Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1883 — FRIGHTFUL DISASTEH. [ARTICLE]

FRIGHTFUL DISASTEH.

tar* ni Islands Bean* latod by a Volcanic Out* break. Showers of Hot Rocks and Ashes Turned the Day Into Night. Streams of Lava and Snlphnrio Had Swept Away the Surrounding Tillages, N "'■■'■■■ While the Earth Yawned and Caught the Fleeing Peasants ia Deadly Embrace.

[Cable Dispatch from London.] The latest advices from Batavia, the capital of Java, show that the volcanic eruptions in that Island axe much mare serious than at first Indicated. The disturbances began on the island of Kntkatoa/ln the strait of Stuido, about fifteen miles off the eoaatof Java. The deep rumblings were distinctly audible at Surakerta and Batavia, about forty-five and twenty-two miles off, respectively. Little alarm was felt at first, bat within a few hoars showers of stones began to fall at Jokiokerta, Surabaya and. Zerant All through the night showers of red-hot rocks and ashes fell, making complete darkness in all these towns In Batavia there was an occasional fall, and it was difficult to keep the street lights burning in the European part By the next morning all communication with Ahjer was out off, all the bridges having been destroyed by the descending rocks and ashes, and the road rendered impassible. The first eruptions were on Saturday night On Sunday morning the disturbances had extended beneath the waters of the strait, and they were soon boiling and hissing violently, while great waves dashed upon the Java near shores, and the temperature of' the sea went up nearly 20 degrees. Even as far-away from the original point of disturbance as Madura the furious waves were lashed into mountains of foam as they came rolling in. The threatening rumblings gradually become more and more distinct, and Dy and by the Malta Meru, the largest of the volcanoes of Java, was belching forth dames at a very alarming rata This eruption soon spread to the Gunung Guntur, the crater of which is the largest in the world, being nearly four miles in diameter, the Gunung Guntur and many other minor mountains, until more than a third of the forty-live craters of Java were either in active operation or seriously threatening it Just before dark a great luminous cloud formed over the Gunung Guntur, and tbe crater of that volcano began to vomit up enormous streams of white, sulphurous mud, beside small quantities ofVlava. There were rapid successive explosions, followed by tremendous showers of cinders, and enormous fragments, which were' hurled high into the air and scattered in all directions, to fall after tbe foroe was spent upon the valleys below, carrying death and destruction. With these terrible eruptions came sympathetic demonstrations from the sea The overhanging clouds were so surcharged with electricity that at one time over fifteen huge waterspouts were seen. Men,- women, and children rushed in terror from their tottering dwelling-places, filling the air with their shrieks of horror. Hundreds were unable to get ouGbefore the houses fell, and were buried beneath the great masses of huge rcfcks and mud, which were piled up where a few hours before all had been peace, happiness and fancied security. The Gunung Tengger has not had an eruption before since the year 1800, when an extent of land seventeen miles long and ■even broad was completely covered with the white sulphurous mud so peculiar to the eruptions of Java.

The peak; of Gaming Tengger is 6,000 feet high, and the monument of itame on top of this made a sconce of very impressive grandeur. Every moment a huge bowlder, at a red or white heat, would be hurled from Tengger's crater with terrific force, and after going hundreds of feet into the air would fall back with a whirr, perhaps crashing through the thatched roof of some Chinese fisherman’s hut, or' crush beneath its huge mass the form of some native peasant Fissure after tissue appeared in the sides of the mountains, and here and there in the valleys there came a great yawning chasm on the elevated plains of Kediri and Bandong. The showers of stones, mud and lava were not so frequent as in the lowest portions of the island,' but were still quite destructive. Much of the northern portion of the island, which was covered with traces of forest, was soon'in one great blaze of flame. The red hotvoml ing from the craters had set the trees on lire, and as the giants of the woods fell one after another like bo many sheaves of wheat before a gale, the scene was one of awful grandeur, as the eruptions Increased In frequency and violence the disturbance of the water surrounding the barren coast became more and more violent Here the waves rushed with terrific force up the steep, rocky incline, breaking upon the overhanging crags and receding rapidly leaving a Java fiof r cooled just at the moment when’lt was about tq/fall over a precipice and there quickly hardened bv contact with the waters and forming a distinct strata of blaok and bright, red, purple, and brown lava, all thrown about in the most eccentric manner, while huge peaks of basalt rose at frequent intervals. Then the waves came whelming over a marshy plain along the shore, suddenly engulfing a hamlet of fishermen's rude houses, and, turning suddenly back, swept away almost every vestige of what had a moment before been a scene of bustling activity, where family after family had been rushing around in the vain endeavor to save their effects and get away with their lives from the awful combination of elements threatening them. What a teyv hours before were fertile valleys, covered with flourishing plantations of coffee, rice, sugar, indigo, or tobacco, the staples of the island, were soon but mud, stone and lava-covered fields of destruction and ruin.. Probably not a single crop of Java will be saved. At the entsanoe to Batavia was a large group of houses extending along the shore and occupied by Chinamen. This portion of the city was entirely swept away, and of the 25,000 Chinese who lived on the swampy plain, it is hardly probable that more than 5,000 managed to save their Uvea They stuck to their homes till the waves that washed thpjn away came, fearing the torrents of toe flame and lava of the interior more than toe torrent of water from the exterior. The population of Europeans and Americans in Batavia suffered a loss of perhaps 600 souls out of the 3.500 whites living there. Many of the bazaars,in the higher por.ions of the city were demolished, and It is Impossible to make any estimate of the neat pecuniary lo a The Exohange and the Military Hospital suffered great damage at Anjer The European and American quarter was first overwhelmed by rocks,

and, aad lava from the craters, and than the watts came up end swallowed the rains, leaving nothing to mark the site, and the loos of somewhere in the neighborhood of 80,000 fives of the inhabitants, and those who had triad to find a refuge there. Bantam, onoe a prosperous and flourishing native city, but practically abandoned many years ago, was entirely oovered several times by toe waters, and there mast have been from 1,200 to 1,600 people drowned. Tbe Island of Serong, just off the ooast was completely inundated, and not a soul remains to tell the tale bf disaster and death. At Gheribon there was no great flood of waters, bat the leas of fife ami property by the falling of recks and the flow of lava must have been very considerable. Burtenaarg suffered very seriously, as did Samarang. Johjokurta, Surakerta sad Suraboya, while the meager reports from the leaser towns indloatS that their loas was great in proportion. The Thousand Temples, at Brambardm, were very mnoh damaged, and some of them totally destroyed. Some of the towers of the noted Temple of Borabrodo were crushed by huge falling rooks, while there can be no accurate estimate formed at present of tire loss of fife, it must be apparent when it is considered that the island nas a population of over 17,000,000 people, that the death list will foot far up Into the thousands At the last advices the eruptions were still continuing, although their vloleuoe had abated somewhatand it is feared that the pnd of the disaster will show it to have been one of the most frightful ever known in the history of volcanic eruptions.

The Island of Java, the “American Encyclopedia” tells us is one of the moat densely populated countries in the world. It is tbe most important colonial possession of the Netherlands in the East Indies, and the most fertile and prosperous tropical island on the earth. The Inhabitants are almost entirely ooonpied in agriculture, coffee bring the chief product. The length of tbe island is M 6 miles. Its breadth varying from fifty-five to 186 miles. The population In 187 a waa 17,298.200, being 987 persons to the sqasxe mile. Of these, 28,926 were Europeans, 185,758 Chinese, and 22,032 Arabs and other foreign Orientals, Batavia, the chief city and metropolis of the island, has a population of 100,000. It has a stadt house, exchange, hospital. numerous ohurchea, a morgue, a gymnasium, several Chinese temples, a botanical garden and street railways. The harbor forma an open but small roadstead of great beauty, and may be entered by the largest vessels. Batavia la the great commercial emporium of the Malay Archipelago and absorbs by far the greatest part of the trade of Java and Madam. The exports consist mostly of coffee, sugar, Indigo, hides, cloves, nutmegs, mace, tea, rice, rattans and arrack. The geological formation of the Island of Java is highly volcanic. A range of mountains runs from one of the islands to the other, with peaks ranging in height from 4,000 to 12,000 feet. Among these’peaks are thirty-eight volcanos, some of which are in constant activity. The most remarkable of these is In the Tenger mountains, lu the east part of the island. The crater Is more than 1.000 feet below the highest point of the mountain. Ic Is said to be the largest crater in the world. A volcano In this range threw out in a single night, in 1772, ashes and scorl® spreading over an area of seven miles radius a layer fifty feet thick, destroying forty villages and 8,000 lives. A few miles northeast of this, on the Bth of July, 1822, a volcano destroyed everything within a radios of twenty miles. Five days -later a second eruption followed, and. the total loss of life in both was 20,000 persons. In 1843, Mount Gunter flung forth ashes and sand to the extent of 30,000,000 of tons. In 1867, an earthquake oauscd the death of over a thousand people in the town of Jokjokurta alone. In 1878, there were sixteen different earthquakes on the Island, and in-each of the succeeding years there,were several shocks.