The Martinique Disaster.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 31, 31 July 1902, Page 20

The Martinique Disaster.

How in the parly morning of Ascension Day, May 8 (writes a correspondent of th* 1 Sin Francisco Monitor), out of the cavernous jaws of Pelee drtath descended with a eword of flame and reaped the richest harve t in all bi-tory, i-t a story whioh the whole world known almost by heart already. The furious mountain n*>nt devastation with such awful swiftness that it is probablo that thin absolute annihilation was accomplished in probably less thau a minute. Of those who were, in the city at the tune of the catastrophe none if lpffc alive: of these few in the ehipn in the harbor who escaped with their lives every one Bu<neie->tly recover, d Trum fea-r-ful burns has told a piiif uliy and disconnected story, taken up principally with personal suffering, and logo >g siucn caol<d broadcast over the world. Some of these i-'jumi oiiok are still at Fort de France. I talked with them. What they say is a repetition of an old story of a fiiht for life in the harbor. J will not lepeat it here, There ar-i yet a few who viewel the awful holocaust from distant hills. The btory of one of these will t-11 probably nil that will ever be told of how a city with all it 1 ? inhabitants was reduced to ashes almost within the twinkling of an eyo. Such a witness is Father Jean Alt» Rocho, pastor of the church on Morne Vert, a village some five kilometre 3 above and southeast of St. Pierre, and about ten from the crater. Morne Vert is much nearer the crater than was -St. Pierre, but it was a little more out of the wind from the mountain, and was protected from its fiery output by several peaks and profound valleys. Father Ro he w<itohe.d the mountain alrnoßt constantly from April 25, when its activity was first observed, to the second gn-at eruption on May 20. He told not only of the world-startling ex; loaion of May 8, but also of the earlier and lesser or.c of May ,">. '1 ,jiß is his story, all too briefly told : Ample Warnings. 'There were rumblings and smoke every day, and dust rvnd ashes fell on Morne Vert. Looking towards Pelee, we oculd °cc whitish clouds rise to great heights above tie crater, and streams seemed to pouring down the western t-lopes toward Piedtieur and St. Philomen, villages considerably noith of St. Pierre, that aie now covered wilh mud. 'On May 5 the violenco of the daily eruptions incieaned That was the day when Precheur on the Riviere Blanche and tht Gu^nn sugar factory were destroyed. On that day we saw great voluuien of water, t-teaming hot, go tumbling down the in >uutam Hie. It leaped over all obstructions. The water coursta could not confine it. It fell hissing into the sea ' More terrifying was an avalanche of hot mud which followel the water. It, too, bounded over hills and precipices ;.nd fell over the cliffs into the sea with a great roar. It. was this flood of mud that buried the sugar factory and Precheur in which 4600 persona had lived. The peoplo, I believe, had left their hernia btfore that had occurred. 1 The night before the supreme erupti >n the mountain was less agitated than it had been at any time since it, began tie'jibhng and rumbling. This rea-tsured many if the re«idents of >Sc Pierre, and hundreds who had ooino out of the city returned. On the Fatal Day. A few minute- before eight o'clock in the moriiing. after wo had finished eirly Mass, there v*as i\ disturbance on M'-nt Pel. c which compelli .1 utteutifn. A ilcnbe column of smoke and sti a n shot into the air to a great kti h r ht. Up, up it vent for three or four miles. Then it spread out like thecroAnof a gigriutic palm trpe. Around this gitat blackish cokuun crept spiral columns of white, while through the pitchy awning i.bove lightning played incessantly. Below the crater hundreds >' I jtL"5 of si.ioke a r d "-team ntirtei upward until the whole in tuntain appeared to be si finukinj, buining mas^. Before the column broke theiewrs a blu'ding fl sh of light followe 1 by a terr-fie report. Then came another fl i.sh of flarae and thunder and then a third ; and between the second and third sheets of flame great stance shot up ir. to the cloud of emoke, and then while the lightning played I saw a great cloud break from the mountain and roll toward us. Then I started to run lor protection toward a shrine cut in the solid rock. ' We had barely t'irued our back.-) to the mountain when we felt the int'iise he.it. and before we had goi.e 200 yards all were thrown to the grouvui. The whole world looked blacK. l'ig puces of atone were failing .ill about a*, ami it seemed fu" a moment a< if we all would soon b> asphyxiated. We were fa-t losing consciousness when a hio'Z" spr.ing up from the an 1 saved our lives. It saved Mm po Vi rt, ' When I regained my feet I looked towards St Pierre whioh, you know, lay in a hollow place at the fo ,t ot the mountain. As I looked there was a blinding fia-.li of fire, and in a moment the whole beautiful city was in names. Tue fl>mie seemed to travel like lightning over the city from north to south. But it was n t lightning. It looked as if the black cloud from the mountain had b^en ignited as soon ab it reached the city. Saw Cathedral Burning. 1 Every building in th * cay seemed to be on fiie at once. 1 b<iw flimes leaping from tno cathedral. Walls were toppling and falling. As I l"okod up m the de-ittucti< n I s-to d Juhi, mated Rd dazed. The hui;nin mmd coui-i not Kri y t> the tu'l import o f the impressions b< ing itu iwd through the oyc .s. X tones ot gri-at <-\zv continued to Kill asoui.ii us ior afi w miuut- s, aii i liiuJJy only ashes and sand a' d dn-^r. 'All this l.wte 1 but a few moments. It could not have been more than twelve or fiiteen, if that long, in that time the entire

forest cloak of the mountain had been withered to dast and the sky was lurid with the glare of the burning city. Otherwise midnight riarknefs would have prevailed, so dense were the vaporß and dust in the sky.' This is the story of the cataclysm by an eye-witness. It agrees with the theories advanced by scientists as to the, character of the phenomena. Pelee is not yet in a condition to allow of marj, however learned, to penetrate the mysteries of her bosom. According to the eminent experts with whom I have talked, however, the dominant fact that stands out in the whole story of detruction is that St. Pierre was built on a site that invited ruin. The city was built, on a ledge of ground extending for a distance, north and pouth, rf about two miles, between the sea on one side and a bluff that roue almost straight up on the other. At the northern end of the city the houspp. scattered on to a plain at Pelee's base ; it ran then south of it between the bluff and sea to the precipitous sides of the great hill called Morne d' Orange on the south. There were singularly few streets running longitudinally. This city, therefore, presented a veritable gully, and when at last P. lee's breath was blown, it found 30,000 penned in a cul de sac from which escape was impossible. The condition of the debris, the falling of th- walls in one direction, the burning of the trees more on one side than on the o her, led to the conclusion, according to Professor Jagger, with whom I explored the ruins, that the havoo was wrought by an explosive volcanic tornado.