Page:Awful phenomena of nature (2).pdf/79



more general deſtruction in the extent of a given proportion of land, hath rarely happened; and the hurricane of 1780, will be ever acknowledged as a viſitation that deſcends but once in a century, and that ſerves as a ſcourge to correct the vanity, to humble the pride, and to chaſtiſe the imprudence and arrogan earrogance [sic] of men.

The following deſcription, which immediately and naturally aroſe from the melancholy ſubject; when the facts were freſh, and the ruins, as it were, before my eyes, will not, I truſt, be deemed foreign to the general tendency of theſe remarks; and I ſhall be, I hope, excuſed, if I endeavour to awaken the recollection of calamities paſt, particularly as in thoſe calamities the poor negroes had likewiſe their portion of diſappointment and affliction.

This deſtructive hurricane began by gentle and almoſt unperceptible degrees, between twelve and one o'clock, on the morn of the 3d of October, and in the year 1780. There fell, at firſt, a trifling rain, which continued, without increaſe, until ten