The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-08 00:00:00

LONDON, FttIDAY, NOV. 8, 1867.

The news which reached the City yesterday from

the West Indies is of a melancholy and startling
nature. It is, indeed, no new thing to hear of
terrific storms, sudden tornados, and great disasters,
both on land and sea, in consequence. COWPER,
in his impassioned appeal on behalf of tho West
Indian slaves, makes marked reference to the

" Wild tornados
Strewing yonder seas with wrecks,
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,"

and hears in them the protest of the ALMIGHTY
against the abuse of his creatures. The history of
those islands is full of the records of disaster
wrought by some of these sudden and terrible
visitants. It is not often, however, that
the catastrophe assumes the proportions in-
dicated by the telegram received yesterday morning
from Havannah by the directors of the Royal West
Indian Mail Company. The hurricane occurred at
St Thomas's on Oct. 29, and no less than four of
their steamers were wrecked in it ; two others, the
Tyne and Solent, were dismasted, but serviceable.
Fifty ships were on shore, the town in ruins, and
the lobs of life is represented as terrible. Notwith-
standing these manifold disasters the company's
service will be maintained, and the Douro was to
leave for home on the 4th. By that vessel we shall
of course receive full particulars of the misfortune,
which there can be no doubt is of a very serious nature.
The loss to the West Indian Mail Company is, of
course, a very serious one. The Rhone steamer,
which was lost at Peter Island, was a first-class
steamer, with engines of 500 horse power. She was
to have started for England the very day after the
hurricane, and a report was yesterday current that
she had a large amount of specie on board, but of
this there is some doubt. The other steamers were
of lessee tonnage, and two of them are supposed to
have been laid up in St. Thomas's harbour, where

they were carried from their anchors and dashed
ashore. The Conway, one of the total wrecks, was
bringing the mails, it is thought, from the Windward

Islands. With the exception of the Rhone, all the
steamers lost were employed in the intercolonial ser-
vice. Unfortunately there is little room for hoping
that the disaster has been exaggerated, since another
telegram has been received from Lloyd's agent at
St. Thomas's confirming the accounts of fearful
destruction. Of the loss on shore we hear no par-
ticulars beyond the two mournful sentencps—
" Terrible loss of life. Town in ruins." The only
consolatory item of intelligence is that the fever
which has raged so severely in this unlucky island is
over—an instance, if the tornado had any share in
its removal, of the cure being worse than the
disease. At the beginning of October last
year occurred the terrible hurricane which
swept over the Bahamas and desolated
Nassau ; but, as far as we yet know, it was less
destructive to shipping than that at St. Thomas's.
This island has very recently been transferred by
the Dutch to the Americans, and the latter have
assumed the direction of affairs at an unfortunate
conjuncture. Another violent typhoon is reported
from the China seas, and immense danger has, it
is said, been done to property along the shore near
Hong Kong. The Manilla steamer Malespina is
missing, and we shall probably hear of furthtr

disasters afloat. Science may indicate the probable
course of these storms, when once it knows their

starting point; but it does not guard against them
in any way, and we fear the wrecks and disasters
on land and shore, which we report this day from
east and west, will continue, in spite of all precau-
tions, to be ranked among the ordinary casualties
of tropical regions.

We may derive one satisfaction at least from the
recent disturbances in Italy, and that is, we have
passed through an ordeal that has long threatened
us. Ever since the war in Germany and the restora-