14* A HISTORY OF 



pour, along the surface of the country. The natives, not only o 

 Persia, but of Arabia, talk of its effects with terror; and their poets 

 have not failed to heighten them with the assistance of imagination. 

 They have described it as under the conduct of a minister of ven- 

 geance, who governs its terrors, and raises, or depresses it, as he 

 thinks proper.* These deadly winds are also known along the coasts 

 of India, at Negapatam, Masulipatam, and Petapoli. But. luckily for 

 mankind, the shortness of their duration diminishes the injuries that 

 might ensue from their malignity. 



The Cape of Good Hone, as well as many islands in the West-In- 

 dies, are famous for their hurricanes, and that extraordinary kind of 

 cloud which is said to produce them. This cloud, which is the fore- 

 runner of an approaching hurricane, appears, when first seen, like a 

 small black spot, on the verge of the horizon ; and is called, by sail 

 ors, the bull's eye, from being seen so minute at a vast distance. All 

 this time, a perfect calm reigns over the sea and land, while the 

 cloud grows gradually broader as it approaches. At length, coming 

 to the place where its fury is to fall, it invests the whole horizon with 

 darkness. During all the time of its approach, a hollow murmur is 

 heard in the cavities of the mountains ; and beasts and animals, sen- 

 sible of its approach, are seen running over the fields, to seek for 

 shelter. Nothing can be more terrible than its violence when it be- 

 gins. The houses in those countries, which are made of timber, the 

 better to resist its fury, bend to the blast like osiers, and again recover 

 their rectitude. The sun, which, but a moment before, blazed with 

 meridian splendour, is totally shut out ; and a midnight darkness pre- 

 vails, except that the air is incessantly illuminated with gleams of 

 lightning, by which one can easily see to read. The rain falls, at the 

 same time, in torrents ; and its descent has been resembled to what 

 pours from the spouts of our houses after a violent shower. These 

 hurricanes are not less offensive to the sense of smelling also, and 

 never come without leaving the most noisome stench behind them. 

 If the seamen also lay by their wet clothes, for twenty-four hours, 

 they are all found swarming with little white maggots, that were 

 brought with the hurricane. Our first mariners, when they visited these 

 regions, were ignorant of its effects, and the signs of its approach ; 

 their ships, therefore, were dashed to the bottom at the first onset ; 

 and numberless were the wrecks which the hurricane occasioned. 

 But, at present, being forewarned of its approach, they strip their 

 masts of all their sails, and thus patiently abide its fury. T'lese hur 

 ricaries are common in all the tropical climates. On the coasts ol 

 Guinea they have frequently three or four in a day, that thus shut out 

 the heavens, for a little space ; and, when past, leave all again in for- 

 mer splendour. They chiefly prevail, on that coast, in the intervals 

 of the trade-winds ; the approach of which clears the air of its mete- 

 ors, and gives these mortal showers that little degree of wholesomeness 

 which they possess. They chiefly obtain there during the months of 

 April and May ; tncy are known, at Loango, from January to April ; 

 ->n the opuosile coas* of Africa, the hurricane season begins in May ; 



* Herlielot. Bibliotbeoue Oriental 



