Four of these remarkable catastrophes, with their dates,
may be here enumerated.)
TABLE OF FOUR CATASTROPHES:
COLUMN 1 : MEXICO. (Latitude 13 degrees 32 minutes north.)
COLUMN 2 : PERU. (Latitude 12 degrees 2 minutes south.)
30th of November, 1577 : 17th of June, 1578.
4th of March, 1679 : 17th of June, 1678.
12th of February, 1689 : 10th of October, 1688.
27th of September, 1717 : 8th of February, 1716.
When the shocks are not simultaneous, or do not follow each other
at short intervals, great doubts may be entertained with respect to
the supposed communication of the movement.)
Several facts tend to prove that the causes which produce
earthquakes have a near connection with those which act in volcanic
eruptions. The connection of these causes was known to the
ancients, and it excited fresh attention at the period of the
discovery of America. The discovery of the New World not only
offered new productions to the curiosity of man, it also extended
the then existing stock of knowledge respecting physical geography,
the varieties of the human species, and the migrations of nations.
It is impossible to read the narratives of early Spanish
travellers, especially that of the Jesuit Acosta, without
perceiving the influence which the aspect of a great continent, the
study of extraordinary appearances of nature, and intercourse with
men of different races, must have exercised on the progress of
knowledge in Europe. The germ of a great number of physical truths
is found in the works of the sixteenth century; and that germ would
have fructified, had it not been crushed by fanaticism and
superstition.
