62 TlMEHRI. 
all the circumstances of our most unfortunate case. I 
ordered the doors of the cellars to be thrown open, the 
dry planks with which they were filled to be placed as 
seats ; the large puncheons of blankets, 50 or 60 pairs 
which we had brought with us from England, to be opened 
and distributed amongst the aged and those having young 
children — and large tubs of rum and water to be prepared 
and served round amongst them, with a view of reviving 
their spirits as well as keeping out the cold. In the 
meantime I ordered all the strong native young men to 
disperse themselves among the negro houses and fields, 
and to bring in all the old people, children, and helpless 
or maimed persons, of which we feared there would be 
too many ! I met at the doors several old persons so 
completely exhausted that I was obliged to support 
them ; and children I snatched from their mother's arms 
when they were sinking beneath the load, and hurried 
with them out of the rain which still poured in torrents. 
Every moment I expecled to hear of some dreadful acci- 
dent, some tale of horror, or to see some miserable 
object dreadfully mangled that had been dragged from 
beneath the ruins of some house, or had been overtaken 
by some falling rock, beam or tree, or hurried down some 
precipice or chasm, by the force of the wind. My mind 
was fully prepared for it, for I did not think it possible 
that from amidst such universal ruin, every individual 
of 700 people could have escaped unharmed. And yet 
Heaven be praised, that Almighty Being who stilleth the 
raging of the sea, and the stormy wind when it ariseth, 
and in judgment still thinketh upon mercy, so in pity 
tempered the storm to the shorn lamb that not one life 
was lost, not one individual suffered nor sustained the 
