TERRIBLE TYPOON IN CHINA. LOSS OF LIFE ESTIMATED AT 100,000.

Evening Star, Issue 3678, 5 December 1874, Page 2

TERRIBLE TYPOON IN CHINA. LOSS OF LIFE ESTIMATED AT 100,000.

A correspondent of the Auckland *. Herald’ writes i — A terrible typhoon occurred iu South China between midnight and 4 a.m. of Wednesday, the 23rd September. Though this typhoon lasted a comparatively short time—about four hours—it was the most violent and destructive within living memory. It is estimated that the loss of life in the city of Victoria, in the island and villages of the immediate neighborhood, and the adjacent waters, amounted to several thousands. Six steamers and twenty seven large European vessels were either sunk, drivvin on shore, dismasted, or more or less damaged, whilst the destruction of property on shore was wholesale. The lowest reading of the barometer, as taken by the La-bor-master, was 28. SS, at two o’clock in the morning, the storm being then at its highest. The European houses iu the colony, though most substantially built, suffered great damage. The roofs of many were blown off, and there being a heavy rain, the rooms were saturated, and furniture was destroyed. The Catholic Church of St. Joseph was demolished, only portions of the end walls being left standing. The destruction in the Chinese papb of the city was, however, greatest. But the greatest devastation and destruction were to be seen on the front of the city. The sight was sad and terrible in the extreme. Strongl \ -built wharves were washed entirely away ; several vessels were lyine aground, some having dashed into ea-h other, whilst others only showed the tops of their masts ; and the wreckage of junks and boats was floating about in all directions. The Praya wall, consisting of huge blocks of granite, bouud together with iron jinks, was broken and dashed away ; the road was in some parts washed up, or hero and there rendered impassible from the piled-up debris. The Chinese villages in other parts of the island, or across the harbor on the mainland, notwithstanding their shelter d positions, suffered terribly both by loss of life and damage to property. The full extent of the damage caused by the typhoon, which extended far beyond Hong Kong, will probably never be known. Many Chinese villages were whcdly destroyed. Macao—a small peninsula belonging to Portugal—suffered worse even than Hong Kong, being left literally a colossal ruin. The loss of life there was enormous. The labor of gravedigging becoming too great, the dead bodies, as washed up by the sea or disentombed 1 frpm fallen houses, were heaped together aud burned, oqre thaq q thousand being thus destroyed in one day. At least 10,Q10 persons perished in the Kwangtung province only, and some accounts put the number a* 100,000.

The special correspondent of the ‘ Hong Kong Times’ gives the following account of the effects of the typhoon at Macao :—“I proceed to describe the state in which I fmjnd Macao, and in which it now is, Macao is in ruins, Whole streets are obliterated, the houses either levelled to the ground or but heaps of rubbish. A gentleman staying at the hotel, who was at Manila a few days after the great earthquake, says there is greater destruction of property here than there. I myself saw the worst that the Prussian artillery did in the neighborhood of Paris, but great as the destruction was there, the damage done to Macao by tbe typhoon and lire is worse. Some notion of the violence of the storm may be gathered when j.t is stated that heavy guns at the forts were dismasted. Not only single houses, but blocks of buildings and whole streets were demolished—for a considerable extent not a single upright wall was to bo seen. Having seen all tbe chief thoroughfares and buildings of Macao, I determined to visit the spot which one might judge to be most fatal—the Chinese district near the Barra Fort. No description could convey an adequate idea of this desolating scene. The large mass of ruins over which I was treading was a huge sepulchre, a mighty tomb. What number of dead bodies aro lying beneath them will not be known for weeks ; the putrid essences which they emit are the only indications of death. You pass on to the harbor’s edge, hoping there to get a little

fresh air ; but here you are greeted with the same broath of death You have not far to look for the cause. Only a few yards off a dozen corpses arc floating in the water, stiff and rigid, with uplifted hands, as though the last human effort had been to clutch at anything which promised succour. I hare made many inquiries as to the loss of life in Macao and neighborhood, but it is impossible to give anything like au accurate estimate No one puts the number at less than five thousand, while others say it will reach twenty thousand. Home readers who peruse this account may think such a loss incredible j but those who know what crowds dwell in small boats and in Chinese houses will receive the statement without hesitation. Between two and three thousand have been already buried or burnt. Never, or at least not in modern time, has there been cremation on such a scale. Burying was tried for the first few days, until the labor of digging graves was too groat. Then it was determined to try burning. For this purpose tar was sought for, hut only one or two barrels could be had. The method of cremation was very simple ; too simple, indeed, for anyone near the huge burial mounds is painfully made aware of what is going on. Some hundreds were burned on Saturday, and on Sunday over a thousand bodies were destroyed in this way. I am heartily tired of looking on the scenes I have lately witnessed and attempting to describe them, and shall be glad to quit this City of Ruin and Death. ”