assuredly. "His power and grace are still the same." The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that he cannot hear. Do any say that they are sinful and unworthy? So were our fathers. They felt, and confessed themselves to be so. But they did not, on this account, neglect to call on the name of the Lord. Neither did the Lord turn away their prayer or his mercy from them. Nor will he now shut up his bowels of compassion against the humble suppliant. Does any reader of these pages doubt that it is in the heart of God to hear his penitent and believing supplications? Let such an one make the experiment. Let him offer his fervent prayers to God, and persevere in the duty, and then decide. Nothing short of a trial, in any matter, can determine the event.

CHAPTER VI.

PUBLIC CALAMITIES.

GREAT STORM.

On the 15th of August, 1635, New England was visited by a tremendous storm, or hurricane. It is thus described by Morton. "It began in the morning, a little before day, and grew not by degrees, but came with great violence in the beginning, to the great amazement of many. It blew down sundry houses, and uncovered divers others; divers vessels were lost at sea, and many more were in extreme danger. It caused the sea to swell in some places to the southward of Plymouth, so that it rose to twenty feet right up and down, and made many of the Indians to climb into trees for their safety. It threw down all the corn to the ground, so that it never rose more, the which, through the mercy of God, it being near harvest time, was not lost, though much the worse. Had the wind continued without shifting, in likelihood it would have drowned some part of the country. It blew down many hundred thousands of

trees, turning up the stronger by the roots, and breaking the high pine-trees, and such like, in the midst; and the tall young oaks and walnut-trees, of good bigness, were twisted as a withe by it,—very strange and fearful to behold. It began in the south-east, and veered sundry ways, but the greatest force of it, at Plymouth, was from the former quarter; it continued not in extremity above five or six hours, before the violence of it began to abate; the marks of it will remain for many years, in those parts where it was sorest."

EARTHQUAKES.

66

Several earthquakes are noticed in the early history of New England. The first, which was on the 1st day of June, 1638, is spoken of by Trumbull as a great and memorable earthquake." His description of it is the following. "It came with a report like continued thunder, or the rattling of numerous coaches upon a paved street. The shock was so great, that in many places the tops of chimneys were thrown down, and the pewter fell from the shelves. It shook the waters and ships in the harbors, and all the adjacent islands. The duration of the sound and tremor was about four minutes. The earth at turns was unquiet for nearly twenty days. The weather was clear, the wind westerly, and the course of the earthquake from west to east."

son.

The next earthquake of any considerable violence, of which a particular account is left on record, was on the 29th of October, 1727. It is thus described by Hutchin"About 40 minutes after 10 at night, when there was a serene sky, and calm but sharp air, a most amazing noise was heard, like to the roaring of a chimney when on fire, as some said, only beyond comparison greater; others compared it to the noise of coaches on pavements, and thought that of ten thousand together would not have exceeded it. The noise was judged by some to continue about half a minute before the shock began, which increased gradually, and was thought to have continued the space of a minute before it was at the height, and, in about half a minute more, to have been at an end by a gradual

decrease. The noise and shock of this, and all earthquakes which preceded it in New England, were observed to come from the west, or north-west, and go off to the east, or south-east. At Newbury, and other towns on the Merrimack River, the shock was greater than in any other part of Massachusetts, but no buildings were thrown down. Part of the walls of several cellars fell in, and the tops of many chimneys were shaken off. At New York, it seems to have been equal to what it was in Massachusetts; but at Philadelphia it was very sensibly weaker, and, in the colonies southward, it grew less and less, until it had spent itself, or become insensible. The seamen on the coast supposed their vessels to have struck upon a shoal of loose ballast. There was a general apprehension of danger of destruction and death, and many who had very little sense of religion before, appeared to be very serious and devout penitents; but, too generally, as the fears of another earthquake went off, the religious impressions went with them, and they, who had been subjects of both, returned to their former course of life."

Rev. Mr. Gookin, of Hampton, N. H., gives the following account of the same earthquake.

"The shake was very hard, and was attended with a terrible noise, something like thunder. The houses trembled as if they were falling; divers chimneys were cracked, and some had their tops broken off. It was especially so in the south parish, where the hardest shake seemed to be on the hill, where the house of God stands. Three houses on that hill had their chimneys broken, one of which was the house of Rev. Mr. Whipple. When the shake was beginning, some persons observed a flash of light running on the earth: the flame seemed to them to be of a blueish color. These flashes, no doubt, broke out of the earth; otherwise, it is probable they would have been seen more generally, especially by those who were abroad. The sea was observed to roar in an unusual manner. The earth broke open, and cast up a very fine blueish sand. At the place of the eruption, there now (above two months after) continually issue out considerable quantities of water. A spring of water which had run freely for fourscore years, and was never known to freeze, was sunk

by the earthquake, and froze afterwards like any standing

water.

"There were divers other shocks in the same night; yea, the sound was heard, and sometimes the shake felt, every day for a fortnight after.

"It is hard to express the consternation that fell, both on men and beasts, in the time of the great shock. The brute creatures ran roaring about the fields, as if in the greatest distress. And mankind were as much surprised as they, and some with very great terror; so that they might say, Fearfulness and terror hath come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. All of us saw the necessity of looking to God for his favor and protection; and I would hope that many did, not only look to God in that time of their distress, but did truly and heartily return to him. Many are now asking the way to Zion with their faces thitherward. They say, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant, not to be forgotten, making a credible profession of faith and repentance. This is the happy effect which, by the grace of God, the earthquake has had upon some among us."

This earthquake, as felt at Boston, is thus described by Prentice. "On the night after the Lord's day, October 29, 1727, about forty minutes past ten, in a calm and serene hour, the town of Boston was on a sudden extremely surprised with the most violent shock of an earthquake that has been known among us. It came on with a loud, hollow noise, like the roaring of a great fired chimney, but incomparably more fierce and terrible. In about half a minute the earth began to heave and tremble; the shock increasing, rose to its height in about a minute more, when the moveables, and doors, windows, walls, especially in the upper chambers, made a fearful clattering, and the houses rocked and cracked as if they were all dissolving and falling to pieces. The people asleep were awakened with the greatest astonishment; many others affrighted, ran into the streets for safety. But the shaking quickly abated, and in another half minute it entirely ceased. Some damage was done to the more brittle sort of moveables, and some bricks on the tops of some chimneys fell; but not a house was broken, nor a creature hurt. At several times until daylight, were

heard some distant rumblings, and some fainter shocks were felt."

On the 18th of November, 1755, New England was again visited with an earthquake. Of this, Dr. Holmes gives the following account. "It began at Boston a little after four o'clock, in a serene and pleasant night, and continued nearly four and a half minutes. In Boston, about one hundred chimneys were in a manner levelled with the roofs of the houses, and above fifteen hundred shattered and thrown down in part. In some places, especially on the low, loose ground, made by encroachments on the harbor, the streets were almost covered with the bricks that had fallen. The ends of about twelve or fifteen brick buildings were thrown down from the top to the eaves of the houses. Many clocks were stopped. The vane of the market house was thrown down. A new vane of one of the churches was bent at the spindle two or three points of the compass. At New Haven, the ground, in many places, seemed to rise like the waves of the sea; the houses shook, and cracked, as if they were just ready to fall, and many tops of chimneys were thrown down. The motion of this earthquake was undulatory. Its course was nearly from north-west to south-east. Its extent was from Chesapeake Bay south-west, to Halifax north-east, about eight hundred miles; but from north-west to south-east, it reached at least one thousand miles, and perhaps many more."

The following is an account of the same earthquake, communicated by a gentleman residing in Boston, in a letter to a friend. "It was first introduced with a noise like several coaches rattling over the pavements, or rather like a noise of many cart-loads of paving stones thrown down together. I was sensible it came from the north-west, and that side of my house felt concussion. The first moa strong pulsation, which threw my house upwards; immediately after, a tremor succeeded, which in ́half a minute abated a little, but then instantly a quick vibration, with sudden jerks, followed; and this, by my best observation, held nearly a minute, before the second abatement, which went off gradually, in about half a minute more, so that the whole duration, from the first pulse to the end of the shock, seemed to be about two minutes: the

tion was