Chap. XXIII.—B.P.] BOAT IMPALED ON COCOA-NUT-TREE. 375 
thirty feet long, with a good-sized cabin in midships. 
The wind caught her up like a feather; and the next 
morning, when the people emerged from the various 
places of shelter they had sought, they found the 
mission-boat spiked on the top of a broken cocoa-nut- 
tree, whether it had been snapped off by the wind or 
the weight of the boat was not apparent; but there she 
was, about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, im¬ 
paled by the tree, and offering a problem by no means 
easy of solution to the mechanical genius of the men 
of Corn Islands, as to the best method of restoring her 
to her proper element. I understand that the boat 
no longer enacts the part of Mahomet’s coffin, but has 
been once more placed afloat; in so battered a condi¬ 
tion, however, as to be useless for any but the com¬ 
monest work, such, for instance, as carrying a load of 
stones or of cocoa-nuts for a short distance. 
Thus it will be seen that the so-called hurricane 
was confined to a space ninety miles long by about 
sixty broad, and, strangely enough, entirely to the 
ground occupied by the Moravian Missionaries, who 
have been the chief sufferers from so unexpected a 
visitation. No less than five churches have been more 
or less destroyed, besides school and dwelling-houses, 
and a large amount of goods, for the Brethren do what 
they can in trading to make their mission self-sup¬ 
porting, not unsuccessfully, as they are by far the 
most respected, and their stores the most frequented, 
of any of the traders on the coast. 
But although so much property, native and foreign, 
was destroyed, yet but few people lost their lives. 
