The hurricane which burst over St. Thomas's on 29th October
seems to have been even more terrible than was reported. It began at 12.10, and lasted, with one lull of 13 minutes, to 3.30— nearly four hours. The force of the wind was awful, blowing down house, trees, and lifting blocks of stone, and in one case an anchor, into the air. Fifteen sailors were blown off the Spanish man-of- war Vasco de Nuilez, barricaded shutters were blown in as if by artillery, and a gentleman's dining-room (of wood ?) was carried through the air, the decanters remaining unbroken. About eighty 'vessels were more or less damaged, and half of them total wrecks. The unfortunate mail steamer Rhone had just received the inter- colonial passengers, and of 150 on board only one was saved, with 23 of the crew. The gale was preceded, it is stated, by two shocks -of earthquake. Three hundred bodies had been buried when the Douro left, but these represent only a part of the loss of life.
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