240 THE EARTHQUAKE.
I was not, however, without great apprehension respecting my family,
from which I was yet many miles distant, fearful that where they
were the shock might have caused greater havock than I had witnessed.
I gave the bridle to my steed, and was glad to see him appear as anxious
to get home as myself. The pace at which he galloped accomplished
this sooner than I had expected, and I found, with much pleasure, that
hardly any greater harm had taken place than the apprehension excited
for my own safety.
Shock succeeded shock almost every day or night for several weeks,
diminishing, however, so gradually as to dwindle away into mere vibrations
of the earth. Strange to say, I for one became so accustomed to
the feeling as rather to enjoy the fears manifested by others. I never
can forget the effects of one of the slighter shocks which took place when
I was at a friend's house, where I had gone to enjoy the merriment that,
in our western country, attends a wedding. The ceremony being performed,
supper over, and the fiddles tuned, dancing became the order of
the moment. This was merrily followed up to a late hour, when the
party retired to rest. We were in what is called, with great propriety,
a Log-house, one of large dimensions, and solidly constructed. The
owner was a physician, and in one corner were not only his lancets, tourniquets,
amputating-knives, and other sanguinary apparatus, but all the
drugs which he employed for the relief of his patients, arranged in jars
and phials of different sizes. These had some days before made a narrow
escape from destruction, but had been fortunately preserved by closing
the doors of the cases in which they were contained.
As I have said, we had all retired to rest, some to dream of sighs and
smiles, and others to sink into oblivion. Morning was fast approaching,
when the rumbling noise that precedes the earthquake began so loudly,
as to waken and alarm the whole party, and drive them out of bed in the
greatest consternation. The scene winch ensued it is impossible for me
to describe, and it would require the humorous pencil of CKUICKSHANK
to do justice to it. Fear knows no restraints. Every person, old and
young, filled with alarm at the creaking of the log-house, and apprehending
instant destruction, rushed wildly out to the grass enclosure
fronting the building. The full moon was slowly descending from her
throne, covered at times by clouds that rolled heavily along, as if to conceal
from her view the scenes of terror which prevailed on the earth below.
On the grass-plat we all met, in such condition as rendered it next
THE EARTHQUAKE. 241
to impossible to discriminate any of the party, all huddled together in a
state of almost perfect nudity. The earth waved like a field of corn before
the breeze: the birds left their perches, and flew about not knowing
whither; and the Doctor, recollecting the danger of his gallipots, ran to
his shop-room, to prevent their dancing off the shelves to the floor.
Never for a moment did he think of closing the doors, but, spreading
his arms, jumped about the front of the cases, pushing back here and
there the falling jars; with so little success, however, that before the
shock was over, he had lost nearly all he possessed.
The shock at length ceased, and the frightened females, now sensible
of their dishabille, fled to their several apartments. The earthquakes
produced more serious consequences in other places. Near New Madrid,
and for some distance on the Mississippi, the earth was rent asunder in
several places, one or two islands sunk for ever, and the inhabitants fled
in dismay towards the eastern shores.