CHAPTER III.Escape of British Consul and Party from the Attack of the Natives—Supplies Cut Off—Governor-General Protects the Consul—Insolence of the Portuguese Guard—The Crew of the Cutter “Herald” Arrive—The Consul’s Position Improved—Insolence of the Portuguese Coxswain Exposed—The Governor-General furnishes the Consul with a Guard—The Slave-dealers Disband the Mozambique Police, and the Consul is without a Guard—Fever Attacks the Inmates of the Consul’s House—The Portuguese Doctors Refuse to Render any Assistance—Mr. Duncan Dies—Hurricane at Mozambique.
Escape of British Consul and Party from the Attack of the Natives—Supplies Cut Off—Governor-General Protects the Consul—Insolence of the Portuguese Guard—The Crew of the Cutter “Herald” Arrive—The Consul’s Position Improved—Insolence of the Portuguese Coxswain Exposed—The Governor-General furnishes the Consul with a Guard—The Slave-dealers Disband the Mozambique Police, and the Consul is without a Guard—Fever Attacks the Inmates of the Consul’s House—The Portuguese Doctors Refuse to Render any Assistance—Mr. Duncan Dies—Hurricane at Mozambique.
Having learned that there was a house to let at Messuril, I called upon the owner of it in the city of Mozambique, and as he asked me a yearly rent of seventy-five pounds sterling, and assured me “that it was just the residence suitable for a British consul,” I determined to go and see what it was like; and according to arrangement withthe owner of it, the next afternoon I went to Messuril, accompanied by Mrs. M’Leod and her maid. On approaching the house, we saw at once that sending us to look at it was intended as an insult, for it was nothing more than a large hut with the walls whitewashed, and indeed was but little better than the stable of the house I was then living in. However, as we had seen the outside, we determined to look at the inside, and entered it for that purpose, when we found there was not an apartment in it that would contain my bed. Before entering the house, I had made a remark on the loneliness of the situation, and what a distance it was from the sea; and while examining the house, and smiling at the impertinence of those who had played off such a practical joke on us, I observed that a number of people were collecting round the carriage. I hurried my wife and her maid into the carriage, and made the best of my way to the palace, as the native war-drums were sounding, and a number of the natives, armed with assegais and muskets, were collecting round us, yelling and shouting. As soon as I got in sight of the guardat the palace of Messuril, the natives stopped and made off to the road by which we usually went to Messuril. Here I was met by one of the native Portuguese soldiers, who desired me to save my party by taking the lower road nearer the sea. I therefore pushed on for my house by that road, and when the natives observed that we had escaped, they began yelling and shouting at their own discomfiture.
In the time of Vasco Guedes, when he was encamped at Messuril with all the available force in Mozambique, and the war was going on between him and the natives, my wife, accompanied only by her maid, frequently drove fearlessly through numbers of the natives; she was never annoyed, but always treated by them with great respect.
I therefore brought this matter under the notice of the Governor in a semi-official note, and he took care to have the guard on the alert at Messuril after that occurrence.
Subsequently I had inquiries made among the natives, and I found that a party of strange people, who had come in to barter, were engaged to attack us; and that, humanly speaking, weowed our safety to going to Messuril at an earlier hour than was anticipated.
Soon after this event, finding that we were not to be tempted into the country again to our destruction, Mr. Soares sent one Sunday morning to borrow the carriage and horse, and forgot to return them.
After this occurrence, the natives were ordered by their masters, the neighbouring Portuguese, not to sell us anything; and some of them having been seen to enter my house for the purpose of selling fowls and eggs, they were waylaid by the overseers of the neighbouring plantations and cruelly beaten.
Those slaves who were in the habit of bringing fire-wood to my house, by the sale of which they obtained food for themselves, were forbidden to come near the house; and there was a cordon of slaves established for the purpose of preventing any supplies coming near us. But the slaves were more considerate than their masters, and for a time some of the very slaves who were set to keep a watch over the house, and prevent any supplies reaching us, came after dark with wood, fowls, eggs, and milk.
This went on for some time, until they were betrayed by the other slaves of our neighbours, when a more rigid look-out was established, and regular night parties were told off, not only to watch the house for the purpose of preventing any supplies arriving, but also to disturb us at all hours of the night.
In the dead of the night a tremendous thumping would be heard at the door of the house, disturbing us out of our sleep; when, on going to one of the windows to see the cause of this disturbance, there would be no one near the house. Hardly had I returned to my bed, when again I was obliged to rise from the same cause.
I had recourse to the Governor-general in this state of affairs, and he promised that he would establish a night patrol. Finding that this was only a promise, after putting up with it for three weeks longer, during which I had been frequently disturbed four, five, and six times of a night, I addressed his Excellency officially, when he informed me that this was the first intimation which he had received of my having been molested, and forthwith he supplied me with a night patrol.The annoyance ceased at once, and we had some rest at night.
However, the Capitain-Mor, commanding on the mainland, ordered the patrolling to cease, and the slave-dealers, apprized by him of the circumstance, ordered their slaves to renew their midnight attacks on my house.
I was obliged to make another official intimation to the Governor-general, when the patrol was restored, with an intimation from the Governor-general that it had been discontinued without his knowledge, and contrary to his express orders, and that he had, in consequence, visited the Capitain-Mor with a severe reprimand, and directions to continue the patrol as long as I remained resident on the mainland.
The Portuguese patrol now informed me that they were directed to intimate to me their presence, and that they would do so as long as I desired it. They arrived about eleven o’clock at night, and intimated their presence by battering the house-door with the butts of their muskets. They patrolled the house and grounds until four o’clock in the morning, and during the whole ofthat time they kept up an incessant yelling from one to the other. There were four men and a sergeant, and every time they came to the front of the house they made an attack on the front door with the butts of their muskets, accompanying the assault with the most frightful oaths in Portuguese. When I remonstrated with the sergeant, he coolly informed me that he was obeying his orders by thus intimating his presence, and that he was instructed to do so on every occasion that he visited the house; that my remonstrances were in vain, and that he would continue this as long as I required a patrol. For three more nights this continued, we in the house being obliged to go without any sleep. On the fifth night a violent storm rid us of our persecutors; and, as I did not make another official complaint to the Governor-general, the patrol was discontinued.
As soon as the slave-dealers were aware of this, their slaves were sent again to disturb us, during the night, not only by stoning the house at all hours after dark, but even, at times, by firing musketry close under the windows.
This state of affairs went on until, at last, we had no fire-wood to light a fire, and all the old casks and packing-cases in the house were being fast consumed. Since the desertion of the “Castor” frigate, things were worse and worse, and I even found that the Governor-general could not be prevailed upon to carry out the promises of assistance which he had made me.
Finding that I had been so shamefully deserted by one of Her Majesty’s ships, immediately after the seizure of the “Charles et Georges” he began to be quite careless about the suppression of the slave-trade, and informed me that, with the best intention, he found himself quite powerless to protect me; in fact, he began to dread the consequences of the decisive step which he had taken by seizing the “Charles et Georges;” and, I believe, had made his mind up to see myself and family perish from the state of starvation which we were in by the rigid blockade established by the slave-dealers.
He knew that I had not a slave in my house, and that the only means of communication which I had with him was in writing, by way of hispalace at Messuril. To get a letter there, I had to fee a negro well, for he ran the risk of being flogged for having any communication with my house; and, on his arrival at Messuril, he was obliged to fee the sergeant of the guard to send the letter to Mozambique. The Governor-general had promised to provide a house for me on the island, and in the city of Mozambique, but he found he could not procure one—at least, so he said. His Excellency had asked me to wait for some servants until the “Charles et Georges” was condemned, and that then he would place under my protection as many of the slaves comprising her cargo as I was willing to take charge of, knowing, as he said, that they could not be in kinder hands, until it was decided what was to be done with them. But here I found that he had otherwise arranged, for, it having been represented to him that if those slaves got into my hands I should be able to learn who their masters were, and also who were the owners of the other slaves on board of that vessel, it was decided that they should be returned to their owners in the city of Mozambique.
On being apprized of this distribution of the slaves, it became more certain that the state of imprisonment in which I was held on the mainland was decided to continue.
Fortunately for me, at this juncture, the crew of the British cutter “Herald,” which had been illegally seized by the Portuguese, when trading with the natives in the Manakusi river, arrived at Mozambique, and the Governor-general, now that I had some more witnesses to testify to the treatment to which I was subjected by the officials and slave-dealers, attended to my requisition for a government boat to communicate with him relative to the cutter “Herald.” The Superintendent of the Dock-yard, a notorious slave-dealer, sent this boat over for me without an awning, in the mid-day sun, although, at all other times, the boat was fitted with an awning. The object which he contemplated by this arrangement was to give me fever by exposure to the sun. He succeeded in this. The government slaves, who rowed the boat, were ordered by this officer not to carry me into the boat, so that I would be compelled to walkthrough thewater up to my knees. The coxswain of the boat was made drunk, so as to be excessively insolent to me.
On this occasion I was accompanied by the late Mr. G. W. Duncan, the captain of the “Herald,” who, from having been in the Brazils some five years, spoke Portuguese fluently. I had cautioned him not to speak a word but English on the passage across to the town; and, on my arrival at the palace, I complained to the Governor-general of the conduct of the coxswain of the boat, and of his not allowing the crew to carry me through the water into the boat; also, of his insolence on the passage across. The Governor-general apologized for the absence of an awning, which he said must have been accidental. He sent for the coxswain of the boat, when he was satisfied of his not being sober. When asked for an explanation of his conduct, he at first denied everythingin toto, and, of course, said that I had entirely mistaken his meaning. The Governor-general hoped that I was satisfied, when I informed him that I was by no means satisfied by the explanation givento him by the drunken coxswain of the boat, and requested Mr. Duncan to explain to His Excellency the nature of the language made use of by the Portuguese coxswain.
Hereupon Mr. Duncan pulled out a small pocket-book; and to the consternation of His Excellency, the coxswain, and the negroes, read out of it some of the oaths made use of by the coxswain on the passage across; and, commencing with our arrival on the beach, he, in the purest Portuguese, described everything that had occurred until our arrival at the palace, particularly dwelling upon the curses heaped upon the British consul and the English nation by this Portuguese felon.
The Portuguese coxswain, finding the tables completely turned upon him, informed the Governor-general that in all he had done he was only obeying the orders of his superior, who took the awning out of the boat with his own hands, and directed him not to allow the crew to carry me into the boat.
The slaves, interrogated by the Governor-general, confirmed the statement of the coxswain,while they stated that every word uttered by Mr. Duncan in recounting the passage across was perfectly true. The Governor-general made a most abject apology, and begged that I would make great allowances for him when I saw him surrounded by such people.
Mr. Duncan and I now proceeded through the city, and prevailed upon some of the Banyans to allow their slaves to come and serve in my house. By this means we were enabled to collect a crew for my boat, which had been lying idle, for want of hands, on the beach in front of my house for many weeks.
Mr. Duncan took the boat in hand, and employed her between the house and the city until we laid in a large stock of fire-wood, fowls, ducks, two sheep, a goat, and two cows.
During this time the most strenuous endeavours were used to get the slaves in my employment away, but we made the Banyans stick to the agreement, which was in writing, and by that means got the consulate provisioned.
We could not get the Portuguese to sell us any flour, but we hoped to get some fromvessels coming in. In this we were disappointed, for Mr. Duncan was only able to get 12lbs. of flour from a German brig, and this had to be obtained through the Portuguese custom-house officer on board of her.
Soon after the arrival of the survivors of the crew of the British cutter “Herald” at Mozambique, I succeeded in obtaining the house of Señhor José Vincente de Gama, at the yearly rental of 400 dollars; and now that there were a few more Englishmen in the port, the Governor-general was pleased to furnish me with a guard consisting of four native policemen belonging to the city of Mozambique, under the command of a Portuguese sergeant from His Excellency’s body-guard.
The slaves of the neighbouring slave-dealers were not allowed to insult me; the natives were permitted to approach the house and furnish us with supplies; and the Banyans were persuaded to allow their slaves to come and serve in my house. All this was in consequence of the presence of a few Englishmen, and the persevering energy of Mr. Duncan, who thought he couldnot do too much for the consul of his nation, to enable him to maintain his post against the slave-dealers. Loud were the complaints among all classes of the shameful desertion of H. M. Consul and the Governor-general by the British frigate “Castor,” and by no party at Mozambique was the captain of that vessel more thoroughly despised and abused than the very slave-dealers who had been assisted by the absence of a British ship of war.
Mr. Duncan and his mate, Mr. Charles Hilliard, both resided in my house, while the remainder of the crew of the “Herald” lived in the city of Mozambique.
Mr. Duncan gave the Portuguese very clearly to understand that their treatment of the British consul should be made known to the world; and as they already were aware that he had exposed slaving practices at Lourenço Marques, by his letter in the “Natal Mercury,” they were afraid of him, and consequently hated him intensely. I cautioned him at all times to avoid eating or drinking with them when he had occasion to visit the city of Mozambique tolook after his crew. But having escaped the poison cup at Lourenço Marques, he said that he felt he would live to expose the infamy of these people to the world. Among other good offices which he rendered us, he induced a Portuguese lady in the city of Mozambique to allow her slaves to wash our linen; and thus my wife and poor Rosa were relieved from labour which was absolutely killing them, with the approaching sickly season before us.
Everybody spoke of the fearful season which was approaching; that it was the seventh year since the awful hurricane and fatal season of 1851, and that it was sure to be most destructive of life. Constant inquiries were made relative to the health of the British consul and his family as the season advanced, but Providence wonderfully protected us, as will be seen in the following pages.
For a brief space after getting into our new house we had peace, and we made the best use of our time by putting everything in order, and laying in a good stock of supplies; we were successful in obtaining all we stood in need of, exceptingflour; but as we were able to buy bread at Mozambique, after the arrival of the crew of the “Herald,” we hoped that we would be able to hold out until the dhows began to come over from Bombay.
The slave-dealers at Mozambique remonstrated with the Governor-general for giving me a guard of police from Mozambique. His Excellency explained that all the trustworthy men of the garrison were sick, and that it was useless his sending men to guard me, who would give as much trouble as the negroes who were sent to persecute me; and that, as he was compelled to protect me, he could but furnish me with a police guard.
The Governor-general of Mozambique is entirely in the hands of the Finance Committee, and they are governed by slave-trade interests. Finding that remonstrance was useless, the Finance Committee informed the Governor-general that they, from motives of economy, had disbanded the police force, and, of course, next morning my guard vanished.
A few days afterwards the two cows andnearly all the poultry were stolen. The butcher at Mozambique, from whom I had purchased the cows, sent me word that they were at the palace of the Governor-general at Messuril. At first the Governor-general refused to return them, alleging that they were his property. The butcher went to his Excellency, and stated that I had purchased the cows from him, they being his property. Some days after the butcher had seen the Governor-general on this subject, the cows were returned to me, and the butcher was put in prison.
Some days previous to this occurrence, Mr. Charles Hilliard, the mate of the “Herald,” was attacked with fever, and after Mr. Duncan and myself had completely despaired of his recovery, by the blessing of Providence on my wife’s treatment of this fever, and her unwearied nursing, he was enabled to get about again. He had five different attacks of this most malignant fever before we left Mozambique, but, owing to his good constitution and the treatment adopted in his case, he recovered, and is now, I believe, in the enjoyment of the best health at Natal. Mr. Duncan,in consequence of the illness of some of his men at Mozambique, exposed himself a good deal, and, in fact, had never felt quite well since his arrival at Mozambique, having suffered considerably from the treatment he underwent at the hands of the Governor of Lourenço Marques.
On the 24th of February, he complained of headache, lassitude, loss of memory, and pains in his back and limbs, being the usual symptoms of this fever.
Having studied for the medical profession in his younger years, he had some knowledge of the treatment of fevers in general, and adopted what he considered was a most efficacious mode for his recovery. For this purpose he had recourse to emetics, to clear the stomach; and, although remonstrated with, he, by this treatment, so reduced the system, that when we took him in hand, although we were able to keep him alive by the use of quinine for some short time, still he never recovered sufficiently to rally against the fever, and he positively died from sheer exhaustion, the fever having in his case assumed the most malignant form.
Unfortunately, at the same time that Mr. Duncan was attacked with fever, my wife had an attack of the same fever, but at first in a milder form, and was of course confined to her room.
Rosa, observing a great change in Mr. Duncan on the evening of the 2nd of March, communicated her fears of his approaching dissolution to her mistress; and, in the hope of being able to suggest something for the recovery of Mr. Duncan, my wife insisted on being wrapped up in blankets, and taken to see him. Mrs. M’Leod was at the time in that stage of the fever when it is so necessary to humour the patient, and by no means to excite irritation by offering opposition to their wishes. Finding that dissuasion only rendered her more determined to endeavour to be as useful in his case as she had been in Mr. Hilliard’s, she was wrapped in blankets, and conveyed to the side of the sufferer, when she at once pronounced that there was no hope. Perceiving that he was partially conscious, she endeavoured to prepare him for his approaching end, and asked for any message he might have for her who was so soon to be a widow. While trying to catch a fewinarticulate sounds from the dying man, she leaned over him, and, in her anxiety not to lose a sound, she inhaled the fetid breath of him who was fast passing into eternity. The consequence of this was that she had a putrid sore throat accompanying her fever, and for six long weeks she was confined to her bed.
During the time that Mr. Duncan was dying, Mr. Hilliard was suffering from another attack of fever, and for three days and nights I expected from hour to hour to lose him.
The Portuguese frigate, “Don Ferdinand,” was lying in the harbour, on her return from Goâ, anden routeto Lisbon. There were two medical officers on board of that vessel; at the city of Mozambique there were three medical men; and of these five doctors not one could be found to visit the British consul’s house, with three people at the point of death in it, although I made an application to the Governor-general for that purpose.
To my neighbour, Brigadier Candido da Costa Soares, I applied, asking him to send me his native doctor, in the hope of saving Mr. Duncan,and suggesting something for the other sufferers; but although this man’s son, João da Costa Soares, had been treated by my wife and myself, when he was sick at the Cape of Good Hope, as if he had been our brother, he brutally refused to send me any assistance.
I again applied to the Governor-general, begging him to send me a doctor, and if he could not get the Portuguese doctors to visit my house, to oblige me by sending hisaide-de-campon board the French steamer of war “Mahé Le Bourdonnais,” then in harbour, and ask the doctor of that vessel to visit the sick in my house. The Governor-general was obliged to ask the French doctor to visit us, for the Portuguese had made up their mind to let us all die. His Excellency also procured a dozen leeches for me, which were immediately applied to my wife’s throat, and had the desired effect of giving her immediate relief.
When the French doctor visited us, he found my wife propped up with pillows in bed, much relieved from the application of the leeches, and engaged in making the shroud of our departedfriend, Mr. Duncan. This employment he of course forbade, and it was laid aside, but only to be renewed on his departure. Mr. Hilliard was in that state that it was very doubtful if he would recover, and Rosa he found had a low, nervous fever. Poor girl, she was struggling hard to help her mistress.
That night a coffin was sent over by the Governor-general, in answer to my application, and the next morning his Excellency sent a boat to convey the remains of Mr. Duncan to their last resting-place. Previous to their leaving, I had the coffin placed under a large tamarind tree in the court-yard of my house, and, spreading over it my consular flag as a pall, I read the beautiful service for the dead of the Church of England.
Rosa, at last worn out, had taken to her bed, unable to move; and my poor dog “Belle” was the only one to mourn with me over my friend.
Having thus performed the last sad Christian rites over the remains of the noble Duncan, and wrapped them in that flag which he loved so well, I had them conveyed to the boat for intermentin a grave by the side of his countrymen, Captain Dacres, R.N., and Lieutenant Loch, R.N., which the Governor-general was so considerate as to attend to. I wrote to the survivors of his crew, and my German friend, to see him laid in his grave. The sail was hoisted, and I turned from the service of the dead to endeavour to save those who were between life and death.
Mr. Hilliard I found was quite sensible, and I made known to him that the French doctor had strongly urged his removal to the hospital, as the only chance of saving his life. I pointed out to him that even poor Rosa was at last ill, and that I had no one to assist me about the house. He asked for his friend Duncan, and I answered that “he was better now,” for he was too ill to be informed of his death.
Looking at me very earnestly, he asked me to grant him one favour—to allow him to remain in my house. I explained to him that I did not know the moment when the fever might attack myself, and then there would be no one to attend to his wants; and that he would perish from neglect; that his only chance of being saved was goingto the hospital, where there were plenty of attendants.
To all this he replied by asking me in a tone and with an earnestness that I could not resist, “To let him die under his own flag?” Of course he remained in my house.
In a few days Rosa was herself again, but my wife was a long and patient sufferer.
The French vessel proceeded to sea; the day after, the good young doctor of her visited us, and I was then obliged to make an urgent official application to the Governor-general for medical assistance. Dr. Fonseca, the Surgeon Major, then visited the inmates of my house. For my wife he prescribed manna, and what he called cream of tartar, and finding this had not been taken on his second visit, he asked for a cup, in which he placed the manna, and sprinkled over it the cream of tartar, instructing me to fill the cup with warm water next morning, and, after mixing it well, to insist upon my wife taking it.
On my asking when he would next visit us, he said that Mr. Hilliard’s was a hopeless case; Rosa was quite well; and that after Mrs. M’Leodhad taken the medicine prescribed by him, “she would require no more;” adding, that “it would, therefore, be unnecessary for him to call again.”
The next morning my wife took the medicine prescribed, which was administered by my own hand, and I went to look at Hilliard. On my return, I found my wife in the greatest agony, with Rosa hanging over her. It appears that soon after my leaving the room the medicine had acted as a violent emetic, and Rosa was attracted to the room by my wife’s shrieks of agony, which I did not hear, being in the lower part of the house. Mrs. M’Leod complained of a feeling of intense burning, not only in her stomach, but in her throat, and during more than two hours she endured great agony, during which we observed the curving of the back, and twitching of the muscles, as described in cases of poisoning from strychnine. Her belief is that an over-dose of poison was administered to her, which, acting as an emetic, had not time to lodge in the system. After this we felt that we had a better chance of living without the attendance of Mozambique doctors than with them; and consequently dispensedwith their services for the remainder of our stay at that place.
The sickly season had now set in, and it proved a very fatal one; numbers of deaths occurred daily at Mozambique.
The Governor of Killimane had come out, with his wife and three daughters, in the Portuguese frigate from Lisbon, in company with the Governor-general. At first the mother fell a victim to the climate; and on being apprized of this intelligence by the Governor-general, my wife sent an invitation, through his Excellency, for the young ladies to stay with us while they remained at Mozambique. But they very naturally preferred remaining with their bereaved parent. They were all very ill, and the youngest of the three died just before the hurricane, and was buried during that great calamity which I am now going to describe.
On the 1st of April, 1858, the city of Mozambique, on the east coast of Africa, situated in latitude 15° 2′ S., and longitude 40° 48′ E. of Greenwich, was visited by a hurricane which in less than twenty-four hours did more destruction to the city and surrounding districts than any tempestin the memory of the oldest resident in these parts.
For some eight days this great convulsion of nature had been announced by heavy rains, which laid in ruins many dwellings in the city, and on the mainland; and more especially, since the 29th of March the weather had been very uncertain—torrents of rain, changeable winds, an atmosphere overcast with thick clouds, charged with electricity, were the forerunners of a terrible tempest, which commenced on the morning of the 1st of April.
The following vessels were anchored in the harbour of Mozambique:—the French schooner of war “l’Aigle;” the French barque, “Charles et Georges;” the Portuguese ship, “Adamastor;” brigs, “Amisade,” “2 Irmaõs,” and “Nostra Señhor de Soccorro,” “Flor do Mar;” schooners, “19 de Maio,” “Esperança,” and “Livramento,” together with twenty-nine Arab dhows.
On Thursday, April the 1st, at sixA.M., at the British consular residence, Cabaçeira Grande, on the mainland of Port Mozambique, the barometerB.T., No. 341, stood at 29·924 (t. 78°). The wind was from the S. and S.W., very squally, and up to elevenA.M.very heavy showers, or almost torrents of rain, came up from the S.W. At noon the barometer had fallen to 29·800 (77°), when the wind commenced blowing furiously, the horizon became less distinct, and the clouds denser and more lowering.
The wind kept increasing, and with it the sea in the harbour, until fourP.M., when the Portuguese schooner of war, “19 de Maio,” the Portuguese schooner, “Livramento,” some of the dhows and other vessels, began to drag their anchors. The blasts of wind were augmented in force, until the tempest became furious at sunset; from which it gradually increased in violence, so that all the dhows, with the exception of one called the “Mantalla,” parted their cables; and some of them, as well as the schooner, “19 de Maio,” and “Livramento,” were blown on the Cabaçeira side of the harbour, and stranded there.
The schooner “Livramento,” thrown in the first place on the north side of the harbour, turned upside down, and, when the wind chopped roundfrom the opposite quarter, she righted; then being forced afloat again by the violence of the wind, she was again upset in the middle channel, or, as it is called, the grand canal. Four men belonging to the crew of this vessel were able to cling to that part of the hull which was not entirely submerged, and were saved by the crew of the Portuguese ship “Adamastor,” whose captain sent a boat to rescue these unfortunates.
At nineP.M.the wind appeared to lull, and almost gave rise to the hope that the hurricane had passed. This lull was of short duration; the wind appeared to cease, in order to commence afresh with greater fury, which continued until elevenP.M.
The destruction that the first part of this terrible visitor had caused was already considerable. The plantations on the mainland had suffered in a great measure, many of the cocoa-nut trees having been uprooted, and all stripped of their nuts; whilst temporary buildings, and even houses, had been laid in ruins.
The city of Mozambique had suffered likewise, and up to this time considerable damage had beendone to the shipping in the harbour. In my house on the mainland every precaution had been taken to resist the hurricane; all doors and windows having been well secured, and even the shutters of the latter were doubly secured by being screwed to the frame-work of the windows. No opening was allowed for the entrance of the wind.
Shortly before elevenP.M.I had observed the barometer, and placed a lamp near a window to attract the attention of the unfortunate shipwrecked mariners, or any of the natives whose huts might have been destroyed by the tempest. From the barometer still continuing to fall, I was led to believe that the centre of this revolving storm was passing not far distant from my house. I had retired about ten minutes, when suddenly the wind ceased, and was followed by a calm too horrible to describe. Springing out of bed, I observed it was exactly 11P.M., and that the barometer, which an hour previous had stood at 29·000, had now fallen to 28·740.
The wind had ceased; the sea suddenly became still, not a leaf moved—nothing was heard butthe lowing of the cattle, and the bleating of the sheep, which had hitherto survived the storm, and these signs of animal life added to the horror of so intense a calm after such a convulsion of nature. The stars shone bright in the firmament of heaven, more especially in the zenith, and the atmosphere had the most serene appearance.
Since the commencement of this calm I had been narrowly watching the barometer, and, instead of its rising, it continued to fall, so that I might almost say that the mercury was seen to move in the tube. At 11h. 18m.P.M.the barometer had fallen to 28·700; at this instant a blast of wind, never to be forgotten by those who experienced it, came from the N.W., accompanied by rain, thunder, and lightning; blast upon blast of wind succeeded each other rapidly, if possible, increasing in force. Torrents of rain accompanied these blasts more rapidly and violently.
The heavens instantly became black and obscured—not a star was visible; for twelve minutes the barometer was stationary; then at 11h. 30m.P.M.it began to rise very gradually until midnight, when it was 28·720. At this time I went to observeif the magnetic instruments were affected by this storm, but the house shook so violently that it was impossible to read the instruments; these instruments were placed on pillars of solid masonry, which I had built for the purpose; the pillars were on the ground-floor, or basement of the house, and the instruments were so much agitated, that one was almost led to the belief that the ground on which the pillars were built was moved by an earthquake, and yet I think that it was only the violence of the wind.
My house was built of solid masonry, the outside walls from three to three-and-a-half feet thick, and the partition walls at least three feet thick. The houses are built with walls thus thick in order to make them cool, and yet my house moved as if built of wood; and at one time, when the wind came from the N.W., I expected it would have been swept into the sea. It was much shaken at that time, and immediately afterwards the rain began to make its way through the flat roof, and deluge the rooms.
Some idea of this blast of wind may be formed by my stating that I counted upwards of fourhundred cocoa-nut trees which had all been uprooted by this one blast, the whole of them having been thrown on the ground towards the south.
In the city of Mozambique, the frightful darkness of night, unillumined by moon or stars, added to the horrors of the scene which this convulsion of nature produced.
It was impossible to traverse the streets inundated with water. The sand raised from the beach was formed into sand-whirlwinds, which reached to a great altitude, and, breaking, descended with the torrents of rain invading every place; the houses themselves, even those most solidly built, trembled from the impetuous violence of the wind, and shook everything contained in them. The rain deluged the houses; many trees, and some of them gigantic, lost their limbs, which were carried great distances; others, on which the first Portuguese voyagers had looked with admiration for their enormous size, were now uprooted from their mother earth, and laid beside their companions.
The shrubs and plants looked as if they hadbeen burned by the fury of the wind; not a garden escaped the ravages of this fearful storm.
All these direful events, heightened by the shrieks of the unfortunate, which, at intervals, added to the howling and hissing of the wind, increased the terror and consternation of the inhabitants of this doomed city. Many huts were swept away by the wind; others, as fragile, being saved by the fact of their being almost buried by the sand which the sea and wind drove over the island. But if this was the terror and suffering in the city, how much greater damage did the tempest cause in the harbour!
There the horrors of the tempest were increased by the fury of the sea, the fragileness of the vessels, the frightful darkness of the night, and the absolute impossibility of help from any quarter.
After the illusive calm already described, when the wind changed suddenly to the N.W., just previous to midnight, the dhows commenced to get foul of each other. Immediately all was disorder, confusion, and terror. Some dhowswere capsized; others were dashed to pieces on the beach, or crumpled up among the rocks. In the middle of this sad disorder were heard the despairing cries of the wretched sailors, calling for help, and raising their hands to the Almighty to save them. To hear the piercing cries of those men, child-like in the depth of their despair, was heart-rending, but to witness their struggles when cast upon the beach, and they came nigh being dashed against the rocks, without being able to assist them, was horrible.
The numerous wrecks subsequently encountered on the shore of the island of Mozambique attested, at the same time, the violence of the tempest and the extent of this direful catastrophe. Sad to relate, among thedebrisof the wrecks and cargoes on the beach, numerous corpses were met with.
The ship “Adamastor,” the barque “Charles et Georges,” and the brig “Amisade,” were the only vessels at anchor in Mozambique that escaped.
The French schooner of war, “l’Aigle,” was only saved by her anchors holding until 11P.M.;she appeared to be anchored too close to the beach; after that time she went on shore in consequence of two dhows drifting on top of her, from whose crews she succeeded in saving fourteen persons. She parted her anchor, lost her rudder, and was otherwise injured, but the solidity of her construction prevented her making water, and after the hurricane she was got afloat again.
The schooner belonging to the Portuguese government, called the “19 de Maio,” was thrown on the Conducia or north shore of the harbour, with little damage to her hull; as was likewise a dhow sent from Ibo, and detained at this port for having four sea-pieces on board, which suffered no damage. The brigs “2 Irmaõs,” “Nostra Señhor do Soccorro,” and “Flor do Mar,” were beached, and more or less injured. On the mainland the hurricane destroyed houses, swept away huts, uprooted gigantic trees, killed many negroes and cattle, and levelled with the ground many palm-trees, and in some places whole plantations of cocoa-nut trees, each tree producing annually nuts to the value of three shillings.
This hurricane will almost cause the ruin of some of the proprietors of plantations, and perhaps for some time turn their attention with fresh zeal towards the slave-trade.
Late on the 2nd of April, the hurricane gradually declined in strength, and then ceased entirely during the night of that day, which saw the last of the Mammekia or hurricane in these latitudes. This was a calamity which affected the whole of the province of Mozambique more or less, not only in its immediate results, but also in those which are to follow. The slaves themselves told me that now that their masters’ property was destroyed there was no food for them, and that many would be sent away in ships, where, or to whom, they did not know. But, alas! I knew but too well their fated doom.
In the city of Mozambique the Governor-general adopted every precaution, as soon as the hurricane was over, to maintain order and protect the property which had been washed on the beach from the wrecks. The Custom-house was opened to receive the merchandize saved; the military were posted in different places to maintainorder; the dead were interred to prevent a plague; and in short, despite the great number of slaves with which the island abounds, there were not many robberies nor any disorders worth mentioning.