Gilpin observer., 1902-05-15

thet came to our rescue. We werej
then building a raft"
From the italian ship Teresa Low.
60 several men were saved, but they
are in a frightful state except Jean
| Prudent OF ST. Pierre. Although on
deck and unprotected he was little
burned. Prudent says there was an
awful noise of explosion and right
away a cyclone of smoke ard fire,
but such was the poisonous, choking
nature of the smoke that it burned
worse than the fire. When it struck
people they fell dead. The cyclone
OF gas tore the masts out of ships,
blow others up and sunk some of
them. Soon afterwards, came wave
Of fire bigger than the smoke cloud,
THAT cloud" continued Prudent.
was bigger, it seemed, than the noun
tain. The fire burned nearly every
where a y. e. Near me l saw only
dead ma ; 5ut on shore l saw men
and wc1 = rushing back and forth
amid the flames for an hour They
would rot run long. Then came that
choking smoke and they would drop
like dead flies. The explosion, smoke.
and fire all came and went in three
minutes, but The city burned fer three
hours. Then every house was finished
and nothing alive was left. At no
time were there any earthquakes, but
big stones were rained down and fire
fell like rain for long time
In a separate part of the hospital
were found several persons saved
from Carbet village, four miles from
st. Pierre. The village of Urine,
south of st. Pierre, was almost entire
ly burned and almost all the inhabi-
tants were killed. One of the sur
vivors Of Urine, who will die, says the
sea, boiling hot, invaded the land
Six women, whose bodies are one solid
burn, are writhing in another ward
of the hospital. Ten women severely
burned from Urine were brought in
and four of them have died. It is
doubtful If any Of the six still alive
can recover. An evidence of the swift
ness Of the onslaught of fire is found
in the fact that none of the victims
was blinded. although the eyelids OF
most of them are nearly burned
through. All those saved, except the
engineers OF the Roraima, are poor
sailors and Martinique negroes. No
one knows how the passengers OF
the steamers perished.
Three hours exploration of the
ruins of st. Pierre resulted in the find
ing of no trace of the American con-
sulate. Consul Thomas T. Prentis.
his wife and two daughters are un-
doubtedly dead. That quarter of the
city is still vast mass of blazing
! ruins.
The coast villages near ST. Pierre
were destroyed with that town. The
entire island up to a few miles of
Fort de France is covered with mud
and ashes. The cattle are all either
dead or dying. The streams are all
drying up. Thousands of persons are
hocking to Fort de France. Unless
relief is promptly sent famine is i'm
minent.
The steamer Solent brought awful
news from the British island of ST.
Vincent. May and volcano there.
the Sonfriere, broke into violent erup-
ton. Mud. ashes and stones were
hurled into Kingston. the capital of the
| island, and over the country. From
the. meager reports obtained here it
is said 900 deaths occurred in st. Vim
cent up to Friday. The volcanic
detonations were distinctly heard In
Barbados. 100 miles away. and the
fall of ashes there was so heavy that
it resulted in intense darkness for
| several hours.