CHAPTER LIX.

EARTHQUAKES.

"Convulsions now the ocean seize,
And bellowing earthquakes play."

HAVING narrated the principal events that transpired during my residence in the West Indies, and having wound up the thread of my memoirs by detailing the last important incident that occurred on my arrival in my father-land, I have now only to write a few chapters on general matters, and to conclude my little work with an account of the earthquakes that have despoiled, and of the hurricanes that have laid waste the tropic islands of the soil and climate of the Antilles-of the maners and customs of their inhabitants-their geology, their natural history, and a few other topics of equal interest and importance.

For whatever I may say on many of these subjects I shall of course be indebted to the works of those authors who have gone before me. The reader will easily conceive the uselessness of my compiling a flaming account of an earthquake, a hurricane, or a volcanic eruption from the details of others; and he

will, I think, allow that it is better, (if not less presumptuous,) to give such accounts in the language of those who saw them, than to put them into any language of my own; when it must be well known that from the period in which such events may have occurred, I could only derive my information from the pages of former writers. I will therefore make no apology for the long quotations likely to appear in the succeeding chapters; suffice it to say, that without such quotations, which are in themselves full of interest, my little volume could not be considered complete, either as a work of information or a book of reference.

It may not be amiss to commence with some remarks on earthquakes, which, with the exception of hurricanes, have proved more detrimental to the Antilles, than any other of the very awful and terrific phenomena of nature.

Earthquakes have been experienced in regions colder and more temperate than the torrid zone, but it is, nevertheless, well known that in the West Indies and among the Tropic Islands they are more frequently felt than in any other part of the earth. The fact is, there are few of these islands that do not contain lands or mountains more or less volcanic, and it generally happens, that when such mountains have ceased to emit portions of flame, smoke, and lava-in a word, when their tumult has subsided, their quiet calm may be considered, or at least feared, as the forerunner of that terrible calamity, an earthquake.

So do the dark, the desperate, the deep in crime, the despairing, and the depraved, wear a countenance that is most smooth and undisturbed when they are meditating the foulest schemes; so do they flatter, with the fawning flattery of a parasite, the victims they are about to destroy.

Nearly all the islands in the West Indies have suffered more or less from earthquakes, but there are some that have been more particularly the victims of those calamitous afflictions; Jamaica, for instance, has most frequently experienced their dreadful effects, and seldom does a year pass away, in which the inhabitants do not feel one or two shocks.

The earthquake sustained by that island in 1692, was too remarkable to be ever forgotten; and it will serve the reader as an instance of the severe misfortunes to which this otherwise prosperous colony is continually exposed. The account given of it by Dr. Coke, whose work is, I believe, nearly, if not quite obsolete, may prove as interesting and as curious, as any that may have preceded it.

He says "The terrible earthquake which happened on the sixth day of June, 1762, may be justly considered as one of the greatest natural calamities that ever afflicted the world. It was a concussion which shook the island from its circumference to its centre. The mountains trembled from their summits and tottered from their bases. It was a commotion which was felt to the remotest extremity of the island, and threatened a dissolution to that portion of the world. The catastrophe was unexpected, because it was

sudden; the presages and the awful event which followed, were closely linked together, and the tremendous monitors which warned the inhabitants, at once discovered their danger and pointed to them their doom.

"The season previous to this awful event had been remarkably dry and sultry; and, on the morning of the catastrophe, the skies were transcendently serene. Nature' (says Raynall) in one moment destroyed this brilliant appearance.' The sky, on a sudden, grew turbid and angry, the air seemed agitated by some unusual conflict, and a degree of redness gave a new tinge to the atmosphere, which was evidently discomposed. An unusual noise, somewhat resembling the rumbling of distant thunder, was heard issuing from the hidden caverns of the earth. The noise alternately subsiding and then bursting out with redoubled violence, preceded the movement which was felt on the surface. The inhabitants were surprised rather than alarmed, and waited in suspense, without much anticipation of their approaching fate

"At length, between eleven and twelve at noon, the dreadful shock came on. The edifices tottered, the inhabitants were terrified, and about nine-tenths of the houses fell. In less than three minutes, the large and populous town of Port Royal was a scene of desolation. About three thousand inhabitants, with their houses and their wealth, found one common grave. Their wharfs and quays first yielded to the irresistible stroke, these trembled for a moment with inexpressible agitation, and sunk for ever beneath the

encroaching ocean, which advanced with unnatural mountains to overwhelm the sinking lands.

"The sinking of the wharfs was but a prelude to that of the town. Those houses nearest to the water, first disappeared, the next in succession followed next in fate. In the mean while the streets began to gape, opening those dreadful fissures into which the miserable remnant of the inhabitants fell who had escaped the previous ruin, and were fleeing for shelter in the open air.”

I will here beg the Doctor's pardon for interrupting his description which is really most sublime: to tell the readers that I presume the word shelter in 1692 could not have been exactly the same as shelter in 1830; at all events, we should deem it rather a novelty to see our brethren seeking it in the open air.

Mr. Coke continues." The water gathering strength by that power of resistance which the land had lost, began to roll where the town had flourished, and swept from the sight of mortals, the devastations which the earthquake had made.

"Several of the inhabitants, in the violence of the convulsion, were conducted through some subterraneous passages, and returned again to the surface of the earth through distant apertures, that had no visible connection with that which first yawned to receive them. Of bodies thus restored, many were mangled too shockingly to behold; most were dead, though some were returned alive, and even without any material hurt.

"The houses that escaped the general overthrow