was less, but of life greater, for reasons that er resources and advantages which made it the will appear as we go on. But before pro- seat of population and power in ancient as in ceeding to give an account of the catastrophe modern times. Here the Scyris had their capthere, we must refer, for a moment, to the phys-ital, Quito, which the Incas afterward elevated ical condition of that country. to almost equal rank with Cuzco, and which the Spaniards adopted as the centre of their Presidency.

Quito occupies a lofty position on a ledge of the volcano of Pichincha, at an elevation, as lately accurately determined, of 9537 feet above the sea. The volcano rises behind it to a height of 15,976; that is to say, is 6439 feet above the city. From its summit, says Mr. Hassaurek, on a clear day, is presented one of the most imposing and magnificent views in the whole world. "Glaciers show their hoary heads on all sides. More than twenty snow-clad mountains rise before you, and fill your soul with admiration and awe. You find yourself in the midst of a council of the great patriarchs of the Andes, and listen amazed to their speaker, Cotopaxi, who every now and then sends his roaring thunders through the land."

The higher or central portion of Ecuador, in which the principal part of its population is concentrated, and of which the capital, Quito, is the centre, is one of the most markedly volcanic regions of the globe, and is celebrated for the frequency and violence of its earthquakes. Both the Cordillera and the Andes are here distinguished by the number and majesty of their volcanic peaks. Here, on one side, is the mighty Chimborazo, 21,422 feet high, and, on the other, the scarcely inferior cone of Cotopaxi, 18,800 feet in elevation. Also the picturesque El Altar, the rugged Illiniza, the more regular Corazon and Cayambe, as well as others, occupying the relative positions shown in the accompanying map of the knots and ramifications of what are called the "Cordilleras of Quito." It will be seen that the region in question is a grand plateau, about two hundred miles long, and from sixty to ninety broad; bounded by the Cordillera of the coast on the west, the Andes on the east, by the transverse knots of Alausi on the south, and Imbaburu on the north, and with the intermediate chain of Chisinche dividing it in unequal proportions. This plateau, which is somewhat irregular and broken in surface, is about 9000 feet in height, in parts barren, in others fertile, with a gener- Quito, viewed from the elevation called Paally very delightful climate, and with those oth-necillo, which rises seven hundred feet above it

Pichincha is a treacherous and dangerous neighbor; for since the Conquest it has had three notable eruptions-in 1575, 1587, and 1660. That of September 8, 1575, seems to have been the most formidable and destructive to Quito, the municipality of which decreed, six days after, and while its terrors were still upon them, that the anniversary of the event should forever be religiously observed.

on the south, is disappointing. "There it lies | ister, he found only one posada, but so filthy and at your feet," says a recent traveler, "buried full of vermin that he could not enter it. It was between treeless and melancholy mountains, "black, dirty, and neglected, full of fleas, and showing but now and then a spot indicative of without accommodations of any kind, so that cultivation; isolated from the rest of the world the traveler, forced to enter, acquires a valid by impassable roads and gigantic Cordilleras. claim to commiseration, in spite of the image No chimneys overtop its brown roofs; no friend- of the saint at the entrance, before which tallowly cloud of smoke curls to the unruffled sky; no candles are kept burning all the year round." rattling of wagons, no din of machinery strikes When we consider that Quito is a city of not your ear; no busy hum emerges from the capi- far from 40,000 inhabitants, this deficiency in tal of the republic. The only noises which public accommodation seems remarkable. But ascend from the caldron in which it lies are if it has no hotels, it has plenty of churches and the ringing of church-bells, the crow of the convents, which, with their neglected and overcock, and the sound of the drums and trumpets grown court-yards and gardens, occupy fully of the soldiery." one-fourth of the city.

Altogether, the city resembles one of those spell-bound cities which are described in the Arabian Nights. But as soon as we enter it a more lively appearance is presented. On the principal streets and plazas hundreds of human beings are constantly in motion, chiefly Indians and cholos (mixed white and Indian), dressed in ponchos or rags, and with nothing better than hempen sandals to protect their feet. Nevertheless, there are mixed with these the women of the middle orders, in red, green, and blue rebozos; ladies in gay silks; monks, with immense hats, in white, brown, and blue; curés in black; and Indians of a hundred different villages in every variety of costume, not omitting the naked and painted dweller on the eastern declivity of the Andes. There are no carts, but the streets are thronged with mules, horses, oxen, donkeys, and llamas; water-carriers with immense jars on their backs; butchers and bakers with meat and bread in troughs on their heads; children and dogs.

The streets are narrow, and the houses, mostly in the old Moorish style, are of one story, with roofs projecting over the pavements, as a partial protection against sun and rain. They have neither fire-places nor chimneys, except in a few houses of modern construction. The kitchen is a dark, close room, with no exit for smoke or smells except the door, and a few small holes in the wall over it. The pots used in cooking do not have flat bottoms like ours, but are either rounded or pointed below, so that they can not stand without being supported by some contrivance, or inserted in holes in the hearth. The great water-jars have, the same impracticable shape, and have to be supported on wooden trestles or by stones. There are no hotels or inns, and when Mr. Hassaurek arrived there, as American Min

If we may credit the authority already several times quoted, life in Quito, notwithstanding the climate is neither hot nor cold, the thermometer never rising above 70° or sinking below 45°, is rendered miserable by the pervading and prevailing filth. On one occasion a gentleman with whom he was traveling, seeing him wash his face, asked him, in surprise, if he did so every day! He once had occasion to order some flour made of the yuca, and besought the woman who had undertaken to grind it, between two stones, in primitive fashion, to be sure to keep it clean. She brought it at last, tied up in a man's shirt spotted with slaughtered fleas! On another occasion he had his desire for coffee destroyed by seeing the servant biting off lumps of sugar from a loaf, and depositing them in the dish from which he was expected to sweeten the beverage! "To see a man pick a flea from behind his neck-tie and kill it between his teeth is not an uncommon sight."

Against these drawbacks, however, it is said | same occurred at about half past 3 in the afterthere are no snakes around Quito; mosquitoes noon; and on the 19th, at about 6 A.M., anothare hardly known; tarantulas have never been er shock was felt. heard of; flies are rare; there are no rats, bats, The first shock was severest, and caused bugs, or beetles. Roses bloom all the year the principal damage sustained by the city. round; wild flowers cover the walls of court-Nineteen lives were lost, and the Government yards and drape the ruins; tulips, pinks, and lilies brighten the gardens winter and summer, and verdure ever smiles around you. "The sky, when unclouded, is of the purest blue, and the atmosphere as limpid and balmy as that of the fabulous Eden!"

But under her smiling aspect Nature here veils her most sinister and destructive powers. As we have seen, Quito suffered terribly from earthquakes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and as late as the 22d of March, 1859, it was visited by a series of shocks that occasioned great loss of life and property, while some of the small towns in its vicinity were wholly ruined. During the recent great earthquake it suffered severely, but far less than the more northern towns and cities of the republic.

This earthquake, which is without parallel in the history of the terrestrial convulsions that have afflicted Ecuador, and which was attended with far greater loss of life than that of Peru, was not, as is generally supposed, synchronous with the latter. The disturbance in Peru occurred on the afternoon of the 13th of August; that in Ecuador not until the night of the 15th, or rather the morning of the 16th, and seems to have resulted from independent internal commotions, the centre of action having been, according to all accounts, to the north of Quito.

reported that the churches of San Francisco, of the Jesuits, the Carmelites, St. Agustin, Santa Clara, and the Cathedral, as well as the government buildings, the archbishop's palace, all massive buildings of stone, were wholly or in great part demolished. Only the grand altar of the Carmelite church was left standing. In fact, says the report, "all the buildings of the city have been so terribly shaken that not one can be considered safe to live in."

The towns of Perucho, Puellaro, Cachiquanjo, etc., near Quito, were reported as "in perfect ruin, most of the inhabitants destroyed, and not enough left uninjured to succor the wounded or bury the dead."

As already said, however, the earthquake was most violent in the northern provinces of Ecuador, attended by sinking of the ground, the subsidence of hills, tumbling down of cliffs, appearance of lakes, and opening of vast chasms in the earth-in short, with all the accessories of the most terrible convulsions of the earth known to man. The province of Imbaburu, which Mr. Hassaurek calls "the Fairy Province," was the most fertile and productive in all the republic, and it was most populous. Its inhabitants, mostly Indians, were thrifty agriculturists, or prosperous manufacturers of coarse cotton goods, with which they supplied Quito and the southern districts. It was studded with large and thriving towns, such as Ibarra, Otabalo, Cotacachi, Atuntaqui, Carranqui, the birth-place of the Inca Atahualpa, and others of less note, but which shared in the literally total destruction of those here named.

It is a coincidence perhaps worthy of remark, that the convulsions in Ecuador, as in Peru, followed close on pestilence. Throughout the months of June and July the weather had been exceedingly hot and oppressive, with phenomenal atmospheric disturbances. About the latter part of July a fatal catarrhal fever The earthquake occurring in the night, when broke out simultaneously all over the country, the people were in their houses and asleep, the which defied medicine, and swept off its vic-destruction of life was very great. The poputims by the thousand, so that on the memorable | lation of the province was estimated at 80,000, 16th of August the whole country was in mourning.

and the first published reports put the loss of life at upward of 50,000; but later and calmer accounts place it at not exceeding 40,000 in the whole republic-the principal loss, nevertheless, occurring in the province of Imbaburu. How complete was the destruction in some

In Quito, and, as far as can be ascertained at this distance, in all parts of the region subsequently most afflicted by the earthquake, the atmospheric disturbances alluded to above culminated on the 15th of August, and in the aft-places appears from the following extract from ernoon suddenly burst in heavy showers of rain the report of the Medical Commission sent by and hail, accompanied with tremendous thun- the government to the relief of the wounded: der. The sky cleared before sunset, and the "We have first to note the destruction of the night was calm and bright. At 1.20 A.M., how-whole of the canton of Catuchi. Its two towns ever, on the 16th, a powerful shock of earthquake was felt. Its vibrations are described as alternating from south to north, and from north to south. Another shock was felt at 2.48, and another at 3.27. At 9.30 A.M. and at noon similar shocks were experienced. On August 17 there were shocks at 6 A.M. and between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon; the latter was accompanied by a shower of rain and hail, like that occurring on the 15th, On the 18th the

were totally destroyed, without having left as much as a vestige of their former presence. From all the information we have gathered, but five per cent. of the population was saved here. The surrounding farms are destroyed; great fissures run through the ground, making it completely valueless as an agricultural district. Following the direction of the Western Cordillera, and in the order of the injury inflicted, are the former towns of Tumbalira, Urcuqui, and Sali

nas, which are in the same sad condition, but | the shocks was, for I must leave such matters are unapproachable from the fact that the roads have totally disappeared and all the bridges swept away. The town of Atuntaqui is also destroyed; of its population one-fifth have been saved. The farms surrounding this place have suffered terribly. Of Ibarra two-thirds of the inhabitants have been saved."

of its population escaped, while the entire face of the country around it was wholly changed. Mountains rose where cultivated valleys had existed; rivers disappeared or changed their course; and plains usurped the place of mount

that if the survivors "had gone energetically | old city of Riobamba, is still remembered with to work to extricate those that were buried awe. Only four hundred and eighty persons alive, the number of victims would not have exceeded 500. But indolence, apathy, and a thirst for robbery," the Commission adds, "prevented any attempt from being made to unearth the victims, whose cries and lamentation continued for five and six days." Hence the un-ains and ravines. fortunates who were not immediately killed were forced to linger and die of hunger, thirst, and festering wounds. Within a few days the bodies began to decompose, the stench became intolerable, and the living were compelled to fly from the scene. "The stench," writes Father Aguilar, at the end of six days, is so great that it is sickening at the distance of two miles. Nevertheless, we went yesterday to the ruins, and, after working for two hours, succeeded in rescuing one poor fellow who had been buried all this time by the side of his dead wife. The decomposition of the latter and the horrors that awaited him were unsurpassed and inconceivable."

This same reporter gives us the following paragraph, which, perhaps better than any description, brings home to us how sweeping must have been the destruction not only in Ibarra, but the other towns: "At Ibarra 18 of the Rocha family were lost, leaving the name extinguished; of the Villota family 11 perished; of the Almeidas, 26; of the Vacas, 4; of the Sabias, 7; of the latter's tenants, 20; of the Perez, 5; the Laras, 7; Burban, 3; Rosales, 17; Rétama, 1; Andrade Marin, 12; Miguel Andrade, 7; Ledesma, 15-the whole name; Peñaherrera, 18; Agrijalva, 4; Ribadanciza, 4; Meza, 2; Vega, 7; Yepez, 6; Espinoza, 6; Vinuesa, 1; Torres, 11; Brizon, 5; Acosta, 8; Peña, 6; Pacheco, 8; Teran, 3; Flores, 7; Gomez, 4; Guzman, 5; Pozes, 4; Benalcasar, 8; Castelo, 1; Suares, 8; Lopez, 13; and Valencia, 4. At Quitumbita were lost Drs. Andrade Marin and J. Bonce, besides many other persons. In the house where they lived not a soul was left to tell the tale."

Otabalo, situated not far from Ibarra, but at a greater altitude (8500 feet above sea), is reported to have suffered more than the latter

town.

Of its reputed 10,000 inhabitants 7000 are reported to have suffered.

The extent of the Ecuadorean earthquake is as yet unknown, beyond that it was felt as far north as Pasto, in the interior of Colombia, and at Guayaquil, and along the coast of the province of Camanas, to the northward of that port, for a distance of 300 miles. This coast, like that of Peru, was swept by a tidal wave after the shocks had thrown down twenty-two churches, nearly all of the public buildings, and most of the houses. The southern part of Ecuador, next Peru, seems to have suffered least; but in former times it was more sorely afflicted than any part of this lofty volcanic region. In 1640 the town of Cacha was swallowed up, and, with its 5000 Indians, was never seen again. The great catastrophe of 1797, which destroyed the

To the east of Riobamba the volcano of Sangai is seen, in a state of constant eruption; and in this direction, also, is the beautiful Altar (El Altar), whose original name, however, in the Inca tongue, was Capac-Urcu, 16,380 feet high. According to an ancient tradition among the natives, this mountain-the form of which is so extraordinary that no other peak of the Andes can equal it in splendor, when the setting sun lights up the snows that cover itwas formerly much higher than Chimborazo. Its eruptions were continuous for seven or eight years, when the summit fell in, leaving two symmetric horns, which seem to lean toward each other and give an idea of the original form of the volcano. A table of rock which, seen from Riobamba, rises upon the western edge of the crater, between the horns, has obtained for the mountain the Spanish name of Altar. The falling in of the mountain is fixed by tradition at about the close of the fifteenth century. The Indians applied the name of Queen of the Mountains to this volcano, and the adjectives great, powerful, glorious, splendid, and incomparable, to this mountain.

The great earthquake of the 13th of August was distinctly felt throughout the whole length of Chili to Chiloe, and in the islands off the coast. It was, however, only in the northern part of the country, from Mejellones to Copiapo and La Serena, that the direct force of the shock was most severely felt. To the south of Valparaiso the tidal wave was the principal cause of injury, except perhaps at Talcahuano, where, on the night of the 14th of August, at nine o'clock, a distinct and independent series of shocks took place, attended by a tidal wave of presumably local origin and of great force. The water of the sea is said to have grown hot, so that the shell-fish thrown up by the wave were thoroughly boiled. Similar subsequent shocks took place in Copiapo, Coquimbo, and La Serena, which were attributed to a different centre of action from those of the 13th. According to report, the volcano of Leullallco, 80 leagues back from Copiapo, broke out in violent eruption simultaneously with these earthquakes. According to one account: "From its crater enormous torrents of large stones were discharged, which rolled to a great distance in the valley below, leaving tracks which will last for ages. The lava at the same time vomited forth formed hillocks of a grayish color, which offer an imposing view from a distance. At the foot of the peak large crevices have been opened, in some places 50 yards wide, from which a kind of brackish water, highly impregnated with sulphur, issues forth in great abundance; and a