GREAT FIRE AT THE CAPE.
Some idea of the terrible character of the fire which devastated so immense a tract of country at the Cape of Good Hope, may be formed from the following extract from a letter received by a gentleman in Adelaide from a correspondent at Beaufort West: —" A very sad calamity has befallen the country since I wrote to you last. A fire broke out near the coast in the bush, and extended for nearly a distance of-100 miles, carrying death and destruction wherever it went. Nearly a hundred homesteads have been burned to the ground, nothing left of them but dust and ashes. Many cattle and horses and thousands of sheep have fallen victims to the devouring element; but the most painful part of the story has still to be told. Some fifty or sixty human beings have perished in the flames. Many families who were living in comfort and plenty are now utterly destitute, left with nothing but the clothes they had on. Subscriptions are being made throughout the colony for the sufferers. Such a calamity has never befallen the colony before. But it might have been worse had not a kind Providence sent rain, and this stopped the course of desolation, or two entire villages would have been consumed. It is supposed that the flames travelled at the rate of forty miles an hour, and leaped across rivers sixty yards wide, and went away on the opposite bank with railway speed. It is very touchinn; to read some of the accounts in the papers. Some beautiful places, where the owners had lived and labored for thirty years, and whose places looked quite as beautiful as some of the finest gentlemen's estates at home, are now nothing but a heap of blackened ruins, the tall forest trees looking like bare ships' masts."
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WEST18690629.2.21
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 523, 29 June 1869, Page 3
Word count
Tapeke kupu
307GREAT FIRE AT THE CAPE. Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 523, 29 June 1869, Page 3
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.