The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-03-20

city itself, excepting perhaps one, all
trees and vegetation, all its beautiful
buildings and the ships in the harbor
were on fire and destroyed, only one
steamer escaping on which most of the
crew were dead. Heavy iron columns
were melted, crockery ran together in
one heterogeneous mass. The contents
of hardware store would be one mass
of twisted iron, nails that had been in
nail kegs were all melted together and
even the stone of the buildings was
heated until they erumbled SO that now
the place presents a scene Of complete
DISSOLUTION. 1t would hardly be believ-
ed that there was ever a beautiful city
there. Only here and there are a few
standing walls. the streets having all
been filled in with the debris; the ashes
which subsequently fell from Mt. Pelee
covered the debris to a considerable
depth, filling in the open spaces where
once stood st. Pierre and since then the
frequent rains have Iertilized the soil
until now, after three years, grass and
wild flowers and small trees and shrub
berry have sprung up all over where
once was the homes and places of busi-
ness of 10000 people.
The sole survivor of the catastrophe,
a colored man, told ns the same story
of how he escaped, as the one publish
ed in the press at the time. He said
he had been arrested for fighting few
days before the eruption and sentenced
to thirty days in the under ground
dungeon of the prison, from which he
was rescued three or four days after
the catastrophe, being considerably
burned. He showed us the scars left
by the burns on his back and arms and
hands, but a priest at Fort DeFrance
told one of our party that there was no
survivor-not one in the city itself;
that this man went to ST. Pierre two
days after the first eruption to rob the
dead and was caught in the falling
walls and burned, but our party We're
inclined to believe the mans own story
of his escape, <...
The government has force of men
at work excavating what was the prln-
cipal street in st. Pierre, digging down
to the original stone pavement, the
refuse being piled up to the depth of
! SIN Gl6uI rect tolt- SeiNAt oAdC Vi thS
street, and perhaps about one quarter
of mile has been excavated up to this
time We watched the workmen throw
up bones and skulls and household eff
fects, several of our party procuring
skulls or other mementos of their visit
to st. Pierre.
At the island of st. Lucia we coaled
our steamer. In all the coaling ports
of the West indies, the largest share of
the labor Of coalingsa steamer is done
by the women who carry the coal in
baskets on their heads in a continuous
steady line up a staging which is made
for the purpose, reaching. the decks Of
the steamer until they present the APP
pearance of an endless chain of carriers
from the coal to the steamers hold.
These women carried on their heads 200
tons of coal for our steamer In about
two hours, whereas afterWard in the
harbor of Havana It took us nearly four
hours to take on twenty tons from a
patent loading machine. ,, E..5.,
We visited st. Lucia and BarbadoS
twice; going down and coming back.
In Georgetown, u Demerar, in British
Guiana, we visited the largest botanical
garden in the world. Hindoos and COO
lies brought over from India by the
British government, do most of the
work in Demarar and live there the
same as in India preserving all Of their
East Indian characteristics. From
Demerar we went to Port of Spain. on
the island of Trinidad. and from there
to the asphalt pitch lakes which are
about twelve miles from Port of Spain.
This remarkable deposit of pitch which