THE BOMBARDMENT OF PISAGUA.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2264, 12 May 1891, Page 4

THE BOMBARDMENT OF PISAGUA.

* A letter received in New York on March 14 describes the frightful scenes during the bombardment of Pisagua, Chile. It appears that the cruisers Esmeralda and Bianco began bombarding the town at 10 a.m. and kept it up for six hours. A perfect shower of shot and 3hell fell upon the town. On every side men and women were running wildly about. Men trampled over women in their mad endeavor to seek safety in the upper part cf the town. Little children ran about crying for their mothers, and more than one wn? felled to the ground by the bursting grenades. TERRIBLE SCENES. Women seeking a place of safety were seen to tbtow up their hands and, staggering, fall dead. Dead bo'lies riddled with shot lay everywhere. About 2 p.m. the two cruisers moved ia m<ne toward the town and began shelling the heights-. Then [here was a rush for the mountains. Like a herd of wild steers which were stampeded the people ran ; mothers struggled with men and fought like tigers. Children and babes were smothered or crushed to death in the mad rush, and all the time the pitiless guns were sending their shower of grape. At times twenty or thirty people would go down at a single volley. Some would rise and keep on running, with blood streaming from their wounds and finally sink to the gi-ound exhausted from the loss of blood, only to be torn and mangled by the constant hail of grape and shot. THE CRY OK " FIRE." Suddenly the cry of " Fire I" was heard, and the flames appeared wrappiDg their forked tongues around house after house. The wounded had no escape. When the fire from the cruisers ceased, about 4 p.m., two thirds of the town was destroyed and nothing remained of Pisigua but a mass of ruins. The number of dead has as yet not been ascertained positively, bub it is believed to be about 2,000. The commander of the Blancho came ashore and, seeing the frightful havoc the fire had done and listening to the groans of the wounded and dying, tears were seen to trickle down his cheeks and he returned to his ship at once.