Sea at the Sandwich Islands. 143 



able object exposed to its fury. At a small village called 

 Kahului, in the district of Walluku, on the sea retiring, the 

 amazed inhabitants followed it as it receded, eagerly catching 

 the stranded fish, shouting and hallooing with pleasm-e, when 

 suddenly the sea rose perpendicularly before them like a pre- 

 cipice, and, rushing to the beach, buried the assembled multi- 

 tudes in the flood, and, overflowing the shore, swept away 

 every house in the village but one ; the canoes and property 

 of the natives were all destroyed. Happily, owing to the am- 

 phibious education of the people, bvit two lives were lost here ; 

 but as the same occurrence happened all along the sea-side, 

 we shall probably hear of more deaths. 



At Byron's Bay, on Hawaii, the same phenomenon took 

 place. An unusual number of persons were collected together 

 attending a protracted meeting, consequently every house was 

 crowded. At half-past six, the sea retu'ed at the rate of four 

 or five knots an hour, reducing the soundings from five to three 

 and a half fathoms at the anchorage, and leaving a great ex- 

 tent of the harbour dry. Hundreds of curious souls rushed 

 down to witness the novelty, when a gigantic wave came roar- 

 ing to the shore at the rate of six or eight knots an hour, rising 

 twenty feet above high water mark, and fell on the beach with 

 a noise resembling a heavy peal of thunder, burying the peo- 

 ple in the flood, destroying houses, canoes, and fish-ponds, 

 washing away the food and clothing of the inhabitants, large 

 quantities of animals, firewood, and timber collected on the 

 strand for sale. The cries of distress were horrible ; those in 

 the water, unable to swim among the wreck of houses and 

 pieces of timber, struggling for their lives, and those on shore 

 wailing for their friends and relatives. The British whale -ship, 

 Admiral Cockburn, was at anchor in the bay, and to the timely 

 aid and humane exertions of her master (Lawrence) and crew 

 many are indebted for their lives ; but for the assistance ren- 

 dered by their boats, many, who were stunned and insensible, 

 would have been carried out to sea and perished, as the natives 

 had not a single canoe left that would float. Every thino- was 

 destroyed ; those who escaped with their lives had neither food 

 nor raiment left. In Kanokapa and Kaahelu alone sixty-six 

 houses were destroyed, and eleven persons lost their lives, four 

 men, two women, and five children ; at Waiolama and Hauna a 



