On my asking when he would next visit us, he said that Mr. Hilliard’s was a hopeless case; Rosa was quite well; and that after Mrs. M’Leod had taken the medicine prescribed by him, “she would require no more;” adding, that “it would, therefore, be unnecessary for him to call again.”
The next morning my wife took the medicine prescribed, which was administered by my own hand, and I went to look at Hilliard. On my return, I found my wife in the greatest agony, with Rosa hanging over her. It appears that soon after my leaving the room the medicine had acted as a violent emetic, and Rosa was attracted to the room by my wife’s shrieks of agony, which I did not hear, being in the lower part of the house. Mrs. M’Leod complained of a feeling of intense burning, not only in her stomach, but in her throat, and during more than two hours she endured great agony, during which we observed the curving of the back, and twitching of the muscles, as described in cases of poisoning from strychnine. Her belief is that an over-dose of poison was administered to her, which, acting as an emetic, had not time to lodge in the system. After this we felt that we had a better chance of living without the attendance of Mozambique doctors than with them; and consequently dispensed with their services for the remainder of our stay at that place.
The sickly season had now set in, and it proved a very fatal one; numbers of deaths occurred daily at Mozambique.
The Governor of Killimane had come out, with his wife and three daughters, in the Portuguese frigate from Lisbon, in company with the Governor-general. At first the mother fell a victim to the climate; and on being apprized of this intelligence by the Governor-general, my wife sent an invitation, through his Excellency, for the young ladies to stay with us while they remained at Mozambique. But they very naturally preferred remaining with their bereaved parent. They were all very ill, and the youngest of the three died just before the hurricane, and was buried during that great calamity which I am now going to describe.
On the 1st of April, 1858, the city of Mozambique, on the east coast of Africa, situated in latitude 15° 2′ S., and longitude 40° 48′ E. of Greenwich, was visited by a hurricane which in less than twenty-four hours did more destruction to the city and surrounding districts than any tempest in the memory of the oldest resident in these parts.
For some eight days this great convulsion of nature had been announced by heavy rains, which laid in ruins many dwellings in the city, and on the mainland; and more especially, since the 29th of March the weather had been very uncertain—torrents of rain, changeable winds, an atmosphere overcast with thick clouds, charged with electricity, were the forerunners of a terrible tempest, which commenced on the morning of the 1st of April.
The following vessels were anchored in the harbour of Mozambique:—the French schooner of war “l’Aigle;” the French barque, “Charles et Georges;” the Portuguese ship, “Adamastor;” brigs, “Amisade,” “2 Irmaõs,” and “Nostra Señhor de Soccorro,” “Flor do Mar;” schooners, “19 de Maio,” “Esperança,” and “Livramento,” together with twenty-nine Arab dhows.
On Thursday, April the 1st, at six A.M., at the British consular residence, Cabaçeira Grande, on the mainland of Port Mozambique, the barometer B.T., No. 341, stood at 29·924 (t. 78°). The wind was from the S. and S.W., very squally, and up to eleven A.M. very heavy showers, or almost torrents of rain, came up from the S.W. At noon the barometer had fallen to 29·800 (77°), when the wind commenced blowing furiously, the horizon became less distinct, and the clouds denser and more lowering.
The wind kept increasing, and with it the sea in the harbour, until four P.M., when the Portuguese schooner of war, “19 de Maio,” the Portuguese schooner, “Livramento,” some of the dhows and other vessels, began to drag their anchors. The blasts of wind were augmented in force, until the tempest became furious at sunset; from which it gradually increased in violence, so that all the dhows, with the exception of one called the “Mantalla,” parted their cables; and some of them, as well as the schooner, “19 de Maio,” and “Livramento,” were blown on the Cabaçeira side of the harbour, and stranded there.
The schooner “Livramento,” thrown in the first place on the north side of the harbour, turned upside down, and, when the wind chopped round from the opposite quarter, she righted; then being forced afloat again by the violence of the wind, she was again upset in the middle channel, or, as it is called, the grand canal. Four men belonging to the crew of this vessel were able to cling to that part of the hull which was not entirely submerged, and were saved by the crew of the Portuguese ship “Adamastor,” whose captain sent a boat to rescue these unfortunates.