The Great Lisbon Earthquake
By C. E. RENTFRO
I HAVE read numerous descriptions of the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755; and while the one given in “Great Controversy” is excellent, yet there is nothing so inspiring as to read in the native language the story given by an eye-witness. To people living in Europe, our stories of the darkened sun and falling stars seem like a Yankee tale, and they ask why there were not such occurrences over here; to which we may reply, if we know of its importance and effects, that the earthquake of 1755 was a sufficient warning of the approaching end. A little explanation of Lisbon’s situation will serve to explain what is not clear in the recital. The city is about seven miles up from the mouth of the river Tagus, and the sea water backs up when the tide comes in. Just in front of the city the river is about five miles across. I will translate this from a book published in Lisbon in 1758; however, it may be quite a literal translation:— “Saturday, the first of November, and twenty-eighth day of the moon, the day broke serene; the sun clear, and the sky without clouds. This serenity had already lasted for many days of the month of October, and the heat was felt more than the season of autumn promised. A little after 9 A. M., the barometer being at twenty-seven inches and seven lines, and the thermometer of Reaumur fourteen degrees above freezing, and in a northeasterly direction the earth commenced to shake with pulsations from the center to the surface, and the impulse increasing, it continued to tremble, forming a balance, with the sides north and south. This caused the destruction of the buildings; for at the second minute of duration, they began to fall in ruins, the largest not being able to resist the vehement movements of the earth, and their continuation. Those lasted, according to the most regulated opinions, six to seven minutes, the great earthquake making in this space of time two brief intervals. In this time was heard a subterranean sound, like thunder afar off. To many persons it seemed like a large carriage (or wagon) traveling swiftly. The light of the sun was obscured by vapors cast out of the earth, whose sulphurous exhalations were perceived by many. Many cracks were seen in the earth, which were very long, but not wide, and the dust caused by the falling houses seemed to suffocate the living. “At these impulses of the earth the sea retired, and, returning, the waves swept over the villages on the coast. Three of the greatest irruptions, besides many smaller, the sea made against the land, destroying many buildings, and carrying many persons into the sea. The day being a holy day, feast of All Saints, many persons at that hour were in the churches, devotedly seeking to fulfil ecclesiastical precepts, and to obtain the jubilee of the day. Many other persons were going to and fro in the streets, for various purposes, but the greatest portion of the inhabitants were at home, and some still in their beds. On feeling the earthquake, everything was horror, disorder, and confusion. “In the largest churches, the roof had opened, and walls fell in on the worshipers, who began crying to God, ‘Misericordia,’ ‘Mercy, mercy.’ These cries were general, but mingled with cries of help of the most holy Mary. The same was heard in the streets, the squares of the city, and the fields of the suburbs. The horror of the earthquake, the sound of the demolition of the buildings, the fear of death, the cries and shouts of the men, the laments of the women, and the cries of the children, caused so much noise, and such confusion, that in the general consternation the discord was equal to the peril. “In this horrible conflict, only self-love predominated. Fathers left their children, and children forgot their fathers. The wives forgot their husbands. There was no friend to friend. None cared for earthly goods, only sought to free their lives, alone attended to the salvation of their souls. “Many people sought the margin of the Tagus, to be free from the falling buildings, full of horror of the sight of the ruins, when suddenly the sea entered from the mouth of the river (between seven and eight miles distant) with a furious inundation of waters, threw itself into the city, and accomplished what the tremors of the earth did not in the ruin of the city. “Soon after the earthquake, one of the palaces was seen to be burning, then churches and other buildings, in which were the lights and stoves, from which the fire communicated to the woodwork. Here was multiplied the sadness and the increase of misfortune. “The shaking of the earth continued from hour to hour, with less violence, but with equal horror, and it was feared that the earth would open with the vehemence of so many movements. “The earthquake, the tidal wave, and the fire ruined and destroyed the greatest and the best part of that most extensive and populous city. “This want of reflection and of news made to write some months after by many authors an improper and less true account of the number of deaths. Joseph de Oliveira Trovao, the first that wrote, in a narrative letter of the results of this earthquake, says that seventy thousand persons died, but other writers say less.” The author, who is a very conservative writer, insists that not over ten thousand died. Of course, this was in Lisbon only. The same book tells of the extension of this earthquake, on the coast of West Africa, and Spain, fully verifying what is written in “Great Controversy” by Mrs. E. G. White. Surely, when a person stops to realize the greatness of the earthquake of which Lisbon was the center (and we can see the results yet), and realizes that there was none such before, nor has been since, and, too, the time in which it occurred,—almost at the end of the twelve hundred and sixty years of papal supremacy,—he can but believe that it perfectly fulfils Rev. 6: 12: ‘And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake.’