The pious and the educated (and there were plenty of both in Barbadoes) were not proof against the infection.

Old letters describe the scene in the churches that morning as hideous--prayers, sobs, and cries, in Stygian darkness, from trembling crowds.

And still the darkness continued, and the dust fell.
I have a letter, written by one long since dead, who had at least powers of description of no common order, telling how, when he tried to go out of his house upon the east coast, he could not find the trees on his own lawn, save by feeling for their stems.

He stood amazed not only in utter darkness, but in utter silence.

For the trade-wind had fallen dead; the everlasting roar of the surf was gone; and the only noise was the crashing of branches, snapped by the weight of the clammy dust.