THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1755.
By J. O. Corliss
[The following description of the great earthquake is from the People’s Magazine, published in Boston in 1833. The extract was written by an English merchant residing in Lisbon at the time the earthquake occurred. The article will no doubt be of interest to the readers of the Review, as it gives some idea of the extent of that great convulsion which was to mark the opening of the sixth seal, brought to view in Rev. 6: 12. J. O. Corliss.] Many natives of Portugal yet remember the morning of the first of November, 1755. The day dawned clear and beautiful. The sun shone out in its full lustre; the whole face of the sky was perfectly serene, and no one conceived of the horrible contrast which was soon after to present itself. The earth had trembled at short intervals for a year. “It was on the morning of this fatal day, between the hours of nine and ten, that I sat in my apartment, just finishing a letter, when the papers and the table on which I was writing, began to tremble with a gentle motion, which rather surprised me as I could not perceive a breath of wind stirring. While I was reflecting what this could be owing to, but without having the least apprehension of the real cause, the whole house began to shake from the very foundation. At first I imputed this to the rattling of several coaches in the main street, which usually passed that way, at this time, from Belem to the palace; but on hearkening more attentively, I was soon undeceived, as I found it was owing to a strange frightful kind of noise under ground, resembling the hollow, distant rumbling of thunder. All this passed in less than a minute, and I must confess I now began to be alarmed, as it occurred to me that this noise might possibly be the forerunner of an earthquake; for one I remembered, which had happened about six or seven years before, in the island of Madeira, commenced in the same manner, though it did little or no damage.” “Upon this I threw down my pen and started upon my feet, remaining a moment in suspense whether I should stay in the apartment or run into the street, as the danger in both places seemed equal; and still flattering myself that this tremor might produce no other effects than such inconsiderable ones as had been felt at Madeira; but in a moment I was aroused from my dream, being instantly stunned with a most horrid crash, as if every edifice in the city had tumbled down at once. The house I was in shook with such violence that the upper stories immediately fell, and though my apartment (which was on the first floor) did not then share the same fate, yet everything was thrown out of place in such a manner that it was with no small difficulty I kept my feet, and I expected nothing less than to be soon crushed to death, as the walls continued rocking to and fro in the most frightful manner, opening in several places; large stones falling down on every side from the cracks, and the ends of most of the rafters starting out from the roof. To add to this terrifying scene, the sky in a moment became so gloomy that I could now distinguish no particular object. It was an Egyptian darkness indeed, such as might be felt, owing, no doubt, to the prodigious clouds of dust and lime raised from so violent a concussion, and, as some reported, to sulphureous exhalations, but this I cannot affirm; however it is certain I found myself almost choked for nearly ten minutes.” At night the city was deserted by the surviving inhabitants, and only infested by robbers who proceeded in gangs to break open and plunder. The lights around Lisbon were so covered with tents that they seemed a continued encampment. The great aqueduct over the valley of Alcantara remained entirely unshaken, though its height is so great and its line of arches so extensive. It was remarked that during the month of November, the tides did not observe their proverbial regularity. The terrors of a conflagration were added to those of the earthquake. On the night of the first of November, the whole city appeared in a blaze, which was so bright that persons could see to read by it. It continued burning for six days, without the least attempt being made to stop it. The people were so dejected and terrified, that they made no exertion even to save their own property. Dead bodies remained unburied in the churches, in the streets, and among the rubbish. The scene inspired melancholy even in dumb animals. During the whole of November the shocks continued to be violent. Lisbon was reduced to a heap of ruins. The loss of lives was computed at upward of sixty thousand. In the lower part of the town not a street could be traced but by the fragments of broken walls, and the accumulation of ashes and rubbish. Palaces, churches, convents, and private houses appeared as if the angel of desolation had just passed by... The property of all kinds consumed or engulfed was of immense value. Many years elapsed before Lisbon recovered from the calamity, and the traces of it are still visible in many places. To the foregoing description of the effect of the earthquake in the city, we add the following from the American Encyclopedia, embracing some other particulars and showing its great extent:— The great earthquake of Lisbon commenced on Nov. 1, 1755. The rumbling sound below the surface was immediately followed by the shock, which threw down the principal portion of the city. In the short space of six minutes it is believed that 50,000 persons perished. The sea retired, leaving the bar dry, and returned in a great wave fifty feet or more in height. The mountains around were shaken with great violence, and were even rent and thrown in fragments into the valleys below. Multitudes of people sought safety from the falling buildings by crowding upon the marble quay, which had just been constructed at great expense. It suddenly sank with them like a ship foundering at sea; but when the waters closed over the place no fragments of the wreck, none of the boats and vessels near by that were drawn into the whirlpool, and not one of the thousands of bodies carried down, reappeared upon the surface. Over the spot the water stood 600 feet deep; and beneath this, locked in the fissured rocks, in chasms of unknown depth, lie the relics of what was the life and wealth of this portion of the earth’s surface in the middle of the eighteenth century. These rocks are the clayey and other comparatively soft strata of the tertiary formation. When in some future epoch they are raised again to the surface by a convulsion of the same nature with that which engulfed them, the vestiges they contain may reappear, converted in part or wholly into stone, like fossils entombed when the strata were deposited. The portion of the surface of the earth that was shaken by this earthquake was estimated by Humboldt as equal to four times the extent of Europe. The shock was felt in the Alps and on the coast of Sweden. In Germany the thermal springs of Toplitz disappeared for a time, and again burst forth, deluging the region around with ochre-stained waters. The waters of the lakes in Scotland, as Loch Lomond especially, rose suddenly more than two feet, and then subsided below their usual level. On the shores of Barbados, Martinique, and Antigua, the tide suddenly rose twenty feet, and the sea was of inky blackness. Even the distant waters of Lake194Ontario were strangely agitated, and the shock was sensibly felt along the coast of Massachusetts. In Deane’s “History of Scituate” it is stated that the earth was seen to wave like the swellings of the sea, and occasionally break into fissures. This lasted for fifteen minutes, during which time chimneys were shaken down and houses disjointed. The sea roared with the unusual commotion, and with the rumbling of the earth the noise was more appalling than that of the loudest thunder. Water-spouts burst forth, and springs opened, which continue to flow to this day. As the movement passed beneath the ocean, it was felt by several ships, the impression being like that produced by striking upon rocks. The motion is described as undulatory, and proceeding at the rate of about twenty miles a minute.