Note 5 — AFFAIRS IN FILIPINAS, 1644–47

On the fifth of December, five days after the first shock of earthquake, another one occurred as violent as the first, at eleven o’clock at night, but no fatality occurred, as all were prepared; the destruction of many other buildings was completed; and the city was left in such condition that one could not walk through it. The effects of these shocks were terrible, also, in other provinces of these islands. Whole Indian villages were overthrown, as their huts are built of so light materials, bamboos and palm-leaves; and hills were leveled. Rivers were dried, which afterward flowed again; others, leaving their beds, inundated the villages; great fissures, and even chasms, appeared in the open fields. In the Manila River the disturbance and commotion in its waves was so great that it seemed as if they would flood all the country; for their fury urged the river from its bed, and its waters flowed over the bridge.5