Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1892 — AN AWFUL EARTHQUAKE. [ARTICLE]

AN AWFUL EARTHQUAKE.

Fttlly Ten. Thousand People' Were Killed by lt. - > Foil Detail* of the Recent Great Dlsastei j on Sang- Island. The steamer Empress, of India, arrived at \ icCbria, B, C., Aug. 1, from Japan,anc brings additional details of tbe disastrous 1 volcanic eruption on great Sang Island. ■ Without any warning signal, without anj* sign whateyfer of impending disturbance, the Gunong Aroo volcano blazed forth os June 7, and within twenty-four hours th< whole of . the prospegPFn surrounding country was devastated. The loss of lift is something frightful, but no estimate can be made. Some place it as high at ten thousand. The captain of the shig which took assistance to the sufferers says that ten thousand is not too high a figure as an estimate of the number of the dead. A thousand bodies were picked up on the shore, and many were found floating in the sea. The whole island is completely devastated, and although the violent eruption has ceased, volumes ol smoke are arising, accompanied by steam and ashes. Inhabitants of Sang Island. -Hying withiu the shadows of a dormant crater, had tillod the soil and prospered, their chiof industry being the growing of nutmegs, qqcqauuts and grapes, tho product bring regularly ahipped abroad. The , ylllages and towns were welt built, and had schools and churches.' - : - The awful devastation began about 8, o’clock 011 the morning of June 7. There was a terrible rumble, a column of ruddy flame shot up from the crater as liigli iu the heavens as tho eye could reach, and immediately afterward hot ashes were fulling like snowflakes over the whole country. Dust was flying in all directions aud from the time of tho first explosion until ft o’clock that evohTrig "fiiTreo voluraes of flame and smoke and showeisof large stones belched forth, followed by rain, which fell in torrents! bringing down "wTOTTt Che clciudsof ashes tliat were*flying through the air. This contiuued all night and the whole of ndxt day. Tho barlli:iualce began Juno 9. Village after village 'vas engiflfed, hundreds of people dropped inta the great, cracks in the earth. The whole country is under a layer of mud, ashes and stones All vegetation is -either burned up by the awful heat ofthe volcanic fires or lias been deStroyod by dense showers of ashes and dust The ;ountry around Gunong Aroo and tho hills wtis still steaming and smoking on June 15, numerous volcanic jets throwing columns of mud and stones, which fell over tho district forming into hot streams which in their downward course, carried everything jbefore them. Tho district on the north side of the island is'utterly destroyed, nutmegs and cocha plantations beirig laid in ruins, arid ip many, cascsr eompletely huided under the ashes, mud Mid ava from the grater. Among others who saw tho island after ;he outbreak was Capt. J. Gray, of the iteamship Norway, which had baeu sent vith a cargo of rice from Meudane to relieve tho sufferers. lie says tho whole* island viewed from the westward, presented i most forlorn appearance. There was n 4 rign of life anywhere. Volumes of smoke sould be seen issuing from the volcanot iQcqmpanied by ashes arid fife, which ipread like a cloud over the island and !ejl thickly everywhere. Small jets of ite4m, smoke and stones were pouring out :rom the mountain sides, completely coviriug the lower valleys and lands. On the light of tho Outbreak two Norwegian barks, the Primera and tho Fashion, were in Torona hay, but got to sea withoudamage. lu-.a pretty harbor on tho north last side of the island the Dutch strips, Terbklc and Griapa, were loading nutmegs. They, too, sustained little injury, fortunately, because there was no tidal ivave. i

Tho report of the first explosion was icard at Termite, Gorntale and ‘Mandate, which are.-respectively, 210, 240 aud 216 niltjs distant. The lava streams were :onfined to the northern slopes of tho mountain. In theTobeakan district not i single village remains,, while thousands? if the ihhabitants were killed fn the ovejgv low. The village of l.orena, on the south' ( lido of tho mountain, protected by a ridgo if hills, sorno of them 1,3J0 feet high, is covered with ashes. Many of the houses were crushed by the accumulated weight ir asides, dust and stones. Cocoauut plants on both sides of the bay are destroyed. but ip the town itself thero was loraparatively little loss of life. To tho westward, after passing tho foot of the ridgo, the scene is one of complete desolation and devastation. The suffering by those who escaped with their lives has been most acute. “All tho food on the iiiand was destroyed, and but for the prompt assistance of the neighboring islands they -would haye starved,” says one writer, "It is a mass of smouldering ruins. The peofilo who lived and prospered tliero have lost all they ever had, and now the only thing for them to do is to leavo for another and more favored spot or stay thero and die."