J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur's "Letters from an American Farmer"

inundations

/ɪnʌnˈdeɪʃən/ (n)
a. The action of inundating; the fact of being inundated with water; an overflow of water; a flood.
b. transferred and figurative. An overspreading or overwhelming in superfluous abundance; overflowing, superabundance.
OED