in two. The dreadful shock lasted half a minute; but this little
interval was enough to change the whole town into a mass of ruins,
and to bury alive hundreds of its inhabitants. [11] A letter of
the governor-general, which I have seen, states that the cathedral,
the goverment-house, the barracks, and all the public buildings of
Manila were entirely destroyed, and that the few private houses which
remained standing threatened to fall in. Later accounts speak of
four hundred killed and two thousand injured, and estimate the loss
at eight millions of dollars. Forty-six public and five hundred and
seventy private buildings were thrown down; twenty-eight public and
five hundred twenty-eight private buildings were nearly destroyed,
and all the houses left standing were more or less injured.

[Damage in Cavite.] At the same time, an earthquake of forty seconds'
duration occurred at Cavite, the naval port of the Philippines,
and destroyed many buildings.

[Destruction in walled city.] Three years afterwards, the Duc
d'Alencon (Lucon et Mindanao; Paris, 1870, S. 38) found the traces
of the catastrophe everywhere. Three sides of the principal square
of the city, in which formerly stood the government, or governor's,
palace, the cathedral, and the townhouse, were lying like dust heaps
overgrown with weeds. All the large public edifices were "temporarily"
constructed of wood; but nobody then seemed to plan anything permanent.

[Former heavy shocks.] Manila is very often subject to earthquakes;
the most fatal occurred in 1601; in 1610 (Nov. 30); in 1645 (Nov. 30);
in 1658 (Aug. 20); in 1675; in 1699; in 1796; in 1824; in 1852; and
in 1863. In 1645, six hundred [12], or, according to some accounts,
three thousand [13] persons perished, buried under the ruins of their