The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-05-21 00:00:00

THE EAST.

PARIi, I.IAY 17.

The Paris papers publish the following telegram,
dsted Constantinople, May 16 :
(neer Psoha left to-day for Kostendje, bearer of a
conciliatory .proclamation, promising a reduction of
the tares Ind a remission of all arrears.
It further grants the right of free Mwstion of the
municipal councillors.
The Chriatians are to be allowed behave bells on
thew churches.

The international commissioners arrived here
yesterday.
A grakt fall has token phoe in the value of money.

THE: BAETHQUAIII AT MINDOZA:
MIMS THOOSAXII urn LOS? I
We have 'now received hall Inicemalkai at gie total
destruction, on Marais 90, by earthquithe.ol 000: U
am throe, populous cities of the Argentine repub
:lamely, Mender, ilea Jana, semi gee I,il. The tenser
14i certainly been destroyed, sad very how of its pmulit-
two of 15,0111 seats have escaped to tell the timirM tale.
The Dees wice mot by telegraph le Vag:anise, sad was
continued by tbe eabeequaal mini of • mail owner
how UN olte •

The latter stated that be arrived at Mendes& on tke
morning of the 20th ;that at half•past eight p.m. a brief
but excessively violent shock of mathepiake, lasting bit
six or eight seconds, destroyed every building, public
and private, in the city, and that the number who were
enabled to escape was very limited. The streets being
narrow, the buildings high, and the inhabitants totally
unused to surh phenomena, were paralysed with terror,
and nezlected to seek refuge in the open courts of their
dwellings until too late. The post master was
buried beneath Oil reins of the post-offlee, the governor
was missing ; and, when asked why he brouzlit no
certificate that the mails werelost, the messenger replied,
"There was no one left to writ* it, nor materials to
write with."

The aspect presented by the city after the first shook
was terrific. Hoarse subterranean thunders deafened
the air, animals of all kind.' rushed frantically through
the open !paces howling, thi earth opened and vomited
forth floods of water, while, To crown the *cone of horror
limes bunt from U e ruins and ounrunied nearly the
entire beanies* portion of the city, with its dead, its
dying, and its wounded. . . .

-Oribe 2fith a number of letters were received at
Valparaiso and at Santiago, by relatives and friends of
Chileans residing in Mendoza, bnt the hope until then
entertained, that the earlier accounts were exaggerated,
soon gave way to the dreadful certainty that the cala-
mity had not yet been painted in colones sufficienti)
livid. The earth still continued to tremble, the few
walls that had resisted the Bret shock one by one fell.
until now no vestige of a building remains. The moun-
tain roads are in a moat danger us condition, not wily
on account of the liege matte* of rock that have already
fallen and obstructed the oml, hnt,bratuse the vibration
of the earth is still hurling them down frotu the heights
above into the valleys. .

The !meeker, or waives of the surrounding country
hastened to the spot, not to aasiNt the needy or aid in
rescuing the wounded from A lingering death, but to
seek for plunder among the smoking ruins, and to snatch
the little saved from the wretched survivors. One
gentleman writing from thence, after describing these
horrors, says :—" I believe that in • few days we shall
have no other law here than that of the poignard."
The prison was destroyed: out of 100 inmates 94
perished. The remaining eight, who were already
hardened villains, formed themselves into • band of
freebooters, and had gone, it was supposed, to the
mountain passes, to intereept and rob the parties sent
frees Chill for the relief of the sufferers One woman
Tea found robbed and murdered by the roadside. She
was reeognized as one who was on her way to Mendoza
to Nee her family. They too had all perished on the

In the Jesuit clinrch there was preaching that night.
The services had just concluded, and the congregation
was about dispersing, when the shock came. The few
who had reached the pima were saved, but the walls
and roof of the building fell forward with a crash, and
priest end penitent together wens hurried into
eternity.
The latest advices from Mendes' represent the suffer.
leg to be extreme, there being neither food, clothing,
nor shelter for the survivors, everything being buried
beneath the ruins. They also state that San Juan and
San Luis, two other populous cities of the Confedera-
tion. have shared • like fate, the San Jean river
having, after the shook, left its bed, and swept over the
town, utterly destroying what the earthquake had
spared. This news is not, however, fully confirmed.
As soon as the disasterous news was rendered beyond
question, the government and private individuals vied
with one another in energetic efforts to send immediate
relief to their suflering brethren. Without waiting for
the completion of the work, on the 30th a party of
physicians and others left for the scene of the disaster,
bearing medicines, food, and clothing, and accompanied
by • email hotly of troops.
The gloom and terror spread throughout the republic
of Chili by this awful calamity may be imagined.
"Situated upon an eminently yeleanic region," says a
letter from N alparaiso, "we have constant evidence of
the insecurity of our tenure of existence. Separated
but by • (lain of mountains from the scene of des-
truction, and taught by sad experienoe the frightful
and Irresistible forme of the unheralded earthstorm, we
retire each night with • feeling of terrible innticurity.
the coast has been freqaeutly visited in pest years by
earthquakes. Chillan has been twice destroyed; Coo.
cepcion once ; while Valparaiso, Santiago, and Copiapo
have suffered severely. No amount of human foresight,
no precaution avails against the mysterious visitor,
who comes at dawn, at noonday, or at midnight, and,
in a few seconds, levels to the ground the proudest
monuments of human skill."