314 THE BLACK CAKIBS. 



cries of birds as they were beaten to the ground by the showers of 

 ashes, the howling of domestic animals, the lowing of affrighted and 

 starving cattle, the moaning of negroes, and the shrieks of Indians 

 who abandoned their settlements and fled to the capital. 



The hour of eve arrived, and brought with it accumulated horrors ; 

 the burst of flame from the crater increased in extent and fury, 

 rushing upwards into the clouds, which were continually rent asunder 

 by azure flashes of lightning. Countless objects of terror were added 

 to this spectacle pieces of metallic substance, of various forms and 

 sizes, like shells and rockets, flew in all directions through the thick 

 smoke which hung over the volcano, and fell with deafening crash ; 

 through the mass of liquid fire darted large globular bodies of red 

 lava, which ascending higher than the flame, exploded, and either 

 fell back into the raging gulf, or precipitated themselves amongst the 

 cultivation of the island, or on the dwellings of its inhabitants, which 

 were instantly in a blaze. The lava now poured out of the northern 

 side of the mountain. In vain was it opposed by a huge point of 

 land, the burning mass so increased that it surmounted%ll opposition. 

 Taking the form of an inverted pyramid, this infernal torrent rushed 

 down the mountain, carrying woods and rocks in its course ; and, pre- 

 cipitating itself into a large ravine, the blazing stream reached the 

 sea. " It seemed," to use the words of a spectator, " as though the 

 fires of central hell had burst their dungeon, and were trying to 

 spread themselves over the earth."* 



An earthquake, more severe than any yet felt, now agitated the 

 island ; to this succeeded a heavy fall of cinders, and this again was 

 followed by a fall of stones mingled with fire, by which many lost 

 their lives ; these showers continued all the night, and until the 

 afternoon of the next day (May the 1st), when the soufFriere seemed 

 to have expended its tremendous rage, and sank into solemn silence ; 

 it, however, burned for six weeks after, but without doing further 

 injury. 



Such was the dreadful eruption of the soufFriere of 1812; the 

 damage sustained by this visitation was incalculable ; so heavy a 

 quantity of ashes covered the island that famine would have resulted 

 but for the prompt benevolence of the neighbouring colonies. Bar- 

 badoes, though eighty miles to the windward of St. Vincent, was 

 covered several inches deep with grey sand, although the weather 

 was quite calm ; and terror was spread over the island by the 

 approach of the utter darkness, which continued for four hours and 

 a half. In Trinidad, at a distance of three degrees of longitude, so 

 loud and continued did the thunders of the volcano sound that the 

 regular troops and the militia were put under arms, it being sup- 

 posed that the reports proceeded from hostile fleets engaging. The 

 beautiful appearance of the soufFriere was entirely destroyed, in 

 so much that the Indian born and bred in its neighbourhood scarcely 

 believed it to be the same mountain that his eyes were accustomed 

 to survey ; all its beautiful forest was destroyed ; the conical mount 



* These expressions were used by a Black Carib, who, with many of his tribe, 

 was so frightened with the event described above, that he abandoned his land, 

 and settled at Toco, in Trinidad. 



