THE CARIBBEAN DISASTER

Otago Witness, Issue 2520, 2 July 1902, Page 34

THE CARIBBEAN DISASTER

THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE

THE DESTROYED TOWN INSPECTED

(From Ottr Own Correspondent.) CHICAGO, May 17. Urged to ha-~te by President Koosevelt and by the aroused sympathy of the American people, CongTess is engaged with the passing of relief appropriations for ttie sutterers from the atinort unbelievable disasters in Martinique and St. \incent, in the French West indies. A 200.llOUUoi appropiiauon w&o passed inuueuiateiy ; but tae President thought thai sum msurticient, and urged tuat more be added. 'J he iSeaato lmmtwiiateiy concurred in this opinion, and the cleared amendment was ordered, lii the Houie, however, the action met with delay, owing to the clustory tactics of certain Congressmen wiso thought the i>um too large, 'liu.se- oyer-carcuil legi:lators aro receiving the fuii tid-o 01 public indignation, and it is not likely that the voting ot the additional sum will be long delayed. Already American supply boats are landing stoics lor the Butierers, and American soldiers are aiding the troops of other nations m disposing of the dead bodies of the victims ot the awful volcanic catastrophe, in order to provt-nt a pestilence.-. The nrsc news reports which reached Chicago concerning the fatal eruption, of Mont Pelee and the utttr annihilation of the seaport of Martinique with its inhabitants were a. most discredited, 6O exaggerated did they seem. l'robably the most authentic report, which came after thorough examination of ihe devastated city, the condition of the dead bodies, and the testimony of the Sew inhabitants that escaped, is this one that follows : —

May 12.— St. Piorre was destroyed, not by lava streams and not by showers of redhot rocks, but by one all-consuming blast of suffocating, poisonous, burning gased. Death came- to the 30,000 inhabitants instantly. It was not a matter of hours or minutes ! It was a matter of seconds. They did not burn to death: they died by breathing flame, and their bodies were burned afterwards. It is not merely true that no person inside the limits of the town escaped, but it is probably a literal fact that no per=on lived long enough to take two steps towards escape. These facts, which will go on record as the most astounding in the history of human catastrophes, have been practically established by the investigations of to-day and yesterday nt the site of the city, helped out in slight degree by the scanty testimony of the few tortured sufferers on boats in the harbour who alone survived. The manner of the annihilation of St. Pierre is unique in the history of the world. Pompeii was not a parallel, for Pompeii was eaten up by demoniac rivers of lava, and lava became its tomb. But where St. Pierre onco stood there is not even a lava bed now. The city is gone from tho earth. The half-dead victims who escaped on tho Roddam or were brought away by the Suchet talked of a " hurricane of flame " that had come upon them. It now appears that that phrase was no figure of speech, but a literal statement of what happened. There were bodies lying in the streets of the city — or, rathor, on tho ground where the streets once were, for in many places it is impossible to trace the line between streets aud building Fitee — to which death came so suddenly that the smiles on. the faces did not have time to change to the iine« of agony. That does not mean death by burning, though the bodies have been charred and half consumed ; nor does it mean suffocation, for suffocation is slow. It can only mean the bath of burning fumes into which the city was plunged affected -the victims like a terrible virulent poison when the first whiff of tho gases entered their lungs. Thero are many victims who died with their hands to their mouths. That one motion of thearm was probably the only one that they made before they became unconscious. Every combuFtible thing was burned. Animal bodies, full of moisture, glowed awhile, and then ronrained charred wrecks. Wood and other easily combustible things burned to ashes. That St. Pierre s;id the strip of coast to the north and south of itwere burned in an instant was probably due to the first break in the mountain coming on its western side and immediately above them, though the direction of the wind may have had a little to do with it. In this w - ay ono can understand how the mountain resort of Morne Rouge, where about 600 people were staying, escaped annihilation. Since the first explosion Mont Peleo ha« been sending down lava streams in many directions. Th«y have filled the ravine 3 and followed the river couises and made their way to tho sea. They have done great destruction, but most of the inhabitants in their course havo hac\ gome* chance at least to e=cape. From I^e Precheur around the northern end of the island, to Grande Riviere, Macouba, and perhaps to Grand Anse, directly across the island from St. Pierre, the lava has been flowing. Great crevasses are opening up from time to time in the hills. The earth is undulating like waves. Rivera are thrown out of their courses by the change in land levels. In some places they submerge tho land and form lakes. In other p]-"<>s tlrey are licked up by the lava, which jws on them and turns them to steam. There are no sufferers in St. Pierre, for no life is left thero; but in the. surrounding country tho fleeing blacks are suffering keenly from hunger, and it id for the relief of these that th« supply boat.3 have been sent. Tho eruptions from which the island of St Vincent is suffering also continuo with no apparent cessation, and it is consei vatively estimated that 2000 persons have been killed on th© island. All the inhabitants, of which there are about 40 000. have fled aa far as possible from flic crater of the Souffricre, and a water raid food famine threatens them.

A despatch from the Island of Guadaloupe says: — Survivora of the disaster at St. Pierre have reached here. They report that destruction fell fiom the (.ley bo suddenly as to give the impression that the end of the world had come. Scott, the first officer _of the Rorauna, who was picked up and carried out by the Roddfim. says the Roraima would liave> Leon c a\ed liaxl the explosion of Mont pole" been delayed only a few minutes. The Roraima was ready to go to sea. The frnnVira- waa US Mid. ILIA PiiumAt[ ]QfiQ| ttUIC(I

when the ship was overwhelmed by a wave of hot water and ashes. Clouds of fire swept across the harbour, destroying everything above the surface of the water. Each of the 18 vessels in the harbour burst into flames and in a few ntinutes sank into tho water, which was boiling and seething like a cauldron. Sailors, crazed by their injuries, sprang ovtrboard to find death in the steaming- sea. Of the 21 cabin passengers on tho Roraima not one escaped.

A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION.

A despatch to the New York Herald from Port of Spain, Trinidad, dated May 15, says: —

M. Albert, tho owner and manager of the Lagarrane estate, which lies about a mile north-east of the crater of Mont Pelee, has just arrived here with his family on the steamship Canada, from Martinique. He tels ai story of marvellous escape from the death that swept St. Pierre out of existence. He says : —

"Mont Pelee had given warning of the destruction that was to come, but we who iiad l<foked upon the volcano as harmless did not believe that it would do more than spout fire and steam, as it hail done on. other occasions. It was a- little before 8 o'clock on the morning of May 8 that the end came.

" I was in one of the. fields of my estate when tho ground trembled under my feet, not a* it docs when the earth quakes, but as though a terrible struggle was going on within the- mountain. A terror came upon me, but I could not explain my fear.

"Aa I stood still Mont Pelee seemed to shudder and a moaning sound issued from its crater. It was quite darV, the sun being obscured by aslies and fine volcanic dust. Tne air was dead about me, so dead that the floating du^t seemingly was not disturbed. " Then there came a rending, crashing grinding noise, which I can only describe as sounding an though every bit of machinery in the world lird suddenly broken down. It was deafeninp, and the flash of light that accompanied it was blinding, more so than any lightning I have e\er seen. '• It was like a terrific hurricane, and where a fraction of a second before there had been a perfect ea'm. I felt myself drawn into a vortex and I bad to brace myself firmly. It wa« like a great express train rushing by, and I was drawn by its force.

" Tho" mysterious force levelled a row of strong trees, teaiing them up by the roota and leaving bare a sp<sre of ground 15 yards widf* and more than 100 yards long.

" Tran&fixed I stood, not knowing in what direction to fiee. I looked toward Mont Pelee, and above- its apex formed a great black cloud which reached Inch in the air. It literally fell upon the city of St. Pierre. It moved with a rapidity that made it impossible for anything to escape it.

'■ from th<? cloud came explosions that sounded as though all of the navies of the world were in Titanic, combat. Lightning piaved in and out in broad forks, the result homo; that intense dirknr-ss wa« follow.cd by light that seemed to bo of magnifying power. "That St. Piprre was doomed I knew, but T was prevented from =eeinp the destructionnv a spur of the hill that shut off the view of tho city.

"It is impossible for mi> to tell how long I stood there inert. Pi-c.ba.bly it was only a fow seconds, but so vivid w^r« my impressions that, it now sent"; as though I stood as a spectator for many minutes.

" When I recovered possession of mv Eei'.-f'^ I ran to mv house and collected the memVrs of the family, all of wliora were panic-stricken. I hurried them to the R»as'lore. where we boarded a small steamship, in which we made the trip in safety to Fort de France.

"I know that there was no flame in the first- wave that vrai sent down unon St. Pierre. It was a heavy eras like fl ro damn, nntl it must have asphyxiated thr» inhabitants before t.iipv v.-ore touched by the fire, which nuioV-lv Tol'o'vd. A« v c r><ew nut to the sea in t~fr<* small ptram«Hn Mont P^lee was in the ffhrorg of a te-rible oonvu's-i"oD. Yaw eratrrs seemed to be opening- all about the sumnv't. and lava w> ftWvitr in broad streams *n «*v<»rv direction. Mv estate was ruinorl while we were still in si^'-t of it. " Afftiiy wo>ren -who hay«» lived in St. ■Piori-o have csrm>»»cl n"lv to kurvw that they aro widowod and c>l>ilHle=F. This is hpoaiisc many of the wealthier jmon sent Hi^r wive-s flwav. while they rpmnineri in St. Pierre to attend to their business affairs."