Doubt not but you will both from Gazets, and Letters hear of the great Calamity that hath befallen this Island by a Terrible EARTH-QUAKE, on the 7th. Instant, which hath thrown down almost all the Houses, Churches, Sugar-Works, Mills and Bridges through the whole Country. It tore the Rocks and Mountains, and destroyed some whole Plantations, and threw them into the Sea, Port-Royal had much the greatest share in this terrible Judgement of God. I will therefore be more, [...]icular in giving you an Account of its proceedings in that Place, that you may know what my Da [...]ger, [...] and how unexpected my Preservation. On Wednesday the 7th. day of June I had been as Church [...]ding Prayers, which I did every day since I was Rector of Port-Royal, to keep up some shew of Reli­ [...] among a most Ungodly Debauched People, and was gone to a place hard by the Church, where the [...]chants use to meet, and where the President of the Council was, who acts now in Chief, till we have [...] [...]w Governor; who came into my Company, and engaged me to take a Glass of Worm-wood Wine with [...] as a whet before Dinner, he being my very great friend, I stayed with him, upon which he lighted a [...] of Tobacco, which he was pretty long of taking; and not being willing to leave him before it was out, detained me from going to Dinner to one Captain Ruden's, where I was to Dine) whose House upon first Concussion sunk first into the Earth, and then into the Sea, with his Wife and Family, and some that [...]e come to Dine with him; had I been there I had been lost. But to return to the President, and his of Tobacco; before that was out, I found the ground rowling and moving under my feet, upon which to him, Lord, Sir, what is this? He replyed very composed, being a very grave Man, It's an Earth­ [...] be not affraid, it will soon be ever. But it increased, and we heard the Church and Tower fall, upon [...], we ran to save our selves; I quickly lost him, and made towards Morganso Fort, which being a wide place, I thought to be there securest from the falling Houses; But as I made toward it, I saw the Earth and swallow up a multitude of People, and the Sea mounting in upon us over the Fortifications, I laid aside all thoughts of escaping, and resolved to make toward my own Lodging, and there to meet [...] in as good a posture as I could: From the Place where I was, I was forced to cross and run through or three very narrow Streets, the Houses and Walls fell on each side of me, some Brick came rowling my shooes, but none hurt me; when I came to my Lodging, I found there all things in the same order them, not a Picture, of which there were several fair ones in my Chamber, being out of its place, I [...] to my Balconey to view the Street in which our House stood, and saw never a House down there, nor [...] [...]ound so much as crack'd; the People seeing me there, cry'd out to me to come and Pray with them; [...] I came into the Street every one laid hold on my Cloaths and embraced me, that with their fear and [...]ess I was almost stifled: I perswaded them at last to kneel down and make a large Ring, which they did, [...] [...]ed with them near an hour, when I was almost spent with the heat of the Son, and the exercise, they [...] brought me a Chair, the Earth working all the while with new motions, and tremblings, like the row­ [...] of the Sea, insomuch that when I was at Prayer I could hardly keep my self upon my knees. By that [...] I had been half an hour longer with them, in setting before their Sins and heinous Provocations, and [...]ously exhorting them to Repentance, there came some Merchants to me of the Place, who desired me [...] aboard some Ship in the Harbor and refresh my self, telling me that they had gotten a Boat to carrie [...] [...]ff; so coming to the Sea, which had intirely swallowed up the Wharf, with all those goodly Brick [...]es upon it, most of them as fine as those in Chepside, and two intire Streets beyond that, I upon the of some Houses which lay levelled with the surface of the Water, got first into a Canoe, and then into [...] [...]g Boat, which put me aboard a Ship called the Stam Merchant, where I found the President safe, [...] was overjoyed to see me; therefore I continued that night, but could not sleep for the returns of the [...]-quake almost every hour, which made all the Guns in the Ship to jarr and rattle: The next day I [...] from Ship to Ship to Visit those that were bruised, and a dying, and to pray with them, and likewise [...] the last Office at the sinking of several Corps that came floating from the Point, which indeed had been [...] [...]rrowful, Employment ever since I came aboard this Ship with design to come for England, we having [...]g but shakings of the Earth, and Thunder and Lightning, and foul Weather ever since: and the Peo­ [...] [...]eing so desperatly wicked, it makes me afraid to stay in the place; for that very day this terrible Earth- [...] was, as soon as night came on, a Company of lewd Rogues whom they call Privateers, fell to break­ [...] [...] open Ware-houses, and Houses deserted, to Rod and Rifle their Neighbors whilst the Earth trembled about them, and some of the Houses fell on them in the Act: And those audacious Whores that remain [...]on the Place, are as impudent and drunk as ever. I have been twise on shore to pray with the Brui­sed [Page] and Dying People, and to Christen Children, where I met too many Drunk and Swearing, I did [...] spare them, nor the Magistrats neither, who have suffered Wickedness to grow to so great a hight; I [...] I bless God; to the best of my skill and power discharged my Duty in this place, which you will hear fr [...] most Persons that come from hence: I have Preached so seasonably to them, and so plain in the last S [...] mon I Preached to them in the Church; I set before them what would be the issue of their Impenite [...] and Wickedness, that they have since confessed, that it was more like a Prophesie than a Sermon: I h [...] [...] confess, an impulse on me to do it: And many times I have preached in this Pulpit, things that I never [...] meditated at home, and could not me-thought do otherways. The day when all this befel us was [...] clear, afforded not the suspition of the least evil; but in the space of three Minutes, about half an hou [...] [...] ter Eleven in the Morning, Port Royal, the fairest Town of all the English Plantations, the best Emp [...] and Mart of this part of the World, exceeding in its Riches, plentiful of all good Things, was shake [...] [...] shattered to pieces, and sunk into, and covered for the greatest part, by the Sea, and will in a short tim [...] [...] wholly eaten up by it, for few of those houses that yet stand, are left whole, and every day we hear t [...] fall, and the Sea daily incroaches upon it; VVe guess, that by the falling of the Houses, and the ope [...] of the Earth, and the Inundation of the Waters, there are lost Fifteen Hundred Persons, and many of [...] note, of whom my good friend Attorney General Musgrove, Provost Marshal Reves another, my Lord [...] cretary Reves another, William Turner, Thomas Turner's Brother is lost, Mr. Swymer escaped, but his H [...] mate Mr. Watts is lost.

I came, I told you, on board this Ship in order to come home, but the People are so importunate wit [...] [...] to stay, I know not what to say to them, I must undergo great hardship if I continue here, the Com [...] being broken all to pieces and dissetled: I must live in a Hutt, eat Yams, and Plantants for Bread, w [...] I could never endure; drink Rumm-punch and Water, which were never pleasing to me. I have [...] to send a younger Person, who may better endure the Fatigue of it than I can; But if I should leave now, it will look very unnatural to leave them in their distress, and therefore what ever I suffer, I [...] not have such a blame lye at my door, I am resolv'd, That by reason of the present distress, to continu [...] [...] them a Year longer: They are going all in haste to build a new Town near the Rock in Linuave [...] Guardian of this Island. The French from Pituguaveis did attack this Island on the North side, but [...] all defeated and destroyed, it being about the time of the Earth-quake.