Guatemala

by William Tufts Brigham

“A hundred boys were shut up in the college, many invalids crowded the hospitals, and the barracks were full of soldiers. The sense of the catastrophe which must have befallen them gave poignancy to the first moment of reflection after the earthquake was over. It was believed that at least a fourth part of the inhabitants had been buried beneath the ruins. The members of the Government, however, hastened to ascertain, so far as practicable, the extent of the catastrophe, and to quiet the public mind. It was found that the loss of life was much less than was supposed; and it now appears probable that the number of killed will not exceed one hundred, and of wounded, fifty. Fortunately the earthquake has not been followed by rains, which gives an opportunity to disinter the public archives, as also many of the valuables contained in the dwellings of the citizens. The movements of the earth still continue, with strong shocks; and the people, fearing a general swallowing up of the site of the city, or that it may be buried under some sudden eruption of the volcano, are hastening away.” In 1859 the city was again in order, as the seat of government, after an ineffectual attempt to remove it to the plain of Santa Tecla, ten miles distant.

The birth of the volcano of Izalco occurred in 1770. It is, indeed, only a lateral opening of the volcano of Santa Ana, which, like Ætna, is a mother of mountains. San Marcellino, Naranjo, Tamasique, Aguila, San Juan, Launita, and Apaneca all seem to be her offspring. Near the base of the main volcano was, previous to 1770, a large cattle rancho. At the close of 1769 the people on this estate were alarmed by subterranean noises and earthquake shocks, which continued to increase in loudness and severity until February 23, when the earth opened about half a mile from the houses on the hacienda, emitting fire, smoke, and lava. The house-people fled from so terrible a neighbor; but the vaqueros, or cowboys, who came daily to see the new monster, declared it grew worse and worse, throwing out more smoke and flame daily, and that while the flow of lava sometimes stopped for a while, vast quantities of sand and stones were thrown out instead. For more than a century this action has gone on, and the ejecta have formed a cone more than six thousand feet high, or higher than Vesuvius. At intervals of from ten to twenty minutes, loud explosions occur, with dense smoke and a puff of cinders and stones. By night the view from Sonsonate is very attractive, as the cloud of smoke is illuminated by the molten mass within, and the red-hot stones shoot through this darker mass and seem to ignite vapors, which flash like lightning. As these stones roll down the steep sides of the cone, they leave a faint track some distance (optical, probably), and sometimes the caldron boils over, sending rills of molten lava down the cone. Well may the sailors call this “El faro de Salvador,”—the lighthouse of Salvador. Like Stromboli, it is always active; and while most volcanoes are noted for the irregularity of their eruptions, Izalco is exceedingly regular, though sometimes acting with unusual violence (1798, 1869, 1870). The volcano of Tanna, in the western Pacific, exhibits this same pulsating character.

San Miguel is the largest active volcano in San Salvador, rising from the plain to a height of perhaps sixty-five hundred feet. Like most of the Central American volcanoes, its mass is a very regular cone, and its form, size, and beautiful colors render it one of the grandest objects of its class. From the deep green of the forest which surrounds its base, the color fades to the light green of the upland grass, then to the deep red of the scoriæ, and the top is grayish-white. Above all, the ever-changing cloud of smoke floats lazily away. Of all the accounts of ascents of Central American volcanoes, I have selected the account published many years ago by Don Carlos Gutierrez of his ascent of San Miguel, because it seems to convey a fair idea of the simplest form of mountain-climbing and of the appearance of an active cone. He says:—

“We started from the city of San Miguel on the afternoon of the 7th of December, 1848, directing our course towards the western border of the plain where rises the dark bulk of the volcano. At eleven o’clock at night we reached the foot of the mountain, distant four leagues from the town. Although the moon shone with extraordinary brilliancy and the night was one of serenest beauty, yet we considered it safer to take shelter in an Indian hut for the remainder of the night than trust ourselves among the fissures of the mountain in the treacherous moonlight. At four in the morning, with the earliest dawn of day, we commenced our ascent on horseback. We however soon found our course so much impeded by masses of lava, over which it was difficult to force the animals, that we were compelled to dismount and pursue our journey on foot. About half way up the mountain the dikes of lava became less frequent, and the ground more firm and open, and, although quite precipitous, yet not difficult of ascent. This open belt, however, does not extend to the summit, and long before we reached it we were again driven upon the beds of sharp, rough, and unsteady lava.

“Our course now lay through a deep channel formed between two vast currents of lava, composed of enormous crags, which in 1844 had flowed out from fissures in the side of the volcano. We had not proceeded far between these walls of rock when we found the scoriæ beneath our feet so yielding and unsteady that we could scarcely retain our foothold. Frequently we slid back three or four yards, thus losing in a moment the advance which it had cost us great labor to accomplish. Nevertheless, after many efforts and through much exertion, and after having suffered several severe falls, we succeeded in reaching the throat of the mountain. Here the lava was solid and the scoriæ firm; and though the slope was very steep and dangerous, yet we found it easier to proceed here than over the soft and yielding ashes below.

“About mid-day we reached the summit proper of the mountain and stood on the edge of the great crater, which is surrounded by a wall of immense rocks, irregular in height, and having a circuit of a mile and a half. The area within these strange bulwarks is level; but on descending, we found with alarm that it was traversed in every direction by profound fissures, varying from one foot to five yards in width, from which escaped dense clouds of sulphurous smoke. About in the centre of this area was the yawning, active crater, or mouth of the crater, or mouth of the volcano. Our guide peremptorily refused to advance farther, insisting that we were liable at any moment to sink into some one of the numerous fissures which yawned beneath the superficial crust. He added further that in the neighborhood of the crater the gases were so pungent and the sulphurous odor so overwhelming that we could not escape suffocation.

“The alarm with which our guide endeavored to inspire us did not, however, get the better of our curiosity, and we determined to reach the crater. Providing ourselves with long staves with which to test the nature of the ground, we advanced carefully and slowly. At every step the clouds of smoke became more dense, and the odor of the gases escaping from the multitudinous fissures more overpowering. Our efforts, however, were amply repaid by the sight which met our eyes when we finally reached the brink of the crater. Nothing could be grander or more magnificent.

“A few months before, I had seen the volcano of Izalco, with its crown of living fire and its flashing tongues of flame, throwing out floods of incandescent lava; but sublime as was the spectacle, it paled and grew tame in comparison with that before us. The crater, as before observed, is in the centre of the level area which I have described. It is of irregular width, in some places only ten or twelve yards broad; in others, fifty or sixty, dividing the greater crater from side to side. The depth of this orifice, or cleft, is so great that the eye cannot fathom it. One sees only a vast gulf of molten lava, over which plays a pale and sulphurous flame, reflected again and again from burned and blistered rocks, fantastic in shape and capricious in position, which form the walls of the orifice. Thick whorls of smoke drifted up from all sides, so that at times I was unable to distinguish my companion, distant only a few yards. An indescribable magnetic influence or fascination seemed to rivet our eyes on the molten floods surging below us, and which, from their roar and vibrations, seemed to threaten momentarily to rise and overwhelm us, as if the volcano were on the verge of eruption.

“Our contemplations of this fearful orifice were therefore brief, the smoke and odor overpowered us; and in a few moments we were forced to abandon our positions and seek a breath of pure air at a distance. We returned rapidly to the place where we had left our guide; and casting a farewell glance over the strange area before us, commenced our descent, reaching San Miguel at six o’clock in the evening, weary and exhausted.”