Show I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 4 I 1 the earthquake at sau san salvador the night of the will of april 1851 18 51 will ever be one of bad and and bitter memory for the I 1 people of salvador on that unfortunate night I 1 our happy and beautiful capital was made a heap of ruins M ivern ants of the earth were felt on the morning of holy thursday preceded by sounds like the rolling roiling of f heavy artillery over pavements and like distant thunder the t people were a little alarmed at uis this phenomenon but it did not prevent them from meeting io in the churches to celebrate the solemnities of the day on Satur dry all was quiet and confidence was restored the people of the hood a assembled as usual to celebrate the passover P the night of saturday was tranquil as I 1 was also the whole of sunday the heat beat it is true was confide rave able but the atmosphere was calm and serene I 1 for the first wree enree hours of the evening nothing unusual occurred but at half past nipo nine a severe shock of an earthquake occurring without the usual preliminary noises alarmed the whole city many families lett left their houses and I 1 molde encampments encamp ments in ii the public squares while others pro prepared pared to boass pass tile the night night w in the their ir respective court yards finally at ten minutes t to oil 11 I 1 wi without premonition of any kind the earth be gla to heave aAd tremble with such fearful force thit in ten iu seconda the entire 1 city wai was i ted the ej crashing ashing of houses and churches I 1 stunned the ears of the V terrified inhabitants I 1 while a cloud of dust from rom the falling ruins en i them hem in a pall of iff imf impenetrable darkness not a drop of water could be got gol to relieve the i half caked ch aked and caling for the wells and fountains were filled up or made dry the clock tower of the cathedral carried a great part of the etli edifice fice with it in its fall the towers of the church of san Franci francisco sob crushed the epi episcopal s cipal oratory and part of the palace the chu church reli of santo was buried beneath I 1 its towers and the college of the assumption i ws entirely ruined the T he new and beautiful of the ans demolished the church of the merced separated in the centre 1 and its w wills mils fell outward to the ground of the private houas hanss houa s a few were left belf it standing anding but all were ren edred uninhabitable it is 13 worthy of remark that the walls walla left it standing anding are old ones all those of mod modern rn have fit fat I 1 len the pah public J ic edifices of the government and city shared the common destruction the devastation was effected ail aa we have said in the first ten tt n seconds seron ds for although the succeeding shocks were tremendous and accompanied by I 1 fearful brumbl nga ga beneath our oar fret fet they hia had comparatively trifling results jor for the reason thit that the first hold had left but little for their r ravages I 1 I 1 sie mn and terrible was the picture presented on that dark funereal night hight of a whole people clustering in the plazas on an their knees crying with voices heaven to tuc for mercy or in in ago mizing accents calling for their children and friends wh whom m th they e y believed to be buried beneath the rains A he hearn aarn baque and omi i a of the batt earth h rapid and une I 1 q ial cau causing sinea a terror id describable an intense sulphurous odor filling the atmosphere and indicating di cating an approach approaching irig eruption of the boea no streets filled d with ruing gr overhang b by y threatening walls walla a suffocating g ei clott oia dof of lut dust almost rendering respiration ration impossible such inc was the spectacle P presented by city I 1 on that mem table and awful night A hundred boys were but abut up in the he college many crowded the hospital hospi ial and the barracks were the sense of I 1 the catastrophe which mut have befallen them gilve p ignancy ig iancy tancy to ahe the 6 first rat Ments of reflection after e tt it was belie believed led I 1 that at least a fourth part of t the e inhabitants hid had been bufred beneath UA its the members i of the Govora government ment hastened to ascertain a as i far as practicable the extent of lof the catastrophe and to eniet the public mind it was found I 1 that I 1 I 1 th ohp loss of life had been much liss less than was as supposed I 1 and it now appears appears le that the number of nf the lulled will not exceed one jiun ban dred and the wounded fifty among the latter iff ia the bishop Who rec dived a severe blow on an I 1 the head the WeT sate president resident and the wife of the secretary of the Legisla tiAo council curneil Cuu neil the latter severely fortunately the earthquake hat has not been beak fo lowed by rains which gives an opportunity to I 1 disinter th public archives as an also many of valuable articles contained in the dwellings of the citizens I 1 I 1 the movements of the earth still continue with witha strong trong shocks ks and the people fearing a general swallowing up of the site ot the city I 1 or that thal they may maybe be buried under some sudden or ar eption of the volcan volean oare hastening away tak ng ne r with them their household gods the sweet mo memories morieS of their infancy and their domestic animals perhaps the only omy property let laft for the I 1 support ot their families I 1 I 1 rhe ruined city of san salvador is sit situated hated on a plain 2115 1 15 feet above the ivel I vel of the sea in in the midst of a mountain A iq range range studded with vole volcanoes annes and about twenty two mil mils P from the port of la ba libertad on the th pacific coast its it population in the year 1852 was estimated at and at the time of this ra calamity lamity was pro bably san an salvador has gulfred bufe ted greatly i in a past times from earthquakes akbas severe ones are arc recorded as havi haeng ig occurred in in the years yeara 1575 1593 1625 1656 6 and 1798 another occurred in n 1839 1834 and the vole volcano ario hia haa several times S threatened general devastation deva commercial adv I 1 I 1 |