THE EARTH. 85 



The earthquake which happened in Jamaica, in 1G92, was 

 very terrible, and its description sufficiently minute. " In two 

 miimtes' time it destroyed the town of Port Royal, and sunk the 

 houses in a gulf forty fathoms deep. It was attended with a 

 hollow rumbling noise, like that of thunder; 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 the one side of the street, on the other the houses were thrown 

 into heaps ; the sand of the streets rising like the waves of the 

 sea, lifting up those that stood upon it, and immediately over- 

 whelming them in pits. All the wells discharged their waters 

 with the most vehement agitation. The sea felt an equal share 

 of turbulence, and, bursting over its mounds, deluged all that 

 tame in the way. The fissures of the earth were, in some places, 

 so grept, that one of the streets appeared twice as broad as for- 

 merly. 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 ; in some whereof 

 the people were swallowed up ; in others, the earth closing, 

 caught them by the middle, and thus crushed them instantly to 

 death. Other openings, stiU more dreadful than the rest, swal- 

 lowed up whole streets ; and others, more formidable, spouted 

 up whole cataracts of water, drowning such as the earthquake 

 had spared. The whole was attended with the most noisome 

 stench ; while the thundering of the distant falling mountains, 

 the whole sky overcast with a dusky gloom, and the crash of 

 falling habitations, gave unspeakable horror to the scene. After 

 this dreadful calamity was over, the whole island seemed con- 

 verted into a scene of desolation ; scarcely a planter's house was 

 left standing ; almost all were swallowed up ; houses, people, 

 trees, shared one universal ruin : and in their places appeared 

 great pools of water, which when dried up by the sun, left only 

 a plain of barren sand, without any vestige of former inhabitants, 

 filost of the rivers, during the earthquake, were stopped up by the 

 falluig in of the mountains ; and it was not till after some time 

 they made themselves new channels. The mountains seemed 

 paiticularly attacked by the force of the shock ; and it was sup- 

 posed that the principal seat of the concussion was among them. 

 Those who were saved got on board ships in the harbour, where 



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