We were all silent.  There was a low, rumbling, awful noise, neither like distant thunder nor the report of cannon--nor, indeed, anything else I ever heard; the earth seemed to sink under our feet, and then as if it were being crushed together--rocks, and earth, and sand, all in one lump by some mighty force.  It was very dreadful.  Our knees positively trembled under us, at least I felt mine doing so.  The boat rose and fell several times.  I remembered the way in which old Callao had been destroyed, and I began to fear that a similar catastrophe was about to occur.  For a time there was a perfect rest, no movement of earth, or water, or air--not the less awful on that account though.