, 1865-02-28
s q. @ Ok a .

Siam disbelieved in ice, SO are Europeans incre-
dulous about the natural phenomena of the
East. After the first shock w rapidly persuad-
ed ourselves that the accounts of the Cyclone
were unduly exaggerated, and we looked upon
the narrative of it's fury as an example of Asia
tic hyperbole. Later accounts have shown
that the earliest details were indeed inaccurate,
but they were inaccurate only in undertaking
the effects of the storm. The trustworthy re-
ports of English residents have convinced US OF
the fearful reality of the disaster which visited
the coasts of Bengal and Madras, and incredull-
ty is silenced before the statistical returns of
official investigators.
The art of the rhetorician is not needed in
describing such a catastrophe as the Cyclone OF
November. The simple narrative of Defoe has
more effect on the mass of men than the most
highly coloured pictures of poets, and even than
the philosophic realism Of Thucydides. Bit by
bit the truth is revealed, and the horror Of the
persons were destroyed by the immediate conse-
quences of the storm of November, and a vast
number have met a slower death through its
later influence. Sixty thousand was the number
estimated to have been killed by the earthquake
at Lisbon on another All Saints Day, a century
ago. Nor was the proEortionate destruction less
than it was then. III the island ofSaugor out OF
5000 persons but 1900 have been left. The
remaining seven thousand passed, in less than
an hour, out of existence. All along the eastern
cost of the Indian peninsula went wind and
storm fulfilling His word. It was the time of
spring tides, and under the influence of the hur-
ricane the sea rose to an unexampled height.
Up the course of the GaDges the wave rushed,
overwhelming the villages on the banks, and
leaving the few who survived the food to perish
tor want of food their grain rotted and their
crops we're destroyed by the salt water, and
they had no resource but to die. But the scene
of the greatest disaster appears to have been
Masulipatam, about half way down the coast.
The town lies a little to the north Of one Of the
mouths of the Kistna, on the plain which
stretches from the Kistna to the Godayery.
The mud which has for ages been washed down
these rivers has formed a district little above
the level of the sea. In the wet season it is
overfowed by the freshets of the Kistna, and
it requires at all times to be protected from the
ocean by sea-walls and dikes. The Dutch, who
first settled at Masulipatam, probably saw IN its
situation something which reminded them of
Holland, and congratulated themselves that the
single good anchorage on the coast was close
to such a fat and fruitful plain. But the quail
tiles which appeared to them advantages made
MasuIlpatam an easy prey to the storm. The
Cyclone rushing across the Bay OF Bengal fell
upon the spot which was least prepared to meet
it. The centre of the hurricane passed within
a mile Of the devoted town at 10 pm. on the
LIST of November, in a night of utter darkness.
Amid the storm of wind a tidal wave thirteen
feet higher that the highest tide-mark surmount-
ed sea-walls and dikes and poured over the
whole of the surrounding country. For an
hour the water rose and covered nearly eight
hundred square miles of the plain, and when it
retired, at II, the work of destruction was done.
The plain for 80 miles along the coast and from
nine to ten miles inland had been submerged,
and in one place the storm, wave had reached
a spot II miles from the shore. We can only
feebly picture to ourselves the desolation of the
scene. The low-built houses of the natives had
been washed away, and those which might have
reached above the wave had been blown down
by the fury of the storm. The fercest powers
of the natural world were at work, and in the
darkness of night there was no escape possible,
whatever might have been done in the light of
day. Whole villages were entirely destroyed
their inhabitants were drowned, their cattle
were lost, their crops were buried beneath a
thick deposit of mud and sand. 10 have been
the sole survivor of such q calamity was, per-
haps, a more cruel fate than to have persisted
with kinsfolk and friends. When help came
from Madras, those who brought it witnessed a