and I am afraid not over good, people which they have been. For in that
eastern part of their own land God's gifts are waiting for them, in a
paradise such as I can neither describe nor you conceive;--precious
woods, fruits, drugs, and what not--boundless wealth, in one word--waiting
for them to send it all down the waters of the mighty river Amazon,
enriching us here in the Old World, and enriching themselves there in the
New. If they would only go and use these gifts of God, instead of
neglecting them as they have been doing for now three hundred years, they
would be a blessing to the earth, instead of being--that which they have
been.

God grant, my dear child, that these poor people may take the warning
that has been sent to them; "The voice of God revealed in facts," as the
great Lord Bacon would have called it, and see not only that God has
bidden them leave the place where they are now, but has prepared for
them, in their own land, a home a thousand times better than that in
which they now live.

But you ask, How ought they to have known that an earthquake would come?

Well, to make you understand that, we must talk a little about
earthquakes, and what makes them; and in order to find out that, let us
try the very simplest cause of which we can think. That is the wise and
scientific plan.

Now, whatever makes these earthquakes must be enormously strong; that is
certain. And what is the strongest thing you know of in the world? Think
. . .

Gunpowder?