To add to our
discomfort, the roof was leaking like a sieve, and we had to place
several bowls in each of the rooms, and my own room when I entered it
the following morning when the storm had passed was a sight more
easily imagined than described. Of course I had to find beds for all
my guests, but it is needless to say that none of us got much sleep.
When daylight at length broke we all rushed to the windows, naturally
expecting to see the same sort of debacle amongst the shipping as had
overtaken it in the cyclone of 1864; but, to our intense joy and
relief, not a single vessel had left her anchorage. This was partly
due to the port authorities having learnt by bitter experience the
necessity of considerably strengthening and improving the moorings,
and also in a great measure to the absence of the storm-wave which had
accompanied the previous cyclone and wrought such havoc and
destruction. But all the same the loss of life and damage sustained,
covering a large extent of country, must have been of serious and
far-reaching magnitude.
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