HURRICANE AT PANMOTAS.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 39, 29 June 1878, Page 2

HURRICANE AT PANMOTAS.

Th» following particulars of a dreadful hurricane at Pamnotas, South Sea Islands, is eoutoiiwd in a letter from a gentleman resident on the group, to Captain Rom, of the schooner Coronet:—

On tho Oth and 7th February, the PanmotuM Uroup was visited by a most destructive hurrioane, doubly so on account of the islands being so low (10 to SO feel Ugh), and such an event never

expected in these latitudes. Unfortunately the centry of the cyclone swept the most populous and commercially important islands of the group, Rairoa, Apatai, and Kakura, having it on the 6th, Anaa (tho seat of Government in the group were there is a resident) and adjoining islands having it on the 7th. In Rairoa it began in tho east, changing and | increasing to S. E. and S., ending in S. W., full hurricane, making a clean sweep of both settlements, washing away every house, and even the bodies out of the graveyard; some of thoin being eaten by , the pigs which were left. Tho inhabitants saved themselve by getting on the highest points of the land and others by tying themselves to coeoanut trees until the wind and sea abated. Two schooners were lost on the island, and one American drowned. " At Kaukura, on the 6th, the wind was from N.E., increasing to N. and N.W., ending in \V.; the sea from the lagoon and outside meeting on the land in a most extraordinary manner, making the whole land a quicksand, and submerging it to a depth of six feet. Tho inhabitants got 1 Tightened, took to their boats, were carried out oyer the reef and capsized; 117 persons being drowned in this way, one white man, one half-caste, two Chinamen, and rest natives. The white man was George Herder, late of Auckland. About twenty boats, averaging from 4 to 5 tons each, besides all the houses and many thousands of coeoanut trees being washed away. Tho few inhabitants, with four Europeans savod themselves by clinging to rocks and trees until morning, when the storm abated, (7th), Mr. Magee, of Marson Brander, Tahiti, being amongst them. On Apatai, two schooners belonging to Brander were thrown on shore, but no lives lost. On Anna, where I had been for some months previous, the sea began rising two days before the wind came, cloudy horizon and calm. Bar. 30. 16 on the morning of tho 6th; evening, bar. 29. 80. On the 7th, wind incroasing to N. E., N., and N. W, when at 2 p. m. on the 7th the bar stood 29. 24, that being tho lowest. All the house?, stores, residences being washed away by the sea, thousands of coeoanut and other trees being blown down, and broken off half way up, and the whole place covered with about 3 ft. of sand. Wo saved ourselves by retreating to the highest point of the island, which was closo to tho settlement, and about 6 ft. higher than the rest of the island, some by tying themselves to trees (coeoanut), while tho sea washed under them we lost almost all our boats, and a schooner which left the islands the day before was capsized and all hands (IS) were drowned, threo of them being European, of whom one was Peter Hebms, late of Akaroa Bay, New Zealand. On the 10th the cutter Elgin, belonging to Brander, arrived at Anaa, having lived through the gale 90 miles due-west of Anaa. Lying-to under sft. of throat of mainsail hoisted, the poak being lashed to tne boom. The Residents made a requisition for her to go to Takiti, to report and get assistance. I also came with her, when the French steamer Legond was commissioned to proceed round tho group to asertain the extent of the disaster. I went in her, with a large lot of provisions and boat lumber, to relieve our different agents who might have suffered. We visited eight islands, where it had blown worst, and saw what I have already described ; distributing our provisions where they were most needed, and oven water, which was scarce everywhere, owning to all the tanks being washed away and the shallow wells filled with sea-water. It is difficult to estimate tho last at present, but, considering the number vessels of lost (14), and about 30 smaller ones, from 10 tons down, with about 150 lives, and that the copra trade will be almost lost for a year, and also that it will take from ten to fifteen yenn for the island to recover from the effects of the hurricane, it cannot be estimated at less than £50,000 and it would take double that sum to build the houses and wharves, replant the trees, &c., which have l>cen lost. I oan assure you, when we were all huddled on the only dry place (for it rained in torrents all tho time) just like a flock of sea-gulls on a saud-bank when the tide is making. I was reminded forcibly of the stiff hurricane which we weathered together in your fine tight little vessel, the Coronet, just two years ago, on our way from Auckland. I leave again in a woek for the Panmotas to rebuild, on what one might call a new land. It will not be very pleasant work. Nothing like the above has ever happened before in the Panmotas, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant. They report a sort of tidal wave about seventy years ago which drowned many hanured of the natives."