98 HISTORY OF 



sun was darkened ; the beasts ran howling from 

 the hills ; and although the shock did not con- 

 tinue above three minutes, yet near nineteen 

 thousand of the inhabitants of Sicily perished in 

 the ruins. Catanea, to which city the describer 

 was travelling, seemed the principal scene of 

 ruin ; its place only was to be found ; and not 

 a vestige of its former magnificence was to be 

 seen remaining. 



The earthquake which happened in Jamaica, in 

 1692, was very terrible, and its description suffi- 

 ciently minute. " In two minutes time it de- 

 stroyed the town of Port Royal, and sunk the 

 houses in a gulf forty fathoms deep. It was at- 

 tended with a hollow rumbling noise, like that of 

 thunder j and, in less than a minute, three parts 

 of the houses, and their inhabitants, were all 

 sunk quite under water. While they were thus 

 swallowed up on one side of the street, on the 

 other the houses were thrown into heaps; the 

 sand of the street rising like the waves of the sea, 

 lifting up those that stood upon it, and immedi- 

 ately overwhelming them in pits. All the wells 

 discharged their waters with the most vehement 

 agitation. The sea felt an equal share of turbu- 

 lence, and, bursting over its; mounds, deluged 

 all that came in its way. The fissures of the 

 earth were, in some places, so great, that one of 

 the streets appeared twice as broad as formerly. 

 In many places, however, it opened and closed 

 again, and continued this agitation for some time. 

 Of these openings, two or three hundred might 

 be seen at a time j in some whereof the people 



