360 Miscellanies. 



clucino' the sovrndimrs from five to three and half fathoms at the an- 

 choraa^e, and leaving a great extent of the harbor dry. Hundreds of 

 curious souls rushed down to witness the novelty, when a gigantic 

 wave came roaring 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 people 

 in the flood, destroying houses, canoes, and fish-ponds, washing away 

 the food and clothing of the inhabitants, large quantities of animals, 

 fire wood, and timber collected on the strand for sale. The cries of 

 distress were horrible ; those in the water, unable to swnm 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 rendered by 

 their boats, many, who were stunned and insensible, would have been 

 carried out to sea and perished, as the natives had not a tiingle canoe 

 left that would float. Every thing 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 Waiojama 

 and Hauna a woman and child were drowned ; at Kauwale one wo- 

 man lost her life. The amount of damage done has not yet been as- 

 certained, nor is it known how many times the sea rose and fell. 

 There was no shock of an earthquake felt at Hilo, or elsewhere, al- 

 though it is ascertained that the volcano of Kilauea was unusually 

 disturbed the previous evening, — the fires were suddenly quenched, 

 and yawning chasms w^ere burst open in previously tranquil places, 

 accompanied with violent explosions. Inquiries have been made of 

 masters of vessels who were to the north and to the east of the isl- 

 ands on the 7th, at various distances, but none of them noticed any 

 thing unusual in the sea or atmosphere. That this apparent subma- 

 rine volcanic action has taken place at some distance from the islands, 

 is proved by the wave striking the diflerent islands simultaneously, 

 and apparently in the same direction; but at what distance we have 



no means at present to determine. Perhaps the internal fires have 

 found a new vent, vvhich may be laying the foundation of a new group 

 of islands in our neighborhood. It is now 19^ years since a similar 

 phenomenon occurred here, but not so violently as the last, nor was 

 it attended with any loss of life. On the second day after an aflTect- 

 ing scene was witnessed at Wailuku (Maui:) the bodies that had been 

 recovered from the sea were conveyed together to the church, fol- 

 lowed by a great multitude : a funeral sermon was preached on the 



