[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

LOLOWAY~MALO——THE BANKS ISLANDS 269

by an enormous swell; yet the water was like a
mirror, and the giant waves rose and disappeared
without a sound. It all seemed unnatural and un-
canny, and this may have produced the frightened
feeling that held us all that morning. While we
were crossing over to Port Patterson a sharp wind
rose from the north, and the barometer fell, so that
we feared another edition of the storm. If our
engines had broken down, which happened often
enough, we should have been lost, for we were in a
region where the swell came from two directions, and
the waves were even higher than in the morning.
Fortunately the wind increased but slowly; presently
we were protected by the coast, and at night we
arrived at Port Patterson. The men had given us up,
and welcomed us with something akin to tenderness.
Here, too, the cyclone had been terrible, the worst
of the three that had passed in four weeks.

Soon afterwards the steamer arrived, bringing
news of many wrecks and accidents. A dozen ships
had been smashed at their anchorages, four had dis-
appeared, and three were known to have foundered;
in‘ addition, news came of the wreck of a steamer.
Hardly ever had so many fallen victims to a
cyclone.

Painfully and slowly our steamer ploughed her
way south through the abnormally high swell. None
of the anchorages on the west coast could be touched,
and everywhere we saw brown woods, leafless as
in winter, and damaged plantations; and all the
way down to Vila we heard of new casualties.