Chap. XXIII.—B. P.] THE GREAT STORM OF 1865. 873 
pipe-stems or laid low from their roots. People could 
not hear one another speak, although shouting to each 
other at the top of their voices; the roar of the wind 
and the noise of the thunder (which seemed immedi¬ 
ately overhead) effectually drowning every other 
sound. 
At Eama Cay, the natives asserted that they felt an 
earthquake, but this has not been confirmed by any 
other of the neighbouring inhabitants; the report 
was probably due to the terror and excitement pre¬ 
valent at such a time, with an uproar of the elements 
raging around enough to bring the heart of the stoutest 
man into his mouth. 
The southern end of Blcwfields Lagoon appears to 
have been the limit of the storm in that direction. 
It did no damage whatever at Pirn’s Pay, which is 
but a few miles further south. To the northward it 
nearly destroyed the town of Blewfields, leaving only 
the mission-houses, that of Mr. Green, the Consul, 
and six small dwellings or rather huts standing, and 
of the former the roof was blown away. Every¬ 
thing was laid low, boat-houses driven bodily away, 
and the good old craft, u Messenger of Peace ”— 
in which I had made a most trying voyage from 
Greytown—capsized, filled with water, and tossed 
about like a cockle-shell, to the extreme indignation 
of her creole captain, who could never speak of the 
treatment his favourite then experienced without a 
strong ebullition of feeling. 
At Pearl Cay Lagoon, great damage was done; 
the church was unroofed and much injured; the mis- 
