At the Savannah, besides many other places in the Union, the shock, which extended north as far as New York, was felt.
On the 8th February, the day of the great earthquake, the waters of the river Tiber, which washes the city of Rome, rose suddenly to such an immense height, as to inundate the houses to the first story. In Portugal, about the same time, loud subterranean thunder was heard; and soon after, the earth opened, and sent up large volumes of water, which overflowed the country for some miles. In the course of the following month, (March,) shocks of earthquake were felt in several places, from Liverpool and London north, as far as Van Dieman’s Land south. In Jamaica, several smart shocks were experienced, which caused great excitement, and a day of public fast and humiliation was set apart by the government. The Grand Cayman (one of the three islands called Caymanas, lying between Jamaica and Cuba) has disappeared. This group of islands is inhabited principally by the descendants of the old buccaneers, who used to frequent these seas in former years, and negro turtle-fishers. They take their name from being a resort for the cayman, or alligator, who frequent these shores for the purpose of depositing their eggs in the sand. Trinidad has also been visited by several shocks of earthquake.
These several instances shew how very general these awful convulsions have been within the space of a few weeks; and prove to us (setting aside superstitious notions) that we ought seriously to consider “the signs of the times.” Great fears were expressed by many of the credulous in America, upon feeling, or hearing of the earthquake; as on 1st January, the same year, a proclamation had been issued, by an American Millerite, in the following alarming words:—
“Great Earthquake!—To all the people far and near, to dreadful warning give ear. Jan. 11, 1183, there will be a great earthquake; three shocks in succession in all the whole world. Let all the people believe, and tremble before God; for the time will come when the saints will possess the kingdom. Jan. 31, 1843, the door of mercy will be shut against the whole world.—Now, my dear friends, I would advise you to flee for mercy, while the door of mercy is open. The Spirit of God testifies these things which are coming on the earth.”
As soon as the events of this distressing earthquake became known in the sister colonies, meetings were held by the legislature, to take into consideration the best means of alleviating the wants and distresses of the Antiguan and other sufferers. Barbados was the first island which despatched a grant for the relief of the sufferers in the several islands. Trinidad granted 1000l. sterling; St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Jamaica, the Bahamas, &c., joined in their benevolence.
The subject of the great earthquake, and the loss met with by Antigua, was brought before the House of Commons on the 14th of March, 1843, by W. A. Mackinnon, Esq., M.P. for Lymington. A meeting was held in London on the 11th of March, for the purpose of taking measures for the relief of the sufferers in Antigua. The agent for the island, Dr. Nugent, presided at the meeting, at which also the bishop, Dr. Davis, was present, and was requested by the meeting to attend Dr. Nugent in his interview with the principal secretary of state for the colonies, for the purpose of soliciting aid from government.
Extensive subscriptions have been entered into at London and Liverpool,[[73]] &c. Her most gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, the Duchess of Kent, and that exemplary and benevolent lady the Dowager Queen of England, with many of the nobility and commoners of England, have all most kindly and liberally bestowed that aid, so truly wanted by the distressed colonists.
It must be remarked, that the sufferers by this most awful and unprecedented occurrence are not to be found among the humbler grades of life, but in most instances are those who move in the higher and middle classes—individuals who are, generally speaking, endued with keener sensibilities, and who will thus feel more the change which, no doubt, will reduce many of them from comparative luxury to extreme want, unless most effectual aid be rendered to them.
Soon after the earthquake, the Royal Mail Steam-packet Company’s ship Actæon was dispatched from St. Thomas’s, to learn the fate of the colonies.
The “Thames,” the Royal Mail Steam-packet Company’s ship, Capt. Haste, was passing Antigua at the moment of the shock. Capt. Haste says, “The Thames was brought up as if on a reef of rocks, to his own dismay, and the dismay of all on board, and continued for a short period to jump and kick as if beating on rocks.”