2 A Remarkable Boy

CHAPTER 2 A Remarkable Boy Alexander's brother, James, was apprenticed to a carpenter on St. Croix. That meant he would live with the carpenter and eventually learn to be one himself. He and Alexander never saw each other again. Alexander was taken in by Thomas Stevens, a merchant who lived on the island. Thomas had five children of his own and one, Edward, was a year older than Alexander. Alexander and Edward, called Ned, became the best of friends.

Although he was only thirteen, Alexander was given a job as a clerk in a mercantile house, a business that traded and shipped goods all over the world. Alexander was determined to learn everything he could about the business. He was very good at math and had no trouble keeping track of all the money and products that came in and went out. He was so good at his job that when one of the owners went to New York for five months, he left Alexander in charge of the

entire business. Alexander was only fourteen years old. Although he was doing well at his job, Alexander didn't want to work there forever. He dreamed of leaving the West Indies and becoming famous, maybe joining an army and becoming a war hero. He longed to follow Ned Stevens to New York, where his friend was going to school to become a doctor, but Alexander didn't have the money to travel. In 1770, St. Croix's first newspaper, the Royal Danish American Gazette, was published. Alexander was excited to write for it. In 1771, when he was sixteen, he published two love poems in the paper. More poems followed. Another part-time writer at the paper was a minister named Hugh Knox. He and Alexander became friends. On August 31, 1772, a terrible hurricane hit the island of St. Croix. Roaring winds knocked down trees, and a tidal wave over fifteen feet high pounded the shores. The Gazette described it as "the most dreadful hurricane known in the memory of man." The

hurricane was so big, it caused destruction on the neighboring islands of St. Kitts and Nevis as well.

A few days later, at a Sunday service, Hugh Knox preached a sermon about the hurricane. Alexander was inspired to write his own version of the story in a letter to his father. James Hamilton was probably living on an island just outside the range of the hurricane. Alexander wrote a dramatic letter describing all the horrors of the storm. Before sending the letter, he showed it to his friend Hugh. The minister was impressed. Hugh thought it was so good that Alexander should publish it in the paper. The Gazette printed Alexander's letter on October 3, 1772, with an introduction by Hugh Knox explaining that its author was still just a teenager.

In part, the letter read: "The roaring of the sea and wind, fiery meteors flying about in the air, the prodigious glare of almost perpetual lightning, the crash of the fallen houses, and the ear-piercing shrieks of the distressed, were sufficient to strike astonishment into Angels."