SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1496, 26 November 1874, Page 2

SUEZ MAIL NEWS.

[PER MIKADO ]

THE TERRIFIC TYPHOONS IN

CHEN A

The " Overland Trade Report," of September 26, gives the following farther particulars of the destructive typhoons that occurred in Hongkong, Macao, and Swatow : —lt is our painful duty to record by the present mail one of the most appalling disasters that has ever happened in this colony. A typhoon of unprecedented violence raged in this neighbourhood on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, 22nd and 23rd September. The barometer kept rapidly falling, and the wind increased frightfully in violence, raging and howling at first, and after a time sounding like one continued peal of musketry, broken at intervals by artillery, as sudden and more violent gusts swept through the harbour and over the land. At times even above the fierce howling of the wind could be heard the pitiful cries of thousands vainly battling with the storm. Not a single ship in port escaped undamaged, and the casualties and loss of life—the latter estimated at over 2000 souls—have exceeded anything which has ever before been upon record. The city, after the occurrence, presented the appearance of & town which had been besieged. In all directions were roofless and shattered houses, crumbling walls, naked poles, and rafters standing out gloomily against the leaden sky. The roads were strewn light and left with debris, wreck of boats, and trees—some of gigantic size—torn up by the roots. The telegraph on the Island and the Marine telegraph between Hongkong and Saigon was interrupted ; the gas-pipes were torn up ; dead bodies in all directions washed ashore; the flagstaff at the Peak was seen leaning at an angle, a sad signal to ships miles away of the ravages to which the colony has been subjected. The tide was exceptionally high, which materially increased the amount of the damage affected. —To add to the disasters, a fire occurred in a house on the Praya near the Cannon wharf, but fortunately was soon got under, but is a noticeable and somewhat ominous incident, in connection with the news as to incendiaries from Macao, as it is to be feared that there are desperate characters here ready to avail themselves of any such disaster as a typhoon for the purpose of plunder. So strong was the wind that the flames of the fire were blown out in some instances like the light of a candle. A very curious circumstance is mentioned on good authority, namely, that a large number of clocks in the colony stopped at the same hour—our informant h»s heard of five, and suggests the hypothesis ,

of a slight shock of an earthquake having occurred while the typhoon was raging. Certainly the oscilliation in many' of the houses would favour such a supposition. To convey an adequate idea in general words of the awful effects which this unprecedented gale haa produced is impossible. At the present moment all business is suspended, and an oppressive silence reigns over the colony, broken only by the clacking of the hammers of those repairing the houses . and other ruins. At Aberdeen, near the Docks, lies high and dry on the land the magniticenn steamer Alaska belonging to the Pacific Mail Company, and the dead bodies of the victims are being drifted ashore in all direction An eye witness of the terrible occurrence sends us the following description of the scene on the Praya :—" By the time we had arrived at the Praya the wind had freshened rapidly, and the typhoon was raging with full vigour. The sea was breaking over the Praya with terrific force, while the roxr of the wind Was deafening. The waves broke bright with phosphorescent light, and presented a striking and awful sight. The lights on shore flickered thiough the darkness, and seemed only to render it the more intense. Gradually tin swell increased, and the waves rushed first half across the Praya and afterwards quite across it ; and before I had reached Pustau's wharf, towards which I was going westward, they were more than aciO3S the Praya, and I had to push my way knee deep in water. Clinging to such projections from the house 3as were within my reach I endeavoured to continue on my course, but soon found that it was too dangerous to persevere, a3 the waves were coming in with such force that there was every ciiance of being washed away, while tiles and b:icks were falling in all directions from the shaken houses. It was about one o'clock when I was thus forced to beat a retreat, and I may mention that up to that time none of the sad casualties which have been recorded had occurred ; and a8 the gale began to moderate by three o'clock, it i 3 evident that the havoc must have been the work of little more than two hours."