12 ASPECTS OF TROPICAL NATURE 



similar catastrophe which befell the beautiful island of Karotonga 

 on the 23rd of December, 1831. The chapels, school-houses, 

 mission-houses, and nearly all the dwellings of the natives, no 

 less than a thousand in number, were levelled to the ground. 

 Every particle of food on the island was destroyed. Of the 

 thousands of banana or plantain trees which had covered and 

 adorned the land, scarcely one was left standing, either on the 

 plains, in the valleys, or upon the mountains. Stately trees, 

 that had withstood the storms of ages, were laid prostrate on 

 the ground, and thrown upon each other in the wildest con- 

 fusion ; while even of those that were still standing, many were 

 left without a branch, and all perfectly leafless. So great and 

 so general was the destruction, that no spot escaped ; for the 

 gale, veering gradually round the island, did most effectually its 

 devastating work. 



Though the tropical storms are thus frequently a scourge, 

 they are often productive of no less signal benefits. Many a 

 murderous epidemic has suddenly ceased after one of these 

 natural convulsions, and myriads of insects, the destroyers of 

 the planter's hopes, are swept away by the fierce tornado. Be- 

 sides, if the equatorial hurricanes are far more furious than our 

 storms, a more luxurious vegetation effaces their vestiges in a 

 shorter time. Thus Nature teaches us that a preponderance of 

 good is frequently concealed behind the paroxysms of her appa- 

 rently unbridled rage. 



From these general outlines of the physical geography of the 

 tropical world, I shall, in the next following chapters, proceed 

 to a more detailed description of several equatorial lands dis- 

 tinguished by the extremes of moisture or aridity, of warmth 

 or cold, according to their position and elevation above the 

 level of the sea. 



These " Aspects of Tropical Nature," if I thus may venture 

 to call them, will serve to show the wonderful variety of climate 

 wliicli the causes above-mentioned engender under the same 

 low latitudes, and their influence upon the development of 

 animjil arid vegetable life. 



TliuH, while the Sahara, the KalahaH, and the Peruvian 

 earuL-coast afford striking examples of barrenness ensuing from 



