EARTHQUAKE AT MELFI

Otago Witness, Issue 43, 13 March 1852, Page 4

EARTHQUAKE AT MELFI

Nafi,es, August 27. — In my last communication I gave you a brief notice of the terrible earthquake which took place at Melfi and the surrounding country on the 14th Since that date the official journal has published a report of the loss of life and property from various villages surrounding the neaily destroyed town of Melfi ; but I find the official narrative so incomplete, and falling so short of the actuil extent of the calamity, that I prefer bending you information from persons who have arrived in Naples from the scene of disaster, and more particularly the account I h;ne received from a medical gentleman, which I here translate :—": — " Near Melfi, August 20. — My dear fiiend, — I will endea\our to gr. c you a narrative of what I have seen in my journey from Naples to the scenes of the awful events of the lith. When I reached the table land of Terra de Lavoro I learnt the earthquake had been felt there much more distinctly than in the city of Naples; indeed the vibration lasted thirty seconds ; several persons were thrown on the ground, and a few houses are split, — that is, the walls are cracked, — but fortunately no life vas lost as far as I can learn. Continuing my journey, I found Avellino had suffered slightly, without loss of life. At Montevorde six persons were baried in the ruins of a house, and others wounded. The inhabitants of this district are in a most excited btate, as other slight shocks have been felt. Many have fled from the villages, and I saw groups of people living in huts outside the towns. Still more prominent was the effect of the earthquake at Bovino and Ascoli, where many houses are in a dangerous state, and must be pulled down. Here also I found the people greatly excited. I was continually asked, " Did earthquakes follow one another ?" " "Was it safe to remain in the houses ?" The whole of the district of Bari has suffered for miles round ; scarcely a house in any of the villages in that direction may not be said to be injured. The terror and misery is beyond my powers of description. Basilicata has suffered throughout the whole district. The town of Tenosa ib nearly destroyed ; the market-place is one heap of ruins, and you see houses here and there threatening to fall. In more than one place I observed the earth torn up and showing ragged fissures. In this district the earthquake assumed its most terrible phenomena — \iz., first a perpendicular action and then an oscillatory. Itapola is in ruins ; the cathedral no longer exists. An inhabitant of this town told me the falling of the buildings produced such a consternation, that for more than half an hour after the erent he could find no one who could give a coherent answer to a question. Day and night, women, men, and children were tearing away the ruins to find their friends and relatives. At Rionero, the inhabitants were employed when I arrived in digging at the ruins ; half this town is destroyed, I saw several of the wounded (not less than 120) ; they were wanting surgical aid very

much, but I feared to discover my profession, as I could not remain, being, as you know, sent to Melfi. I think I never could witness a more painful picture and I need not remind you I have attended the wounded after more than one battle, and that is bad enough, but here, with the horrors of the very worst of wounds — the crush — you see a mother lamenting a child under a mass of fallen rubbish ; a father wildly asking where is my family — my wife ?—children without parents ; some lamenting over the dying, some weeping over the dead. Gran Dio ! Gran Bio ! The village of Baville has actually disappeared. I found all about this district large fissures, partly filled up with houses. A man who escaped told me it appeared to him that for a minute he was being tossed about in the air ; the earth appeared, as it were, with a breathing power, and then came a different movement — a shaking to and fro. Here some military had arrived to excavate. There was a strong stench of decomposing bodies. This place was really deserted by the inhabitants, at least I saw very few. How shall I give you an idea of what was once the town of Melfi ? The cathedral is down, as are the college, the churches, the military depot, and 163 houses— 9S are in a falling state, and 180 pronounced as dangerous. The military have anived, and are working away. Our medical staff is by no means strong enough. More than a thousand bodies have been dug up. I need not add all dead. The wounded are over 600, and present every variety of flesh wounds and fracture. The town offers a strange and awful appearance. Many have fled, others linger about the ruins, as fond friends about the tombs of all they loved best in this world.

P.S. — I should have told you the village of Ascoti has also suffered immensely : 32 houses have fallen in. I do not know how many lives are lost ; I should imagine, altogether, the loss of life cannot be less than 3000, including all the sufferers in all the towns."

Such is the account given by the writer of this letter of a calamity which has produced a profound sensation throughout the kingdom. I have seen other letters which are still more alarming, and contain more horrible details : but as they were written in a moment of excitement, I hope they are exaggerated. On inquiry at the chief police office at Naples I am told, up to this day •' the returns of the dead bodies dug out of the ruins from all the towns and villages ib 857 ; but the exca\ations ha\e only commenced." lam told the town of Melfi and other places have suffered much fiom plunder: even in this awful moment some wretched examples of humaniiy were found who occupied themselves in sacking the deserted houses. One gentleman told me hib bi other wrote, stating he had lost 170 piastres and many valuable articles of furniture, after the earthquake, when all the family in town had left the hou&e. Sixtj-fbe boys of" the college of Mclfi are supposed to ha\c perished. The calamitytook place when most of the population were sleeping, as is the custom in Italy, after dinner. I have heard in one place a lake has appeared. It may be observed, Melfi is the site of an old volcano. In 1783 an equally terrible earthquake occurred in Calabria, and from that peiiod up to the pi esent (indeed almost annually) slight hhocks have been felt, but happily without much damage or loss of life. Sicily has e\er suffered more than the continent — the city of Catania alone has more than once been entiiely destroyed.

The government has sent soldiers and medical men to assist the suffering districts. Yesleiday (24th) Vesu\ius threw out boiling water. This morning, at day-break, I observed a'little smoke was issuing from the crater.

The Emigrant and Officer ; on a Chase in the Channel.— One of the most extraordinary escapes w e ever heard of by a party pursued by the Sheriff's officers, took place on Thursday sennight in. the Bristol Channel. The following particulars of the affair have been communicated to us by an eye-witness : — On the afternoon of Thursday, June 26th, the American liner " Laurens," Capt. Logan, left Bristol with about ICO emigrants on board. Among the number who had engaged a passage by tins ship was a young man of this town named Tom L k, against whom a warrant under the Sheriff's Court had been issued, and duplicates of the document had been placed in the hands of several officers, with the assurance that a good reward would be paid to any party who should apprehend him. Tom had for some weeks made himself scarce, and had been vigilantly sought after by the sheriff's officers. These functionaries had wormed out that Tom's passage money to New York by the Laurens had been paid, and that he was to get on board somewhere in the Channel. Accordingly, about an hour before the emigrant ship left Bristol, Watkins, an active officer of that city, having, in addition to the ordinary warrant, provided himself with that mysterious instrument, " the silver oar," proceeded, accompanied by an officer of this town, and various followers, in a steam tug down the Channel. They halted at Pill until the Laurens came in sight, and then proceeded, keeping about a mile a-head, and carefully watching any craft that might bear from the coast. Having rounded Clevedon, a boat was " glass'd" some miles below the Holms, which, from her position and appearance, was suspected of having the prize on board ; steaming at ten or twelve knots an hour soon brought the tug alongside a skiff, sailing from Weston, commanded by F. Harris, which the officers were fully satisfied contained their man. Having neared to a speaking distance, Watkins informed Harris of his mission, and commanded him at once to bring up, and allow them to get on board. Tom, who was below, now came upon the

deck of the skiff, and was advised to yield himself up, as the Laurens was then two miles in their rear, and escape was impossible. Tom, however, who seems to have been prepared for the emergency, refused, to capitulate, and, jumping into a small punt, determined, with the assistance of a couple of oars, tardy upon his own skill for deliverance. And now began a chase which we will venture to say has not its parallel on record. Of course it was impossible for Tom to escape by speed, and therefore he had recourse to dodging. For some minutes the officerslooked upon the act as suicidal, scarcely believing that a man would attempt to escape in a cockle-shell boat, over which spread the destructive iron wings of a steamer. Notwithstanding the odds, Tom pulled away towards the ship; the steam-boat followed, and quickly came up to him, when Watkins again requested him to surrender, assuring him that escape was impossible, and that he only risked his life in the attempt. Tom having sworn never to yield, the officers commenced an attack by throwing a grappling iron from the steamer, which, soon grasped the boat, and threatened his immediate capture ;. with alacrity, however, the iron was momentarily removed, and the boat again sped away ; this plan having been tried several times without effect (although on more than one occasion the iron was flung within a few inches of Tom's head, and a blowon it must have been fatal), a boat was lowered from the steamer, and two men sent in pursuit. Quickly they were alongside, and caught hold of the punt, when Tom dealt the foremost man such a violent blow with one of his oars as laid him prostrate ; the second man tried the effect of a similar compliment upon Tom, but was not so successful. During this scuffle Tom lost one of his oars, and the steamer was so close upon him that one of the paddles caught his other and broke it in a hundred pieces, and his frail bark was within a few inches of sharing the same fate. The man whom Tom had struck down let go his oar, and in this dilemma it was driven, luckily for Tom, within his reach ; he grasped it with eagerness, and commenced sculling away for his life. The officers, so often foiled, now became enraged, and the voice of one in a great passion was heard to utter, " Run him down — run down the boat." Tom, who was almost under the bows of the steamer, implored the captain not to do so, and thot if they did capture him to do so like men. Watkins, whose passion now seemed to overpower his customary caution and prudence, was seen running from one end of the steamer to the other, at one moment urging on the captain, and at another damning the engineer. The chase had now continued above an hour, and the ship was drawing in closer proximity to the parties engaged, so much so tl.at the cheers from her in'-phed Tom on more than one occasion, when, almost despairing of hope and prostrate from fatigue, with renewed life and energy he renewed his efforts for liberty. Behind the emigrant ship was attached the pilot's skiff, towhich Tom's attention was directed, and towards which he was rapidly making. After innumerable escapes from paddle-wheels and grappling irons, he at length got alongside the skiff, and bounded on her deck ; Watkins jumped on board her at the same moment. Tom, convinced the game was now more desperate than ever, and that a brief period must decide the chase, ran, with all the agility of a cat, and with the desperation of a man who preferred death to capture, out to the extreme point of the bowsprit, a length of twenty feet, without rope or gear to guide him ; at the end was a small rope reaching to the mast called the jib stay, and laying hold of this, Tom challenged his pursuer to comeout. The skiff was now being pulled with almost incredible speed towards the ship by the emigrants on board her. A boat hung below her gunwale, into which Tom leaped from the bowsprit of the skiff, and was pulled exhausted on the deck, amidst deafening cheers. Watkins was scarcely a second behind, and had jumped into the boat just in time to feel the substance of Tom's boot heel as he was being hauled into the ship. It was now getting; late, and Watkins and attendants boarded the ship> the former pointing out in great the powers he possessed, and claiming the person against whom he held the -warant. The captain said he was. welcome to search his ship, and take off any person, against whom he had a warrant. Watkins was too. old a bird to go below, and after sundry terrific threats against the Yankee captain and the Yankee crew, left the ship, amidst cheers which were heard many miles from the scene. Watkins's better nature returned ere he reached Bristol, and he declared he would not be engaged in a similar adventure for £500, and that he was exceedingly thankful no life had been sacrificed. " D n him," said Watkinp "'he is a good plucked one, and if ever I see him again, I'll treat him with a bottle for his courage." "We believe this feeling to -be. entertained in by most persons who knew Tom L k, and we' trust that by prudent and industrious conduct on the other side of the Atlantic he may be able to return to his

native land, satisfy his creditors, and never again be exposed to the extreme danger of a, chase in the Channel. — Bi'istol Mercury.