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buse. In a growing province, where the utmost harmony and liberality of sentiment ought to have been cherished by all, as the most certain means of promoting the public strength and prosperity, such a party-spirit was attended, as might have been expected, with the most pernicious consequence.
[Sidenote] A whirlwind at Charlestown.
I have already observed, that the province is subject to whirlwinds, especially among the hills in the back country; but this year one of those, which was indeed the most violent and dreadful that had ever been known, passed Charlestown in the month of May. It appeared at first to the west of the town, like a large column of smoke, approaching fast in an irregular direction. The vapour of which it was composed resembled clouds rolling one over another in violent tumult and agitation, assuming at one time a dark, at another a bright flaming colour. Its motion was exceedingly swift and crooked. As it approached the inhabitants were alarmed with an uncommon sound, like the continual roaring of distant thunder, or the noise made by a stormy sea beating upon the shore, which brought numbers of people to witness the dreadful phenomenon. While it passed down Ashley river, such was its incredible velocity and force, that it plowed the waters to the bottom, and laid the channel bare. The town narrowly and providentially escaped, but it threatened destruction to a fleet consisting of no less than forty sail of loaded ships, lying at anchor in Rebellion road, about four miles below the town, and waiting a fair wind to sail for England. When it reached the fleet, five vessels were sunk in an instant by it, and his Majesty's ship the Dolphin, with eleven others, were dismasted. Such was the situation of the fleet, and so rapid was the motion of the whirlwind, that though the seaman observed it approaching, it was impossible to provide against it. In its oblique course it struck only a part of the fleet, and the damage, though computed at L. 20,000 sterling, was by no means so grea