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in upon us ſo ſoon as their houſes were deſtroyed, and whoſe terrors ſeemed to have deprived them of ſenſe and motion, not only very particularly augmented the confuſion of the time, but very conſiderably added, by their whiſpers and diſtreſs, to the ſcene of general ſuſpenſe, and the fluctuations of hope and alarm. Some lamented by anticipation, the lots of their wives and children, of which their fears had deprived them; while others regretted the downfall of their houſes, of which they had ſo lately been the unfortunate ſpectators.
It will be difficult to conceive a ſituation more ⟨terrible⟩ than what my houſe afforded from four o'clock in the afternoon until ſix o'clock the enſuing morning. Driven, as we were, from room to room, while the roofs, the floors, and the walls, were tumbling over head, or falling around us; the wind blowing with a noiſe and violence that cannot even now be reflected upon without alarm; the rain pouring down in torrents; and the night which ſeemed to fall, as it were in a moment, uncommonly dark, and the gloom of which we had not a ſingle ray to enliven, and the length of which we had not either ſpirits or reſolution, by converſation, to cheer! The negro huts, as I before obſerved, were at this time deſtroyed; and the miſerable ſufferers ruſhed into the houſe, and began ſuch complaints and lamentations, as added very conſiderably to the diſcomforts, and much increaſed the almoſt before unſpeakable diſtreſſes, of the ſcene. One poor woman in particular (if real philanthrophy would not disdain to make a diſcrimination of colour, was, in a very particular and ſenſible manner, entitled to pity, Her child and that a favourite, was nearly buried in the ruins of her houſe that fell around her: ſhe ſnatched it, with all the inconſiderate impatience of maternal fondneſs, from the
