BOOK III. CHAP. VII. 619 



and felt my chair lifted up on one fide ; I knew it wns the efFett of an 

 earthquake ; and, looking through a window which faced the fca, i 

 ohferved two flreams of fire, which feemed to delcend from fome black 

 clouds, at a great diftance, into the water. 



The fliock felt in June, 1770, which broke out fomewherc about 

 Port au Prince, in Hifpaniola, and about 230 miles diftance from the 

 Eaftern diftrift of Jamaica, was more violent than the former one 

 which happened at Cuba. It is faid to have thrown down all the 

 buildings in that part of Hifpaniola, and even to have fwallowed up a 

 mountain. Yet its efforts were fo much fpent, before they reached 

 Jamaica, that only a few old chimneys, flightly built, and two or three 

 crazy walls In the country, were thrown down by the fliock in this 

 ifland. In the following year, 1771, feveral fiuart fliocks were felt 

 here, and fome buildings damaged, but no perfons hurt. 



Many finall fhocks probably happen in thefe iflands, which efcape 

 notice ; for even the greater ones have not been perceived by perfons 

 who were traveling on horfeback, or otherwlfe In motion. 



They are doubtlefs, as well as hurricanes, defllned to anfvver fome 

 wife, and perhaps falutary purpofe in the oeconomy of nature, although 

 it rauft be owned, that they are a fort of medicines extremely rough 

 in their op^rationj [0]. 



But if their eruption difcharges noxious effluvia into the air. It feems a 

 providential remedy that ftiowers of rain almoft invariably follow any 

 confiderable fhock, whofe fprinkling brings a fupply of frefh air, and 

 correfts the unwholefome ftate of what has been vitiated. Thus It was 

 ohferved, that a fall of rain greatly checked the ravages of the laft 

 plague in London ; and, for this reafon, ilreams of water are fcattercd 

 down Into wells and fiiafts, for purifying their malignant vapours. 



The fliocks I felt in the courfe of eight years were fix in number, 

 and at the following times of the year. 



jd of March, 

 1 2th of May, 

 23d of June, 



I 7th of September, 



26th of Odober, 



15th of November. 

 There were others, noted by other perfons, which I did not feel, or 

 was not fenfible of; and fome were faid to be felt in January and Fe- 

 bruary. But I think tliere feems to be no certain or fiated time of the 

 year for them to happen. That which befel Sicily, before fpoken of, 

 began the 19th of January. Thefe fits therefore feem not reducible, 

 till we are better acquainted with their origin, to any diftinft periods ; 

 but may happen from a particular combination of materials in the bow- 

 els of the earth, or a calual diipofition of the weather and elements ne- 

 cefi'ary for their generation. 



[u] In tlie litany ufed at Jamaica, the word earlhftahe h ahvays added to the hll of \i'hat ai-p 

 coiniiionly c;illcd natural evils, 



4 K 2 SECT. 



