The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-05-18
ST. VINCENT's HORROR.
Conditions i'm the Carib Country,
Where Many Persons Perished.

JAMESTOWN, Island of st. Vincent. May
1Z.-In the absence of symptoms of further
eruptions Of the volcano of Souffriere, the
inhabitants of st. Vincent are gradually
becoming settled.
Most horrifying details of the condition Of
the Carib country, where thousands of
cattle and human corpses lay in a state of
decomposition for several days during the
agitation, are revealed. Although the num-
Der of deaths in the island, owing to the
disaster is estimated, judging from the
missing inhabitants, at 1900, up to the night
of May 10 only 1.26S bodies had been buried.
The undiscovered bodies probably are COW
cred with lava. In a small shop which
was opened three days after the eruption,
eighty-seven decaying corpses were dis
covered, and not one of them was recog-
nizable. In the dwelling house of the
manager of one of the estates thirty
corpses were found in a similar condi-
ton, and other sickening discoveries have
been made. The district is being rapidly
cleared. A number of patients have been
brought TO this city. AS many are suffer
ing from fractured skulls, caused by the
stones thrown from the volcano, and a
majority of them were burned by the lava
thrown up with the vapor.
Towards evening yesterday there was a
SllSDl CONFUSION, IOllOWeQ DN a small QlS-
charge of smoke, but this caused no alarm.
The weather is fine, and the excitement
IS abating. The bed of lava in the wind
ward district is still hot. The abyss, fifteen
hundred feet deep and two hundred feet
wide, which existed between Langley Park
and Rabacci, is filed will lava, and the
physical features Of the mountain on either
side are apparently more beautiful than
before the eruption. A curious circum-
stance connected with the eruption is that
the earthquakes were not general. not
withstanding the smallness of the island.
While at Chateau Belair the commissions
preceding the eruption Of May 7 were al
most continuous every few hours, in Kings
town and Georgetown only sixty shocks
were felt in four hours.
Although attended with smaller loss of
life, the eruption of La Soufriere was not
less violent than that Of Mont Pelee in the
Island of Martinique. The area covered
by lava here comprises sixteen square
miles. The fact that the loss of life and
damage 10 property in ST. Vincent were
position of La Souffriere and the smaller
population of the district, the mountain
overhanging sugar and arrow root estates
and a couple Of thinly populated villages,
whose inhabitants were given warning of
the approaching disaster and fed for their
lives. All the villagers who remained were
killed.
The officials of St. Vincent are busy re-
lieving the sufferers and housing the sick
and homeless. The problem now facing the
government is how TO provide permanently
for the natives who lost houses, lands and
everything they possessed. Peasant settle
ments may be formed on the estates. the
lands Of which the government possesses
the legal machinery TO appropriate, but
money is needed TO assist the settlers 10
build houses thereon and TO provide them
with ~sustenance during the cultivation of
their lands.