forming a true estimate of the sincerity of these professions, literally believed in them, and blindly trusting to their truth, was afterwards overwhelmed in ruin. In the year 1687, Christopher Duke of Albemarle, the son of General Monk, who had restored the Stuarts to the throne of their ancestors, was appointed governor, in the room of Colonel Molesworth. Few events, worthy of record, happened during his short administration. A post-office, from the great increase of commercial intercourse with England, was now become necessary, and instituted; and Sir Hans Sloane, the governor's physician, made at this period, that excellent collection of plants, which displayed his industry, did honour to his country, and extended the boundaries of natural history. The governor, soon after his arrival, displayed a striking instance of his arbitrary spirit. Having called an assembly, his grace dismissed them abruptly, because one of the members had, in the course of a debate, repeated the old adage, Salus populi, suprema lex, "The safety of the people is the supreme law." He afterwards caused the member to be taken into custody, and actually fined him in the sum of six hundred pounds. But if the principles of the governors of that age were arbitrary, the disposition of the people was at least equally servile. Of this fact, the following is a striking instance. The duchess having accompanied her husband to take possession of his government, the speaker of the house of assembly, in his first address, expatiated on this circumstance in the eloquence of the times. "This is an honour," he observed, "which the opulent king"doms of Mexico and Peru could never arrive at, and even "the ghost of Columbus, could he but know, that his own "beloved soil was hallowed by such footsteps, would be appeased for all the indignities which he endured of the Spa"niards."

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The duke, after a short administration, fell a victim to the climate, and was succeeded by Colonel Molesworth. The memorable and happy revolution of the year 1688, now took place. William and Mary were here proclaimed with the same general satisfaction which displayed itself in every corner of the British dominions, and the liberties of the people were at length secured upon a lasting foundation.

In the year 1690, the Earl of Inchequin was appointed governor. During his administration, the descendants of those slaves who had belonged to the Spaniards, and who, at the time of the conquest, had retired to the mountains, excited considerable alarm in the planters who lived in their neighbourhood. The Negroes, too, who had been imported from Africa, now first displayed that discontent with their situation, which has often, since that time, excited the most serious apprehensions, and sometimes endangered even the existence of the colony. Their rebellion, however, being only partial, was almost wholly confined to one plantation; and after having murdered about twenty white inhabitants, they were defeated, and met with the punishment which their cruelties deserved. But a disaster of a more dreadful nature now attracted the observation of all.

CHAPTER V.

Dreadful Earthquake, and Overthrow of Port Royal.-Invasion of the French from St. Domingo, under the Command of M. Du Casse.-Arrival of the Scots Settlers from Darien.-Destructive Hurricane.

ONE of those extraordinary events which sometimes change the face of nature, and powerfully remind man of his state of uncertainty and dependance, now afflicted the people of this flourishing colony, and astonished the inhabitants of Europe. On the 7th day of June 1692, one of the most dreadful earthquakes ever felt in the new world, shook the island of Jamaica to its centre. Between the hours of ten and eleven o'clock of the forenoon, three distinct shocks, each more terrible than the preceding, The sky, which was clear and serene, agitated the earth. became suddenly red and obscure; a rumbling noise was heard under ground, spreading from the mountains to the plain; the separated soil choaked up the current of the rivers; hills at a distance from each other, were driven together with irresistible force, and a crash surpassing thunder; mountains divided, and falling into the vales, overwhelmed the inhabitants in unavoidable destruction; whole settlements sunk into the bowels of the earth, and were instantly covered with water; plantations were removed from their situation, the houses were overturned, and every sugar-work in the island was destroyed. But in the populous and flourishing city of Port Royal, the direful effects of this concussion of nature were most alarming and disastrous..

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All the wharves sunk at once, and in the space of two minutes, nine-tenths of the city were covered with water, which was raised to such a height, that it entered the uppermost rooms of the few houses which were left standing. The tops of the highest houses, were visible in the water, and surrounded by the masts of vessels, which had been sunk along with them. Two thousand persons in Port Royal alone were swallowed up; and there is no doubt, but that, throughout the island, considerably more than three thousand souls were destroyed on this awful occasion*.

The surviving inhabitants, deprived of friends, of shelter from the elements of heaven, of the comforts, and almost of the necessaries of life, were sunk in the deepest dejection. They reared tents and sheds into which they could crawl, in order to prolong a miserable existence; and thousands, who, the day before, had wallowed in wealth and luxury, were now necessitated to have recourse to the precarious bounty of others. Scanty, alas! is the fare which proceeds from occasional charity, and gloomy must be the prospects of those who subsist on it. Reflection on the past, anticipation of the future, exposure to the elements of heaven, insufficient cloathing, and an unhealthful diet, cast a gloom over the minds of these colonists, and prepared them for further disasters. A malignant fever succeeded, snatched thousands of unresisting victims to the grave, and before the ninth of October, the rich and flourishing island of Jamaica was considerably depopulated.

Innumerable are the disasters which this terrible visitation of providence occasioned. Two hills at the entrance of Sixteen-mile walk met together, and obstructed, for some time, the course of the river which flows through it. The river Cobre, which laves the sides of Spanish-town, the capital of * See Note (e.)

the island, leaving its bed, exposed to view vast quantities of fish, and did not return, for a considerable time, to its farmer channel. Even the sea, at one time, receded several hundreds of yards from the shore, and returning with an awful and irre sistible violence, overflowed the adjoining lands, and became literally covered with trees, which the earth had thrown up, or the winds blown away. It has been remarked, that the climate of this island is less genial, the air less salubrious, and the soil more unfruitful than formerly. The mountains are not so high, and the plains are lower than they were before. It is affirmed, that most of the wells can be reached with ropes, shorter by two or three feet, than were formerly required: “A monument," says an eloquent writer, "of the fragility of conquest, which should have taught Europeans not to trust "to the possession of a world, that trembles under their feet, "and seems to slip out of their rapacious hands.

Scarcely had the remaining inhabitants recovered from the confusion into which this dreadful disaster had thrown them, when they were menaced with a new species of danger, little less alarming. War betwixt England and France had again commenced, to curb the insolence, and repress the ambition of Lewis the Fourteenth. France, as might naturally be expected, viewing with a jealous eye, the commercial prosperity of England, judged this a fit opportunity of snatching Jamaica from her grasp. With this view, Monsieur Du Casse, governor of St. Domingo, invaded the island on the 17th day of June 1694, with three ships of war, twenty privateers, and fifteen hundred men. He landed eight hundred soldiers, at Cow-bay in the parish of St. David, with orders to desolate the country as far as Port Morant; and the militia being draughted to the defence of the capital, his orders were executed with a barbarous precision. The French troops were accused by Sir William