immense plain through which several rivers flowed, was considerably elevated above the level of the sea, and always enjoyed a cool and agreeable temperature. The 26th of March (being Good Friday) had attracted all the inhabitants to the churches of the city which were destroyed; thus serving for their tombs: the churches of La Trinidad and Alta Gracia, which were in the more immediate vicinity of the mountain, experienced more forcibly the effects of the extraordinary commotion; for although originally upwards of 150 feet high, no part of their ruins exceeded five or six feet in height; and some idea may be formed of the violence of the shock which overturned these stupendous edifices, when it is recollected that they were supported by columns and pilasters exceeding thirty or forty feet in circumference, and of which scarcely a vestige remained.

A superb range of barracks, two stories high, capable of containing 4000 men, and serving as a depot for the artillery, shared the same ruin: a regiment of the line, in the act of marching to join in a religious procession, was almost wholly swallowed up; a few men only being left alive.

It is impossible to paint the terror and desolation which this catastrophe occasioned: disorder, confusion, despair, misery, and fanaticism, were at their height. At first every person fled as well as they were able, prostrating themselves to supplicate heaven for mercy; in this state the individuals who escaped death, mutilated or wounded, covered with dust, their clothes torn, and carrying in their arms their children, or the sick and wounded, presented a most heart-rending spectacle. After the first moments of terror, in which self-preservation made every other consideration give way, the most painful recollections agitated those who had escaped, every one with distracted anxiety sought for a relation or a friend, and inquired for them with looks of terror and affright: among the bloody and desolate ruins, those who remained of the unfortunate population were seen endeavouring to dig up, without other instrument than their weak and trembling hands, the living and the dead who were covered by the fragments: every one ran to and fro over this vast burial place, throwing themselves occasionally on the rubbish, and listening with an attentive ear to the groans of the unfortunate whose lives were preserved although shut up, perhaps irrecoverably, in the very buildings, where they had enjoyed tranquillity and happiness but a few minutes before.

The remainder of the day and the whole of the night were devoted to this interesting and pious occupation. Next day it was necessary to perform the last offices to the dead, but it was impossible to bestow on them the rites of sepulture; instruments and a sufficient number of persons were not to be found: in order

to avoid the effects of a pestilence, therefore, from an infected atmosphere, the bodies were piled up at different stations and burnt with the timber of the ruins. The first sad moments after the catastrophe were thus spent: other labours, equally if not more distressing, remained to be performed.

Almost all the provisions, furniture, linen, and the usual necessaries of life, were destroyed, or had been stolen by the lower class of the populace, or the negroes: every thing was in short wanting. The violence of the earthquake had destroyed the water pipes, and the rivulets were either dried up, or diverted from their usual course: there was in fact no water near the city; there were no vessels in which to collect it, and it was necessary to travel far off before a quantity sufficient to allay one's thirst was obtained, even by using the hands to carry it to the mouth.

Pressed by thirst and hunger and the want of an asylum, those who possessed country houses fled towards them on foot; but alas! nothing was spared-all was ruin and desolation; and they returned to the city, where they seemed to be less miserable among their companions in misfortune, the silence and solitude of the country apparently adding to the dismal aspect of nature. The markets were without provisions; the farmers brought none into town; and many, after wandering about in search of food, at length laid down and died of hunger: those who survived obtained sustenance with much difficulty. Had not some cocoa, sugar, and maize been saved, (which were retailed at a most exorbitant price,) more would have perished from hunger than from the effects of the earthquake.

Three thousand wounded of all ranks were collected and placed at first on the banks of a river, under the shade of some trees: but they were absolutely in want of every thing, even the most indispensable requisites: they were abandoned to the medicine of consolation: they were told that they must conform to the decrees of Providence, and that every thing was for the best.

During this awful crisis, a judicious observer of mankind might have witnessed a striking exhibition of the manners, character, and principles, by which the Spanish people are regulated in their conduct.

Their extreme insensibility is scarcely credible: I saw fathers of families who had lost five or six children, friends, relations, and their whole property, without shedding a tear; most of them consoling themselves by holding a conversation with an image of the Virgin, or some privileged saint.* Others gayly drowned

* The Divine Being among the Spaniards seems to be absolutely unknown; they never speak of him: it is the Virgin and the Saints who receive all their homage.

their sorrow in rum; and all appeared much less grieved at the event, than they would have been at the loss of a process which affected their rank as nobles, or deprived them of their precedence in a public company, or at a religious procession.

It is too true, that human beings, naturally superstitious and ungrateful, never so cordially respect their deities or their kings when they are beneficent as when they are severe: the more rigorous they are, the more just and equitable are they esteemed. Such is the lot of mankind! they forget benefits; and governors, in order to acquire the homage which is due to them, must be feared: gratitude and love are sentiments too delicate to be common among mankind.

Good Friday is without doubt the most imposing of the Catholic holidays: it is that which ought to inspire the most pious reflections; but at the Caraccas, as in many other places, on this occasion, the women are occupied with their dress, more anxious perhaps to appear amiable in the sight of men than to worship the Supreme Being: they think of nothing but amusement, and they almost forget that Being who does not manifest himself only. But scarcely had they experienced the earthquake, when they said it was the thunder of Heaven sent to punish the crimes of mortals: their elegant clothes were immediately laid aside; those who had it in their power changed them for coarse garments, by way of showing their penitence: sackcloth, cords, and chains, were substituted for elegant fashions and seductive headdresses. The ladies now subjected themselves to monastic discipline, and beat without remorse their bosoms, but a short time before adorned with the most costly jewels: many of the gentlemen at the same time forgot their gallantry for fanaticism; and in order to appease the anger of Heaven, they walked night and day in processions, the body entirely uncovered, with the exception of a large girdle, barefooted and with long beards, a cord around their necks to which was frequently attached a large stone, and on their shoulders they sometimes carried a wooden cross 100 or 150 pounds in weight.

In the city and throughout the country there were processions day and night; every mountain was transformed into a Calvary, where the people dying with hunger implored the divine mercy, embracing with groans the relics of their tutelar saints.

Every one accused himself of having called down the anger of Heaven, and of having caused the universal calamity: those who could not meet with a priest openly confessed their sins upon the highways, accusing themselves of robberies and murders which they had secretly committed.

In less than two days about 2000 individuals (who perhaps never had any intention of the kind) were married: relations

formerly despised or neglected on account of their poverty were now recognised: many unfortunate children, the fruits of an illegitimate intercourse, who had never known father or mother, were now acknowledged and legitimated. At the same time an infinite number of restitutions were made, and lawsuits terminated. But notwithstanding all this remorse, a singular and paradoxical spectacle was exhibited to the eyes of the philosopher: while one half of the multitude thus hastened to expiate their offences, the other half, who perhaps never had been guilty of any great crimes before, but possessing an accommodating conscience, profited by the confusion, and with the utmost composure committed every imaginable excess.

In the mean time the shocks from the earthquake continued; every day and every hour some ruins fell, which had been only shaken by the first commotions. On the 5th of April, at four in the afternoon, there was a shock so violent that several mountains were rent asunder, many inclined from their centre of gravity, and enormous detached rocks were precipitated to the valleys.

From the above hour until nine o'clock next morning the shocks were violent, and so frequent as to admit of an interval of about five minutes only between each; and during these intervals a rumbling subterraneous noise was heard, and the earth was continually agitated.

The succession of these phenomena was not interrupted in the month of December, 1812, when I left the place, and those were reckoned the most tranquil days, in which there were only fifteen or twenty shocks! Every thing was destroyed; the ramparts of La Guyra, not less than twenty feet in thickness, were thrown down. As a natural consequence of the opening of the mountains, which are the great reservoirs of water, some rivers were observed to have considerably increased. Many high mountains were rent right across the centre, and that called La Silla has sunk more than sixty fathoms.

It is difficult to say what will be the close of this dreadful event: it may be hazarded as a conjecture, however, that it will end in the opening up of one or more volcanoes: in the mean time the unfortunate inhabitants of these countries, attached to their native soil, and not wishing to abandon the ashes of their fathers, have with great labour erected rude habitations, in which they await with stoicism and resignation the termination of their calamities.

J. H. S.

ACCOUNT OF THE EXTRAORDINARY SECT
CALLED YEZIDIS.

Of the various sects which have appeared in Mesopotamia since the death of Mohammed, none are held in such abhorrence by all true Mussulmans as the Yezidis; who derive their name from Sheikh Yezid, the declared enemy of Ali's race. The Yezidis' religious doctrine is a mixture of the ancient Persian faith, of Manicheism and of Mussulmanism, and is preserved traditionally, for they are neither permitted to read nor write. As they are thus without books, it is difficult to obtain any further information concerning this extraordinary people than what may be collected from observations made actually among them, whence it is evident that their first object is to secure the devil as a friend, and in honour or defence of him they are ready and willing to draw the sword. They not only refrain from ever uttering his name, but even use circumlocution to avoid any word which may resemble it in sound. Before these sectaries it is extremely dangerous for a stranger to pronounce the devil's name, especially to curse him as the Turks frequently do when any of the Yezidis visit a town belonging to those true believers. Such an affront would probably endanger the imprudent foreigner's life. It has often happened that a Yezidi, condemned by the Turkish laws to suffer death for some offence, has submitted to his sentence rather than curse the devil, although by such an execration he might have obtained his pardon.

If the Yezidis wish to designate the devil, Sheikh Mazen or -Great Sheikh, is the expression which they use. All the prophets and saints revered by christians are honoured by them also: and they are of opinion that those holy personages whilst living on earth were distinguished from other mortals, in proportion as the devil resided within them, more or less-and that above all, Moses, Jesus Christ, and Mohammed, were in this respect the most highly favoured;-they believe that God ordains, but intrusts the execution of his commands to Satan.

Every morning, on the sun's first appearance, they retire as much as possible from the sight of man, and kneeling, with their foreheads on the ground, they offer adoration to that luminary. They neither fast nor pray, but are persuaded that Sheikh Yezid has sufficiently atoned for all his sect's omission of these duties till the end of the world. Without fastings, prayers, or sacrifices, they are likewise without religious festivals. Yet on the tenth day of the moon in August, they assemVOL. II. 2D ED.

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