Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1872-05-08
EARTHQUAKE.
A POpuIous Philippine Island
shaken TO Pieces

Mails from Madrid bring the news o
the destruction by an earthquake of th,
town Of Cottabato, capital Of the Spanish
East Indian island Of Mindanao. Tn,
following is from letter of residen
of the town:
At ten minutes past six in the after
noon of December 8, Cottabato was {
joyous place. At twenty minutes pas
six--that is to say, within ten minutes
it was heap of ruins. A fearful bu
short trembling of the earth, of an in
tensity unknown to the Philippines, de
stroyed in one moment the industry o.
years The Asubterranean rumbline
which preceded it, the noise of hundreds
of houses falling, the horrible spectacle
OF the earth waving, as if il were a
| liquid, and the sad conviction that no one
could fly, for the place is situated in a
delta, inspired terrors in the inhabitants
utterly impossible to describe. The
open fields, the trees and the hillocks
served as q dangerous lodging place for
the natives. A pitiless rainstorm was
falling, accompanied by lightning and
shaking of the ground. The accidents
would have been great but for the seren-
ity of the garrison-due to their mill
tary discipline-so useful in such cases
After attending to the invalids of the
hospital, which fell down, they in twenty
minutes covered the fields with hundreds
Of tents, under which they and the peo-
pie took shelter. By this means the cas-
ualties were limited to sundry persons
confused and one boy killed.
The night was awful through the con-
slant oscillations of the earth. Fright
ful confusion reigned, augmented by the
idea which ran through the populace
that the surrounding hills might be con-
verted into volcanoes, as happened not
many months ago in a neighboring
island. At midnight the rain ceased,
and then commenced the moving spec
tacle of an entire population on the
march, traversing over ruins, chanting a
fervent litany; the European confounded
with the native, the master with the SER
want, the officer with the soldier.
Next morning 9th, which may be
said to have been continuation of the
previous night, commenced with fog
so great. that it was hardly possible to
see anything ahead. This caused fears
of fresh misfortunes. AT halfpast seven
the earth, as if moved by the hand of a
giant, became more agitated than it was
the previous night. The aspect all
around was desolating; the ruins seemed
to boil, the still standing walls fell down,
and lamentation, crying and praying
completed the most affecting picture that
could be conceived.
The earthquake presented the singu-
lar phenomenon of being repeated six
times. Fearing general caving in of
the ground, the navy, represented on this
occasion by.two gunboats in the river,
offered to convey on board as many as
they could carry. The Governor, Briga-
dier Fernandez de Cordova, ordered the
embarkation of as many females as pos
sible. His wife and other ladies offered
the brave spectacle of refusing to leave
theft husbands on shore. One afflicted
mother of two young cadets clung to
them so closely that force had to be used
to separate her and to carry her on
board
Fortunately the tremblings at last
ceased; but every hour we felt some
slight rumbling, from which l gather
that the subterranean gasses had not
found means of escape through any
of the numerous extinct volcanoes in
the Deighborhood The risk and uncer-
tainty, which the authorities tried in
vain to hide by music and TIE Deums,
spread CONSERVATION to all the inhabit-
ants of this unhappy land The native
Indians fed in canoes and RATS, but the
garrison, with an abnegation and pa
triotism worthy of all praise, remained
true to their posts, determined to sink
with this piece of earth gained at the
cost of Spanish blood, rather than aban-
don it to the thousands of savages who,
from the opposite banks, waited an op-
portunity for seizing on this important
place. lLl 4.fI
a.-0-