Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/123

, the postmaster being ill. I then visited the Supreme Court, and saw Sir Fielding Clarke on the Bench, and accepted an invitation to dine with him and Lady Clarke that night. They were old friends I knew in Hong-Kong.

"Leaving the Supreme Courts I called at the leading tobacco manufacturer in Kingston. He presented me with a few cigars, and asked me to see the process of manufacture in the basement of the shop. I declined. Next day he congratulated me on not going, for 40 of the 120 employees were killed two minutes after my visit.

"I went up the main street from the post office with my friend, and I saw thousands of people, men, women, and children, jumping pell-mell into the streets. I felt a singular shock, which they more readily detected to be the first indication of an earthquake.

"A moment afterwards the earth rose and fell up and down. There was an upward and downward movement with shaking, but no swaying. For an instant we did not realize what had occurred. Then another great shock came, and a huge building, three storeys high, fell right across the street a yard in front of me. I looked round and saw another building falling across the street just at my back, and the building on my left-hand side also came down with a crash.

"I took refuge with my friend on the right-hand of the street, but the whole place was in darkness for five minutes. The air was full of huge quantities of dust and mortar, and everything was perfectly black. When it cleared away I found myself looking like a black man.

"A most awful sight met my eyes. We climbed aver the ruins of the buildings blocking the streets, and we saw the population that had escaped from the houses on their knees crying. Mothers were hugging their little children and weeping. People were rushing