The next great event to be recorded, is the awful earthquake, with which Antigua and many of the other Leeward Islands was visited, on Wednesday, the 8th of February, 1843. About half-past ten o’clock a. m., a low, hollow, rumbling sound arrested the attention, and announced, in its own peculiar solemn tone, the coming of an earthquake. Immediately after this awful warning, a tremor of the earth was felt, which gradually increasing in violence, led the frightened inhabitants to rush from their houses, and seek safety in the open air. Heart-rending were the screams, fervent and numerous were the calls for mercy, from the assembled groups. The air was darkened with the dust from the falling buildings, as well as from the sulphureous exhalations which issued from the opening earth, and almost stopped respiration. In Antigua, the extent of damage was immense. Out of fourteen parish churches, (including the chapels of ease,) only two remain uninjured. St. Paul’s, situated at Falmouth, was entirely destroyed; as also St. Stephen’s chapel of ease, the district church of All Saints, and the chapel schools of St. Bartholomew’s and St. Mark’s, not long ago erected. The new church of St. Peter’s, which has been mentioned in these pages as being in a state of progress at Parham, and which was expected to be completed and opened for Divine service in 1843, was also much rent and injured. The pretty parish church of St. Philip’s was cracked from top to bottom, and rendered unsafe, and the school-house was levelled with the ground. St. James’s chapel of ease was severely injured, and the north and south wings fell. The school-room at St. Barnaby’s was rent in several places; and at St. Stephen’s a similar building was entirely levelled. The school-room at Brecknocks was also rendered unsafe. There were 172 sugar-mills upon the island, most of which upon that eventful morning had been “put in the wind,” and were merrily going with the breeze, crushing between their powerful machinery the golden canes, and sending a rich stream of luscious juice through the several pipes into the boiling-houses; of these thirty-five were entirely levelled with the ground, eighty-two split from top to bottom, and the remaining fifty-five almost all of them injured, requiring numerous repairs. Among those most seriously injured may be mentioned—