LETTER XVII. THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1755-APPEARANCES STILL EXISTING.-A vo TIVE TABLET IN THE CHURCH OF THE ESTRELLA CONVENT.—BITUMEN OFTEN FOUND IN THE TAGUS.-THERMAL SPRINGS. GENERO SITY OF THE BRITISH NATION IN 1755 STILL GRATEFULLY MEN TIONED BY THE PORTUGUESE. FINE TRAIT IN A PORTUGUESE NOBLEMAN. Lisbon, 16th October, 1808. I HAVE this day been favoured with your letter of the 12th of last month, and am truly happy to receive such good accounts of your improving health. I shall not fail to answer all your inquiries, as I proceed; indeed you will find, on the receipt of my last letters, that I have already anticipated some of your requests. As to the earthquake of 1755, (when to make use of the words of Seneca- Inter magnam urbem et nullam nox una interfuit') one is constantly reminded of that dreadful calamity, on walking the streets situated near the river and Praça de Commercio. Immense masses of ruined churches and convents rise up in all directions among the modern buildings; while the perpendicular mounds on which they stand, exhibiting the fractured stratums of rocks, clearly demonstrate the nature of the convulsion which caused the destruction of the incumbent buildings. An entire city swallowed up in one instant, presents to the human mind the idea of a scene so extremely terrific, that, on a first glance, one feels a difficulty to comprehend it; but if you lay hold of a single incident, the domestic tale, for example, of a private family, one or two members of which were providentially preserved, while the rest perished in the common ruin, you may conceive, in some measure, the heart-rending scenes of which I speak. I was led to make this reflection, by casting my eyes accidentally, the other day, on a small votive tablet, suspended in the interior of the church in the Estrella convent. It is a picture containing an humble representation of a very affecting little episode, which formed a part of this grand epic of human misery. A man and his wife, seized with terror, had rushed into the street on the first alarm, and in an instant beheld their home a mass of ruins. After the first moments of horror, they missed their only child, whom they had left within in a cradle. You may conceive their distress. Invoking the almighty Author of their being, they vowed to bestow a sum of money on the church of the Estrella convent, if it should please Him to spare their first-born's life. It was discovered alive amid the ruins, curiously nestled under some rafters, which by falling obliquely over it, had saved it from destruction. They performed their vow, and this tablet commemorates the event. Earthquakes are still common here, especially towards the month of November. Two or three slight shocks are generally felt every year. Bitumen is often found floating in the waters of the Tagus, and in the lower part of the city, there are some thermal springs. The waters of one of these have been collected, and furnish some baths. I have used them, and find that their heat is about eighty-eight degrees; that is two degrees higher than Buxton. The water appears to be slightly impregnated with sulphur, the sulphurated hydrogen gas. These are pretty strong proofs, I think, that subterra neous combustion is constantly going on here, which may again prove fatal to this city.* The Portuguese frequently talk of the generosity which the English evinced to them, after the calamity of 1755; and I have very lately heard some of the people assert; that their countrymen can never forget their benefactors. I hope they never will, least of all at the present crisis. The better classes of Portuguese often evince some fine traits of character; traits that do honour to the human heart. I can illustrate this by an anecdote which has fallen, within these few days, under my own observation. An English officer requested me to visit his wife, a very beautiful woman, to whom he was much and sincerely attached, not only for her own excellent qualities, but as * Professor Link remarks-" It is particularly striking that basalt is only to be found in those two parts of Portugal, Lisbon and Cape St. Vincent, where the earthquake of 1755 was most violent; and this circumstance is thought to confirm the opinion that basalt, covering great strata of coal, furnishes materials for subterraneous fires, and thus gives rise to earthquakes and volcanoes; but it must not be forgotten that Belem, which partly stands on a basalt hill, suffered less from that earthquake than some parts of the town, evidently founded upon limestone; perhaps the basalt had at some former period been forced up from these parts by a similar convulsion; and the shocks which Lisbon has felt from time to time, are attempts of Nature to raise similar hills." See Link's Journey through Portugal. London, 1801, page 182. the mother of three beautiful children, all in a state of infancy. On going to his quarters, I found her in the last stage of a remittent fever, a disease which has been very prevalent and fatal among our troops. I need not harass your feelings by depicting one of those scenes, which men of my profession are so often called on to witness. It was the tenth day of the fever. Her soul was on the wingand by the same evening she had breathed her last. Her unfortunate husband, while he felt her loss as the greatest calamity that could have befallen him, strove to stifle his sufferings as he caressed his lisping babes, who demanded when their mamma would return. With three helpless infants, in the midst of a foreign country, he was under orders to march with his regiment to Spain. Divided between a sense of public and private duty, what could he do? He was advised to apply to Sir John Moore, for leave to carry his children to England. His wishes could not be complied with. "Never mind, my dear friend," said the generous Portuguese noble in whose house he is billeted, cease to grieve, unfortunate Englishman, leave your infants with me: Behold my three daughters, they shall each discharge the duties of a mother to one of your infants, and I will be as a father to the whole." "So we will, my dear father," cried his daugh 66 R |