THE EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 142, 26 October 1868, Page 2

THE EARTHQUAKE IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Tho following letter, dated Lima, Sept. 7, has been received hy a lady in Christch-.ch, from her son, and kindly handed to us for j publication : — My dear , I posted my last to you at about four o'clock on the 13th August, hnd about half-an-hour after, as 1 was on my way home, one of the most awful earthquakes that has ever been known took place. 1 could not mako out why all the windows in the street were rattling ; then crowds rushed

out with terror-stricken faces, and a man 1 1 knew told me it was a " trembler." Stand-' ing still I could Lei the ground under me swaying with a most unprecedented motion,/' being entirely lateral and distinctly from East to West. This peculiar motion, unknown to the proverbial " oldest inhabitant," tog ther with the time it lasted, frightened people almost out of their senses, especially i as there were some minor ones in the course J of the night. I thought the fun was over, and went to bed early, but my landlady's family never went to bed all night, and their noise kept me awake, particularly after 2 a. in., when I heard somebody arrive with an infant, whom I could only conclude to be her married daughter from Callao. Next day I found that there had been a great wave at Callao, about 15 feet high, which flooded the Mole, carried off a few cases, and burst up ihe floors of some houses built over the water— otherwise there was not any damage done by the earthquake in this neighbourhood. But the panic in Callao was something terrible, a 6 the town was swallowed up 120 years ago (1746), and a French f.igate was landed at Bellavista, a village a mile inland. The trains ran free all night, with all the carriages they could muster, taking something like 500 or 600 at a trip. Next day they brought up 8000 people ; nobody could do anything but run about to hear what was going on, and the way chandeliers were watched was a caution. People were walking or riding up from Callao (7 miles), whilst thousands were camped at Bellavista. At 9 p.m. on the Uth, a fire broke out in the principal street of Cdloa, at a Cafe, which lasted all night, and a part of the next day. Then in a few days came the news from the South, which you will find detailed in the papers I send you. Arequipa, which I suppose to be the second town of the Republic, was pretty well all shaken down, and it is supposed that 200 were killed as they rushed" through the streets. What was left was shaken down on the 2 -ith. Arica has disappeared altogether, having been first skaken iown, and then washed into a heap. People cuinot find their houses, or even the streets in which they lived. I heard of an Englishman, who was leading his wife out by the hand, when the wall fell on her, leaving him in the street. The Wateree, U.S. ship of war, lies 1700 feet inland, and being nearly flat bottomed, the ship's company kept on their duties till relieved. The Fredouia, U.S. store ship, disappeared altogether, and the America, a Peruvian corvette, lies 350 feet inland. In Ecuador there was a still more fearful eanhquake. We have had no detiiils, but I henr of the earth opening and swallowing up houses and people ; of lakes bursting their banks, and of 30,000 people killed. Truly it is strange that, after waiting for ' ye.rs so anxious to come here, I should ! arrive at so terrible a time. Pestilence was here when I arrived, famine is not very distant from, whilst sudden death has been everywhere around us.