A frightful calamity befell Peru and Ecuador between the 13th
and 17th of August last. We only know the results as yet by Atlantic telegraph, and there are hopes that the extent of the calamity is exaggerated ; but private telegrams put it beyond doubt that a calamity of a kind almost if not quite unparalleled even in those regions of periodic calamity has taken place. An earthquake is said to have destroyed the cities of Arequipa, Iquique, Arica, Pisco, and half-a-dozen others, with a loss of life in Ecuador alone, which suffered most, of 22,000 people, and a loss of property said to amount to 60,000,000/. sterling. The huge tidal waves which followed, wrecked many vessels, and were seen as far north as the coast of Southern California, where, on the 15th August, every half-hour a great wave rushed sixty feet above high-water mark, and then sank as much below it. We have given elsewhere some account of the previous earthquakes from which this unfortunate region has suffered. Preachers some- times tell us that the great duty of life is to realize that life is but
a tenancy-at-will, and in Ecuador and Peru the inhabitants assuredly cannot even for a year escape the certainty that it is so. Yet they are apparently the worse rather than the better for the knowledge,—we suppose because with it comes weakness and fear, instead of strength and hope. Distrust of Nature seems a very bad school for trust in God.
