Sentence:  If you consider well of the People of the "West-Indies", it is very probable, that they are a newer or younger People, than the People of the old World. And it is much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by "Earthquakes", ... but rather, it was <WSD>Desolated</WSD> by a particular "Deluge": For "Earthquakes" are seldom in those Parts. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To deprive of inhabitants.