generally of the worft confequence.) On the next day, which was Sunday, the fymptoms feemed to be a little more favourable; but, to my great furprise, the very next day, I found his leg not only mortified up to the knee, but the same began anew in four different parts, viz. under each eye, on the top of his fhoulder, and on one hand; and in about twelve hours after he died. I fhall not presume to say there was any thing fupernatural in the cafe ; but, however, it must be confeffed, that fuch cafes are rather uncommon in fubjects fo young, and of fo good an habit as he had always been, previous to his illness.” Abstract of the act for the better prefervation of timber-trees, woods, under-woods, &c. A LL perfons, who from and after the 24th of June 1766, fhall be convicted of damaging, destroying, or carrying away any timbertrees, &c. or the lops or tops thereof, without the confent of the owner, forfeit, for the first offence, a fum not exceeding 20 1. with charges: and on non-payment to be committed for not more than twelve, nor less than fix months; for the fecond offence, a fum not exceed ing 30 1. &c. and on non-payment to be committed for not more than eighteen, nor lefs than twelve months and for the third offence are to be transported for seven years. Alfo perfons convicted of plucking up, spoiling or taking away any root, thrub, or plant, out of private cultivated ground, forfeit for the first offence, any fum not exceed ing 40 s. with the charges: for the fecond offence, any fum not exVOL. IX. 1 ceeding 5 1. with charges: and for the third offence are to be transported for seven years. The like for perfons cutting, damaging, or taking away any wood, underwood, poles, fticks, &c. or who have any fuch in their cuftody, without being able to account fatisfactorily for the fame, excepting that for thefe, they are, upon the third offence, to be punished as incorrigible rogues. Where the forfeitures fhall not be paid down on conviction, the offenders may be committed to hard labour; for the firft offence, for one month, and to be once whipped; and for the fecond offence, for three months, and to be thrice whipped. Perfons hindering or attempting to prevent the feizing offenders, forfeit 10 l. and if not paid down, are to be committed to hard labour for any time, not exceeding fix months. Oak, beech, chefnut, walnut, ash, elm, cedar, fir, afp, lime, fycamore, and birch trees, to be deemed timber trees, and within the meaning of the act. By a fecond act, offences, when committed in the night-time, are fubjected to penalties. IT Tis entitled, "An act for encouraging the cultivation, and for the better prefervation of trees, roots, plants, and fhrubs ;" and enacts, That from and after the zd day of June 1766, all and every perfon, or perfons, who fhall, in the night-time, lop, top, cut down, break, throw down, bark, burn, or otherwife fpoil or destroy, or carry away any oak, beech, ash, elm, fir, chefnut, or afp, timbertree, or other tree or trees ftanding for timber, or likely to become tim ber, without the confent of the owner [0] of or owners thereof, firft had and obtained ; or fhall in the night-time pluck up, dig up, break, fpoil, or deftroy, or carry away, any root, fhrub, or plant, roots, fhrubs, or plants, of the value of five fhillings, and which fhall be growing, ftanding, or being in the gardenground, nurfery-ground, or other inclofed ground, of any perfon or perfons whatsoever, fhall be deemed guilty of felony; and every fuch perfon or perfons fhall be fubject and liable to the like pains and penalties, as in cafes of felony; and the court have power to tranfport fuch perfon or perfons, for the fpace of feven years, &c." Thus this laft act makes the offence, when committed in the night-time, felony in the firft inftance; whereas the other act makes it felony only after the third offence, when committed in the day-time. द to be fubordinate unto, and dependent on the imperial crown and parliament of Great Britain; and that the king and parliament of Great Britain had, hath, and of right ought to have full power and authority to make laws and ftatutes of fufficient force to bind the colonies, and his Majefty's subjects in them, in all cafes whatsoever. "And it is farther declared, That all refolutions, votes, orders, and proceedings in any of the faid colonies, whereby the power and authority of the king, lords, and commons of Great Britain, in parliament affembled, is denied, or drawn into question, are, and are hereby declared to be utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever." Abstract of an act for repealing the Abstract of the late act of parliament THIS aft fets forth, that as the for the better fecuring the dependence of his Majefty's dominions in America, on the crown of Great Britain. TH HE preamble fets forth "That feveral of the houfes of reprefentatives in his Majefty's colonies in America had of late, against the law, claimed to themfelves, or the general affemblies of the fame, the fole and exclufive right of im continuance of the former act would be attended with many inconveniencies, and may be productive of confequences greatly detrimental to the commercial interefts of thefe kingdoms, it is therefore, from and after the 1st day of May, 1766, with the feveral matters and things contained in it, hereby repealed and made void, to all intents and purposes whatsoever. form at Martinico. ST. PETER, Aug. 21, 1766. THE pofing duties and taxes on his Ma- An authentic account of the dreadful jefty's fubjects in the faid colonies, and have paffed certain votes, refolutions, and orders, derogatory to the authority of parliament, inconfiftent with the dependency of the faid colonies upon the crown of Great Britain; it is therefore declared, That the faid colonies have been, are, and of right ought HIS colony, which has often been afflicted with dreadful calamities, has lately fuffered one more fatal than all that have happened fince its establishment; and the damage occafioned thereby, will not for a long time be repair ed. On Thursday, the 13th inftant, about ten at night, the whole horizon darkened, the wind blowing furiously from the north-weft, the clouds vomited torrents, mingled with flaming fulphur; every thing feemed to forebode the diffolution of nature. The fury of the wind increased; houfes tottered; their tops were carried away; a frightful noife was heard from every quarter; difmay seized on every heart. -Till midnight the hurricane continued with increased violence; nothing could refift its fury: here a wall was thrown down, there a houfe; infants in the arms of their mothers; mothers in thofe of their husbands, all buried under the rains. At the fame inftant the earth trembled men and women, children and flaves, all endeavoured to feek for fafety by flight; but were reftrained by fear, and believing every moment to be their laft, they fell proftrate in fervent prayers. The horrors of this terrible night were increased by disasters from the fea; the waves intermingled with the clouds, dafhed upon the coaft, and beat to pieces all the veffels in the road the failors, though without hopes of fuccour, raised the moft lamentable cries, and were all fwallowed up in the ocean. At three in the morning the, wind began to calm, and foon after, daylight prefented a view of this melancholy catastrophe. The treets appeared covered with ruins: the fhore with fhipwrecks and dead bodies; the trees dafhed to pieces and torn from their roots blocked up the roads; and the fwoln rivers carried along with them, in their courfe, ftones of an enormous fize. At five o'clock a thick cloud appeared, fufpended over Mount Peleus, which burft, being overloaded with water, and, like an impetuous torrent, overwhelmed the neighbouring plains. At fix the wind was entirely appeafed, the fea no longer agitated, and a calm fucceeded this most horrible tempeft. When the ftorm was at the height, a quantity of flaming matter was obferved to come from the bofom of the earth; and fome perfons are faid to have been burnt thereby. Thirty-five brigantines, boats, &c. have been loft in this harbour, befides twelve paffage-canoes. Of the former, twenty-eight belonged to France, and feven to England. To complete the calamity, we have received the most afflicting advices from the country. Hardly is. there a veftige to be feen of any houfes all around; under the ruins of which many of the proprietors have been crushed to death. The canes, coffee trees, cocoas, &c. &c. have been all torn up and destroyed. We know not as yet the exact number that have perished in this quarter, but fuppofe there may be go, and twice as many wounded. Our governor was the preceding day at Caze Pilote, where he endured with much hazard all the violence of the ftorm, and returned hither next day, deeply affected. with this public calamity. He has accordingly given his attention entirely to the eftablishment and fervation of good order, fo neceffary in circumftances like ours. The above is a guîne recital of what has happened at St. Peter. In going over the island we fhall find near the fame calamities, and in fome places ftill worse. The habitations in Carbet and Caze Pilote, have had the fame fate as ours; no buildings now! no pro vifions Do plantations ! Port Royal, great part of whose inhabitants were ruined by the dreadful fire on the 20th of May, has not been exempted from this last fcourge. The tops of most of the houses in that city have been carried away, and many of the houfes thrown down, as well as thofe of the citadel. A cafern, 1z0 feet long and 18 broad, has been driven feveral paces from its foundation; nine English veffels, at anchor in the Flemish-bay, have been dashed to pieces; feveral French boats have been rendered useless; a great many paffage-canoes fhattered upon the quays; almost all the veffels at anchor in the bafon damaged. The dwellings in this quarter are totally laid waste. The number of dead amounts at prefent to forty, the wounded as many more. La Trinité has fuffered as much as any place whatever. Nothing has refifted the fury of the hurricane. One half of the town has been thrown down, the other uncovered. The timber-work of the church, remarkable for its strength, has been driven from the walls, and carried in fhatters a confiderable way off. Seventeen or eighteen veffels that were in the road, have all fuffered fhipwreck. The number of dead and wounded is more confiderable here than elfewhere; we tremble at the recital. One hundred and eighty whites and negroes are fuppofed to have perifhed, and upwards of two hundred and forty wounded.' It was here that, a mother was between her two children, whom fire still held in each hand, they T HE fall of the houfes began in the fuburb of Sapaic. The noife occafioned by their tumbling was heard in the neighbouring fuburb, with the cries of feveral perfons who called out for help; but as the water surrounded entirely the fuburb of Sapaic, it was very dif ficult going to the affiftance of the unhappy inhabitants. The river, which was prodigiously swoln and rapid, was laden with a number of trees of an enormous fize, that had been torn up by the roots, and carried down along with it; a circumftance which, joined with the darkness of the night, rendered the paffage of boats very dangerous. These obstacles, however, did not intimidate a mariner, who, in fpite of the intreaties and tears of his wife and children, ventured to cross, ren crushed to death the river, in order to fave fuch as were on the point of perishing. His courage roused several of his fellow The floods continued to increase, and redoubled their alarms. The inhabitants of the city, feparated from the fuburb by a bridge, ran to ville Bourbonne. At feven o'clock of the morning of Tuefday, Nov. 18, the floods began to abate, and their decrease continued till noon. Hope immediately began to fpring up in every bolom, but was foon ftifled by the fall of the greatest part of the fuburb of Gafferas, adjoining to that of ville Bourbonne : and it was perceived that all the houfes, even thofe that were yet at a distance from the waters, were tottering, and rested only on a loofe earth which the waters had already undermined. At noon the fwell began again, and was continually augmenting. The confternation was then univerfal. Orders were given to move off all the effects. Perfons of all ranks were defired to affift in the removal, and all the carts and carriages were engaged to make the removal the more fpeedy. The tribunals of justice opened their halls, the monks their own convents and cloyers; and the churches were alfo offered as repofitories for the effects of the people. The inhabitants of ville Bourbonne abandoned fucceffively their houfes; and the inhabitants of the city, with an earnestnefs which did honour to humanity, received their unhappy neighbours, and, with marks of true tendernefs, endeavoured to affuage a grief which had no bounds. The inundation increased during that whole day, and continued still augmenting till feven in the morning, Nov. 19, when the waters were thirty-two feet above the common water level, Such an extraordinary inundation has occafioned fundry neighbouring villages to be entirely overflowed, and has produced the greatest ravages. In the plains, the buildings have been overwhelmed, the grain washed away, the cattle drowned, and the greatest part of the inhabitants found their only fafety in fudden flight, or in climbing high trees, where the horrors of famine were joined to the dreadful fpectacle of beholding their dwellings deftroyed, and their effects carried away by the flood. |