Holbrook argus., 1902-05-17

which left St. Lucia Wednesday for Martinique has returned, bringing a report that the town of St. Pierre, Martinique, has been totally destroyed by volcanic disturbances in the island. Almost all the inhabitants of St.. Pierre are said to have been killed. The Roddam reports that all the ship ping in the port has also been destroy ed. The Quebec Steamship company's steamer Rorima is mentioned as lost with all on board.
 The Roddam was almost completely wrecked. Her captain was seriously burned and seventeen of her crew are dead.
 Cable communications with Fort de France, in Martinique, and with St.. Lucia have ceased. Advices from the island of St. Vincent, British West Indies, announce that for some days earthquakes have been experienced in the neighborhood of the Soufriere crater, which has been smoking and rumbling.
 
 St. Pierre, fortified seaport on the northwest coast of the island of Mar tinique, was town of about 3O,000 population. It was settled by the French in 1885, and was the largest town in the French West Indies.
 The town was founded by the Nor man captain Esnambuc, who came down from St. Christopher and estab- lished St. Pierre at the foot of the western slope of Mount Pelee, the volcano which has now caused the towns destrution.
 EARTH ROLLED LIKE WAVES.
 The steamship Newport, which arrived in San Francisco Thursday from Panama and way ports, was at La Libertad on the night of April IS, when the republic of Guatemala was shaken up from end to end by series of terrific earthquakes. The shock was felt aboard the Newpot. but it was not until Ocos was reached that those on the steamship had any idea of the seriousness of the situation.
 The land upon which Ocos stands was converted by the subterranean dis turbance into a heaving sea of land and houses. The earth rolled up in three distinct waves, which still rear their crests where they stood when the .convulsion ceased. Between each wave is wide, deep crack and the earth in every direction is serried by openings of apparently soundless depth. There is not house in Ocos left standing on its foundation.
 The river banks were squeezed to- gether and the stream is now twenty feet narrower than before.
 FORTY THOUSAND DEAD.
 It is estimated that O,OOO persons have perished from volcanic eruptions at St. Pierre, in the surrounding dis tricts and on other West Indian islands.
 Of 30, ,000 inhabitants of St. Pierre, it is thought that not single one escaped the terrible erruptions of lava from Mount Pelee. Eighteen vessels in the harbor were all burned and sunk, and the total number of passen- gers and sailors rescued from them is thirty. All the rest are dead
 UNDER MASS OF FIRE.
 The commander of the French cruiser SuCneJ mas JeleSrapneQ to the MlnlSCer of Marine, M. De Lanessan, from Fort de France, Island of Martinique, as follows: ''Have just returned from St. Pierre, which has been com pletely destroyed by an immense mass of fire, which fell on the town. The entire population is supposed to have perished. I have brought back the survivors, about thirty. All the ship ping in the harbor has been destroyed by fre.'
 COVERED WITH ASHES.
 M Biuguenot, sugar planter of the Island of Martinique, received cable dispatch from Fort de France, sent by the manager of the Francais factory, announcing that he had tried to reach St. Pierre, but found the coast covered