DESTRUCTIVE INUNDATION IN INDIA. — We mentioned in the post- script to
our last second edition, an indistinct rumour of an earthquake and the bursting forth of a volcano in India. We do not know whether this rumoured calamity may not have had its origin in the inundation, a which the following letter, taken from the Times, conveys the only intelligence, or whether both the shore and the interior have been sited by one of those terrible inffictions which India, gigantic in every thing good or evil, seems destined by nature from time to time to suffer under. Balasore, or Belasore, is a town in the district of Orissa. It lies near the sea coast, at the bottom of that large bay, or gulf rather, formed by Cape Palmyras on the south, and the islands of the Sunder- bund, immediately to the east of the Hooghley, on the north. It is, as the letter states, on the high-way from Calcutta to Madras, about a hundred miles from the former, and nearly the same distance from the famous Juggernaut. The gulf, at the bottom of which Balasore stands, is exposed to the entire influence of the south-east ; and in a gale, blowing from that quarter, the low lands must always be subject to overflow, more or less destructive. The letter which follows is dated the 10t1 November last.
"I can think of nothing but the hurricane which occurred here on the last day of October. Such a calamity I never heard or read of. At least ten thou- sand persons in my jurisdiction were drowned, and I fear the accounts will show double that number, including children. The high-road from Madras to Calcutta runs through Balasore, about six miles north of this ; and where it is in a direct line, nine miles from the coast, the sea crossed it, carrying with it every living thing in that space, in that direction. At least one hundred and fifty square miles were inundated, from ten to fifteen feet deep. The sea came up to Balasore ; and to the northward also the inundation was little less. The deck and part of a vessel are on the road. Where the sea crossed it on the west side and where its progress was checked by the road on the east side, are lying, all dead and heaped together, men, tigers, buffaloes, cows, &c. I have sent out hundreds of people to burn and bury. If it does not breed a pestilence We shall be lucky : it is not easy to dispose of bodies covering miles. My house, at Bulramghurree, is in the sea; though it stood high, the krod passed over it. Had we been there, we should have seen as much as any one saw of the flood, but not a being would have lived to tell the tale. Not receiving any intelligence from a part of my establishment stationed near the coast, at a place you will find in the map called Dumach, I sent out persons to ascertain how they had fared : they report, that for three miles inland, where my bungelow cottage was, all was silence and death—bodies of men and cattle were seen—not a house or ves- tige of life remained—they found not a being to question—all was still. No one saw the invader : the sun had gone down before he left the bed to which hitherto be had always been confined ; before dawn' he had returned to it ; but Iris visit, though unseen, will never be forgotten by the few who heard his ap- proach and survived. Towards evening, it was evident to me that we were about to have such a night as I had never before seen. The wind blew in gusts, —now still, now half a hurricane. I made all fast within, and moved my children into the centre of the house. I then went to my stables had my horses fed, and then turned round in their stalls ; ordering any people not to fasten them, but stand by them, and as soon as the building began to shake to let them all loose, and run to the house themselves. They (lid so. When I went next to the stable, there was not one brick left on another. One of my horses was caught three miles off, but all were saved. The wind burst some of the doors and windows of the house open. When that happened, the noise exceeded all description. Chairs, tables, &c., all flying about in every direction. My guard- house blown down, and three Sepoys buried ; I got out two alive. Every thing about my house is destroyed. The trees with which I had taken such pains for four years, torn up, or blown away. What was a garden, now looks like a barren heath."
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