The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 15, 1902, Page 1

VOLUME XCI—-NO. 16 6. SAN FRANCISCO, THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1902. PRICE FIVE CENTS. SIX STREAMS OF LAVA POUR FROM LA SOUFRIERE’S CRATER, DEPOPULATING THE NORTHERN HALF OF ST. VINCENT ISLAND Pro pbecy of the Indians Fulfilled. Raceof Caribs| Is Ended in Flames. No One of the Tribe Is S}lared. From the special correspondent of | | The Call and the New York Her-| | ald. Copyright, 1902, by the New | York Herald Publishing Company. ORT DE FRANCE,| Island of Martinique, | May 14.—St. Vincent | passed through a les t owed the eruption nt Pelee, destroying habitants. bered by the thousands. rawn from Chateau Be- :eorzem\\u would di- d of St. Vincent in- being alive north of it. s visible during | t of May 7. The follow- the steamship Wear of 1 service in at- ) force her way to ran a floating For three hours practically helpless | of smoke and sulphu- r than that which. from Mont Pelee COVERED WITH ASHES. !\\n":vr\\\fl was finally into hes reached at daybreak it was found | T r n. The streets were covered two inches deep with and stones that had fallen > night. ch ejected, es was almost inces- iree days. Chateau Belaire word t the distress there was call had been sent nan, and one was taken he Wear. Down the sides Soufriere were floating of streams of uniting and network for from which g thing caught ve been recovered, and wn that many hundreds ed under "the ashes that led over the island. FULFILLS PROPHECY. conservatively estimated usand have been sac- the first eruption on tical extinction of the race md here by Columbus 1,.'(7])]]6\".\' which they wor- v a few individuals ‘W islands of St. Lucia | ritish steamer Cennet on | through five miles of ¢ was so dense that the | Imost suffocated. an hour th to be left to its own guidance. Soufriere, though not so ac- more thz For | tive as it was last week, is still so;j le baptism of fire, and the | s terrible than | thcfv Pierre and its envi- | their thirty to forty | iere has been in activ- 1e days, and its victims| | ere is probably no_ t. Lucia the craption of | town is fifteen miles from | yet the | lava | separating | s no possible escape for| within | Already one thousand | his includes all of the| which means the| From a distance dozens of cra-| | that | been fulfilled. Of | | | [ 1 Majesttc Fury of Elements Descrtbed Awful Din Is . Continued | Days. threatening as to terrify the in- | flames | habitants. Smoke and | continue to belch from the cra- ter, over which there is an inces- | forking | sant play of lightning, out from the column that reaches so far up into the sky that the| eye cannor reach its crest. By the explosion of 1812 a river that had existed ever since| the discovery of the island was dried up. | now flows a swift stream of mol- | ten lava which glistens like liquid silver, and which flows into the sea within one hundred yards of Georgetown. As the water and the lava meet a great cloud .of steam arises and the hissing can be heard for miles. FORCE OF ERUPTIONS. ters can be seen, now opening land again closing near the crest | of La Soufriere. | but the danger is still great. most violent eruptions stopped in| | the afternoon of May 10. Many sedrching parties are now out. Seven estates have been ruined beyond hope of repair. Two | chapels have heen buried under| {a stream of lava. have been covered under masses of ashes and lava, and there is e ship had | hardly a spot in the island that is|ing it formed a beautiful blue | not under two inches to ten feet {of ashes. Down its channel here | “The force of the | eruption seems to be lessening, [ The | Many houses | After the eruption of 1812 the e + 1 | | | B | r 11 f | | il Il | | | { | B B | | | | 11 | ‘ | [ = _— - + i1 5 ! 1IC VIEW OF CHARLOTTE, AMELIA, ST. THOMAS, AND 8 ON OTHER ISLANDS*WHICH FIGURE IN THE RECENT | VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS OF MONT PELEE AND LA SOUFRIERE. + | MONT PELEE STILL ' SENDS FORTH LAVA ASTRIES, St. Lucia, May I er Savan, Captain Hunter, arric L reports Mont Pelee to be still in eruption. The trend of the flow from the wolcano is to the north. The search parties re- aoving the dead from St. Pierre have discovered safes and mol- ten precious metal in stores and dzwellings of the town. No one | | is permitied to penctrate into SY. Pierre bevond -the strand run- | ning along the sea front, and a cordon of soldiers has been The St. Pierre Cathedral is all down with the exception of one tower, and of the theater the walls alone are now standing.. The convent, which contained 200 girls and thirty-six nuns, has disappeared, as has the college, where i | seventy boys and twenty-two priests and professors were domi- { | ciled. Many thrilling and hairbreadth escapes from the eruption [\ of Mont Pelec are reported. 14.—The British stean- ed here this morning, and | placed. around the towwn. | [ —_—_———————_— oo | old crater closed, and water fill-| generation. Then on May 5 the crater lake became greatly dis- turbed. It began to boil and bubble like a great caldron. Steam arose -from it in . im- lake. Yor many days Soufriere 4abored tnwardly in’a manner such as was new to the present] P Sugar Plantations Covering| a Wide Area Are Laid Waste. Bodiesof Victims Are Buriedf Deep Under Masses of Lava and Ashes. AND BUR YING TWO THOUSAND OF THE UNFORTUNA TE__ NA TIVES % I STR: | s mense clouds. beneath the mountain redoubled in force, and at 2 o'clock that af- ternoon Soufriere trembled . as though it was in the throes of a terrible agony. Then came a ser- ies of severe earthquakes that shook the entire island. That night sulphuric flames played about the summit of the volcano, giving it a weird and terrible ap- pearance. Steam continued to rise in clouds, and the thunders of the skies were joined with those which came from the bow- els of Soufriere. All during Wednesday the splendid phe- nomenon continued, giving those who lived in the near vicin- ity of the volcano ample time to make their escape. All seem to have been hypnotized, ;and of the thousands who were there only a few hundred went away. MAJESTIC DISPLAY. It was more than two weeks ago that La Soufriere first gave warning that it was about to give a display of fireworks more ma- jestic than has been seen by man ‘| during the last thousand years. Soufriere raises its head 4048 feet above the sea level. Tt lies at the northern end of St. Vin- cent and can be seen fully fifty miles at sea on a clear day. For ninety years the old volca- no has been somnolent. On rare occasions it has grumbled inter- nally, but it has been regarded as The rumbling ! e harmless by the Indians, who! have told oi the eruptions which ceased long ago, and which they have carried in their traditions. SENDS SIX STREAMS. Ashes and rock, as well as lava | were carried skyward in this col- umn to deluge the island and the ocean for miles around. Grad-| ually the column mushroomed | at the top, spread out into dense| clouds that descended. It was| noon on Wednesday when La| Soufriere suddenly opened send- pouring and boiling down its| sides. Death was everywhere and in| its most terrible form. Light- | ning came from the sky, killing | many who had escaped tke mol- ten.streams that were pouring in- to the ‘valleys. For this great tragedy the settings were won- derful. Soufriere literally rocked in its agony. From its summit a majestic column of smoke inky| black reached skyward. The craters-were vomiting incandes- cent matter that gave forth pris- matic lights as it rolled away toward the sea. WAVES OF Fl'i. Great waves of fire seenged| to hedge about the mountain top. Such thunder as has seldom been heard by man cracked and rolled through the heavens. From the earth came tremendous deto- nations. These joined with the) | On | estimated Equals the St Pierre Dis- aster. "'Suffocation Is the Fate of Many. Survivors in Danger of Starving. From the special correspondent of The Call and the New York Her- ald. Copyright, 1902, by the New York Herald Publishing Company. mieefrefreiee el @ | thunder all merging inan inces- | sant roar that added to the panic of the fleeing inhabitants. This lasted through the night, and the day and night following. Thursday morning a huge column so black that it had the appearance of ebony rose to an height of eight miles from the top of the volcano. The atmosphere was so laden with sulphurous gas that life was made | almost impossible. SUFFOCATED BY GAS. It is believed that many of | those nearest to Soufriere were | suffocated by this gas before they were touched by the burning dava. Many expected that the entire island would be destroyed and the night of Thursday was given up to prayers. All that night the darkness was beyond description save when everything was made light as broad day by | the lightning which forked out from the volcano. The earth quaked incessantly, the moun- tains shook, stones, lava and great quantities of ashes never ceased to fall. So terrible were the thynders that it seemed to | the terrified that the universe was being rent in pieces. MUCH RUIN WROUGHT. Friday brought a slight rese pite. Souiriere became less agi« tate®. The lava streams did not decrease, but the showers of rocks stopped for a time. Then those of stout heart ventured out to take stock of the wonderful ruin that had been wrought. All areas of cultivation were found ta | be destroyed, buried under-banks | of {and Richmond plantations and volcanic matter. Walabou villages on the leeward coast were wrecked. Walibou was partly under water which had | been swept in from the sea by a | tidal wave. Five other planta- tions were gone. INDIANS PERISH. The Carib Indians had made s : | that portion of the island lying at ing six separate streams of lava| the base of Soufriere their coun- try. That entire district was a smoking incinerated ruin. Ashes | were everywhere, no place being less than two feet deep, and in some places Java had rolled over deep banks of ashes. Every In- dian had disappeared. If there is a survivor he is not yet known. All vegetation had disappear- ed. Not a sprig of green was to be seen on the island. Livestock had died. Houses had vanished. Rivers were dry, and in their beds ran lava. Everywhere north of Chateau Belaire were dead bodies, some half buried, others showing that they had been stricken down by the lightning. A few seemed to have been dipped in lava which took form from them. Decom- position seemed to be almost im- mediate. Continued on Page Thres. /