Tremendous Hurricane at Carthagena

We have been favored with the following extract from a letter received by Mr. E. Turner, M. P. for Truro, from his son, Mr. Charles Walsingham Turner, her Britannic Majesty's consul at Carthagena, dated October 23:-'On the morning of the 21st inst. a most awful catastrophe occurred here, within 200 yards of my balcony, and in sight of my house. About four o'clock in the morning most vivid lightning came on, with tremendous thunder-such lightning as was never seen at Carthagena within the memory of man. I left my bed, and proceeded to the window, where I had not been five minutes before I heard a great rushing of wind proceeding from the east, and I observed also a waterspout, which I no sooner saw than it burst, carrying with it into the air five large felucca boats, of 40 or 50 tons each, which fell into the water again, upside down and of course sunk, with the poor sailors on board, fifteen of whom were drowned. It then proceeded in a north west direction, unroofing houses, carrying off timber, trees, and even rocks of great weight. This morning, two poor fellow sailors, who belonged to one of the vessels, were found dead about a league from Carthagena, having been carried off and dropped by the whirlwind. On the mole were thrown huge stones, houses were demolished, and the roof of the Prisichi, where the convicts are confined, was completely carried away. You may well imagine the heartrending cries of the poor mariners-O Dios mio. Strange, however, as it may seem, an English brig was at anchor within 50 yards of the spot, where the waterspout burst, and sustained no damage whatever. I have just been informed that two of the feluccas only the day before brought 300 prisoners for political offences [offenses] from Barcelona. Had I not been a witness to this awful visitation, I could not have believed it.'-West Briton.