h a fate
like that of Sodom.

The same earthquake which destroyed Port Royal, almost ruined the
island. Whole plantations changed their places. The mountains were
strangely torn and rent. In many parts the immense accumulation of earth
fallen from the mountains choked up the course of the streams for
twenty-four hours, and when at last they burst their way through, they
bore down on their swollen floods thousands of trunks of trees,
branchless and barkless, to the sea. The gorge of the Bocaguas, through
which the Rio Cobre winds in a glorious succession of cascades and
whirling pools, is said to have been entirely filled up, causing the
waters to overspread the upland basin of St. Thomas-in-the-Vale with a
lake, which lasted nine days before the waters tore loose from their
confinement, and swept over the plains to the ocean. There was evidence
of a slight subsidence over the whole island. The earthquake of 1692 is
undoubtedly the most desolating convulsion of nature which has ever
befallen any portion of the English race.

For generations after the destruction of Port Royal, it was affirmed
that the spires and housetops of the sunken city could be discerned on a
clear day through the waters of the harbor. Even now there is a floating
belief that they may occasionally be dimly descried, though I have never
been able to ascertain whether it is worthy of credit.

Since then, although there are often shocks of earthquake, sometimes
several in a year, and though some have occurred quite destructive to
property, there has been none to divide with that of 1692 its awful
preeminence of desolation. It is true, we know not at what time such a
one may come, and it has been truly said that 'this beautiful island may
be regarded as a gorgeous carpet spread over the deeply charged mines of
a volcano.' Hurricanes, though very much less frequent than in the
Windward Islands, have yet left their traces in the annals of Jamaica.
Particularly noted are those of the 28th of August, 1712, of the 28th of
August, 1722, and the series which, with the exception of two years,
annually ravaged the island from 1780 to 1786 inclusive. It was in one
of these that the town of Savanna-la-Mar was so completely overwhelmed
by the sea, driven over it by the force of the wind, that when the flood
rolled back to its home, not the slightest vestige of the place was
discernible. In such a region the petition of the Litany, as it is here
offered, 'From li