264 PUBLIC REGISTER, 1845. 
pouring forth fire and smoke, and causing the 
island to reverberate with its bellowing; the 
other gun is condemned to silence, having been 
spiked by some one in the Bounty. 
" 1845, April lQth." — The diary of this date 
contains a striking description of a storm, which, 
bursting over the island, greatly alarmed the 
inhabitants. A considerable portion of the 
earth was detached from the side of the hill 
situate at the head of a ravine, and carried into 
the sea ; about 300 cocoa-nut-trees were torn up 
by the roots, and borne along with it ; a yam-, 
ground, containing 1,000 yams, totally disap- 
peared; several fishing-boats were destroyed, 
and large pieces of rock were found blocking up 
the harbour in several parts. In the interior, 
all the plantain patches were levelled, and 
about 4,000 plantain trees destroyed, one-half 
in full bearing, the other designed for the 
year 1846. 
" So that," says the annalist, " this very 
valuable article of food we shall be without for 
a very long time. The fact is, that from this 
date until August, we shall be pinched for food. 
But God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb ; 
and we humbly trust that the late monitions of 
Providence — namely, drought, sickness, and 
storm, which severally have afflicted us this 
year — may be sanctified to us, and be the means 
of bringing us, one and all, into a closer com- 
munication with our God. May we remember 
the rod, and who hath appointed it ! May we 
flee to the cross of Christ for safety and succour 
in every time of need, always bearing in mind 
