352 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



on the 30th, with nine feet of water in the .hold. The officers and crew succeeded in reaching 

 the Marian Islands in their hoats. 



strong's island, and ascension. 



Mr. John T. Gulick, of the Sandwich Islands, in the year 1852, visited several of the Micro- 

 nesian Islands, near the equator, in company with the missionaries who then settled at these 

 islands. At Strong's island (Ualan,) in latitude 5° 12' N., longitude 163° E., they were 

 informed by King George, the principal chief, that at a former period the island had been 

 visited by a hurricane which wholly destroyed the bread fruit trees, and thus caused a famine 

 wbich destroyed a large portion of the inhabitants. He described the gale as blowing first from 

 one quarter of the heavens, and then from another. 



At Ascension island (Bonabi,) which is about three hundred miles distant, in a west-northwest 

 direction, a similar account was received. Although it cannot be certainly known that the 

 disasters at the two islands were produced by one and the same storm, yet their relative positions 

 accord with the usual course of progression in the lower latitudes. A cyclone moving on this 

 track would be likely to cross the China sea, unless prevented by an earlier recurvation of its 

 path into the temperate latitudes. 



CYCLONE OF THE AUSTERLITZ J NOVEMBER 1851. 



The following notices of this cyclone are contained in letters from Hong Kong, dated December 

 18, 1851, and made public by the secretary of the New York Board of Underwriters : 



" The new clipper Witchcraft arrived at Hong Kong on the 3d of December, from California, 

 with loss of mainmast head and all the topmasts. She experienced a typhoon on the 13th-14th 

 of November, in latitude 22° 40' N., longitude 150° E." 



"About the same period, in latitude 19° 48' N., longitude 159° E., the American ship 

 Austerlitz was totally dismasted. The chain-plates were torn from her sides, and her hull 

 otherwise much injured. The N. B. Palmer, bound from San Francisco to Shanghai, fell in 

 with her and took from the wreck all on board, and abandoned her." 



' It cannot be doubted that the two ships, Austerlitz and Witchcraft, fell, successively, nearly 

 into the heart of the cyclone. We have thus two points established in its track, which are 

 distant from each other about five hundred and thirty nautical miles. These positions show its 

 course to have been north 71° west, or W.N.W., nearly. The want of an exact date in the 

 account of the Austerlitz, leaves the rate of progression undetermined. The position of the 

 Austerlitz is more than two thousand five hundred miles from Hong Kong, on the coast of 

 China, and is somewhat nearer to the Sandwich Islands. 



I have been informed recently by Captain Rodgers, who commanded the Witchcraft, that he 

 left San Francisco on the 3d of October, and had light, variable winds and calms to the Sandwich 

 Islands. After passing these islands, he found very unsteady winds, veering from N.E. to S.E., 

 and sometimes S.W., with occasional light airs from west ; the barometer ranging from 30 to 

 30.05. In longitude 169° E., the winds veered to S. and S.W., with heavy clouds and swell 

 from westward ; barometer ranging about 29.90, indicative oftheS.W. monsoon. On reaching 

 longitude 159° 30' E., latitude 20° N., November 9th, he had a very heavy gale, of short duration, 

 from S.W., veering by S. to S.E., in which his close-reefed topsails were blown away. Hence, 

 he hardly expected the severe gale of the 14th, in the path of which he ran, on a west course, 

 with increasing wind from S.E., veering to south, and finally to S.W. The ship was hove to, 



