Facts for Reference

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 11, 1862

Facts for Reference.

THE EARTHQUAKE AT LISBON, 1755.

The great earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, extended over a tract of at least 4,000,000 of square miles. Its effects were even extended to the waters in many places where the shocks were not perceptible. It pervaded the greater portion of Europe, Africa, and America; but its extreme violence was exercised on the southwestern part of the former. In Africa this earthquake was felt almost as severely as it had been in Europe. A great part of Algiers was destroyed. Many houses were thrown down at Fez and Mequinez, and multitudes were buried beneath the ruins. Similar effects were realized at Morocco. Its effects were likewise felt at Tangiers, at Tetuan, at Funchal in the island of Madeira. It is probable that all Africa was shaken.

At the north it extended to Norway and Sweden. Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain, and Ireland, were all more or less agitated by the same great commotion of the elements.

Lisbon, previous to the earthquake in 1755, contained 150,000 inhabitants. Mr. Barretti says that 90,000 persons were supposed to have been lost on that fatal day. Wonders of the World, by Robert Sears, pp. 50, 58, 381.