A Race for Life.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 95, 22 December 1913, Page 5

A Race for Life.

m THE AMBYRN ERUPTION.

CONTINUATION OF NARRATIVE.

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyrightj [Unit2d Press Association, j Sydney, December 20.

The new Peninsula at Dip Point is li miles in length, and is formed with a submarine volcano at its extremity.

Six white people are on the island, including Dr. Bowie, wiio took refuge in a launch. The patients at Dr. Bowie's hospital were also removed aboard. Hardly had the launch left the landing stage when the lava stream readied and destroyed the hospital, the mission station, and a number of residences. The launch proceeded to Port Sandwich on the adjoining Island and reported the catastrophe to the steamer [La France. Dr. Bowie's launch im'mediately returned to the scene, touching at various points on the island and picked up the panic-stricken natives. Altogether three trips were made, and lover six hundred people (all that could ibe found) were rescued. Distressing Tales of Destruction.

The population of Ambryn Island is stated to be about 1100, therefore it. is supposed that some five hundred are missing, though an accurate estimate is impossible. One village is surrounded by lava and the. residents are iinable to escape, fifty or sixty perishing in view of watchers. Many other harrowing instances of j destruction are recorded. Hurrying to the Rescue. The at the time nt the outbreak and huniecriwP Sandwich. Captain Charvin, on behalf of the Messageries Maritimes Co., offered his services, and the Pacifique was despatched to skirt the coast of Ambryn Island and pick up other possible refugees. The vessel has a trying experience. Red hot boulders fell round her, and navigation was difficult owing to the trees which had fallen from the clis floating in the sea, which was also strewn with great quantities of dead fish and turtles. Beauty Spot Wiped Out.

I The island itself, wh\ch was one of the beauty spots of the Pacific, presented a desolate appearance. Streams of lava and dust had wiped out all the beautiful vegetation and destroyed the buildings. Fissures were everywhere expelling smoke and sulphurous vapours; Every large eruption by the craters was followed by a tidal wave, though not great of ske, while the force Of the explosions caused the steamer to quiver like an aspen leaf. At Kanon Bay, ten miles from the outbreak, the'dust was so thick that it broke down the palm trees, and the intense heat dried all the water, the cattle dying. j.There Were -over forty patients in Dr. Bowie's hospital, and their' rescue was a perilous proceeding. With lava streams running down each side, and the volcano belching forth fire behind, they were carried in stretchers to the launch, and eventually the rescuers, including their wives, Dr. Bowie, and Mr Bailey, his assistant, had to run for their lives as fire caught the buildings.

A MAGNIFICENT SPECTACLE.

THE FATE OF THE NATIVES'.

(Received 9.20 a.m.) Sydney, December 22

The Re,v. Mr Gillon and other passengers by the last Island steamer say that the volcano outbreak at Ambry m presented a magnificent spectacle from the deck of the vessel. Probably we will never know how many natives perished, as there were numbers in the bush, and, it will be some time before their fate can be ascertained—if ever., Some who swam in the sea were scalded to death owing to the heat of the water caused by the. lava.

French trader, whose store is only about half a mile round the coast from the hospital. At Craig's Cove, which is said to have been abandoned, Dr. Bowie has one of his best teachers stationed in charge of a flourishing church. The condition of things pre vailing on the island may be judged from the fact that when the wind is in a certain direction it always brings volcanic ashes and dust to such an [extent; as to interfere with vegetation and to make it;.impossible to cultivate a'garden about the hospital. On the occasion of the last eruption the traders used the terror of the natives as a powerful lever to persuade them to emigrate to work in the Queensland plantations.

"CANNIBALS AND CONVICTS."

The much-troubled island < or" Ambrym is the subject of a chapter in the late Julian Thomas's book, "Cannibals and Convicts," a racy story of South Sea cruisings. Mr Thomas visited the New Hebrides thirty years ago for the Melbourne Argus, and lie was impressed by the sinister and beautiful aspect of Ambrym's volcano, which lias been active from the time .white men first sailed the Pacific, and no doubt for ages before that. When his vessel anchored off" Dip Point, near where the mission station now stands, "the night was dark," he wrote, "the moon was hidden by clouds, but 3500 ft. above our heads the crater gave out a steady roseate light, beautiful to behold. Not a small affair was this, as the fire appeared to extend for miles above the dip in the mountain which formed the bed of the volcano. A grand and magnificent sight; yet so prosaic is man that I could only compare it in my mind to the lights of the blast fur naces in the 'Black Country,' seen from the heights of Barr Beacon or Bromsgrove Lickey." The comparison will convey an idea of the spectacle to anyone who has travelled through Lancashire at night.

The Presbyterian mission house was just being built when Mr Thomas went ashore at Ambrym, and there he met the new missionary, Mr Murray, and his wife. "This young divine," he wrote, "had only recently been ordained at Sydney, after landing from Scotland. He looked a student; one used to burning the midnight oil. For six months, until the return of the mission vessel, they would be left entirely alone, would see no white, faces except those on labour vessels and stray traders, and these they had been taught to look upon as enemies . A

delicate young minister like Mr Murray must have had the spirit of an evangelist to carry him through the first twelve months there." The story of the Presbyterian mission on wild Ambrym contains chapters which tell of the truest heroism. On the islands of Polynesia, to the eastward, where the volcanoes have long been dead and the' native peoples are pleasant and tractable, the life of the missionary is by no means one of hardship; but things have always been different in the New Hebrides and the Solomons, where the climate, the frequency of earthquakes and eruptions, and the turbulent ways of the less than halltamed "Melanesians combine to fill the evangelist's life with troubles and perils.