p. 21 | Earthquake

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 15, 1875

Earthquake.

NEW YORK, July 4.—Mail advices from Barranquilla, United States of Columbia, bring additional accounts of the destructive earthquake at Cucuta. The story of the catastrophe is confirmed in all its horrible details. A private letter dated Salazar, May 25, says that the number of dead is calculated at three-quarters of the entire population. The few families that are saved are now on the outskirts of what was the city, living on what they can procure; but they will soon be obliged to retire, as the putrefaction of the dead bodies will not allow them to remain. It is heart-rending to see the wounded, who can have no care, and who cannot remain long alive in their present condition. Four hundred mules were killed in the streets, and as there is no one to remove them the stench is becoming frightful. The villages destroyed are San Cristobal, Tarina, Quasimo, Capacho, San Antonio, Labatera, San Juan de Ureña, Rosario, and San Cajetaro. The storehouse of Puerto de Los Cachos was sacked and burned by bandits.

Another letter says that such was the violence of the shock that not a single house remained standing, and the monuments in the cemetery were thrown down, and many of them removed a considerable distance from their original sites. In thirty seconds, the city of Cucuta was converted into a mountain of ruins. This horrible blow resulted in the death of more than ten thousand persons, in addition to another thousand who were seriously wounded and bruised. Great numbers of haciendas have been destroyed and hundreds of houses in the country overthrown, leaving the people homeless and consigned to poverty. Many of the trees were torn up from the roots, and small hills were opened like a melon. The cause of the catastrophe is of course unknown, or the precise place of its first manifestation. Some suppose that the volcano of Sahatera, which was in eruption in 1840, is again breaking out, while others say that a new volcano has appeared in the hills of Giracha. It is thought the government will appoint a scientific commission to investigate the nature of the catastrophe.

A private letter from Bucaramanga of May 25th says: “In Piedecuesta the town hall is destroyed, and in Pampeluna the cathedral is in ruins.”

A telegram from Hon. A. Guilee Parra, to President Perez, dated Bucaramanga, May 24th, says: “Earthquakes continue. Last night the cathedral in Pampeluna fell. Great alarm and great devastation throughout the valley of Cucuta.”

A dispatch from Locarro, dated May 24th, says: “The situation is assuming a grave aspect, and sickness and starvation in Pampeluna are increasing.” A telegram from Chiquinquira, of May 22d, says: “The shocks are repeated. Two last night, one to-day. Great alarm exists among the people, and appeals for help were being circulated through all cities of Columbia, and most liberal responses were being made.”—Detroit Tribune of July 8.