“Extract of a letter received...”
Date
5-14-1812
Newspaper
Ohio Centinel
Page and Column
Page 2, Column 2 and 3
Newspaper Location
Dayton, Ohio
Serial Number
1281
Abstract
Long detailed account of the March 26, 1812 earthquake in the Caribbean
Transcript
Extract of a letter received per the schr. Independence from Laguira. "A few days prior to our arrival, this town was almost destroyed by an earthquake; it commenced about four o'clock, P. M. on Thursday the 6th of March; [unreadable] effects horribly destructive. Since my arrival, there have been a few shocks, but no material damage done. Such is the alarm of the inhabitants that the town is entirely deserted, and they are now living without the walls, beneath little tents and huts which are erected merely to shelter them from the rain and heat of the sun. "It is not within the compass of my ability to describe to you the misery of these people; fear and despair, grief and ruin, have completely overwhelmed them. Parents have escaped, with the loss of their children; children with the loss of their parents, and very few without the loss of their property. Already five hundred persons have been found, and the probability is, that a greater number still remains buried beneath the ruins and the destruction at Carracas is much greater; two thousand five hundred bodies have been thrown upon the funeral pile, and burned already, and it is supposed that from five to then thousand souls are lost. [unreadable] forty churches in that place, two [unreadable] remain standing. Such is [unreadable] situation of these two [unreadable] will be a long time before they can be reinstated. No business of any nature is doing. All the Americans here will go to Porto Cavello.--Ib.
Recommended Citation
"“Extract of a letter received...”" (1812). New Madrid Compendium Far-Field Database. 1217.
https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/cas-ceri-new-madrid-compendium/1217
