Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1843-03-25
Mors of the Earthuuake.
MOro OF the Earthquake,
The New York Commercial Advertiser pub
fishes the following letter dated .. ...

Iolcs tue loIiOWllIS leiteT uuieu .
PolNr Au PErRE, Guadaloupe,
February II, 1919.
You will probably hear OF the dreadful ca
lamity which has befallen this city, before this
reaches you nevertheless | will give you
brief account of one of the most destructive
earthquakes which we have on record.
II commenced on the morning of the 9th, ten
minutes before eleven, with a tremendous rat
Ting noise in few seconds the earth began
to rock to and fro, having at the same time an
upward and downward motion then followed
the tumbiing of the buildings all over the city,
coming down with mighty crash, resembling
no noise ever heard in about thirty seconds
the city was in ruins. . r."
| A few hours after, fire broke out in various
parts of the city, and before the morning of n
mother day, had swept entirely over it, destroy
ing what remained after the earthquake. So
that nothing is to be seen but the broken walls
and a few old wooden buildings in the outskirts
of the town. 1t was called by many the hand
somest city in the West India islands. 1t con-
tanned population of $4,000 and the buildings
were Of stone, three and four stories high.
But the most awful thing to be described is
the loss of human lives, and the poor human
creatures who were taken from the ruins, mu-
tilated in every possible shape, which l will
not attempt. About 1900 were killed and
1,500 wounded, 800 of the latter suffering am
putation OF one or more of their limbs. The
public square was literally filled with the dy-
ing /; every vessel in the harbor has more or
less of them on board. The contents of the a
pothecarics' shops were destroyed, and the ply
sicians lost many OF their instruments in their
houses, so that it was many days before some
could be reached for amputation. The Govern.
or General from Basseterre arrived here the
next day, took up a French ship, put as many
OF the wounded on board as could be moved, and
sent them to the hospital at Bassaterre.
He ordered at once that no vessel shoulI
leave port without his permission, and the neX'
day put price upon ell the nccesSaries of life
that he who attempted to sell above that price
should be imprisoned. He despatched at once
before three day supply of provision came
Every vessel in the harbor was continually sur
rounded with persons begging for bread. The
port is now open. | cannot learn how long
this order is to last, but no charges on cargo o
vessel are now made since which have arri
/ we'd, the brig Eclipse, of Bath, and brig iroH
; Sandwich, which with the lumber in the yard
is sufficient for immediate supplies
/ On the 18th two French frigates. two brig
t of war, two schooners and a steamboat from
Martinique arrived with men, who at once Sc
themselves at work digging ont the dead, AM
I pulling down the broken walls which remain
! ed standing. There are 10 banks here and n
: particular place for the deposit of money, eac
D merchant having his iron safe. The circula
S tion here is doubloons, dollars and francs.
$ large amount of specie lies buried under III
/, rubbish and the first night while the fire wa
raging, no order was taken TO protect it, const
, quently large amounts were stolen.
: One lady lost from her safe one thousan
doubloons and a number lost less amounts br
the next morning strong military guard SUI
;. rounded the city, since which no theft had o,
: CURED. The store-houses and shops were we
filled with merchandise, no part of which wa
saved, so that the loss of property, independcr
h of buildings, is very great. 1t is said there
: not single instance where insurance was e
fected, and this has continued as practice it
many years. The Mouc, small place fiftee
miles from this, was laid in ruins and man
lives were lost Bassaterrc suffered somewha
but lost no lives. The probability is that Ant
gla, Monscrat, ST. Kits and Nevis have suffe
ed, as the earthquake took n. w. direction