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CHAPTER LX.

HURRICANES.

"The north flies forth and hurls the frighted air:
Not all the brazen engin'ries of man,

At once exploded, the wild burst surpass;
Yet thunders yok'd with lightning and with rain,
Water and fire increase th' infernal din;

Canes, shrubs, trees, huts are whirl'd aloft in air;
The wind is spent, and all the Isle below

Is hush'd in death."

Sugar Cane, a Poem by Granger.

HAVING given the reader a description of one of those terrible earthquakes which so often visit the tropic islands, and from which he may form a general idea of the whole, I will now proceed to the consideration of hurricanes which have been scarcely less dreadful in their ravages over the fertile lands of the Antilles.

I have seen these terrific and calamitous visitations no were better described than in the Treatise on Tropical Diseases, by Dr. Moseley, published in 1792, in which we are told that "Hurricanes generally set from the north or north-west, from the great rarefaction of the air within the tropic of cancer, by the sun's northern declination in the autumnal season (therefore the months of August, September, and

October, are called, in the West Indies, the hurricane months), from which an influx of dense airs rushes in from the polar regions and the great western continent (the earth being susceptible of much greater degrees of cold and heat than the ocean, which is preserved in a more uniform temperature from being incapable, like all transparent bodies, of deriving heat from solar light), and a great conflict is raised, the wind varying with furious blasts from every point of the compass, until an equilibrium is restored and nature composed by the eastern winds regaining their

course.

"The ruin and desolation accompanying a hurricane can hardly be described.-Like fire, its resistless force consumes every thing in its track in the most terrible and rapid manner. It is generally preceded by an awful stillness of the elements and a closeness and mistiness of the atmosphere, which makes the sun appear red and the stars look larger than usual. But a dreadful reverse succeeding, the sky is suddenly overcast and wild; the sea rises at once from a profound calm into mountains; the wind rages and roars like the noise of cannon; the rain descends in deluges; a dismal obscurity envelopes the earth with darkness; the superior regions appear rent with lightning and thunder; the earth often does, and seems to tremble; terror and consternation distract all nature; birds are carried from the woods into the ocean, and those whose element is the sea, seek for refuge on the land; the frightened animals in the fields assemble together, and are almost suffocated by

the impetuosity of the wind in searching for shelter, which, when found, serves only for their destruction.

"The roofs of houses are carried to vast distances from their walls, which are beaten to the ground, burying the inhabitants under them; large trees are torn up by the roots, and huge branches shivered off and driven through the air in every direction with immense velocity; every tree and shrub that withstands the shock is stripped of its boughs and foliage; plants and grass are laid flat on the earth; luxuriant spring is changed in a moment to dreary winter. This direful tragedy ended, when it happens in a town, the devastion is surveyed with accumulated horror; the harbor is covered with the wrecks of boats and vessels, and the shore has not a vestige of its former state remaining; mounds of rubbish and rafters in one place, heaps of earth and trunks of trees in another; deep gullies, from torrents of water, and the dead and dying bodies of men, women, and children, half buried and scattered about where streets but a few hours before were, present the miserable survivors, with the shocking conclusion of a spectacle generally followed by famine, and when accompanied by an earthquake with mortal diseases.

"Such were the hurricanes that left melancholy traces in many of the West India Islands in the month of October, 1780, and particularly in Jamaica; where, on the third of that month, the west end of the island was laid waste. Vast districts of finely cultivated lands were made a desert, and several villages were

destroyed; but the part of Jamaica which suffered most, was the parish of Westmoreland; where, in addition to the preceding calamities, the sea rose in a column, appearing at a distance like a dark cloud, and overwhelmed the little sea-port town of Savannah la Mar.

"When many people were viewing the approach of this phenomenon from their windows, ignorant of what it was, it advanced suddenly upon them, drowned them in their upper rooms, and washed away them and their houses together. The sea overflowed the land above half a mile beyond its usual bounds, and carried several large ships with it; one of which, when the waters subsided, was left nearly a quarter of a mile on the land. This hurricane commenced from the south east about twelve o'clock at noon, and continued till eight in the evening. The sea rose between four and eight o'clock and subsided at ten with an earthquake.-Nearly three hundred people perished."

Such is the account given by Doctor Moseley of the tremendous hurricanes of 1780; but it was not, as he has asserted, "particularly the island of Jamaica," that suffered by their devastating fury. Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, Grenada, St. Eustatia, and Martinique experienced their dreadful effects in a greater or less degree; and the following quotations from Southey's Chronology of the West Indies, are melancholy yet interesting proofs that every island in the Antilles was more or less exposed to their despoiling influence.

"The hurricane began at Barbados on the morning of the 10th of October, and continued with little intermission about forty-eight hours. In the afternoon of the first day all the ships were driven from their anchors to sea. In the course of the night Bridgetown was nearly laid level with the earth. Daylight presented a scene of desolation seldom equalled. Not one house or building in the island, however strong or sheltered, was exempt from damage. Most of the live stock, and four thousand three hundred and twenty-six persons perished: the loss which the colony sustained was estimated at one million three hundred and twenty thousand five hundred and sixty-four pounds sterling. Upon the authority of a public document sent to the Secretary of State by the Governor of the island, it is said that a twelve pound gun was, by the wind and waves, carried from the south to the north battery, a distance of one hundred and forty yards. Some Spanish prisoners under Don Pedro St. Jago assisted the troops in relieving the inhabitants, and preventing the negroes from plundering. Parliament voted eighty thousand pounds for the relief of the sufferers."

The following copy of what passed in Barbados, from the 9th of October until the 16th, is full of interest.

"The evening preceding the hurricane, the 9th of October, was exceedingly calm, but the sky surprisingly red and fiery; during the night much rain fell. On the morning of the 10th, much rain and wind from N. W. By ten o'clock it increased very

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