DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70303#0056
42 GREAT EARTHQUAKE AT JAMAICA, IN 1692.
in some of these the people were swallowed up ; in others
they were caught by the middle, and pressed to death ;
and in others the heads only appeared. The larger of these
openings swallowed up houses, and out of some, whole
rivers of water spouted up a prodigious height into the air,
threatening a deluge to that part spared by the earthquake.
And besides from all the wells, from one fathom to six or
seven deep, the water flew out at the top with a surprising
and irresistible violence. The whole was attended with
stenches and offensive smells, and the noise of falling moun-
tains at a distance ; while the sky, in a minute’s time, was
turned dull and reddish, like a glowing oven. Yet, as
great a sufferer as Port-Royal was, more houses were left
standing in it than on the whole island besides. Scarce a
planter’s house, or sugar-work, was left standing in all Ja-
maica. A great part was swallowed up, houses, people,
and trees, at one gape : in the room of which there after-
wards appeared great pools of water, which, when dried
up, discovered nothing but sand, without any mark, that
ever tree or plant had been there: 2000 people lost their lives J
and had this terrible scene happened in the night, it is
thought very few would have escaped 1000 acres of land
were sunk : one Hopkins bad his plantation removed half a
mile from its place. Yet the shocks were the most violent
among the rocks and mountains, in whose .caverns the.
matter that produced the earthquake was supposed to lie.
' Not far from Yallhouse, part of a mountain, after it had
made several leaps or removes, overwhelmed a whole
family, and a great part of a plantation, though a mile dis-
tant ; and a large high mountain near Port Morant, about
a day’s journey over, was quite swallowed up, and in the
place where it stood, nothing remained but a lake of four
or five leagues over. The tops of high mountains swept
down with them in their fall, trees and other things in
their way• and these vast pieces of mountains, with all
, . - their
in some of these the people were swallowed up ; in others
they were caught by the middle, and pressed to death ;
and in others the heads only appeared. The larger of these
openings swallowed up houses, and out of some, whole
rivers of water spouted up a prodigious height into the air,
threatening a deluge to that part spared by the earthquake.
And besides from all the wells, from one fathom to six or
seven deep, the water flew out at the top with a surprising
and irresistible violence. The whole was attended with
stenches and offensive smells, and the noise of falling moun-
tains at a distance ; while the sky, in a minute’s time, was
turned dull and reddish, like a glowing oven. Yet, as
great a sufferer as Port-Royal was, more houses were left
standing in it than on the whole island besides. Scarce a
planter’s house, or sugar-work, was left standing in all Ja-
maica. A great part was swallowed up, houses, people,
and trees, at one gape : in the room of which there after-
wards appeared great pools of water, which, when dried
up, discovered nothing but sand, without any mark, that
ever tree or plant had been there: 2000 people lost their lives J
and had this terrible scene happened in the night, it is
thought very few would have escaped 1000 acres of land
were sunk : one Hopkins bad his plantation removed half a
mile from its place. Yet the shocks were the most violent
among the rocks and mountains, in whose .caverns the.
matter that produced the earthquake was supposed to lie.
' Not far from Yallhouse, part of a mountain, after it had
made several leaps or removes, overwhelmed a whole
family, and a great part of a plantation, though a mile dis-
tant ; and a large high mountain near Port Morant, about
a day’s journey over, was quite swallowed up, and in the
place where it stood, nothing remained but a lake of four
or five leagues over. The tops of high mountains swept
down with them in their fall, trees and other things in
their way• and these vast pieces of mountains, with all
, . - their