generally of the worst confequence.) On the next day, which was Sunday, the symptoms feemed to be a little more favourable; but, to my great furprife, the very next day, I found his leg not only mortified up to the knee, but the same began a new in four different parts, viz. under each eye, on the top of his fhoulder, and on one hand; and in about twelve hours after he died. I shall not presume to say there was any thing fupernatural in the cafe but, however, it must be confeffed, that fuch cafes are rather uncommon in subjects so young, and of fo good an habit as he had always been, previous to this illness."

Abstract of the act for the better prefervation of timber-trees, woods, under woods, c.

ΑΙ

LL perfons, who from and after the 24th of Jane, 1756, fhall be convicted of damaging, deftroying, or carrying away any timbertrees, &c. or the lops or tops thereof, without confent of the owner, forfeit, for the first offence, a fum not exceeding 201. with charges; and on non payment are to be committed for no more than twelve, nor less than fix months: for the second offence, a fum not exceeding 301, &c. and on non-payment to be committed for not more than eighteen, nor less than twelve months: and for the third offence are to be tranf ported for seven years. Alfo perfons convicted of plucking up, fpoiling, or taking away any root, fhrub, or plant, out of private cultivated ground, forfeit for the first offence, any fum not exceeding 40 s. with the charges for the fecond offence, any fum not, exceeding 5 1. with VOL, IX.

charges: and for the third offence are to to be tranfported for feven years. The like for perfons catting, damaging, or taking away any wood, underwood, poles, sticks, &c. or who have any fuch in their cuftody, without being able to account fatisfactorily for the fame, excepting that for thefe, they are, upon the third offence, to be punished as incorrigible rogues. Where the forfeitures fhall not be paid down on conviction, the offenders may be committed to hard labour; for the first offence, for one month, and to be once whipped; and for the second offence, for three months, and to be thrice whipped. Perfons hindering or attempting to prevent the feizing offenders, forfeit 101. and if not paid down, are to be committed to hard labour for any time, not exceeding fix months. Oak, beech, chefnut, walnut, ash, elm, cedar, fir, afp, lime, fycamore, and birch trees, to be deemed timber-trees, and within the meaning of the act.

By a fecond act, offences, when committed in the night-time, are fubjected to penalties.

T is intitled, "An act for encouraging the cultivation, and for the petter prefervation, of trees, roots, plants, and fhrubs;" and enacts, "That from and after the 2d day of June 1766, all and every perfon, or persons, who shall, in the night-time, lop, top, cut down, break, throw down, bark, burn, or otherwise spoil or deftroy, or carry away any oak, beech, ash, elm, fir, chefnut, or afp, timber-tree, or other tree or trees standing for timber, or likely to become timber, without the confent of the owner or

[0]

Owners

will not for a long time be repaired.

-

On Thursday, the 13th inftant, about ten at night, the whole horizon darkened, the wind blowing furioufly from the north-weft, the clouds vomited torrents, mingled with flaming fulphur; every thing feemed to forebode the diffolution of nature. The fury of the wind increased; houses tottered; their tops were carried away; a frightful noife was heard from every quarter; dismay seized on every heart. -Till midnight the hurricane continued with increafed violence; nothing could refift its fury: Here a wall was thrown down, there a houfe; infants in the arms of their mothers; mothers in thofe of their husbands, all buried under the ruins. At the fame inftant the earth trembled; men and women, children and flaves, all endeavoured to feek for fafety by flight; but were reftrained by fear, and believing every moment to be their laft, they fell proftrate in fervent prayers.

The horrors of this terrible night were increased by difafters from the fea; the waves intermingled with the clouds, dafhed upon the coaft, and beat to pieces all the veffels in the road; the failors, though without hopes of fuccour, raifed the moft lamentable cries, and were all fwallowed up in the ocean.

At three in the morning the wind began to calm, and foon after, daylight prefented a view of this melancholy catastrophe. The streets appeared covered with ruins; the fhore with fhipwrecks and dead bo.

dies;

the trees dashed to pieces and torn from their roots blocked up the roads; and the fwoln rivers carried along with them, in their courie, ftones of an enormous fize.

At five o'clock a thick cloud appeared, fufpended over Mount Peleus, which burft, being overloaded with water, and, like an impetuous torrent, overwhelmed the neighbouring plains.

At fix the wind was entirely appeafed, the fea no lenger agitated, and a calm fucceeded this moft horrible tempeft.

When the ftorm was at the height, a quantity of flaming matter was obferved to come from the bofom of the earth; and fome perfons are faid to have been burnt thereby.

Thirty five brigantines, boats, &c. have been loft in this harbour, befides twelve paffage-canoes. Of the former, twenty-eight belonged to France, and feven to England.

To complete the calamity, we have received the most afflicting advices from the country. Hardly is there a veftige to be feen of any houses all around; under the ruins of which many of the proprietors have been crushed to death. canes, coffee-trees, cocoas, &c. &c. have been all torn up and destroyed.

The

We know not as yet the exact number that have perifhed in this quarter, but fuppofe there may be 90, and twice as many wounded.

Our Governor was the preceding day at Caze Pilote, where he endured with much hazard all the violence of the ftorm, and returned hither next day, deeply affected with this public calamity. He has accordingly given his attention entirely to the establishment and prefervation of good order, fo neceflary in circumstances like ours.

The above is a genuine recital of what has happened at St. Peter. In going over the ifland we fhall find near the fame calamities, and in fome places fill worse. [0] 2

The

The habitations in Carbet and Caze Pilote, have had the same fate as ours; no buildings now! no provifions! no plantations !

Fort Royal, great part of whofe inhabitants were ruined by the dreadful fire on the 20th of May, has not been exempted from this laft fcourge. The tops of most of the houses in that city have been carried away, and many of the houses thrown down, as well as thofe of the citadel. A cafern, 120 feet long and 18 broad, has been driven feveral paces from its foundation; nine English veffels, at anchor in the Flemish-bay, have been dafhed to pieces; feveral French boats have been rendered useless; a great many paffage-canoes fhattered upon the quays; almost all the veffels at anchor in the bafin damaged. The dwellings in this quarter are totally laid waste.-The number of dead amounts at prefent to 40, the wounded as many more.

La Trinité has fuffered as much as any place whatever. Nothing has refifted the fury of the hurricane. One half of the town has been thrown down, the other uncovered. The timber-work of the church, remarkable for its ftrength, has been driven from the walls, and carried in fhatters a confiderable way off. Seventeen or eighteen veffels that were in the road, have all fuffered fhipwreck. The number of dead and wounded is more confiderable here than elsewhere; we tremble at the recital. One hundred and eighty whites and negroes are fuppofed to have perished, and upwards of two hundred and forty wounded. It was here that a mother was feen crushed to death between her two children, whom the ftill held in each hand,

they fleeping by her fide under the ruins :-a venerable old man crushed to atoms before the eyes of his own fon :-a fon endeavouring to ease his mother, his wife and daughter, overwhelmed with the weight of a house, and he holding close in his arms till day-light, that mother who had already breathed her last; whilft his ears were pierced with the plaintive cries of beloved wife, who was ready to expire.

Some particulars of the melancholy difafter, that has befallen the city of Montauban in France, by an inundation of the river Tarna, which began on the 14th November. 1766, and laid 1200 houses in ruins.

HE fall of the houses began

THE

in the fuburb of Sapiac. The noife occafioned by their tumbling was heard in the neighbouring fuburb, with the cries of feveral perfons who called out for help; but as the water surrounded entirely the fuburb of Sapiac, it was very difficult going to the affiftance of the unhappy inhabitants. The river, which was prodigiously fwoln and rapid, was laden with a number of trees of an enormous size, that had been torn up by the roots, and carried down along with it; a circumstance which, joined with the darkness of the night, rendered the paffage of boats very dangerous. These obftacles, however, did not intimidate a

mariner, who, in fpite of the entreaties and tears of his wife and children, ventured to cross the river, in order to fave fuch as were on the point of perishing. His courage roufed feveral of his fellow boat

men

men to imitate him; and by means of their help no body perished.

The floods continued to increase, and redoubled their alarms. The inhabitants of the city, feparated from the fuburb by a bridge, ran to ville Bourbonne. At feven o'clock of the morning of Tuesday Nov. 18. the floods began to abate, and their decrease continued till noon. Hope immediately began to fpring up in every bofom, but was foon ftifled by the fall of the greatest part of the fuburb of Gafferas, adjoining to that of ville Bourbonne and is was perceived that all the houses, even thofe that were yet at a distance from the waters, were tottering, and refted only on a loose earth which the waters had already undermined.

At noon the fwell began again, and was continually augmenting. The confternation was then univer

al. Orders were given to move off all the effects. Perfons of all ranks were defired to affift in the removal, and all the carts and carriages were engaged to make the removal the more fpeedy. The tribunals of justice opened their halls, the monks their convents

and cloyfters; and the churches were also offered as repofitories for the effects of the people. The inhabitants of ville Bourbonne abandoned fucceffively their houses; and the inhabitants of the city, with an earnestness which did honour to humanity, received their unhappy neighbours, and, with marks of true tenderness, endeavoured to affuage a grief which had no bounds.

The inundation increased during that whole day, and continued ftill augmenting till feven in the morning, Nov. 19. when the waters were thirty-two feet above the common water level. Such an extraordinary inundation has occafioned fundry neighbouring villages to be entirely overflowed, and has produced the greatest ravages. In the plains, the buildings have been overwhelmed, the grain washed away, the cattle drowned, and the greatest part of the inhabitants found their only fafety in fudden flight, or in climbing high trees, where the horrors of famine were joined to the dreadful fpectacle of beholding their dwellings deftroyed, and their effects carried away by the flood.