102 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. chap. iv. 



fusion, and the wind increasing every hour. I found the 

 Calcutta steam packet, instead of departing, had taken down 

 her upper yards. All the small vessels had been removed 

 from the sides of the wharves where they were usually moored, 

 the boats all drawn up, all the bags of sugar or other mer- 

 chandise removed from the sheds near the quays; and on 

 board all the vessels the utmost activity appeared, heightened 

 by the shouting or the songs of the sailors of different na- 

 tions as they were sending down their yards, and many of them 

 their top-gallant masts ; while the ships near the edge of the 

 harbour were taking up their anchors and running out to sea 

 to avoid being driven on shore. 



Amongst the preparations on shore, I noticed that many of 

 the straggling branches of trees in the public gardens had 

 been cut off, so as to afford the wind less hold of them. The 

 ground was already strewn with the small branches and green 

 leaves cut from the trees by the blast. It was very dark all 

 the rest of the afternoon, and the wind and rain continued to 

 increase. As I walked home through the company's garden 

 the watercourse was full, and the usually small stream was 

 flowing along, a rapid, turbid, mountain torrent. On looking 

 towards the Pouce and adjacent mountains, I counted nine 

 different cascades rushing from the hollows amongst the 

 ridges, and pouring in foam and spray down the mountain 

 sides, where at other times no stream could be seen. M. Le 

 Brun sent to his son to have the house in which he lived 

 carefully fastened, and every loose shutter or board nailed up. 

 Our residence, as well as most of the houses, was furnished 

 with strong, heavy, outside shutters, called hurricane shutters. 

 It had extra doors of the same kind, and these were all well 

 secured. In every direction, during the rest of the evening, 

 nothing was heard but the hammering of heavy iron bolts or 

 bars and the nailing up of doors and shutters. The yard or 



