I went off with
one of the Overseers down to the Works, where the greater number of the
Negroes were collected, that we might see what could be done for them.
They were wretched enough, but no one was hurt; and I ordered them a
dram apiece, which seemed to give them a good deal of consolation.

"Before I could make my way back, the hurricane became as bad as at
first; and I was obliged to take shelter for half an hour in a ruined
Negro house. This, however, was the last of its extreme violence. By
one o'clock, even the rain had in a great degree ceased; and as only
one room of the house, the one marked _f_; was standing, and that
rickety,--I had Susan carried in a chair down the hill, to the Hospital;
where, in a small paved unlighted room, she spent the next twenty-four
hours. She was far less injured than might have been expected from such
a catastrophe.

"Next day, I had the passage at the entrance of the house repaired and
roofed; and we returned to the ruins of our habitation, still encumbered
as they were with the wreck of almost all we were possessed of. The
walls of the part of the house next the sea were carried away, in less I
think than half an hour after we reached the cellar: when I had leisure
to examine the remains of the house, I found the floor strewn with
fragments of the building, and with broken furniture; and our books all
soaked as completely as if they had been for several hours in the sea.

"In the course of a few days I had the other room, _g_, which is under
the same roof as the one saved, rebuilt; and Susan stayed in this
temporary abode for a week,--when we left Colonarie, and came to
Brighton. Mr. Munro's kindness exceeds all precedent. We shall certainly
remain here till my Wife is recovered from her confinement. In the
mean while we shall have a new house built, in which we hope to be well
settled before Christmas.

"The roof was half blown off the kitchen, but I have had it mended
already; the other offices were all swept away. The gig is much injured;
and my horse received a wound in the fall of the stable, from which he
will not be recovered for some weeks: in the mean time I have no choice
but to buy another, as I must go at least once or twice a week to
Colonarie, besides business in Town. As to our own comforts, we can
scarcely expect ever to recover from the blow that has now stricken
us. No money would repay me for the loss of my books, of which a large
proportion had been in m