Page:Account of several remarkable earthquakes which have happened in various quarters of the world (1).pdf/10

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REMARKABLE EARTHQUAKES.

prodigious clouds of dust and lime, raised from so violent a concussion, and as some reported, to sulphureous exhalations, but this I cannot affirm however, it is certain I found myself almost choaked for near ten minutes.

'As soon as the gloom began to disperse, and the violence of the shock seemed pretty much abated, the first object I perceived in the room was a woman sitting on the floor, with an infant in her arms, all covered with dust, pale and trembling; I asked her how she got hither: but her consternation was so great that she could give me no account of her escape, I suppose, that when the tremor first began, she ran out of her own house, and finding herself in such imminent danger from the falling of stones, retired into this door of mine, which was almost contiguous to her's, for shelter, and when the shock increased which filled the door with dust and rubbish, ran up stairs into my apartment, which was then open: be it as it might, this was no time for curiosity. I remember the poor creature asked me in the utmost agony, if I did not think that the world was at an end; at the same time she complained of being choaked, and begged for God's sake I would procure her a little drink; upon this, I went to a closet where I kept a large jar with water (which you know is sometimes a pretty scarce commodity in Lisbon) but finding it broken in picces, I told her she must not now think of quenching her thirst, but saving her life, as the house was just falling on our heads, and if a second shock came, would certainly bury us both; I bade her take hold of my arm, and that I would endeavour to bring her into some place of security.

'I shall always look upon it as a particular providence, that I happened on this occasion to be