DISASTROUS INUNDATION. 237
its banks, altliouo;li forty feet in lieif^ht. The in- habitants were quite taken by surprise, the water risinr^ so rapidly in many places that they had to swim to house-tops, trees, &c., and there wait to be ])icked up by some more fortunate neighbour who had succeeded in obtaining boats. Three hundred lives were lost, besides a fpiantity of cattle and goods of various kinds. Some Europeans, amongst whom were the liesident and his wife, were obliged to seek a safe retreat in the top story of their lu)uses, where for a few days they subsisted on the scanty food they had seized in their hurried flight uj)-stairs.
Though a few montlis had elajised since this disastrous occurrence, munlstakeable trai-es of its sad effects were still (jbserv;d)le in the ruined huts, orchai-ds, and gi'ass land, the lattei" being of a sickly ycil(jw colour, while the boughs of tJK' fruit-trees were bi'oken by t!ie wriglit of the wati'r.
Another di'l\c of the -anie l-nutli as the last
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