The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-03 00:00:00

DREADFUL EARTHQUAKE AT

MARTINIQUE.

(From the Castries Palladium.)
ST. PIERRE, JAN. 15.
On the 11th inst., at 50 minutes past five o'clock in
the morning, our colony was visited by a violent earth-
quake, such as, in the memory of man, was never known
in these countries. It lasted from 33 to 40 seconds, and
this brief space of time sufficed to occasion irreparable
damage. Three shocks, the violence of which increased
successively, were felt from south to north, east to west,
and then up and down. This trembling motion was
particularly felt on board the ships in the harbour, and
by people in the country, who saw the earth spring up
around them as if it had been hurled in the air. During
the previous night there had been some showers of rain,
and the temperature, which had been hot for several
days, was pretty cool. The horizon was foggy and
dark, and the weather calm, when the earthquake hap-
pened.
The town of St. Pierre has suffered considerably,
more particularly in the Mouillage quarter, from la
Rue Lucy to the market-place. Several houses have
been thrown down, and alt, with two or three excep-
tions, cracked from top to bottom in different places.
All the walls are thrown from their plomb ; the key-
stones of the window and door arches have given way.
The belfry of Alouillage, built of cut stones only a few
years ago, is in such a state that it must be demolished.
The houses in the Rue Toraille have particularly suf-
fered it will be necessary to rebuild nearly the whole
of them. Two women have been crushed under the
ruins of their houses, and three other persons seriously
wounded.

Amidst the general stupor, a lively anxety reigned
for the fate of Fort Royal, which is built upon an allu-
vial and fragile ground. At half-past nine o'clock
the first tidings were received ; it was frightful, although
far below the reality.
Fort Royal exists no longer. All the public build-
ings are levelled to the ground. Not a single house
built of mason work is left standing, and those
of wood adjacent to walls had been crushed by
the faking of the latter. The town presents a
most deplorable aspect ; and however exaggerated may
seem the reports which have been given, they are never-
theless below the fact. The imagination vainly studies
to create a picture so frightful. We will confine our-
selves to a few particulars that may enable our readers
to conceive the state of this unfortunate town, The
new hospital, the finest edifice of the Antilles, the con-
struction of which, scarcely completed, has cost the
colony more than 300,000 E, is entirely smashed down
to the level of the soil, burying in its ruins 45 patients,
as well as one of the sisters (Sister Aurt lie) ; she was
taken out from beneath the rubbish, in about five hours,
alive, but with an arm and leg broken, and with numer-
ous contusions. The buildings of the old hospital have
been in like manner overthrown ; the walls of two halls
on the ground floor only have resisted, but they are
split, an separated more than eight inches apart ; a
walk is established therein. All the walled enclosure of
the hospital, as also the aqueduct by which the establish-
ment and the town are supplied with water, have
been thrown to the ground. The iron gratings of the
hospital have b:!en rooted from the pillars of cut stone
in which they Lad been fixed, and hurled about six feet
from the place. The treasurer's office, built about
three months, is totally overthrown. The prisons are
shaken ; at the old gaol six prisoners have been crushed
to death, and nine wounded.
The office of the Ordonnateur is equally in ruins.
The church, the walls of which, three feet thick, were
supported at every 12 feet by pillars, is sundered in
every sense, and must be rebuilt.
On the 13th Divine Service was celebrated on the
savanna, amidst the tents in which the populace have
encamped.

The barracks of the gendarmerie, the Procureur-
General's Office, the Royal Court, Court of First In-
stance, the Registrar's Office, the Colonial Council
Chambers, the old naval stores, and the Abattoir, have
all been crushed from top to bottom. The arsenal, the
barracks of the artillery, the old general magazine, and
the navy arsenal, have been in part destroyed ; the walls
that are left standing are dreadfully mutilated. The
Government House was not spared. The Governor,
as well as his family, were at Bellevue, which residence
has also been greatly injured.
From the disasters sustained by the public buildings,
built with a solidity above description, a faint idea may
be formed of the fate of other properties. We have
already said that not one house of mason work has
withstood the shock. The streets are choked with
three or four feet depth of rubbish and ruins, and it is
not without danger they are walked along. The Go-
vernment printing-office and the theatre have been also
swallowed beneath the ruins of the buildings, which
were considered the most solid fabrics. These losses
are incalculable ; but there remain yet those of greater
weight and more painful nature. Numerous victims
have been buried under the ruins ; and the number of
wounded is immense. As to deaths, they are dis-
covered every day under the ruins. On the 11th, 186
were interred in the burial place of the town only ; the
bodies are conveyed by cartloads. Nothing can be more
heart-rending than to see the people, bathed in tears, ar-
resting at every step the progress of these carriages of
death, to deposit the corpse of a mother, child, or friend.
Those that have been spared by the calamity, not
content with gathering the wounded, press on with nap-
kins to bury the dead. It was particularly remarked—
and we like to publish it—that the Demoiselles Fran-
coise and Occuline were engaged in cutting and distri-
buting from their shop pieces of perfectly new linen for
this pious purpose.
On the 12th there were already counted, in the hos-
pital and in the town, 273 dead ; and we learn that on
the 13th this number augmented to 387, and that was
not all.

The name of M. Bruneau, clerk of the navy, is in-
cluded in the number of the victims. Mme. Carbounel,
wife of the Inspecteur Colonial ; the family of M. Fiquet,
fits ; M. Lafont the younger, merchant, who had his
thighs and a leg broken, died on the 12th. M. Achard,
apothecary in chief of the navy, had both his thighs
broken, with numerous contusions ; he is expected to
recover. Mlle. Achard has had a thigh crushed in two
places ; she had remained two hours under the ruins.
Mme. Tiberge has been seriously wounded, and her
state excites great fears.