Year: 1876

49, SJSANAS ~ ASopSNeibb
our Calcutta correspondent sent full de-
tails yesterday, appears to have been the
greatest calamity of the kind known to
history. Calamities of far less extent have
stamped themselves upon the imagination
of the world and live in popular tradition
as typical illustrations of the fearful power
Of destruction which lies dormant in
nature. The great earthquake at Lisbon,
for instance, has acquired supreme
notoriety among such disasters. Up
wards of 10000 persons are said to have
been swallowed up in Lisbon alone; several
other cities in the peninsula suffered
severely, and the destruction extended to
Morocco and Madeira. But the loss of
life in the present instance seems to have
been far greater and equally sudden. Its
full extent is even as yet unknown, but
it can hardly be estimated as falling much
short of half a million lives. An enorm.
Gus storm-wave is described as having
swept, with scarcely any warning, over the
islands and lowlying lands at the mouth Of
the Ganges and Brahmapootra. The pop
ulation of three of these islands alone is
estimated at 100000, and barely fourth
Of them are believed to be surviving.
But in addition to this, the wave swept
over the mainland to a distance Of five or
six miles from the coast, and it is believed
that wherever it passed not one-third of
the population is surviving. All this
frightful destruction came upon the peo-
pie without warning, in the dead of night.
Up to ii o'clock on the evening of the
catastrophe there were no signs of danger;
but before midnight the storm wave sur
priscd the people in their beds. 1t is
described as sweeping over the islands to
a depth, in some places, of twenty feet,
completely submerging them. Only one
refuge was available. In these districts it
is usual for the villages to be surrounded
by dense groves of trees, chiefly cocoa and
palm aud those who could reach their
branches seem to have had the only
chance of escape, Almost every one
perished Who failed in reaching trees. A
natural instinct was to seek refuge on the
roofs Of the houses, but the waters burst
into the houses, tore off the roofs and
carried them miles away, generally out to
sea, and few are said to have been thus
carried across channel ten miles wide to
the mainland. But the vast majority
were never heard of again. The cattle
were all drowned, the boats swept away
and the ordinary means of communication
thus destroyed. The European residents
have shared in the general destruction,
almost all the civil officers and police Off
cials in the principal islands having
perished.


The loss of three or ur'hundred thou
sand persons by famine would have been
felt as an indelible horror and even dis
grace, but it has now been inflicted in
one stupendous stroke of destruction.
The misery, moreover; is, of course, not to
be reckoned by the immediate loss of life.
The condition in which the district is left
by such disaster must be horrible in the
extreme. The corpses of the inhabitants
lay unburied and pestilence was appre-
hended from their putrefaction. A gem
eral outbreak Of cholera was hourly expect
ed, but the disease had, happily, at the
date of the last news, appeared in only
single district. In one other respect the
effect of the eonvulsion must be worse
than that even of famine. In the latter
case the stock and the accumulated imple-
ments Of the industry of the district would
remain comparatively unimpaired but in
this instance, as we have mentioned, the
cattle are swept away, and the stores must
have been cruelty damaged. The peas
antry of this district are described as the
most prosperous in Bengal, the alluvial
soil of the Delta being, as usual, peculiarly
rich. Their stores of grain, it is said,
have been thoroughly soaked, and the
Survivors were engaged in drying them in
the sun. Cocoanuts are depended upon
for subsistence until the harvest but it is
some relief to hear that the growing crops,
though they have suffered greatly, will
probably yield fair return. 1t is not
surprising that at first disorder should
have broken out, and that robberies should
have been attempted; but the local gov
ernment seems to have acted with the
energy which might have been expected
from its conduct in encountering the
famine. Sir Richard Temple, the Lieu
tenant-Governor, at once visited the dis
trict, and went from village to village
inquiring into the extent Of the disaster
and arranging for relief. About sixty
relief centres have been established, and it
is to be hoped the relief given will be both
prompt and liberal. Such calamity is
enough to paralyze the population, and it
will be scarcely possible to show the un-
happy survivors too much or too prompt
sympathy.-London Times, Nov. 81.