Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/286

 226 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI quakes which in the year 1811 almost de- stroyed the town of New Madrid on the Missis- sippi, were very sensibly felt on the upper portion of the Missouri country and occa- sioned much superstitious dread among the Indians.* Bradbury, who at the time of the earth- cjuake was on a keel boat not far south of the Chickasaw bluffs, says that on the night of the first shock they had tied their boat to a small island about 500 yards above the en- trance to the channel known as the Devil's channel. He was awakened about 10 o'clock in the uight by a nmst tremejidous noise ac- companied by so violent an agitation of the boat that it appeared in danger of upsetting. He found the other four men on the boat in verj' great alarm and almost luiconscious from terror. "When he reached the deck of the boat and could see the river he foimd it agitated as if by storm and although the noise was inconceivably loud and terrific, he could dis- tinctly hear the fall of trees and the scream- ing of the wild fowl of the river. After some moments, during which all on the boat thought they would be destroyed, they made their way to the stern of the boat in order to put out a fire which had been kindled on the flat surface of a large rock. By this time the shock had ceased, but they were further frightened by the fact that the perpendicular banks, both above and below the boat, began to fall into the river in such vast masses as to nearly sink the boat by the large swells which it occasioned. After some difficulty he managed to send two men up the bank of the island to which they were moored to see if the island itself had not been cut in two by the shock; they had suspected this was the fact, owing to the noise which they had heard. Bradburj^ him- self went on shore at about half past two in the morning; just as he was making his way to the shore another shock came, terrible in- deed, but not equal to the first. On reaching the shore he found that the bank to which his boat was tied was divided from the rest of the island by a chasm four feet in width and that the bank itself had sunk at least two feet ; the chasm which had opened seemed to be about 80 yards in length. A number of other shocks were felt during the uight but they were not so violent as the first two. It was noticed that the soiuid which was heard at the time of eveiw shock always preceded it at least a sec- ond ■•nul that the sound came every time from the same point and went off in an opposite direction ; the shocks seemed to travel from a little north of east to the westward. By day- light they had eomited twenty-seven shocks but on lauding they were unable to cross the channel, the river at that time was covered with foam and drift timber and had risen con- siderably, but the boat was still safe. They observed two canoes floating down the river, in one of which there was some Indian corn and some clothes. They found later that the men who had been in these canoes, as well as some others, had been drowned at the time of the shock. Just as they loosened the boat, preparing to depart, there came another shock almost equal to the first. At intervals during the day there were other shocks, among them a very strong one occurred, and the river was very greatly agi- tated. Mr. Bridge, one of Bradbury's com- panions, was standing on the bank during one of these and the shock was so violent that he was almost thrown into the river. At 11 o'clock that morning there came an- other violent shock that seemed to affect the men in the boat as seriously as if they had been on the land ; the trees on both sides of the river were violently agitated and the
 * Long Journal, p. 57.