782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



■upon the ruins of the houses that were floating upon the water, 

 but could not ; at length I got a canoa, and row'd up the great 

 sea-side towards my house, where I saw several men and women 

 floating upon the wreck out to sea ; and as many of them as I 

 could I took into the boat, and still row'd on till I came to where 

 I thought my house had stood, but could not hear of neither my 

 wife nor family. But seeing all people endeavouring to get to the 

 Island, I went among them, in hopes I might hear of my wife, or 

 some part of my family, but could not. Next morning I went 

 from one ship to another, till at length it pleased God that I met 

 with my wife and two of my negroes. I then asked her how she 

 escaped. She told me, when she felt the house shake, she ran out 

 and call'd all within to do the same. She was no sooner out but 

 the sand lifted her up ; and her negro woman grasping about her, 

 they both dropped into the earth together ; and at the same in- 

 stant the water coming in, rowl'd them over and over, till at 

 length they catch'd hold of a beam, where they hung, till a boat 

 came from a Spanish vessel and took them up. The houses from 

 the Jews' street end to the breastwork were all shak'd down save 

 only eight or ten that remained from the balcony upwards above 

 water. And as soon as the violent earthquake was over, the water- 

 men and sailors did not stick to plunder those houses ; and in the 

 time of their plunder one or two of them fell upon their heads by 

 a second earthquake, where they were lost. . . . Several ships and 

 sloops were over-set and lost in the harbour. Amongst the rest the 

 Swan-Frigat that lay by the wharf to careen, by the violent mo- 

 tion of the sea and sinking of the w^harf, was forced over the tops 

 of many houses : and passing by that house where my Lord Puke 

 lived, part of it fell upon her, and beat in her round-house : she did 

 not over-set, but helpt some hundreds in saving their lives.'' 



The shocks of earthquake continued, but with decreasing vio- 

 lence, for a period of nearly three weeks, and the survivors of the 

 catastrophe at Port Royal fled to the plain of the Liguanea and 

 encamped where the city of Kingston now stands. Here they 

 were attacked by a pestilence, occasioned by exposure, scarcity of 

 food, and the effluvium from the corpses which were floating up 

 and down all over the harbor. Jamaica historians tell us that 

 this epidemic " slew thousands of the survivors," but as they have 

 limited the population of Port Royal to thirty-five hundred, and 

 sixteen hundred of these perished in the earthquake, there were 

 no thousands left to be slain. From a letter, dated Jamaica, Sep- 

 tember 20, 1G02, it appears that about five hundred died. 



Other portions of the island were more sensibly affected by 

 the shock than was even Port Royal, and it is said that the eleva- 

 tion of the entire surface was considerably diminished. More 

 houses were left standing in Port Royal than in all the rest of 



