jc, 4 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. u. 



On the seventh of June 1692, happened that tre- 

 mendous earthquake which swallowed up great part 

 of Port Royal. A description ot it, dreadfully minute, 

 may be found in the Philosophical Transactions; but 

 it is not generally known that the town was chiefly 

 built on a bank of sand, adhering to a rock in the sea, 

 and that a very slight concussion, aided by the weight 

 of the buildings, would probably have accomplished 

 its destruction. I am inclined therefore to suspect 

 that the description of the shock is much exaggera- 

 red.H 



The inhabitants were scarcely recovered from the 



j 



terrors occasioned by the earthquake, when they were 

 alarmed with an account of an intended invasion by an 

 armament from Hispaniola, commanded by Mons. Du 



that the emperor of China having He-aid of her immense riches was coming 

 to pay his addresses to her. She even made magnificent preparations for 

 his reception. As she was perfectly gentle and good humoured in her lu- 

 nacy, her attendants not only encouraged her in her folly, but contrived also 

 to turn it to good account, by persuading a needy peer (the first duke of 

 Montague) to personate his Chinese majesty, and deceive her into wed- 

 lock, which he actually did} and withgieater success than honesty, or, 

 I should imagine, even the law would warrant, got possession by this 

 means of her wealth, and then confined her as a lunatic. Gibber, the 

 comedian, who thought it a goad jtst, introduced the circumstance on 

 the stage, and it forms a scene in his play, called the Sick Lady Cured. 

 Her grace survived her husband, the pretended emperor, for many years, 

 and died in 1734-, at the great age of 98. Her frenzy remained however 

 to the last, aud she was served on the knee as empiess of China to the 

 llay of her death. 



|| The yth of June is declared, by an act of the assembly, to be esta- 

 blished a perpetual anniversary fast, in commemoration cf this calamity 



