372 DOTTING® ON THE ROADSIDE. [Chap. XXIII.— B. P. 
perfect safety, especially if heavy moorings were laid 
down, to which they might make fast, instead of 
having to ride at single anchor as is now the case. 
I hope the day is not far distant when this beau¬ 
tiful spot will he dotted over with comfortable houses 
and pleasant gardens, well stocked with fruit and 
flowers, and with a flourishing trade to encourage im¬ 
migration. 
From the bar to the main entrance of the river 
takes about half an hour in a boat. The beach all 
along is a low, sandy, somewhat swampy stretch, 
having a green capping, of a uniform height the entire 
distance, with not even a change in the foliage to 
break the monotony * in fact,, it looks like a well- 
trimmed English hedge, and it is not until the en¬ 
trance of the river is passed some little distance that 
mangroves give place to scrubby palms, interspersed 
here and there with large trees. 
It was at the end of April, 1867, that I ascended 
the river, a year and a half after the desolating hurri¬ 
cane which visited the coast on the night of the 18th 
and 19th October, 1865, if hurricane that can he 
called, which confined its devastation within such a 
limited track. 
The gale commenced in Blewfields Lagoon, on the 
18th of October, and by 8 p.m. the wind blew with 
great force, gradually veering from north to west, 
varied by squalls from all points of the compass; 
the rain tell in a deluge. About ten, the violence of 
the storm was tremendous,—houses began to fall, and 
trees of the largest size were snapped asunder like 
