But at Waiakea the damage was frightful ; every house within a hundred yards of the water was swept away. The steamboat wharf and the storehouse, Spencer's storehouse, the bridge across the stream, and all the dwelling houses were swept away in an instant, and now lie a mass of ruins far inland. Five lives were lost, and numbers bruised and had limbs broken. The body of one woman was found by the boats off Honolii. The boats of the American whaleship Pacific, Capt. Smithers, lying in the har bor, picked up six people who were swimming for their lives in the Bay. The Pacific was lying in 4 fathoms of water, but she grounded when the sea receded, and then would be whirled round and round as the sea came in again. All expected to see her drag ashore.
The sea continued to rise and fall all day. I timed one of the tides in the morning about 7 o'clock, and from its lowest ebb to its full flood was only about 4 minutes. It rose about 14 feet per pendicular height in that time. In the afternoon in the space of one hour, the sea rose and fell three times with a height above half tide of 7.10 1-2 and 3 feet each time.
Mr. Rose's tin shop was floated off its foundations, and is now in the middle of the street.
The poor people at Waiakea are in a sad state ; houses destroyed and utterly destitute ; their goods and furniture scattered far and wide on sea and land. The water was 3 inches deep in Con
way's store, when the 5 o'clock wave came in. The wave at Waia kea must have had a perpendicular height of 16 feet, to have taken the bridge and wharf where they now lie. The water swept completely over Cocoanut Island, and the hospital there has dis appeared. The oil of the bark Pacific, stored in Spencer's store house ,has been nearly all found scattered about among the bushes and trees ,a long ways in shore from the place where the store house stood.
There has been nothing like this tidal wave since the year 1837, nearly 4o years ago, when many grass houses were destroyed.
I have made a careful investigation of the extent of the disaster, and find as follows, viz. : Thirty-seven dwelling houses entirely destroyed ; seventeen badly injured ; five people drowned and killed ; seven badly injured ; one hundred and sixty-three left homeless and destitute ; seventeen horses and mules drowned— this is exclusive of the government property. Sisson estimates his loss (in lumber) at several thousand dollars. The total damage has been estimated as high as $12,00o to $14,000, which is, I think, a low estimate, as several thousand dollars worth of stores belong ing to the ship Josephine, and about thirty barrels of oil, of the Pacific, are still to be accounted for.