Tremendous Disaster.

Manawatu Herald, 13 May 1902, Page 2

Tremendous Disaster.

WEST INDIAN ISLANDS. A cablegram from St. Thomas announces that thousands of persons has been killed in Martinique. A stream of boiling mud, which has been flowing from the crater of Mount Pelee since the sth inst., overwhelmed the chief factories. The volumne of the eruption is now decreasing. The Soufriere volcano, in the island of St Vincent, is smoking ominously. The active craters in Dominica are in a state of eruption. There is consternation in Guadaloupe owing to the loud noises and frequent shocks of earthquake. The commander of the cruiser Suchet has cabled to the French Government that a mass of fire fell on the town of St Pierre, iu the island of Martinique, at 8 o’clock in the morn-

ing, completely destroying the town and burning the shipping. The entire population is supposed to have perished, except thirty persons, who were brought to Fort de France. The eruption continues. . It is estimated that thirty thousand persons have perished in Martinique, including M. Mouttet, the Governor. Cable communication with Martinique is interrupted. Two steamers which were carrying messages have been lost, and another was unable to effect a landing at the island. The whites living at St Pierre are estimated to have numbered a thousand, probably a dozen of whom were English. Eighteen vessels have been destroyed including four American craft. Three hundred inhabitants of St. Vincent, a British island eighty miles south of Martinique, have taken refuge at Chateau Eclair. The British schooner Ocean Traveller has arrived at Bominica, twenty five miles north of Martinique. She left St. Vincent owing to a heavy fall of sand from the Soufriere volcano, but owing to the currents was unable to reach St. Lucia, which is ' between St. Vincent and Martinique. She arrived opposite St. Pierre on Thursday morning, and saw the volcano of Mount Pelee exploded, a rain of fire sweeping down and destroying the town and environs and the shipping, including the cable-repairing steamer Grappler, of 860 tons, belonging to the West India and Panama Telegraph Company. The French cruiser Suchet went round to St. Pierre on Thursday afternoon, and found the place in flames. Thirty persona belonging to the shipping were resoued. The Suchet’s men ware unable to penetrate to the town. Heaps of bodies ware seen on the wharves. It is feared the Governor and hie staff, Colonel Wire (the American Consul) and his wife have fallen victims.

The steamer Esk was covered with ashes while passing St. Pierre five miles' off on Thursday night. She reports that everything ashore was aflame. The British steamer Rorairaa exploded during the morning, tho cruiser Suchet saving eight of her passengers. Another steamer, the Roddam, was partly burnt. She slipped her anchor, but seventeen of the crew, including officers, died of injuries. The captain was taken to the hospital •at St. Thomas. Out of the Roddam’s crew of twenty three, all were killed.or injured except two, who declare that the disaster was like a glimpse of Hell, beggaring description. Seen at a distance of five miles from land, the coast was enveloped in im penetrable darkness, and the atmosphere was saturated by cinders and sulphur. M. la Parent, President of the French Geological Society, states that the chimney of Mount Pelee exploded projecting showers of incandescent lava, and submerging everything with the flow of lava following the explosion. The whole population of St. Pierre which according to the latest estimates was 36,000, is dead. The population of Martinique is between that number and 40,000. An .eruption is in progress at St. Vincent. Volcanic dust is falling in the Barbadoes, a hundred miles to the eastward, and is lying an inch thick. Tho British cruiser Indefatigable, attached to the West Indian Station, has been despatched to St. Vincent to render assistance.