News and strange News from St. Christopher's of a tempestuous Spirit, which is called by the Indians a Hurry-Cano or whirlwind.  
Which happeneth in many of those Lands of America or the West-Indies, as it did in August last, about the 5. day. 1638.  
Blowing down houses, tearing up trees by the roots, and it did puff men up from the earth, as they had been Feathers, killing diverse men.  
Whereunto is added the true and last relation of the dreadful accident which happened at Withicombe in Devonshire the 21. of October last passed.  
Imprinted at London by P. O. for Francis Coules dwelling in the Old-Baily. 1638.   

New and Strange News from St. Christopher's, of a tempestuous Spirit, which is called by the Indians a Hurry Canon, which happeneth in many of those Islands of America, or the West-Indies, as it did in August last the 5. 1638.  
GOD, who is every way infinite and incomprehensible, is pleased sometimes in his just Judgements, to punish or restrain by Terrors and Affrighting, most obstinate and rebellious sinners: for those that will not lovingly be alured to obey him for his Goodness and unspeakable Mercies, will be fearfully enforced to abide the rigour of his most upright and severe Justice, by which means He makes his ways to be known upon Earth, and his saving health amongst all Nations. And it is to be noted, that where God is least known and honoured, there the Devil hath most power and domination. But he that drew light out of darkness, hath often (and can when he will) draw good out of evil? for through slavery and bondage many people and Nations that were Heathens, and barbarous, have been happily brought to Civility and Christian Liberty. The Great Alexander's conquests, those whom he overcame, learned to build Towns, Cities, and defensible places, to apparel their naked bodies, in their thraldom they found Religion: and whereas in their Freedoms they did use to kill their aged Parents inhumanely, to eat them with savage, ravenous, most greedy Gormandizing, by Servitude they learned more reverend Duty; they were taught the Rites and Laws of Matrimony: And whereas in their licentious freedom, they bedded with their Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, and Nieces, not sparing any Kindred, Alliance, Propinquity, or any degree of blood or consanguinity, they by Servitude learned better life and manners; and also by being conquered and overcome, they were taught the use of Arms, the practice of Arts, and the laudable Experience of Tillage and Husbandry. And such as these rude people were in ancient times; even such were the first Inhabitants of this our Island of great Britain, until such time as more civiller Nations did conquer, tame, and teach us.  
Yet in the latest Days of the World all are not civilised; there are yet many Heathens, Indians, and barbarous Nations unconverted: as for the known Examples in America, and in diverse Islands adjacent, where this Hurri Canon is frequent; of which with the manner of the Description of it as followeth.  
From whence the name of it is derived, I know not; but the Indians do call it Hurri Canon, or Hurri Caenae, or Cani: some say that it comes to the same place once in five years, but that is uncertain, for it hath no certain or set times of either years or days for the coming of it. It is held by the Natives to be a Spirit, it comes with such an extraordinary violence, with Thunder, Lightning, and impetuous gusts of wind, (as it hath done many times) for it touches not all places there, but sometimes it comes but once, or never in a man's age to one place, and more often to another, according as it is swayed or hurried with its own robustuous motion, or as the influences and force of the Planets do drive it: and the Indians are so skilful, that they do know two or three or four days before hand of the coming of it, and then they do make provision to prevent the harm which it may do unto them, by such means as shall be related in the latter end of this Treatise: the Indians do know when it will come, by the marks or signs here mentioned. They do observe that just so many days as it will be before the Hurri Canon doth come, so many Circles will be as it were fringed and gleaming about the Moon: as if it be but one day before it come, than there will be but one Circle; if two Circles, than it will be two days; and so perhaps three or four Circles, as it did lately at Saint Christopher's, where it came in that fearful and unresistable fury, on the fifth day of August last, 1638. Where, although that the Dutch and English had warning of the coming of it, by the knowledge that the Indians had by observation of the Moon and the Circles, and that all possible means was used for the safeguard of men ships, and goods, yet when it came, the force of it was so great, and continued so vehemently the space of four days and nights without intermission, that maugre all the industry that could be, it sunk five Ships, whereof two were English, and three were Dutch; and of Englishmen, Dutchmen, and Indians, it did drown and kill to the number of Seventy and five persons, besides the harm it did to many Houses and goods.  
Where the Here or Hurri Canon comes, the Wind doth blow so strong and forcible, that it will puff men from the ground into the Air five or six foot high, as if they were no more but rags, clouts, or feathers; and so violent it is, that it leaves not a lease upon any Bough or Tree: and likewise it overthroweth many Trees, rending them up by the roots, so that the Inhabitants (when they are warned of the coming of the Hurri Canon by the Circles about the Moon) they do lop off the limbs and great heads off from the Trees, because the violent and outrageous Tempest of the tempestuous Winds shall have the less force and power to overturn them; and especially those Trees which they do intend to preserve and keep for bearing of fruit, they do commonly cut off, and graft them again by our English advice.  
The people all of them forsake their Houses, as not daring to remain in them for fear that they should be blown down about their ears; at which dangerous times they do creep for safety into holes Caves, pits, Dens and hollow places of the earth, which are either natural of themselves, or digged and framed by Art or laborious industry of man, which places are good harbours and defences against the Hurry-Cano. They do likewise tie or make fast Hamackoes or hanging Cabin unto two Trees that are lopyed, and then the people do get into those Cabins, & so they do lie down in them, being hanged above the ground six or seven foot, either with strong Ropes or iron chains; and so they swing two and again like a Bell when it is rung, when this tempest is; their Hamackoes are made either of course linen cloth, or of strong stuff made of twisted threads spun out of the rinds of trees; some who have not these Cabins, do for fear bind themselves with cords, singlely or severally to diverse trees, and so they do remain bound until the fury of the Hurry-Cano is past. And this is the true relation of the nature and quality of it, and also partly of the harms which it did in the month of August last passed. The Indians do foreknow it by certain circles which appear about the Moon, and those Indians that are servants under our English, did give some notice, or else far more hurt had ensued; and is when the Moon hath diverse circles like mists and fogs about it, and of a flaming colour, and by some other signs, the people do sometimes save themselves and their goods, in making caves or cellars in the ground, or else they lose all.  
But for a late remarkable proof of God's mercy and power, in drawing good out of Evil; I desire the Reader to note that in the year 1609. eight ships were bound from London unto Virginia, Sir Thomas Gates, and Sir George Summer Knights, were General and Admiral of the Fleet, and Captain Newport was Vice-admiral. The Admiral Ship, wherein Sir George Summer was, was by a Hurry-Cano dispersed and sundered from the rest of the Fleet, and with the greatness of the storm driven between two rocks at the Island of Bermudas, where his ship stuck fast, and was there lost and split. But he landed all his men safe, with some of his chiefest goods, where he found good relief of Swine, Fish, and Fowl. But Sir Thomas Gates and the other Ships did give Sir George with his men to be utterly lost & cast away, but he made such shift, that with Timber that he found, and felled in the Island, he caused two Ships to be built, with the which he sailed from the Bermudaes to Virginia, (after he had been ten Months supposed dead) where he was most joyfully welcomed: and thus out of this great danger (which in man's imagination was evil) God was graciously pleased to make it the happy finding and discovery of that good and fruitful Island, the Plantation whereof is now so profitable and beneficial to the English Adventures; and the Bermudaes, with some other Islands, are at this time called the Summer Islands, in memory of Sir George Summer, who was the first discoverer of them: and thus much shall suffice for the true Report and Description of the Hurri Cano.  
Innumerable of other the like of such things as these, I have formerly related, and many of them are Recorded in our own Histories, to have happened in our own Country, which who so do desire to read more, may see them amply and truly recorded in the works of the learned Cambden, painful Speed, Stowe, and Howes, Histories and Chronicles, wherein they may be certainly informed, that former Times have afforded as strange and fearful Signs and warnings, as this prodigious Tempest and lamentable Accident at Worthycombe, near Dartmoores in Devonshiere, as you may read in these ensuing Verses the whole truth, as followeth.   

A true Relation in Verse, of the strange accident which happened at Wit by comb in Devonshiere.  
TH' Almighty was, is, shall be still the same,  
Who with his word did all of nothing frame;  
Whose glory lightens all, whose Voice is Thunder.  
Whose mercy o'er his works, each work a wonder  
Whose Powerful arm's not shortened, but his Will,  
(Unlimited) is as his pleasure still.  
The sacred Text unto our Faith presents,  
How God plagued sinners with the Elements  
Of Water, Earth, Air, and consuming Fire,  
All Creatures are his Soldiers, in his Ire;  
With means, with small means, with no means at all  
He aids his flock; and gives his foes the fall:  
With Water he did first the World confound,  
Eight Persons only saved, the rest were drowned;  
When Sodoms' crying sins, to Heaven assumed,  
By fire from Heaven they were consumed: Inburned.  
Samaria's Captains with their fifties, slain  
By fire, when they Elias would have ta'en;  
When Corah did rebel (with heart unhallowed)  
Th'earth gaped, him with his companions swallowed.  
By putrid Air (for Ishaies offence)  
Died seventy thousand of the Pestilence;  
he's Lord of Hosts, and when man runs amiss.  
The meanest thing God's mighty Soldier is;  
Plagues, Botches, Blains, all mortal Maladies;  
Grasshoppers, Darkness, Murrain, Frogs, Lice, Flies,  
With Gedeons' Pitchers, and with Shamgars' Goad,  
His Enemies he under foot hath trod;  
With Foxes, and the jawbone of an Affe,  
He mighty Miracles hath brought to pass,  
Thus with Contemptible despised things,  
He tameth Tyrant's; and He Conquers Kings:  
Thus Heaven, Earth, Hell, Seas, and th'ut most Coasts  
Declare him still to be the Lord of Hosts:  
His Power, by judeth (a weak woman's hand)  
Slew Holophornes, foiled the Assyrian Band,  
By jacls hammered Nail, and David's Sling,  
God doth his foes to fell confusion bring:  
he's still the same he was, and changeth never,  
But yesterday, to day, the same for ever.  
And now (good Reader) with attentive mind,  
Read these ensuing lines, and thou shalt find  
Strange Prodiges, full of amazing fear  
I' the Church of Withy-combe, in Devonshiere.  
'tis worthy thy best considerations weight,  
One Thousand Sixteen hundred, thirty eight,  
These signs and sights of terror chanced upon  
A Sunday last, October's twenty one;  
A short space after Service did begin,  
(And our best prayers are mixed with too much sin)  
An extreme Darkness did begin to fill  
The Church, which more and more increased still,  
In such Cimmerian manner it did spread,  
That none assembled there could see to read:  
The people (all astonished) straight way hears  
Most dreadful Thundering, rattling in their ears,  
With horrid sounds, in such a fearful sort,  
As Cannons or great Ordnance in Report,  
Attended with such direful Lightning flashes,  
As if the world should strait be turned to ashes.  
The darkness still increased, that mist and smother  
Was waxed so thick, one could not see each other:  
The smell like Brimstone, and the fire & smoke  
Th'affrighted Congregation seemed to choke;  
With darkness, smoke, stench,, lightning & thunder;  
Their souls and bodies almost seemed to sunder.  
Most lamentable were the cases then,  
The cries of children, women, and of men;  
Dispersed in their seats in diverse places,  
Some all astonished grovelling on their faces:  
Some on their Knees, did humbly God entreat,  
To grant them Mercy from his Mercy Seat  
Some, one upon another tumbling lay,  
Expecting that should be their latest day;  
Some burnt, & some with scaldings overspread,  
And every one gave up themselves for dead.  
The Pastor of the Parish (Master Lyde)  
With Christian courage Reading did abide  
And heard and saw, all that was seen and heard  
And was not hurt or bruised; nor singed or feared,  
But praying for himself and for the rest,  
The duty of a good Divine expressed.  
He after saw a lamentable sight,  
His poor Wife in a sad perplexed plight  
In many parts, lightning her body burned,  
Her Ruff and garments were into ashes turned:  
To think upon the torments that she felt,  
Will make a heart of stone, relent or melt:  
One Mistress Disford with her than was fate  
Within her Powe, and tasted of like fate;  
She was much scalded, but yet not so bad  
As was the harm that Mistress Lyde than had.  
But God that saveth those that he will save,  
Unto her Maid and child, such favour gave,  
That though the Mistress was hurt very sore,  
The Maid and child were safe at the Pew door;  
Which shows our lives & healths are no way fixed  
'Twixt death and life, oft but aboard betwixt.  
Two women were burnt, scalded, torn, and rend  
The flesh quite from the bones; incontinent  
Or in a moment, that with pains oppressed:  
The one of them that very night deceased:  
The other may perhaps again be cured,  
Hope is her comfort, nothing is assured;  
For like to flowers, we bud, we spread, and fade,  
To day a Man, tomorrow but a shade.  
One Master Hill, (a Gentleman of fame  
And worth) was strucken with the Sulphur flame  
As in the Chancel, he was in his seat,  
The great tempestuous violence was so great,  
It beat his head; against the stony wall  
That he surrendered up his life withal:  
And yet his Corpse was found unscorched & clear  
For no hurt on his body did appear.  
A worthy Knight (Sir Richard Reynolds named)  
(Who for good Housekeeping is loved & famed  
His Warrener that time, his Scull was cleft  
Three several ways, his brains beat out and lef●  
Whole on the ground; against a Pillar there  
Was forcibly beat of his Scalp and Hair,  
And there it cleaves fast for a memory,  
And there that man (untimely) then did dye.  
There were some others that were scorched, & frid●  
In Lightning flashes, which since then have died;  
Some were but frighted, & scarce harmed or touch●●  
Some were a little Scalded and besmutched,  
Some had their clothes burnt, and their body's no●  
Some had their bodies burnt, their clothes no jot  
Was touched at all; thus God in judgement than  
Remembered Mercy amongst sinful men.  
There were some Seats or pews there overthrown  
And violently turned upsidedowne;  
And yet scarce any Person, great or small  
Was either burnt, or bruised; or hurt at all:  
There was one man in this amazed rout,  
That near the Chancel door was going out,  
His Dog was with a Whirlwind whisked round,  
And presently fell dead upon the ground.  
The man perceived his dog dead suddenly,  
Steot back in fear and haste, unhurt thereby.  
The Church in many a place was rend and torn,  
And sundry pieces from their places borne:  
And likewise (with the lightning and the thunder)  
A beam of Timber was burst quite in sunder:  
Betwixt the Minister and the Clerk it flew,  
And hurt them not, but only broke a Pew.  
Also a mighty Stone the storm did tear,  
That fixed was the Church's bottom near.  
The Steeple was most strange defaced & shattered,  
And pieces falling down the Church much battered.  
A Pinnacle was, by th' Tempests forced power,  
Beat through the Church, that fell from off the tower  
And from the tower the stones so thick were thrown  
As if a handred men had hurled them down.  
Yet 'tis not known that any hurt was done  
To any one, by fall of wood or stone,  
Only from Manaton there came a Maid,  
That by a Stone was killed, as some men said.  
And where the Church was broke, 'tis manifest  
There 'twas hurt most, there people were hurt least.  
The Pulpit to a Pillar there is placed,  
Which Pillar is by Lightning much defaced:  
'Twas newly whited, but with violence blasting.  
It hath a black and Sulphury overcasting.  
One in the Chancel happened to espy  
Near to the Church's neather-end to fly,  
Some things like dust or lime, which did arise,  
And suddenly it flew into his eyes,  
Where he for twelve hours' space was blinded quite,  
And (by God's mercy) then regained his sight.  
The Thunder and the Lightning being past,  
The people all into amazement cast,  
As if stupidious fear did them benumb,  
Unable scarce to speak, as 'twere struck dumb.  
Then Master Rowse, a Vintner there,  
Said, Neighbours, in the Name of God let's cheers  
Our drooping spirits, you see the Church much broken,  
Which doth much danger unto us beroken:  
And therefore I do hope, without offence,  
In God's Name we may venture to go e-hence  
These, or the like, spoke Rouse, but Master Lyde  
With courage (as beseemed his place) replied,  
Beloved, of our prayers amend let's make,  
And all of us to God ourselves betake:  
Where can we better our souls recommend  
To Him, whose glory never shall have end?  
Let us beg mercy from the Throne of Grace,  
We cannot better dye than in this place.  
These good words from this good man did proceed  
But yet the Congregation all agreed,  
(Because the Church was torn, and fearing more  
Would fall down from the Roof unto the floor)  
All to avoid the danger imminent,  
And so with speed each party homeward went.  
Without, or near the Churchyard was a Green  
Or Bowling-place, or Alloy, which was seen  
Turned up in pits and heaps, so that it showed  
●n form and shape, like Land that's newly ploughed.  
About that time, of Hail a mighty shower  
Did fall, and most impetuously down power:  
The Hailstones, big as Turkey's Eggs to sight,  
Some, five, or six, and some seven Ounces weight.  
At Brix●●n, near to Plymouth, this befell,  
What harm it did, Report will after tell.  
'tis said, that in the County Somerset,  
At Norton, how the Church was hurt much, yet  
Because thereof no certainty we have,  
To future time I will Relation leave.  
FINIS.