Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1901-1906, 1902-05-16
MARTINIQUEs VOLCANIC HORROR.
Entirely Wrecked-700 Dead on st. Vincent
Island by an Eruption Of La Soufriere.

About $4,000 Persons Killed and St, Pierre
Entirely Wrecked-7OO Dead on st. Vincent
Island by an Eruption of La soufriere.
1t is now generally admitted that
about 30, 600 persons lost their lives as
result of the outbreak of Mont Pelet
at St Pierre, Martinique, Thursday.
Briefly put, Thursday morning the city
of st. Pierre disappeared within ter
minutes in a whirling cyclone of fire
vomited from Mont Pelee, 10000 per.
sons were instantly and horribly killed,
and the volcano, whose ancient crater
had been occupied by a quiet lake in
which picnic parties bathed, suddenly
discharged a torrent of fiery mud,
which rolled toward the sea, engulfing
everything before it. The American
consul at Guadeloupe, Louis II. Ayme,
has reached the desolote spot where
st. Pierre stood and confirms the aw-
full story in all its essential features.
HI says that Thursday morning found
the inhabitants of that city anxously
looking towards the thick clouds
shrouding the Mont Pelee crater. All
day Wednesday horrid detonations
had been heard. These had been ech-
oed from st. Thomas on the north to
Barbados on the south. During the
night of Wednesday these had ceased,
and only fine ashes like rain fell on
ST. Pierre. AS this continued, the gov
ernor, M. Mouttet, who was then at Fort
De France, tried to stop the panic which
the volcanic disturbances had caused.
He declared the danger would not in
crease, sent a detachment of soldiers
~. ,rannra1 aynII- Of tba n
habitants and later went to st. Pierre
himself with his wife and both were
destroyed. The British steamer Rorai-
ma arrived at st. Pierre some time af
forwards, with 10 passengers. They
were all watching the rain of ashes
when with frightful roar and terrific
electric discharges a cyclone of fire,
mud and steam swept down from the
crater over the town and bay destroy
ing a fleet of vessels at anchor off the
shore. There the stories stop. Twelve
survivors only are in the military hos
pital at Fort De France, while 80, 600
corpses are strewn about or buried in
the ruins of St Pierre. or else floating
gnawed by sharks, in the surrounding
seas. Twenty eight charred half dead
human beings were brought to Guade-
loupe. Sixteen of them are already
dead. and four others only are expect
ed to recover Not house is left in
tact in St Pierre. Everywhere are
heaps of mud, ashes, and stones and
among the ruins piles of corpses, and
over all an utter silence and an over
stencil from the thousands
of dead Careful inspection shows
that the fiery flood that destroyed the
city must have been composed of poi
gases which instantly sutfocated
its victims. All the bodies were car
bombed or roasted.
All day Thursday the intense heat
and stream of flowing lava prevented
help from reaching the town but at
night the French cruiser, Suchet, sue
ceeded in taking off 30 survivors, all
horribly burned and mutilated. Ref
ugees from the city are in a suffering
and destitute condition and LOCO have
died since the eruption. Not a drop
Of water is procurable ashore The
hospital clock was found intact, the
hands stopped att 80. 500, 600 in specie
and other securities, was found safe in
he vaults of the bank of Martinique.
Nearly 1000 refugees from northern sub
lrbs, where the country was overrun |
With lava streams, have been taken to !
Fort De France the capital of Martin
que, II miles from st. Pierre which |
vas its principal town. OF the Is yes
els in the harbor only one escaped, the |
steamer Roddam, with II of its % men.
J. S. Consul Prentice of Melrose, !
Mass, who went to Martinique in 1899, /
S supposed to have persisted with his .
wife and two daughters Mrs. Prentice
wrote to Melrose friend April - that
he volcano was threatening and that
hey had planned to leave the place if
necessary.
Martinique, in the windward group,
S the largest of the French West In
les. 1t was discovered by the Span
ards in 1888 In 1885 it was settled by
he French, who eventually extin-
uished the aboriginal race. The is
and was subsequently captured by the
British in 1874, restored to the French
q 1902, again taken by the British in
500 and in 1914 for the second time re
tored to France. Martinique has an
opulation of about 1SS, 600, of whom
as abolished in 1913. Since 1866 the ,
D1OHN ndS ltglSidltI III IlStll OII uu-
les and public works. The islands ,
hief articles of export are sugar, cof-
se, cotton and cocoa. 1t is distin-
uished historically as the birthplace
Josephine, first empress of France, !
nd of Nine. Maintenon. One of the i
luares of st. Pierre, the town where t
lie was born, contained a beautiful q
arble statue of the empress. Martin a
lue became an interesting point to f
lis country during the recent war with I
pain. The first news of the arrival {
the Spanish fleet of Admiral Cervera C
,me from st. Pierre Mont Pelee. a
$50 feet high, was the loftiest sum |
lit of the island which contains "
lain of six extinct volcanoes. "
The volcano on Mont Pelee was last f
/ eruption during the month of Au- t
lst, 1851. Previous to that, in 1867, o
Dout 1,600 people were killed by an i
in Martinique. In 1889 Il
lie then capital, Fort Royal. now n
lown as Fort de France, was visited fl
= an earthquake which destroyed C
bout half the town. caused damage Ii
roughout the island and killed some $,
0 persons. Mont Pelee had been 81
reatening some time and had been in n
upton since May 3but not eXplosively. v
The theory of Professor John Milne, st
e seismologist, one of the worlds CT
CHEST authorities on volcanic and W
rthquake disturbances, is that Mont fl
lee has "blown its head off," owing CT
the intiltration of water through the
cks until it reached the molten ma
rial beneath. forming steam of ire al