The center of oscillation, as indicated by the directions registered at Manila, appears to coincide with a volcano, which has been long extinct, situated between Lepanto (now part of Kalinga) and Abra provinces, in the Central Cordillera of Luzon, in latitude 16° 22' N and longitude 127° E, according to the Spanish Observatory of San Fernando.

This direction never changed; and the few discordances recorded appear to have been a result of haste or want of care in the method of taking the observations, exactness being hardly attainable without special instruments for the purpose.

[2] Taal Volcano was observed to start showing increase in activity from June 8 and sometimes at night the crater is covered with glare.

[5] The first shocks were slight, which gave time for people to run out of the houses to places of security accounting for lesser loss of life.

In Lingayen, Pangasinan, some 200 kilometers (120 mi) north of Manila, the earthquake occurred at 12:42 p.m., reported as violent, oscillating NE to SE, with a duration of 1 minute 50 seconds accompanied by deep subterranean noise.

In Santa Cruz, Laguna province, 60 kilometers (37 mi) SE of Manila, the shock was also felt at 12:42 p.m. and continued for more than a minute.

The very interesting phenomenon was also observed in Manila a few days previous to the destructive earthquake of 1863, in front of the Colgante suspension bridge on Pasig River.

One circumstance as a precursor of tranquility was the eruption of the Taal Volcano, which was ignited the day before, sending forth a large quantity of smoke, a fact which may be regarded as a favorable change in the geological state.

With those ever-present movements of trepidation at short intervals, the pendulum continued oscillating during all the evening in a NE and SW direction.

The state of the city and the whole provinces of Luzon, where all the brick buildings, together with some of the wooden houses with metallic roofs, have sustained damage of more or less consideration, and with especially those of Manila which are in a complete ruin.

With the shocks of the night of the 20th, the part of the bell tower of the old Cathedral that was still standing, came almost completely to the ground, the debris falling upon two adjoining houses which had been rendered uninhabitable for the last two days.

In Cañacao, the public buildings have sustained more or less damage, and in some places boiling water was poured forth from crevices in the earth opened by the shocks.

The greatest portion of the private establishments, both inside and outside the walls of Manila were closed and the sight was a mournful one to contemplate; very few pedestrians were to be seen, and the carriage traffic was considerably reduced.

A pastoral letter was published by the Archbishop of Manila of that time, Fray Pedro Payo, infusing consolation and devotion into the people asking them to practice penitence in order to decrease the anger of God.

According to this pastoral, a mass was to be celebrated in the camp of Bagumbayan on the 22nd, to which the army and navy, public officers, would have to be present by order of the Governor General.

A reassuring wire from the Jesuit Fathers regarding the earthquake reported that the commotions continue, but it is observed in them a sensible decrease in the shortness of the intervals as well as in the intensity of the shocks.

An immense number of residents sought refuge afloat on board the steamers in the bay and in the port, and also in every insignificant vessel in the harbor during the shakings.

It was of feeble intensity, yet of interest since the record bears evidence as to the gradual change in the center of seismic radiation which had been in progress.

From July 17 to 21, subterranean noises were heard, and many witnesses in Talisay, a town located along the shores of Taal Lake some 6 miles (9.7 km) distant from Volcano Island, reported small balls of fire (apparently about 2.5 feet (0.76 m) in diameter) appeared periodically above the crater.

These balls after reaching a considerable height burst into small fragments, some of which fell back into the crater and the remainder upon the exterior slope.

In one of the provinces, the local houses, which are built of bamboo and thatch, were sent flying; that canoes were thrown out of the water; and the growing rice torn out of the ground.

[8] Reconstruction of the city was undertaken by civil engineers who adopted the traditional combination formula, while adapting this to the adverse seismic conditions.