The new Wesleyan Chapel was fearfully rent, and doubts were at first entertained for the safety of the building; but upon a mature deliberation, it was determined to repair it without pulling it down; which has since been done.
The nearly finished Scotch kirk met with a severe injury, its walls being cracked in several places.
The ministers of the established church in St. John’s performed service under a large tent, erected to the east of the Daily Meal Society’s buildings, and also in the Conversion Society’s school-room, and the African hospital.
The Scotch and Wesleyan ministers were accommodated at the Mico and Moravian school-room, or beneath a grove of trees, near to the spot where Governor Parke met his fate; and for one day in the week, at the Moravian Chapel.
Almost every kitchen and oven in the island was destroyed; and many of the capacious cisterns ruined. In some of them, the water was so deeply impregnated with sulphur, or mixed with the fallen mortar, as to be perfectly unusable.
Oh! awful indeed was this fearful visitation of the Almighty! The loftiest looks of men were humbled, and the stoutest hearts were bowed down. Tremendous—terrible was the shock! The earth reeled as if about to be over-thrown; and scarce could the strongest man keep his footing. The island shook from its very centre; and in many parts the ground opened, and emitted columns of noxious sulphureous water. The sea felt the powerful hand of its Maker, and rose several feet above its highest mark; while in some parts it dashed up the streets to the distance of many yards.
The excess of terror occasioned by this awful throe of Nature was so great, that many individuals threw themselves over the wharfs, and sought refuge in the treacherous waves. Still their fears were not allayed; for the sea was so turbulent that they were under the necessity of again seeking dry land to save themselves from being engulfed in its yawning abyss. The legislature met at government-house on the 13th, (the court-house being in an unsafe condition,) by special command, to take into consideration the best way of averting, as far as human endeavours could, the direful results likely to accrue from the late calamity. A grant of 500l. currency was placed at the disposal of a committee, for the purpose of supporting the roof and plate of the cathedral, and rendering it in some measure safe for divine worship. The vestry met on the 24th March, under the tents, and among other resolutions agreed to make a record of the event in the church books. The dock-yard at English Harbour—the pride of the Caribbee Islands—has suffered greatly; the excellent wharfs racked and rent; in some places they sank down to the level of the sea, in others, they were heaved up and down, like the billows of the great deep; the massy stone and brick buildings erected within the yard were nearly all of them injured; the officers’ quarters severely rent; the cordage stores, &c., cracked from top to bottom; the fine capacious cisterns ruined. The superintendent’s office, &c., was also much impaired and rent; and the stone platform which ran along the commissioners’ room moved out of its place, and the pavement beneath literally wrested up. The guard-house and midshipmen’s quarters were greatly damaged, and the stone building near presented an awful appearance, one side of it having sunk some depth into the ground, while that part of the wharf contiguous to it was fearfully rent. In the boat-house, the massy stone circular pillars which supported the shed were very much cracked, and one of them was separated from its pedestal and hurled to the ground. The blacksmith’s shop, paint stores, &c., were left but as “tottering walls,” while the long line of cliffs and stone walls that topped the hill at the back of the yard were shivered in all directions. St. Helena was also much injured, and the embattled walls of Fort Berkley, at the mouth of the harbour, were overthrown. The superintendent of the yard, Jos. Hart, Esq., estimated the damage at about £20,000. In many parts of the yard the ground looked as if ploughed up, while in others, deep and broad fissures, strongly impregnated with sulphur, opened their yawning mouths. It was, at first, asserted that the mouth of the harbour had been obstructed by the fallen rocks; but upon a careful survey, the water was found to be deeper, if anything, than before the awful occurrence. At the Ridge, the terrible effects of the earthquake were also felt. The stone stores and barracks were either thrown down, or so severely rent that they were unsafe, and the privates were accommodated under tents for some time after. The small stone building, situated at the extreme point of Shirley Heights, (erected for the accommodation of the signal-man,) fell at the commencement of the shock, burying beneath its ruins a baby of four months old, but which was afterwards extricated and restored to its distressed parents unhurt, with the exception of a trifling scratch. The town of Falmouth presented but a mass of ruins—its church was levelled with the ground, and the tombs in the churchyard rent open, as if the last great day was come. The fortifications at Monk’s-hill were cracked and rent in many places; and near to the spot, a huge rock was lifted up by the oscillations of the earth, from the place where it had reposed for centuries, and hurled to the opposite side of the road.
Dows Hill, the country residence of the governor, suffered great injury, and his excellency Sir C. A. Fitzroy lost furniture to the amount of 1000l. sterling. De Witts, the seat of Sir Robert Horsford, Knt., solicitor-general of Antigua, was nearly levelled with the ground, and several other delightful country residences partly destroyed. The lately established villages were nearly all dismantled—their neat little stone cottages in ruins. Many of the Moravian and Wesleyan settlements throughout the island have suffered very much, as well as several of the forts. Rat Island battery is also much damaged, as well as the new lunatic asylum erected there. In many parts of the island, pools of water were formed, where hitherto no appearance of moisture was to be found; while in other places, established ponds were completely dried up.
The boats and ships in the harbour were fearfully affected. The island could not be seen for the space of ten minutes, from the dense cloud which arose from it. The hills which encircle the harbour were fearfully shaken; and at that part known as “Hatton’s-hill” the effects were truly terrific. The whole of this eminence, which rises rather conically, is rent into yawning fissures to the extent of about eighteen or nineteen acres. This spot had been appropriated to the negroes’ provision ground; and in one place, a portion of their well-cultivated gardens slipped from the brow of the hill, and, still clothed with its vegetable productions, half way filled up one of the chasms, (in breadth from three to four feet,) cleft in the solid ground. Upon the margin of the sea, another deep abyss presents itself. The solid rock is rent asunder, in extent to about forty feet long, thirty feet deep, and near seventy feet wide. That peculiarly shaped rock known to mariners as “Ship’s Stern,” and which has proved for so long a time a sure landmark to pilots, was shivered to pieces; and McNish’s mountain (the highest in the island) very much rent and fissured. Several shocks were felt during the next forty-eight hours, and the ground appeared to have a tremulous motion for several weeks after. A proclamation was issued by his excellency Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, setting apart Friday, the 14th of February, a day of “public humiliation and thanksgiving before God, in acknowledgment of his Divine power, so fearfully and wonderfully displayed, as well as his mercy and forbearance in sparing the island from utter destruction,” which was kept throughout Antigua. At Barbuda, the earthquake was also severely felt—all the stone buildings, with the exception of a small school-room, fell.
Barbados, St. Vincents, Martinique, Dominica, and St. Thomas, felt the shock but slightly. Guadaloupe was the greatest sufferer of the group. One whole town. Point à Pitre, was entirely destroyed, and upwards of 4000 souls perished, while about 600 were severely wounded. A few days after the earthquake. Admiral Gourbeyre, the governor of Guadaloupe, despatched the “Papillon” man-of-war to Antigua to inquire into its state, and render all the assistance possible. She brought the intelligence, that out of the inhabitants of one entire street, only one individual (a female) was saved alive. Soon after the earthquake, a fire broke out, and consumed what the earthquake had spared. An American master of a ship was taken into custody for secreting many articles of value, (the property of the sufferers,) on board his ship. His sentence would have been death; but on account of his having been seen to render assistance to some of the poor creatures who were partly buried beneath the fallen buildings, it was mitigated, and he was condemned to serve on board the galley for a certain term.