t never
before witnessed, foaming and roaring, rushed with irresistible
impetuosity towards the land, sweeping into the bay and carrying before
it every building it encountered; numbers of the inhabitants it overtook
being drowned, while the rest fled shrieking before it for safety to the
Savannah. There the ruins only of houses remained to afford them
shelter. To add to the horror of the scene, lightning of the most vivid
description flashed from the skies--the wind and waves howled and roared
in concert--darkness came on, and the earth itself shook and trembled as
if about to swallow up those whom the waters or their falling
habitations had spared. The smaller vessels at anchor in the bay were
driven on shore and dashed to pieces, and the largest were torn from
their anchors and carried up far into the morass, whence they could
never be removed. One ship, the Princess Royal, was hove on her
beam-ends, but again righted by the earthquake or by the force of the
wind, and was left fixed firmly in the ground.

With the morning light the scene of destruction presented to the eyes of
the survivors was truly heart-rending. The ground where the town had
stood was strewed with the mangled forms of the dead and dying,
scattered among the fragments of their dwellings. Scarcely a roof
remained whole or a wall standing. Of all the sugar-works none
remained; the plantain walks were destroyed; every cane-piece was
levelled; and some hundred people, whites and negroes, were killed. In
Montego Bay, and indeed throughout the island, the consequences of the
tempest were equally disastrous. But if people on shore suffered thus,
still more melancholy was the fate of the numerous fleets which came
within its influence. Those of England, France, and Spain equally
suffered; many being wrecked, and others foundering with all hands.

The hurricane did not reach the Leeward Islands till the 19th. It raged
at Bridgetown, Barbadoes, from the 10th to the 16th, with no less fury
than elsewhere. The evening of the 9th was particularly calm, though a
glow of an unusual red appeared in the sky, and heavy rain began to
fall. On the morning of the 10th the hurricane began, and by the
afternoon the Albemarle frigate and all the merchantmen in the bay
parted from their anchors and drove to sea. By night the fury of the
tempest had reached its utmost height, and dreadful were the
consequences. It is impossible to describe the scenes of horr