DISASTROUS EARTHQUAKES. The People of Amatitlan Terrorised.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 141, 13 February 1886, Page 4

DISASTROUS EARTHQUAKES. The People of Amatitlan Terrorised.

Mail advices from Panama dated the sth inst. contain the following : — About two o'clock on the morning of December 18th, the Spanish city of Amatitlan, a town of 5,000 inhabitants, situated 25 miles south of Gautemala, was awakened by frequent shocks of earthquake, which continued all day until 5.32 p.m., when a very heavy shock was felt, and 5.36 p.m. the heaviest shocks came, throwing down many of the walls and houses already fissured by the early shocks. People were thrown down, the air was filled with dust from the fallen houses, while shock followed upon shock, and tho frightened people rushed to the large piaza in front of the church of San Juan and dragged the image of their guardian saint outside the buildings and walls of the church and erected a temporary shrine in the middle of the square, before which all prostrated themselves. One hundred and thirty-one shocks were felt the first day, principally from east to west, eightyone of which occurred between 4 and 5.36 pm. The second day was nearly as bad, and shocks continued for some days subsequently. Amatitlan was destroyed by earthquakes in 1830, which lasted from April 21st to May 3rd. In lS46it was overflowed by the rising waters of the lake, and again in October, 1852, when the water gushed up in the middle of the streets. Eight days afterward, when the waters had subsided, dead fish were found everywhere ; the water became unfit to drink and many persons died of fevers. Then again it was destroyed by earthquakes in 1862. Lake Amatitlan is supposed to be the crater of an extinct volcano. An adjacent volcano, until recently quiet, seems to be seeking a new outlet through a hill lying back of the inactive volcano Pecayo The volcanoes of Fuego in Guatemala and Azalea in Salvador, not far away, which have long served as safety-valve 3 for these restless regions, seem to have become stopped up, causing much alarm to the peoplo of Salvador, who say that there was precisely a similar occurrence before their last great earthquake in 1573. Guayaquil (via Galveston), January 14. — Serious volcano disturbances have occurred within the last few days. There havo been at different places showers of earth and ashes, accompanied by loud rumblings. The Cotopaxi volcano is supposed to be in a state of eruption. The real state of the mountain is unknown, owing to the interruption of the Government telegraphs Slight shocks of earth quake have also been felt here,