BOOK III. CHAP. VII. 6^s 



The fhock Imprcflcd upon the air was very fenfihly Mt at Spanifh 

 Town, as has been rehited^ where it damaged the roofs oftwohoiifcs in 

 a N. W. dircdion from the fort, and afretlcd the doors and windows in 

 general. The conciiffion was felt in a circle of lo or 14 miles round. 

 Some faid, that windows were broke at the diftance of 17 miles, but this 

 wants confirmation. Such was the deplorable cataftrophe occafioncd by 

 one flafli of lightning. I ninll now endeavour to trace the fource of it. 



The magar.ine had only one dooi^, which was very folid, and hung 

 with large itrong iron hinpes, to the Eallward. The windows, or air- 

 holes, were likcwife leciired with lattices of iron wire. But, confidering 

 all circumftances, tlie very low fituation of this door, and that on the 

 ramparts (which were higher than the magazine) there was a line of 

 guns, more likely to altraft, and many fhipping in the harbour, whofe 

 marts prefented nuich nearer and more convenient conduftors, it is not 

 probable that the lightning was drawn down by any of the iron work 

 ufed about that flrudure. The gunner declared, that, in fhifting the 

 powder, there was a large quantity of duft fcattered about in the air ; is 

 it not then more likely, that the particles of powder were dri\-en by the 

 breeze to a certain height and diftance in the atmofphere to leeward, un- 

 til they came within the fphere of a£lion of the eleftric matter in the 

 clouds, then hovering over the adjacent country; that they were thus 

 ignited, and thus communicated the flame in an immediate dire6lion to 

 the very door of the magazine? It is to be recollefted, that the lightning- 

 made its defcent but a very few minutes after the powder was carried 

 in : and, upon the whole, therefore, this feems to me the moft 

 probable way of accounting for it; from which, if it really was the 

 caufe, we may conclude, that even an iron conduftor placed upon, or 

 near, the magazine, would not have preferved it; for there was then, in 

 fa6V, a train of powder laid, and continued from the door, to Xhtfiife^ 

 or eledric fire in the nearcft cloud. 



The diftance of time between the aerial impidfe (from the expanfion of 

 the powder) and the found of the explofton at Spanifh Town (7 miles) 

 was about two feconds, as nearly as I could compute; but, not being 

 able to learn the exadt time when the accident happened, I could form no 

 calculation of the progrefs of the found, for the given diftance of place. 



From the 14th of this month to the 26th of Oftober, we had a great 

 deal of thunder and lightning every day almoft, with but few intermif- 

 fions. On the 2ith of Odober, in a fquall of rain driven oft' the moun^ 

 tains, the lightning fell again in Spanifli Town on a tree in a gentle- 

 man's garden, very near two houfes. It deftroyed the tree, and defcend- 

 ing to a pepper bufti at the foot, cut it afunder in the middle, but nei- 

 ther damaged the houfes, nor hurt any perfbn, 



4 M 2 la 



