"On the 5th of February, 1663, about half past five o'clock in the evening, a great rushing noise was heard throughout the whole extent of Canada. This noise caused the people to run out of their houses into the streets, as if their habitations had been on fire; but, instead of flames or smoke, they were surprised to see the walls reeling backward and forward, and the stones moving as if they were detached from each other. The bells sounded by the repeated shocks. The roofs of the buildings bent down, first on one side, and then on the other. The timbers, rafters, and planks cracked. The earth trembled violently, and caused the stakes of the palisades and palings to dance, in a manner that would have been incredible had we not actually seen it in many places. It was at this moment every one ran out of doors. Then were to be seen animals flying in every direction; children crying and screaming in the streets; men and women, seized with affright, stood horror-struck with the dreadful scene before them, unable to move, and ignorant where to fly for refuge from the tottering walls and trembling earth, which threatened every instant to crush them to death, or sink them into a profound and immeasurable abyss. Some threw themselves on their knees in the snow, crossing their breasts, and calling on their saints to relieve them from the dangers with which they were surrounded. Others passed the rest of this dreadful night in prayer; for the earthquake ceased not, but continued at short intervals with a certain undulating impulse, resembling the waves of the ocean; and the same qualmish sensations, or sickness at the stomach, was felt during the shocks as is experienced in a vessel at sea.