On the twenty-sixth of March, 1812, between four and five in the
afternoon, Venezuela was visited by one of those tremendous earthquakes
which now and then ruin whole provinces. During a minute and fifteen
seconds the earth was convulsed in every direction, and nearly twenty
thousand persons fell victims. The towns of Caraccas, La Guayra,
Mayquetia, Merida and San Felipe, were totally destroyed. Barquisimeto,
Valencia, La Vittoria, and others, suffered considerably. This
catastrophe happened on Holy Thursday, a day when the Romish church
peculiarly commemorates the sufferings of our blessed Redeemer, and at
the very hour when the people were crowding into the churches to attend
the processions which are usual in Roman Catholic countries, and to see
the representation of our Saviour led to the cross. Troops are placed on
such occasions at the entrance of the churches to follow the procession;
and many churches, and the principal barracks at Caraccas, being thrown
down, there was a considerable number of soldiers killed, and many
thousand persons crushed under their ruins. The arms and ammunition
destined for the defense of the country were buried in a similar manner;
and what was worse, an unconquerable enemy to the independence of
Venezuela seemed to raise its head from among the ruins—that religious
prejudice which the earthquake inspired. In an era less remarkable, a
mere convulsion of nature would have had no influence on a new
government; but, notwithstanding the prosperity Venezuela then enjoyed,
the seeds of discontent had fallen on one class of the community. The
principles which formed the basis of the new constitution were
democratical, and it had been necessary to deprive the priesthood of
some of their privileges, which of course created enmity in their minds
to the present government. Immediately after the earthquake, the priests
proclaimed, that the Almighty condemned the revolution: they denounced
his wrath on all who favored it; and a counter-revolution, attended by
great bloodshed, was the unhappy consequence.
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