1840.] the Theory of the Law of Storms. 40/ 



these gentlemen must have jumped overboard, and never reached the 

 shore, as the vessel has since been got up, but no bodies in her. She 

 has sustained a dreadful loss. Oh ! it has been an awful gale. I can't 

 help feeling thankful for our safety, when I witness the horrible 

 devastation of property and loss of life at this place. I hope you have 

 not suffered so at Madras. I will give you a full account in my next. 

 Captain Shreeve, I am sure, has put us down for lost, long ago. I 

 consider our safety a most miraculous escape. We left four vessels in 

 Vizagapatam roads ; all went on shore, were dashed to pieces, and every 

 soul perished. Fancy all that gale can do— and then you will not 

 guess half. Every person is starving here ; nothing to be got for love or 

 money ; I would rather have been where I was, out at sea, than in the 

 finest dock at Coringa. Every vessel has suffered, but poor Marshall 

 and Pendygrass have been the worst ; and their vessels too at a place 

 where you would think no gale that ever blew could hurt them. — 

 Madras United Service Gazette, Dec. 4. 



AN AWFUL HURRICANE. 



Pour days tappal (the 11th to the 14th inst.) arrived simultane- 

 ously from Calcutta on Monday morning. The cause of their deten- 

 tion is found in the subjoined accounts of an awful hurricane experienced 

 to the northward. It is most providential that at Samulcottah, where 

 it appears to have raged with so much violence, not a life has been 

 lost ; but we fear that from seaward and the immediate line of coast 

 where the agitated sea made irruptions, bad accounts will be received. 

 The devotion of the faithful sepoy guard over the treasure, when the 

 warring elements seemed to dictate a quest of the nearest shelter, will 

 elicit warm approval. 



Samulcottah, \8th November. — The small station with its neat 

 thatched cottages and well kept parade, is now a scene of desolation. 

 It was visited on Saturday night by one of the most severe hurricanes 

 ever known in this part of the country : it blew from 6 o'clock in the 

 evening till 5 o'clock the next morning, carrying away the roofs of all 

 the thatched houses, and leaving their inmates wet and shivering in 

 the dread of the walls falling in upon them. Happily this was not the 

 case; but, with the exception of the Collector and Commandant, every 

 officer is houseless, and even theirs' have been much shattered, though 

 tiled. The sepoys' huts have been totally blown to pieces, and their 



