The Virginia Gazette

WILLIAMSBURG, December 2, 1780.

KINGSTON (Jamaica) Oct. 14.

There having been no arrival from Europe to communicate but little interesting intelligence to the publick from that quarter, for the present week therefore we shall confine ourselves chiefly to insular occurrences and happy should we think ourselves did they afford any circumstances likely to prove grateful to the humane and benevolent mind, on the contrary, we have the painful task to relate scenes of complicated horror and distress, far exceeding any thing that has been experienced in the island, during the present century; accounts from different parishes teem with unpleasing relations of plantations being destroyed, cane pieces levelled, with slaves and cattle carried away by the rapidity of the rivers, in the course of the preceding week; in the parishes of Hanover and St. James's, the loss sustained have been remarkably great, as will appear by the extracts made from the Cornwall Chronicle, for the observation of our readers; but the town of Savannah la Mar, that of late flourishing commercial port, appears to have been devoted by the elements to compleat destruction. On Tuesday the third instant, the wind and rain set in about 2 o'clock, and about it blew a perfect hurricane, continuing to increase till four, the wind varying to almost every point of the compass; from the beginning the water poured in over the beach, and almost instantaneously rose to a perpendicular height, that rendered the continuance of the inhabitants at the bay, wholly impossible, the attention of every individual was fully employed in providing for his own safety by flight; some indeed by endeavouring to save their family and friends, perished with them in the deluge; such was the unhappy fate of Mr. M'Dowal, comptroller of the customs, Dr King, his wife and two assistants; Messrs. Forbes and Dallas and four children; Mrs. Allwood and three children; Mrs. Gibson and two children; Mr. John Magerald, Dr. Lightfoot, Mr. William Antrobus, junior, Messrs. Aaron Touro and Moses Nunes, and the nephew of the latter, Miss Pena, a child of Mr. Payne, Mr. McLean, his wife and children, Mrs. Slop, Mrs. Little with three quadroon children.

In less than a quarter of an hour not a house or building was left standing at the bay; the court-house, though built upon strong stone walls, came down amongst the rest, many who had taken shelter therein, were killed, others escaped with broken limbs, the fort is entirely destroyed. Mr. James Nesbet, carpenter, with 24 negroes, were at work in one house and swept away together; by 4 o'clock not a building was left standing in the Savannah, the whole having yielded to the violence of the tempest; most of the surviving inhabitants have taken shelter on board the Princess Royal, Captain Rusden, who is drove ashore between the house of George Robert Goodin, Esq; and the Cage: The Henry, Captain Richardson, is nearly in the same situation; the Aston Hall, Captain Austin, is drove far up among the mangroves, laying flat on her side; as also the sloop Skimmer from Raton. There is but little hopes of any of these vessels being got off. The country for many miles round exhibits a most gloom prospect, not a leaf to be found on a tree, nor scarce a single building standing upon any of the neighbouring estates; at Blue Castle estate, it is said, upwards of 200 negroes were killed in the boiling house, to which place they had fled for shelter, but it is to be hoped this will in some measure prove erroneous. Mr. Beckford's elegant stone built house at Hartford Pen is entirely destroyed.