
and Indians, with the politeness they invariably
practise, made way for me, and I approached
close to the opening. Paint groans issued from
it, and I could hear a voice—that of a girl, I
thought, but it turned out to be one of the
choristers*—asking piteously for help and
deliverance. Then a low but deep bass voice,
doubtless that of the priest who was officiating
at the time of the calamity, uttered the

* He was dug out alive, seven or eight hours
afterwards.