, 1865-02-28


despair had reduced to AFFECT resignation and
another whom it had driven to wild defiance.
Half the town was in ruins fallen trees, drift,
the ruins of houses, and deep pools of salt water
made streets and roads impossible. Huge
barges had been carried into the centre of the
town, and masses of solid masonry had been
rolled, boulder-like, distances of 60 and 70
yards. The first impression of those visiting
this city of death was sufficiently awful, but
when after a while the tale of destruction was
reckoned it was seen that the first horror had
fallen short of the reality. In fort and town
one-third of the inhabitants had persisted. A
thousand were drowned 10 the fort and fifteen
thousand 10 the town, and in the surrounding
villages twenty thousand moro had met their
death. In one Brahmin village on the outskirts
of Masulipatam seventy only remained alive out
of seven hundred. For a single night, or rather
for a single hour, the destroying angel had been
at work, and when he finished it was as if the
life Of man and the life of nature had both been
effaced. Beneath the sweep of his wings the
prosperous plain bad become desolation and the
fruitful villages tenant IS.
There is a wild legend of the Breton coast
which may serve to illustrate the different tenn
per in which English and Hindoo have met this
great calamity. An adventurous Frenchman
resolved to reclaim a marsh occasionally expos
ed to the irruptions Of the sea by building a sea-
wall without it and draining the land thus en-
closed. An old Breton warned him not to at
tempt the impious enterprise the limits of sea
and land were fixed by Divine command, and
man could not gainsay it. The Frenchman per-
severed, reclaimed the land and within a year
or two reaped an excellent harvest, and asked
the old man what had become of his warnings.
1.-The end is not yet" said the Breton. Ino
next week the harvest-feast was celebrated, aud
at a late hour host and guests retired weary 10
their beds but, so runs the Breton tale, III the
night the storm arose and in the morning sea-
wall and farmstead, barns and cultivated field,
had entirely disappeared. The Celtic feeling of
passive submission out of which the legend grew
appeared among the natives Of Masulipatam. A
more energetic people might, indeed, have been
cowed by the awful exhibition Of force from
which they had suffered. The survivors were
overwhelmed by this disaster, they bowed in
resignation to the stroke they had received, and
for a time there was a danger lest the uuburied
dead, the salt water, and the damaged grain
would produce disease which would carry off
those who had escaped the first disaster. For
%tunately there were AngIO-Indians at hand with
better counsels. To them, as to any other En-
glshman, disorder is a thing to be remedied,
and with timely assistance from Madras they
set to work. Nutritious food was forthcoming
and supplemented by careful sanitary measures,
Parties Of Sepoys, police, and hired coolies, di-
rected by European energy, went through the
town and district collecting and b%urying the
dead, while others were set to work in clearing
out a canal so as to obtain a supply of water
partially free from impurity. After a time, as
the numbers unburied were reduced, it was
found possible to burn the corpses which were
left, a thing at first impossible from the nero
absence of fre-wood, and those who were at
first buried hastily were more carefully covered.
The natives took heart at the sight, and through
the infection Of European energy Joined in the
work. We are warranted in saying that these
e~xertions have probably saved the town from
a fearful epidemic. Amid the horrors of the
catastrophe which visited Masulipatam, the man.
ner in which the British residents strove to
counteract the evils which might have followed
in its rear is a source of true consolation. Col
lector and sub-collector, the officers of the Sepoy
regiment q~uartered in the fort, and of the Engi-
neers, and Anglo Indians of every quality, as
sisted in the work, The spectacle Of their re-
solution and forethought, their promptness in
preventing new and their zeal in mitigating
foregone disasters, is an instance of true sub
mission to the Divine commands, not in acqui-
escing in the disorders attendant upon a natu-
raj convulsion. huk in saekinr N maLa fba whole