278 TlMEHRI. 
materials and preparing the way for the masons and car- 
penters, who commenced with putting my house and the 
manager's in a barely habitable state. Then we pro- 
ceeded in due order to the mill-house, boiling house, still 
house, and the canal. The latter, from its great extent, 
four or five miles, passing round wooded hills and under 
precipices, was so filled up with rocks, masses of fallen 
earth and immense trees, that it was a labour of some 
time to clear it out effectually. On the first of Septem- 
ber our own residence was rendered so far habitable that 
we were enabled to return to it from the curing-house, 
where we had passed many weeks of discomfort under a 
burning coppered roof, and in the midst of the various 
disagreeables with which it and the store room are 
usually filled. We were returning it is true to a mere 
thatched cottage, but the temperature was so different, 
and the air so pure and comparatively cool, that it was 
quite a luxurious palace compared with the building we 
had quitted. We had abused it before the hurricane as 
little better than a barn, but we were now thankful, nay 
delighted, to occupy it again, even in its diminutive and 
reduced size. The very next morning we had a visit 
from Sir GEORGE HlLL, the Governor, who with his 
characteristic benevolence and zeal for the public, had 
come up attended by only a single servant, knowing 
how incapable we were in this part of the country of re- 
ceiving him with any retinue. His object was to ascer- 
tain by personal observation the extent of the calamity 
that had befallen us, in order that he might represent 
our case in stronger terms to the Government at home, 
and describe as an eye-witness the extent of the loss we 
had suffered. Not aware of any such intention I had 
