Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-04-15
EARTHQUAKES IN
I'd 970Y THE NEOLUCCASom esrT
Forty Thousand lives Lost
from the German Review das AusIand,l

tFrom the German Review das Auslsnd,l H.,
j. The 18th of November, 1861, will, long be
remembered by the inhabitants of Ternate,
who, since the year 1S4l, did not experience,
such fearful eruption of. the, volcano, as
that which happened on this and the fol-
lowing day. About / o'clock we heard a
subterrapean noise accompanied by sever
al shocks of an earthquake rapidly follow
iHgteaeh other. but not lasting longer than
three or four seconds. Being accustomed
to such phenomena i did not take any nos
tice of them, and INDUCED, as usual, in my
afternoon, siesta, when Twas aroused in the
most disagreeable manner. At 3 O'Clock
there followed, in rapid succession, such
violent shocks that their noise can be COM
paTed only with the laundering of heavy
battery on board a man-of-war. Fright
ened to the utmost degree, / jumped from
my couch ), 9 sultry and oppressive atmos-
pheEe filled the room, which had become
almost as dark as is the night, l,afs..,s 4.Ift
When looked through the window /
perceived that, the grass before the house
bad disappeared under a heap of ashes and
stones, which still were coming down in
great masses, / quickly dressed myself,
and under the cover of the corridor re-
paired to the ,neighboring, barracks, where
I ordered the soldiers-fortunately most of
them were Japanese, who are not as easily
frightened by such occurrences as Europe
aps--to take their ranks and to march off to
the subterranean -casemates, which afforded
safer shelter against the rain of ashes and
stones than the light roof of the palm tree
leaves wherewith the barracks were cover
ed, But here the heat became soon suffoeat-
ing on account of the sulphurous, exhalar
tions,and within less than half an hour the
ground was covered with ashes to the depth
of two and q half feet, so that already re-
signed myself to be buried alive, under
them, like the unfortunate Inhabitants of
POmpen and Herculaneum. My. Japanese
spldiers-who, happily, were not acquaint-
ed with the fate of those ancient ,cities-in
consequence of their Mohammedanl fatal
ism, kept their eountenances, squatting on
the ground, their arms in their hands. and
constantly murmuring; :, g Allab ii. Allah J
Maltonarned rdsal Allah { !. q 9-5lfk44. ajT
roNoWi twas no longer possible to dis
tinguish whether it was daytime or night !;
it was, really a fearful situation. Besides
the anxiety natural to such circumstances,
we were all of US tormented by the most
violent thirst, AT last, about half past II
A. NJ, we again perceived the stars in the
sky, which had cleared up, and leaving our
sheltered place we again breathed the fresh
air. 1fF,i1 bgf!it aift Erar ,ts5 .e..f.,.tr,s
Although it was still night, we could OBJ
serve that the ground was covered with
ashes about five to five and a half feet, the
roof of the barracks had given away, and
all the branches of the trees were torn off.
But it was only with the rising sun that the
complete spectacle of death and destrue-
tion presented itself before our eyes. i In the
campongs (tarmS) men and animals had
perished, and the houses 4crumbled down
In an eastern direction came flowing down
out of the crater of the volcano a stream OF
burning lava, destroying Whatever it met
| in its way, Eighty lives had fallen victims
of this fearful earthquake and eruption,
| On the 29th, in a southwestern direction
fhnV tor ioI1 fo1 fa.,
kseconds. From the bastion of the fortress
| we saw, between. the islands Tidor. Ter
4 nate and Badjan, the sea in most fearful
commotion; at 6 o'clock p. NJ. it rose &c
such, a height that our fort, which is twenty
| feet above the highest elevation OF the
water, was entirely inundated. $50 sl.. "
On the nextfday,5a a schooner brought tht
news that, on the 2Sth, in the island o.
| Makian, belonging also to the GROUP
Of the Moluccas, not far from Ter,
nate, the volcano had completely burst
| asunder and buried the whole islant
with all its Inhabitants. II Immediately
our com pander, together, with! the pres
ident and myself, determined to take OF
board of the steamer gBethee, which was al
our disposition, some of the soldiers, and e
sail there in order, If possible, TO bring them
some suecors, and to carry back q small
+ post stationed there. But all in vain
such a complete destruction Cof all .yege
table and animal life, without any excep
.tion, as on that doomed island, was never
known, even. in. the zones, where destruc
Efon by earthquakes and other Yolcanil
eruptions is a common occurrence. Th'
/ ever active volcano on .Makian had com
pletely burst, as if severed by mine, anC
covered the whole island with its fiery mass
so that not even a trace of vegetation, o
any building, or of any living creature wa
!, to- be found there; 10000 men, had beeI
+ buried under the ruins of this fer.