FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE IN CANTON.

Kumara Times, Issue 638, 14 October 1878, Page 2

FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE IN CANTON.

Some particulars have just come to hand of the frightful catstrophe which occurred in Canton on tbe'.Uth April, and wluchcdiisea the death of. 10,000 personal - that,, about. one o'clock in the' afteruooh a„ tremendous thunder-storm sky being, so black thatjlauips had to be lighted in the. At,two folfowed a severe ;minstorni«-the drops being as large as gooseberries,- and a wind so strong that it shattered- most of r 'the windows in the city;.;'. .At"threes o!clock : - could bff, seen an . immense"'waterspout, which advanced rapidly :inVa. zigzag' across the river from the south, swam' ped all the boats in its course "and almost destroyed the beautiful suburb of Thamin—the residence of Europeans—and finally, after doing immense damage to some other villages,, disappeared a few miles from the city. The Viceroy of Canton had a narrows ; escape. He had gone to pray at.ihef;' tomb of one of the last governors .of!,!. Fleuve Janne, with a brilliant cornpVny^'"»> when the storm burst. Five minutes ' after leaving his place it was struck by lightning and destroyed/ an immense ' number of people was killed. The

viceroy stopped at a half-way temple to avoid the storm, but it was so crowded that he left it for another place of safety. He had no sooner , gone ( than that also was, struck by lightning and completely destroyed. One of the walls of the temple, *3oft ■high> fell down with a crash and buried .women beneath its ruins, a hundred ..others perishing by asphyxia. Strange ,to -relate, although the principal damage ■was done in the European suburb no •Europeans were killed.