The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-06-02 00:00:00

is thus described :
" The morning of the Bth February, 1843. presented they
same blue sky, the same bright sunshine, which so genera
distinguishes these tropic isles. A few white fleecy vapours
were skimming along the heavens ; while upon the you
tops rested a few darker clouds, such as usually presage
slight showers. But there was no particular appearance in
the atmosphere—nothing that could prove an indication of
what was so soon to take place ! About half-past ten o'clock,
a.m., a low, hollow, rumbling sound wasp erceived, like to
the approach of some heavy piece of artillery ; then a tremor
of the earth was felt, slight at first, but which increased with
fearful violence."
The effect is thus described :
" The damage done is immense. In the ca
capital some of
the finest stores are but a mass of ruis,
their houses in
or e
rent, and caused the inhabitants to 11y from
the greatest consternation.
Dire were the tessings, deep the groans !
as the stone dwelling-houses and stores crashed and
crushed, and fell beneath the Might! werewhat ' shook so
terribly the earth.' The wooden buildings waved to and fro,
like to the tall and slender pine-tree naafi bends beneath the
slightest breeze; while the solid grou lterally heaved and
trembled as the helmws of the ocean do when the stormy
winds arise! ' uatio also of the hills moped, and
were shaken !' Oh ! awful—trulY, truly awful ~---were the
three or four minutes that bespoke the duration of the earth-
quake, which apparently increased in violence as it increased
in time, which seemed then to have added leaden powers to
its wings, and made its moments hours. Oh ! heart-rending
were the screamings there as the frightened inha-
in the
bitants rushed out of dwellings to seek safety
open streets

THE DESTRUCTION IN THE RURAL DISTRICTS.
" From all parts of the country news has arrived of havoc
ani d devastations.
gnes, wind-mills, Upon several of the estates, steam-en-
have fallen a
boiling-houses, and proprietors' dwellings,
prey to the dreadful rocking of the earth. At
t one estate the water in a large stone tank was thrown out by
gbe
iviolent shaking, and rushed down the hill, forming a
ima I.rivulet. In the cane-pieces, the cracking and groan-
ng or the canes could be distinctly heard, as whole fields were
swayedu to and fro ;—while the labourers why were thrown
pon their knees by the violence °f the oscillations. The
Moravianille church at Cavan is said to be greatly injured, and
estates in that district have suffered very much• Upon
one
the est report says, three negroes houses have sunk in
a earthen and, in the vicinity, the ground has opened, and
pool of water of a white and clear quality is formed. The
church at Middle Island has also suffered; and in Old Road
(in that neighbourhood) a portion of the cliff has fallen, ren-
dering the road almost impassable. Bevon Island Estate, in
the parish of St. John's, presents a most dilapidated appear-
ance
:—theHouse,'' whole
of
the
works, as well as the " Great
were lifted up from the foundation, and hurled over
the cliff into the mountain stream below. In the vity of
Sandy Point, at an estate belonging to the Payne family, the
earthfumes also opened, and vomited forth, from its secret depths,
of dank sulphurous vapour. Fort George, at Brim-
stone Hill, has felt the shock in a serious manner ; while the
siountain itself is in many places despoiled of its beauty from
the land-slips which have taken place. From NI ount Alisery,
theg highest point of the island a log spiral cloud of white
msike was seen to ascend during thenime of the earthquake;
and the sulphurous s ring, situated in its centre, is said to
have bubbled over." P g'
Respecting Montserrat, a writer in the Antigua Weekly
Register says :
.11" I was about 500 yards yards from the Sulphur Pit, open:
I g an old spring of fresh water - the earthquake commenced
gradually, the oscillation slow j though sensible it was an
earthquake I was under no apprehensi
heard ' on till of a sudden I
a dreadful noise. On looking towards the mountain
over the Sulphur, it was enveloped in one mass of smoke, as
I thought. It was then time to move my quarters, but was
thrown upon my back from the violent motion. The path
that I returned, I observed cracking '
overl celled to the man to
be cautious—it was well we had got as we did, for the
path was fallen in. The mountain, to the extent of a mile,
is rent in various places. A man this monsent has returned
from the Sulphur, stating the crater is open, but does not
perceive an
usual." any greater appearance of smoke
from it than
The following statement is really curious, and is highly
creditable to the persons in question r--
" Perhaps it has never occurred in the annals of history,
that prisoners immured in a common jail behaved n
the occasion of this lamentable catastrophe. Even in [cage.
cells where the walls were not sufficiently falle to admit of
!their passing through the aperture, they were under. no re-
raint ; for the jailor, with admirable presence timelyind, and
imm upon
kind feeling. unlocked all the prison doors
the shoe. k ;—.yet still not ono offered to make his escape'
Those
though they
individuals sentenced to work in the street gang, al-
sought their own camel.of an evening, returned,
without compulsion, to their work n the morning; and in
one instance, the master of the House of Correction received
a note from one the culprits, apologising for his absence,
hw.hich he attributed to the fact of having to assist in repairing
is house, which had suffered from the earthquake, and pro-
mising to return as soon as he had finisbed,—is promise he
faithfully kept. Also a girl who was
suspected murder of h,er four brothers,
in the felons' cell, for
after visiting her
friends and spending an hour or two with them, returns to
her prison of an evening, as a bird to its nest.
The appearance of the country must be lamentable.
"Almost every kitchen and oven in the island is des-
troyed. The cisterns are nearly all cracked and rent ; and
where such is not the case, the water has been so deeply im-
pregnated with sulphur, or mixed with the fallen mortar, or
else the spouting has been nearly all torn down—so that fears
are entertained of a serious season of rought, following upon
this tremendous calamity. As I have already remarked, no
language can justly describe the scene of desolation the
streets present—the fallen bricks and stones strewing the
pathway—the costly furniture, in many instances, broken
and ruined—the windows forced beneathof their places, and
hanging by a single pin, or crushed the heavy walls !
casement some parts lie a broken jalousie—in others, a shattered
elegemuent ; here, part of a wooden portico—there, the parti-
f a once pleasant balcony ! Broken timber, massy
sto_ 9es, scattered shingles (used, instead of slates, for the
roofs of buildings,) boards svrested out of their places, shi-
with thraefters, gallery rails, wooden partitions, some covered
broken n. gaudy French paper, tattered and torn ; heaps of
of life glass, costly lamps, handsome china ; all the luxuries
uplifted which the ill-fated dwellings were once furnished ;
h and shattered roofs, pigeon-houses, horse-stables,
,h ouses, negro-rooms, all thrown down, and huddled
together, are to be seen in all parts of the town ; while the
portions of the buildings are so shattered, that they
standinglook as if the finger of an infant could hurl them down,—ea
hinsecure as a pile of paper shreds, as fragile as the scattered
oar frost 1
It is stated that a hundred and seventy sugar estates are

seriously injured.
" At Barbuda, an appendary island to An
belonging
to Sir Christopher Codrington, the earthquake was
felt very
severely,—all the atone buildings, with the exception of a
small school-room, are down.
At the neighbouring islands the earthquake has been felt
more or less severely. Barbadoes felt the shock but slightly ;
as also St. Vincent's, Martinique, Dominica, and St. Tho-
mas. The accounts from Guadeloupe, which appears to have
been the seat of the convulsion
cold. A French brig-, are indeed dreadful—enough
to make the very blood run
Papillon, has arrived at English Harbour (Antiof-wargua) 'dthe
es-
patched by Admiral Gourbeyre, governor of Guadeloupe, to
inquire into our state, and offer the assistance of its crew.
The report she brings of Guadaloupe is most distressing,
ls
one whole town levelled with the ground, and 3,000
sou
hurried into eternity ; and 600 severely wounded. Out of
one entire street only one person, a female, was saved alive!
The streets are covered with ruins to the depth of ten feet;
and 300 men, after working for three days in clearing away
the rubbish from one street, were only enabled to make a
passage through, sufficiently wide for one person to pass.
Soon after the earthquake, a fife broke out, occasioned from
the live coals thrown about from the various falling ovens
and kitchens, which destroyed what the earthquake spared.
The dead bodies of the sufferers were dragged out of the
ruins, in order to be interred, as fast as possible ; but the
mass of rubbish was ,to great, and the number of victims so
many—while decomposition so soon takes place in these warm
countries—that at length they were obliged to be left a prey
to the devouring flames, which aided also in destroying life.
The town of Basseterre, on the other side of the island, has
not suffered greatly ; not many lives lost there. The few
lives from Point au Pitre, the
,own, have lost their all from the
aiarnitous fire and earthquake."

that have escaped withth

name of the u

tunate

1 Paper Lantern for Puseyites. By o' t
London : Smith, Elder, and Co

I The above is a hurnourous poem in serio-comic rhyming
phantasy. It has its alone merit in having hit upon a vein of

afire not too retnotel)
. That the so called
eievant to the subject satir-
rapiu
into extremes of diseiplinal details
and ()ben-ranee: on the score of their antiquity, as well as
into PA- t rinses of conatrwetion not always nns9phisticaled, of

ind, but

he rapid reader

Puseyites ar

running