other places, and more particularly felt in its effects at the port of Acapulco. On the 28th of March, at about seventeen minutes past eleven in the morning, the capital felt some of the severest shocks that ever befell that city. They lasted nearly six minutes, and the vibrations from north to south with some inclination to the north-west were so heavy as to cause much injury to the buildings. A repetition of the shocks occurred at 12:15, sometimes from east to west, and at others from north to south. During the rest of the day five more took place.
In Oajaca City the effects were, if possible, more alarming. The first shock was very strong at 11:15; the second being no less severe, the endangered citizens rushed to the plaza mayor as a place affording some safety. The damage to buildings was at once seen. The new and strongly built casas reales showed large cracks in the walls, and some of the cornices had fallen. The prisoners in the jail, some two hundred and twenty, implored removal, which was attended to with the requisite precautions. Measures were promptly taken by the authorities for the protection of life and property, and to avoid unnecessary confusion. During the whole of that day and the 29th the quaking of the earth ceased only at short intervals. It continued with increasing force on the 30th till 11:30 in the morning, when it stopped, but only to begin anew more severely at four in the afternoon. A more tremendous shock than the first one of the 28th took place at 11 o'clock that night, and
that a volcano was on the point of breaking out, fled in confusion, leaving most of their valuables behind. All the efforts of the authorities, both civil and ecclesiastic, to check the exodus were unavailing, and finally, 200 men were put under arms to keep the inhabitants in. After a month the noise ceased; it had been like that of a heavy wagon on a gravel road, terminating in a loud detonation. Then the self-exiled returned to their homes to suffer from want of food, which traders had feared to bring. Some supposed the noise to have been caused by large rocks that disengaged themselves from some mountain-top near by. Gaz. de Méx. (1784-5), i. 15, 16, 18-19, 27; Martinez, Sermon de Gracias, 1-23; Romero, Mich., 168-9; Dicc. Univ. Hist. Geog., iii. 720-1; Zamacois, Hist. Méj., v. 641-2. On the 26th of July of the same year, in the city of Mexico was felt a strong vibration. Alzate, Gacetas, iv. 381.
