The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1868-11-21
Especial Correspondence Of The crisis.1
SOUTH AMERICA PHENOMENA.
A BRILLIANT DESCRIPTIVE LETTER.
AnleA. PEnu, Sept, Is, 1863.

|
When promised, few weeks since, tc
write you from the sunny lands Of the trOp.
| les, hoped to have sent pleasant pen photo.
graphs Of the southwest coast, and to have
led you with rue among the orange groves,
To look upon the people Of Peru as they are,
courteous, hospitable and kind TO the stran.
ger. But had scarcely arrived within her
boundaries when that terrible conyulsion oc-
Cured, which has shaken thc Pacific coast
for over three thousand miles, and obliterat.
cd towns, provinces and communities forever
from the face Of the earth. The general
features Of the catastrophe have doubtless
appeared too often in the American press 70
need present repetition. A more vivid idea
Of tho action Of tho earthquake will.
perhaps, be formed from q sketch of it's re.
suits rs they here present themselves in ali
their fearful reality.
Arica was the most attractive city Of the
whole Peruvian coast. Riyulets Of pure wa.
ter flowed through its streets its northern
boundary was mass of foliage, where the
strange bnt delicious fruits Of the tropics
grew in profusion, and the traveller, either
from south or north, was wont to bear with
him pleasant memories OF q scene 30 much
in contrast with the barren and rock bound
coast on either hand. To the south, imposing
and majestic, rose the MORO, huge cliff, q
thousand feet in height, crowned by bat
terry, and at whose foot sleep the mummied
Incas Of an age long past. The railroad to
Iacua skirted the bay, handsome Custom
House Of stone and iron fron,ed the mole,
aud being the entrepot OF the south Of Peru
and Of the bay Of Bolivia, there were every.
where evidences Of busy trade, wealth and
| refinement.
But swift and sudden doom was hang.
ing, like the sword Of Damocles, over the
unconscious city. At little after five. on
tho afternoon Of August 23rd, the solid earth
heayed aud shook like storm tossed vessel,
q roar deep and hoarse, as of subterrauean
thunder, was heard, and in the instinct OF
sclf-prescryoat in, the frightened inhabitants
fled to thc-streets and pIazas. The delay Of
a moment was fatal; for, torn from their
foundations, as though by giant hand,
houses, churches, factories, all went down in
one uudistinguishable mass Of ruin. The
huge pillars Vf the Custom House were toss.
ed about like pipe.stems, and fragments Of
stone and huge blocks Of masonry were hurl-
Cd like pebbles from q sling. Those who
could, fed to the sloping side Of the MORO,
stumbling and reeling like drunken men
upon the heaying surface Of the troubled
darkness multiplied the terror Of the panic
stricken fugiriyes. Some few, bolder than
the rcst, remained behind some to extricate
a loved one from the ruins some 20 save
some little from the general wreck but
soon roar, louder and hoarscr than that Of
the earthquake itself, was heard and the
sea, creuching, "a though tn make the leap
more deadly, retired from the ehore, and
laundering on in ono unbroken wave, forty
feet in height, dashed down upon the deyotr
ed city, and completed the annihilation Of
Arica. Seven times the waves retired
seven times they flung themselves, tiger
like, upon the uuresisting victim. The
earth still swayei TO and fro, and moaucd
Iike one In distress; and the houseIess.
homeless, dcsola,ed groups khelt shivcFing
fup0n the mountain. side, and with white
faces and quivering lips, prayed for mercy.
In tho haFbor were anchored the u. s. s.
Wnleree, the u. $. Storeship Fredonia,. the
Peruvian frigate America, and number of
merchant vessels Tossed like corks upon
a whirlpool, now stranded by the receding
wave, now borne swiftly forward upon its
crest, their situation was terrible, and made
ten.fold more so by the utter darkness that
soon shrouded the scene. The merchant
vessels were hurled upon the rocks and ut
tcrly destroyed-the Chanarcillo having
rolled over and over and wrapped around
her one hundred and twenty fathoms as upon
a spool. The America was crushed her spars
carried away, and n large portion of her of.
icers and crew swept into eternity. The
Fredonia, mOored stem and stern by four
anchors, resisted for some time the pressure
Of the elements, but finally was torn from
her uioorings and utterly destroyed, with
every soul on board.
The Wateree was commanded by brave and
cool officers, who took every precaution-
battened down the matches, secured the guns,
ran lines from every available point, assem-.
bled all hands on the hurricane deck, and
having done oil that human foresight could
suggest. calmly awaited the result. The
force and velocity Of the sea may be family
imagined from the fact that she was swept
along at from twenty five to thirty miles an
hour, dragging with her 100 fathoms Of chain
and her heaviest anchor. Seven times were
they CARRIED back and forth by the resistless
food, not unmindful, even in such moments
Of fearful peril, of the duties of humanity;
but gathering in to their hospitablc deck such
unfortunatcs as foated past in boats or on
fragments of wreck. The waters thundered
upon the crowded deck, but the precautions
taken were effectual and when the Wateree
finally settled gently upon the sand, and the
roll was called, not solitary one of her
complement was missing. She lies on an
even keel, her bow pointing seaward, her
taper niasts as upright as though she were
ut anchor, and her hull apparently uninjur.
ed her flag floats as saucily, and is hauled
down as punctually at sunset, as though she
were still formidable floating battery. But
her cruise is up she lies half q mile inland,
and will henceforth serve only as sorrowfnl
of the power of theselements.
The scene, as | rode slowly along the front
of the city, can better be imagined, from
what have said, than intelligently desert
bed For miles the beach is strewn with sad
of the catastrophe. Iron chests,
gun carriages. coaches, boxes of tea, masses
oftwisted track, maps, books, papers, broken
boats, furniture, anchors, &C., &C., were
mingled in widest confusion, while the angry
sea muttered threateningly, as though in
wrath at the remnants of prey snatched from
its remorseless grasp.
While, in such emergencies, the noblest
traits of mans character are at times
brought out, so are the darker features of
his disposition often thrown into promi-
nence. While the officers of the Wateree
were clothing the naked, feeding the hum
CRY, sheltering the homeless, helping the
wounded and burying the dead, troops of
human vultures were prowling among the
debris for plumber, occasionally scared from
their unholy work by the uncoyering ofsome
dead face. or the more Ineligible warming
of atcocked revolver. The very night Of the
ruin, while the waters were still in a state of
unrest, and the earth still sobbing, at inter
yals, like a fretful child, the glimmer of
lights upon the shore, and the sound of