An earthquake of terrible violence laid waste in less than three minutes the flourishing colony of Jamaica.

Whole plantations changed their place.

Whole villages were swallowed up.

Port Royal, the fairest and wealthiest city which the English had yet built in the New World, renowned for its quays, for its warehouses, and for its stately streets, which were said to rival Cheapside, was turned into a mass of ruins.

Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants were buried under their own dwellings.