The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-11
THE DESTRUCTION OF ST. PIERRE.


Notwithstanding the meagerness of
! details. enough is now known respect
ing the destruction of St. Pierre, Mar
Unique, to mark il one of the most
terrible disasters at least of modern
history. Indeed. it may be doubted II
even ancient history contains anything
to compare with it in suddenness and
loss of life. Probably the closest par
allel is the destruction of Pompeii, in
the year 20; but in the case of that city
the work of destruction covered three
days, while at st. Pierre death and de-
struction descended swiftly-it appears
within the space of a few hours. Pom
peii was overwhelmed by an eruption
of Vesuvius; St. Pierre was destroyed
by an explosion of Mont Pele. One
Of the few surviving witnesses of the
catastrophe says that the volcano "ex-
ploded. and the fire from it swept the
whole town" destroying the buildings,
the people and the shipping in the har-
Dor. There was no time for the people
TO save themselves. A storm of fire
descended upon them, and they were
consumed.
The loss of life is variously esti-
mated at from $4,000 to 10000 souls,
Not only was st. Pierre destroyed. but
the country for four miles around it
was devastated. No living thing was
left under that hail of death. There
were many refugees from Pompeii, but
so far as the information goes there
were few or none from St. Pierre, and
there are reasons for thinking
that the fatalities of this twentieth
century Pompeii far surpass those of
its first century prototype. Survivors
of the disaster who were on a ship
in the harbor describe the scene as
being "glimpses of hell, beggaring de-
scription." 1t is easy enough to be-
lieve the statement Language fails
when it comes to conveying an ade-
quate idea of the horror of 10000 per-
sons perishing in their homes and in
their streets by a deluge of fire and
lava and boiling mud poured upon
their unsuspecting heads. Mont Pele
has previously been in eruption, but
never before has it done serious dam
age or given any sign that it contain
ed within it's bosom the frightful pos
sibilities of last Thursday.
The islands of the Lesser Antilles
extend in a semi-circle from Porto
Rico to a point off the coast of Vene-
zuela. Martinique occupies a position
about the center of the half circle. 1t
is about 800 miles from the Venezuelan
coast and about $50 miles from the
Danish islands that have recently been
purchased by the United States. 1t
is of volcanic origin, and some of it's
mountains rise to a hight of more
than 1000 feet above sea level The
island is forty-three miles long with
an average width of about fifteen
miles. The population of the island
is estimated at approximately 100000,
with about 1900 whites. Sugar cane
is the staple crop. and the chief ex-
ports are sugar, molasses and rum.
Slavery was abolished in Martinique
in 1S4S, since which time the planta-
tons have been cultivated with free
labor. Coolies form a considerable
part of the labor element. The export
trade of the island amounts to some
&,500,OOO a year and the import trade
to about the same figure, the larger
part of which trade was transacted
through the port of st. Pierre
Historically st. Pierre will always
be associated with the name of the
Empress Josephine. There she was
born, educated and reared to beautiful
young womanhood, and it was from
the port of st. Pierre that she sailed
to France, where fate had decreed she
was to play such a dramatic and pitt
able part.