The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-05-14
Through Fiery Blasts and Showers Of
Ashes q Steamer Enters
st Pierre.
NOT ONE HOUSE IN IT IS LEFT INTACT
Mass-s Ct Dead and Pills. Of Rocks and Stones
Sill Hot Are o. Every Side and
Streets Can Scarcely be I
CBy the Associated Press.)

Fort De France, Island of Martinique,
May Pit now seems to be generally
admitted that about 10000 persons lost
their lives as a result of the outbreak
of the Mont Pelee volcano, at st. Pierre
on Thursday last. Careful investi-
cation by competent government Off
Gals shows the earlier reports CT the As
sociated Press were accurate.
Briefly put last Thursday, the city of
St. Pierre disappeared within ten min
utes in a whirlng fire vomited frOm
Mon; Pelee; thirty thousand persons
We're Instantly and horribly killed and
the volcano. whose ancient crater for
more than fifty years mad been occupied
by q quiet lake in which picnic parties
bathed suddenly discharged a torrent
of fiery mud, which rolled towards the
sea, engulfing everything before it, Then
the last CT cable communication was
broken, and the doomed city was isolat-
ed from the world.
The American consul at Guareloupe,
Louis H. Ayme, has reached the desolate
spot where ST. Pierre stood and confirms
the awful story in all its essential de-
tails.
From an interview with Col Ayme,
who is a trained American newspaper
man, correspondent of the Associated
Press learned the following facts:
Thursday morning the inhabitants of
the city awoke to find heavy clouds
ehrouding the Mont Pclee crater. All
day Wednesday horrid detonatiops had
been heard. These were echoed from St.
Thomas on the north to Barbados on
the south. The cannonading ceased on
Wednesday night and fine ashes fell like
rain on st. Pierre. The inhabitants We're
alarmed, but Gov. Mouttet, who had ar
rived at ST. Pierre the evening before,
die everything possible to allay the
panic.
The British steamer Rcraima reached
St Pierre on Thursday with ten passen-
gers, among whom were Mrs. Stokes and
her three children and Mrs. II. j. Ince.
They were watching the rain of ashes,
when, with a frightful roar and terrific
electric discharges, a cyclone of fire,
mud and steam swept down from the
crater over the town and bay, sweeping
all before it and destroying the fleet of
vessels at anchor off the shore. There
the accounts of the catastrophe cease.
about, buried in the ruins of st. Pierre,
the prey of hideous vultures
gnawed by sharks in the surrounding
seas. Twenty eight charred, half dead
human beings were brought here. Six
teen of them are dead, and of the
whole number only four are expected to
recover.
The Associated Press steamer. char
tered in Guadeloupe, neared Martinique
at $50 Sunday morning. The island
with its lofty hills, was hidden behind
huge veil of violet or leaden colored
haze. Enormous quantities of the
wreckage of large ard small ships and
houses strewed the surface of the sea.
Huge trees and too often bodies, with
focks OF sea gulls soaring above the
hideous sharks fighting about them
We're floating here and there Behind the
volcanic veil came blasts CT hot winds
mingled with others ice cold
At lie Preceheur. five miles north of
st. Pierre, canoes with men and women
frantic to get away begged for passage
on the steamer
cred with silver gray coating of ashes
resembling dirty snow. Furious blasts
of fire, ashes and mud swept over the
steamer. but, finally st. Pierre was
reached.
The city of st. Pierre stretched nearly
two miles along the water front and half
a mile back TO a cliff at the base of
the volcano. The houses of the richer
French families were built of stone. The
still smoking volcano lowered above the
ash covered hills. The ruins were burn
ing in many places and frightful doors
of burned flesh filled the air. With great