Note 27 — Chapter XIII

We happily escaped any severe hurricane during the two years I remained in the group; but the following extract from the ‘Times’ tells of a storm at the close of 1879 which proves that the oft-told stories of devastation and ruin which at last we heard almost incredulously, were only too true. The labours of years were all swept away in a few hours, and crops of every sort totally destroyed.

“Cyclone in the Pacific.—A storm in December did very great damage in Fiji. The banana plantations were laid level with the ground. At Naida a tidal wave went two miles into the bush, sweeping away and destroying everything before it. The cutter Alarm was washed up into the bush. The Byron, cutter, foundered at Nunda Point, and the owner, Mr M’Pherson, and one Fijian were drowned. Among the drowned was also J. B. Grundy, manager to Mr William Bailey. S. L. P. Winter and two Fijians were lost in a half-decked boat at Bau. Two natives were drowned and every house blown down at Radmarre and Madroch. The whole country is described as denuded of timber, and the native food crops destroyed. Her Majesty’s ship Emerald, which had on board Sir Arthur Gordon and suite, en route for Rototumah, encountered a cyclone off that island, but managed to weather it safely. The Stanley, of Queensland, 113 tons register, caught the full force of the late gale. She had 150 islanders on board for Fiji, who were kept under battened hatches for thirty hours at a time. Fifty subsequently died, and one committed suicide on being discharged from Levuka Hospital. Ten more deaths were expected.”