The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-09-06
THE HORRORS OF HADES.

THE HORRORS OF HADES.
The Sea Converted into a Boiling
CauldrOn and the Land Flooded
With LaVa.-ThOusands of Lives
LOst-COfiee, Rice, Sugar, IndIgO
and Tobacco Crops Destroyed.
Special by Cable to the st. Louis Republican.
LONDON, August 2S, 10:30 p. H.
The latest adviceS from Batavia, the
capital of Java, show that the Volcan-
ic eruptionS in that island are much
more serious than at first indicated.
The disturbances began in the island
of Krakatoo in the straight of Sundra,
about fifteen miles off the coast of
Java. The deep rumblings were dis
tlnctly audible at Surakerta and Ba-
tavia, about forty-five and twenty-five
miles off, respectively. Little alarm
was felt at first, but within few
hours showers of stones began to fall
at Jakjokerta. Surabaya and Zerang.
All through the night showers of red
hot rocks and ashes fell, making COM
| plete darkness in all these towns.
In Batavia there was an occasional
fall, and it was difficult to keep the
street lights burning in the European
quarter. By the next morning all
communication with AMER was cut
off, all bridges having been destroyed
by the descending rocks and ashes,
and the road rendered impossible. The
first eruptions were on Saturday
night. On Sunday morning the dis
turbances had extended beneath the
waters of the strait. and they were
soon boiling and kissing violently,
while great waves dashed upon the
Japanese shores, and the temperature
of the sea went up nearly twenty de-
grees. Even as far away from the
original point of disturbance as Ma
deira, the furious waves were lashed
into mountains of foam as they came
rolling in. The threatening rumblings
gradually became more and more dis
tinct, and by noon the Maha Meru, the
largest of the volcanoes of Java, was
belching forth flames at very
alarming rate. This eruption soon
spread to the Cunning Tengger-the
crater of which is the largest in the
ameter = the Cunning Guntun, and
many other minor mountains, until
more than third of the forty-five era
terS of Java were either in active erup-
tion or seriously threatening it. Just
before dark great luminous cloud
formed over the Cunning Guntup, and
the crater of the volcano began to
vomit up enormous streams of white
acid and sulphurous mud, besides
smaller quantities of lava. There were
rapidly successive explosions, followed
by tremendous showers of cinders
and enormous fragments which
were hurled high into the air and
scattered upon the valley be-
low, carrying death and destruction.
With these terrible eruptions came
sympathetic demonstrations from the
sea. The overhanging clouds were so
surcharged with electricity that at
one time over fifteen huge water
SpOutS were seen. These have con-
tinued at somewhat long intervals
ever since. Men, women and children
rushed in terror from their tottering
dwellings and places, filling the air
with their shrieks of horror. Hun
dreds were unable to get out before
the houses fell, and were buried be-
meath the great masses of rocks and
mud which were piled up where few
hours before all had been peace, hap
R4ilCOC anu Il-1C1CQ OCCuIlOJs
The Gun ing Tengger has not had
eruption before since the year 1900,
when an extent of land seventeen
miles long and seven broad was COM
pletelY covered with the
WHIIE Z sULPHUROUs MUD.
so peculiar 20 the eruptions of Java.
The peak of Cunning Tengger is 60O0
feet high, and the monument of flame
on top of this made a scene of very
impressive grandeur. Every moment
huge bowlder of white heat would
be hurled from Tengger's crater with
terrific force, and after going hun
dreds of feet into the air would fall
back with whirl, perhaps crashing
through the patched roof of
some Chinese fisherman's hut, or
crush beneath its huge mass the form
of some native peasant. Tissue after
tissue appeared in the side of the
mountains, and here and there in the
valleys there came great yawning
chasm. On the elevated plains of
Kediri and Bandong the showers of
stones, mud and lava were not so fire.
quent as in the lower portions of the
island, but were still quite deStruct-
I've. Much of the northern portion of
the island, which was covered with
tracts of forests, was soon in one great
blaze of flame.
The red hot vomits from the crater
had set the trees on fire, and as the
giants of the woods fell one after an
other, like so many sheaveS of wheat
before gale, the scene was one of
awful grandeur. AS the eruption in
creased in frequency and violence the
disturbance OF the waters surrounding
the barren coast became more and
more violent. Here the waves rushed
in terrific force up the steep, rocky in
cline, breaking upon the over-hanging
crags and receding rapidly, leaving
lava flow cooled just at the moment
when it was about to fall over a prec-
ipice, and there remaining, quickly
hardened by contact with the waters,
forming distinct strata Of black and
bright red, purple and brown lava, all
thrown about in the most eccentric
shapes, while huge peaks of basalt
rose at frequent intervals.
Then the waves came whelming
over a marshy plain along the shore
suddenly engulfng hamlet of fisher
mems rude houses. and, turning sud-
denly back, swept away almost every
vestige of what had a moment before
been a scene of bustling activity,
where family after family had been
watching around in the vain endeavor
to save their effects and get away
with their lives from the awful COM
bination of the elements threatening
them. What a few hours before
were fertile valleys covered with
flourishing plantations Of coffee and
rice, sugar, indigo or tobacco, the
staples of the island, were soon but
mud, stone and lava-covered fields Of
destruction and ruin. Probably not a
single crop in Java will be saved.
At the entrance to Batavia was a
large group of houses extending along
the shore and occupied by Cinnamon.
This portion of the city was entirely
swept away, and of the 2500 Chinese
who lived on this swampy plain it is
hardly probable that more than 800
escaped. They stuck to their houses
till the waves that washed them away
came, fearing the torrents of the
flames and lava of the interior more
than the terror of water from the ex-
terror. The population of Europeans
and Americans in Batavia suffered a
loss of perhaps 800 souls out of the
$500 whites living there. Many of
the bazaars in the higher portions of
i the city were demolished, and it is i'm