The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 (2)

The great earthquake of 1755 extended over a tract of at least four millions of square miles. Its effects were even extended to the waters, in many places where the shocks were not perceptible. It pervaded the greater portions of the continents of Europe, Africa, and America; but its extreme violence was exercised on the southwestern part of the former.

Sears, Robert, The Wonders of the World, in Nature, Art, and Mind, New York: published by Robert Sears, 1843, p. 50.

In Africa this earthquake was felt almost as severely as it had been in Europe. A great part of the city of Algiers was destroyed. Many houses were thrown down at Fez and Mequinez, and multitudes were buried beneath their ruins. Similar eflfects were realized in Morocco. Its eflfects were likewise felt at Tangier, at Tetuan, at Funchal in the island of Madeira; [...] it is probable [...] that all Africa was shaken by this tremendous convulsion. At the north it extended to Norway and Sweden; Germany, Holland, France, Great Britain, and Ireland were all more or less agitated by the same great and terrible commotion of the elements.

Sears, Robert, The Wonders of the World, in Nature, Art, and Mind, New York: published by Robert Sears, 1843, p. 58.

The city of Lisbon [...] Previous to that calamity [...] contained about [...] 150,000 inhabitants [...]. [...] Mr. Barretti says, "that 90,000 persons are supposed to have been lost on that fatal day. [...]"

Sears, Robert, The Wonders of the World, in Nature, Art, and Mind, New York: published by Robert Sears, 1843, p. 381.