Page:Account of several remarkable earthquakes which have happened in various quarters of the world (1).pdf/6

 swallowed up, houses, people, trees and all, in one gap: in lieu of which, afterwards appeared great pools of water; which, when dried up, left nothing but sand, without any mark that ever tree or plant had grown thereon. The shock was so violent, that it threw people down on their knees or their faces as they were running about for shelter. Several houses were shuffled some yards out of their places, and yet continued standing. One Hopkins had his plantation removed half a mile from the place where it stood, without any considerable alteration. All the wells in the island, as well as those of Port-Royal, from one fathom to six or seven deep, threw their water out at the top with great violence. Above 12 miles from the sea, the earth gaped and spouted out, with prodigious force, vast quantities of water into the air: yet the greatest violences were among the mountains and rocks; and it is general opinion, that the nearer the mountains, the greater the shock, and the cause thereof lay among them. Most of the rivers were stopped up for 24 hours by the falling of the mountains; till swelling up, they made themselves new tracks and channels; tearing up, in their passage, trees, &c. After the great shock, those people who escaped got on board ships in the harbour, where many continued above two months; the shocks all that time being so violent, and coming so thick, sometimes two or three in an hour, accompanied with frightful noises like a rushing wind, or a hollow rumbling thunder, with brimstone-blasts, that they durst not come ashore. The consequence of the earthquake was a general sickness, from the noisome vapours belched forth, which swept away above 3000 persons.