“Awful Calamity”
Date
5-15-1812
Newspaper
Western Intelligencer
Page and Column
Page 2, Column 4
Newspaper Location
Worthington, Ohio
Serial Number
1211
Abstract
Account from Laguria about the March 26, 1812 earthquake in the Caribbean.
Transcript
AWFUL CALAMITY! The following melancholy narration was addressed to a merchant of this city, who has favored us with a copy for our readers. "Ruins of Laguira, April 2, 1812. "DEAR SIR, "Many times in my life have I experienced the goodness of a Merciful God towards me, but never so conspicuously as in my preservation during the tremendous exertion of His Power, which has shaken the mountains to their foundation, and leveled the greatest part of this city, as also that of Carraccas, with the ground-thousands and tens of thousands have been buried, and most of them now lie beneath the ruins! The stench arising from the dead bodies is intolerable-such of them as could be come at have been thrown in the sea, or collected into heaps and burned to ashes. It is imagined that seven-eighths of the houses in this city are demolished, and of those which still stand, there are not perhaps 20 that will be found tenable. The Custom House, which was built very strong, is not much injured-the house which I occupy is three stories high and was likewise very strong-it stood the shock without falling; but it was so much injured that I do not intend to sleep in it, especially as we are constantly, kept in a state of alarm by the frequent shocks which have daily taken place ever since the twenty-sixth ultimo. When the first great shock occurred I ran out of my house, and in my amazement, I turned round and beheld it rocking like a cradle, which, with the roaring of the earthquake, the screams of people, and the crashing, perhaps, of a thousand buildings, made the scene horrible beyond description.
Recommended Citation
"“Awful Calamity”" (1812). New Madrid Compendium Far-Field Database. 1164.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/cas-ceri-new-madrid-compendium/1164
