“ The house I was in shook with such violence, that the upper stories immediately fell, and though my apartment (which was the first floor) did not then share the same fate, yet every thing was thrown out of its place in such a manner, that it was with no small difficulty I kept my feet, and expected nothing less than to be soon crushed to death, as the walls continued rocking to and fro in the frightfullest manner, opening in several places, large stones falling down on every side from the cracks, and the ends of most of the rafters starting out from the roof. ”

“ All the wells in the island, as well as those of Port-Royal, from one fathom to six or seven deep, threw their water out of the top with great violence. Above 12 miles from the sea, the earth gaped and spouted out, with a prodigious force, vast quantities of water into the air: yet the greatest violences were among the mountains and rocks; and it is a general opinion, that the nearer the mountains, the greater the shock ”

“ One of them in particular informed me, that when the second shock came on, he could perceive the whole sky waving backwards and forwards like the sea when the wind first begins to rise; that the agitation of the earth was so great even under the river, that it threw up his large anchor front the mooring, which swam, as he termed it, on the surface of the water ”

“ At this time I took notice the waters retired so impetuously, that some vessels were left quite dry, which rode in seven fathom water: the river thus continued alternately rushing on and retiring several times together in such sort, that it was justly dreaded Lisbon would now meet the same fate, which a few years ago had befallen the city of Lima.
'Perhaps you may think the present doleful subject here concluded; but, alas! the horrors of the first of November, are sufficient to fill a volume. ”

“ Most of the rivers were stopped up for 24 hours by the falling of the mountains; till swelling up, they made themselves new tracks and channels; tearing up, in their passage, trees, &c After the great shock, those people who escaped got on board ships in the harbour, where many continued above two months; the shocks all that time being so violent, and coming so thick, sometimes two or three in an hour, accompanied with frightful noises like a rushing wind, or a hollow rumbling thunder, with brimstone blasts, that they durst not come ashore. ”