THE GUATEMALA ERUPTION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 298, 16 December 1902, Page 5

THE GUATEMALA ERUPTION.

BETWEEN 3000 AND 4000 NATIVES KILLED.

SAN FRANCISCO, November 27.

The first graphic accounts of the calamity which overwhelmed Guatamala on October 24 have recently come by" steamer to this port. Some refugees who have lost their all managed to escape with their lives on the steamer City of Para. It is estimated between three and four thousand natives were killed by the volcanic eruption, and vast areas which were covered by rich coffee plantations are now buried feet deep under ashes and stones. Following are extracts from accounts given by Ferdinand Bardwell, who arrived here on the Para. Bardwell had been at Cuytenango several days, and was on his way to his plantation when darkness overtook him. He was almost within sight of home jwhen there came ai terrible rumbling of the earth, and a great column of smoke and fire arose, apparently- from the peak of Satnta Maria. The earth shook with almost constant vibrations. All of the following night and morning showed the sky enveloped in a thick cloud of smoke. Ashes, like coarse saaid, fell in a heavy shower for several hours, then the ashes became lighter and drifted about in clouds of light dust. Breathing became difficult, and the atmosphere was so hot it seemed the skin must be peeled from, a person's body. "For three days," Bardwell said, "we were in almost total darkness. On the fourth day a light breeze from the sotith rolled the _mx_e_louds away from the mount-in, and at times light would break through. Then we saw that ruin had come over our plantations. We were on 'the side least exposed to the eruption, and at least thirty miles from the mountain, yet our place is ruined beyond all hope of recovery. We went to Champerico to take the, boat, and while on the way saw hundreds of natives wandering about the ruined country without food or shelter. We met planters front the opposite side of Santa. Maria, and they told us of tire complete destruction of their property, and that three or four thousand people had perished. One refugee said that on his way out from the ruined district, over the road leadingfront Xoluitz, he counted seventy natives, lying liftlf-buried under stones and ashes, and each of them lying beside a pack of household goods. These had gathered their treasures together and tried to escape at the first warning from the volcano. The plantations are surrounded by villages in which thousands of natives lived. Most of these villages are covered with stones and ashes to a depth of five to seven feet. The frail houses could not withstand the terrible downpour of volcanic debris, and the peogle within were buried after being- stunned by an awful hail of stones. Robbers now infest the roads leading out from the ruined district, and these have murdered many victims for the food and valuables they carried. Houses, which were deserted, and to which their owners afterwards returned, have also been looted. The volcano which broke into eruption was not Santa Maria, but a little mountain that nestles at the base of it, and is locally known as El Rosaiio. It. is west, of Santa Maria'; Its crater is at the bottom of an immense .barranca." Ashes were still falling when the steamer left Guatemala, though sixteen days had elapsed since the Jirst outbreak. • -