Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1902 — GREAT DISASTERS IN HISTORY. [ARTICLE]

GREAT DISASTERS IN HISTORY.

*LiVes Lost. Feb. 24, 79—Pompeii destroyed by eruption of . Mount Vesuvius 30,000 1137—Catania, in Sicily, overturned by earthquake 15,000 1268 —Cilicia ..destroyed- by r earthquake GO.fWO Dec, 5, 1456— Earthquake at Naples 40,000 Feb. 26, 1531—Earthquake at Lisbon 30,000 September, 1693 —Earthquake in Sicily buried fifty-four villages; of Catania and its 18,000 inhabitants not a trace remained 100,000 Feb. 2. 1703 —Jeddo, Japan, destroyed....2oo,ooo N<*. 30, 1731—Earthquake at Pekin 100,000 Oct. 28, 1746—Lima and Callao demolished 18,000 September. 1754—Grand Cairo destroyed 40,000 June 7, 1755 —Kascham, Persia, swallowed up 40,000 Nov. 1, 1755—Great earth- , quake in Spain and Portugal; in eight minutes 50,000 inhabitants of Lisbon perished;' cities of Coimbra. Oporto, Braga ami St. Übes wholly overturned. In Spain Malaga reduced to ruins). One-half of Fez, Morocco, destroyed, mpre than 12,000 Arabs killed; 2.000 houses in Island of Maderia destroyed 100,000 Feb. 4, 1797 —Whole country between Santa Fe and Panama destroyed, including City of Quito 40,000 Aug. 10, 1822 —Aleppo destroyed 20.000 May 26, 1830—Canton, China, sb ik• m ...... ... .. . ... .. 6.<X)O May 7, 1812—Cape Haytien destroyed 5,*)00 March 2, 1856 —Earthquake in Molucca Islands . ..3.01X) Dec. 16, 1857 —Calabia, Naples, destroyed ... ..... . IOpHX) July 2, 1863—Earthquake--partly destroyed Manila.... 1,000 Aug. 31, 1868—Earthquake —in- Peru and Ecuador2s,o9o HAS AN ACTIVE HISTORY. ' ~ ~ ,’■ • ? Martinique Under Various Domina tions in Past Two Centuries. Martinique has had more vicissitudes of ownership than any one spot of land in the West Indies. During the great wars of the last century between England and France it was four times taken by the English, being seized in 1762, 1781, 1794 .a nd 1809. and. finally restored by the treaty of 1814, only after the most urgent representations on the part of the French that not for commercial nor military purposes, but solely for a sentimental srnsideration, the island should be returned; that the French people desired above all things to own the little island which had given them their beloved empress. England yielded the point with diplomatic courtesy, and since 1814 the tricolor has* floated over Martinique. Like St. Helena, it is far from the beaten routes of tourist travel; like Elba and the lonely rock on which Napoleon Bonaparte died, it would not be known at all save from the fact of having been made famous by a historic character, who attracted the attention of the civiland~ ancr7leath Was the ob j ject of lavish sympathy and is still the idol of a nation. ST. VINCENT POPULOUS. Islaji:! Threatened by Volcano Was Overwhelmed in. 1812. St. Vincent is seventeen miles long and ten miles wide, ancLhas a population of •50,000. Kingston, the capital, has a population of 8,200. It has more extensive valleys than a majority of the lesser Antilles, but culminates in a vast volcanic crater, Soufrere, which was last in eruption in 1812, when thousands of people lost their lives. This eruption was most disastrous in its effects, covering the whole island with ashes, cinders, pumice and scoriae, destroying many lives ami ruining many estates. It lasted hree days and 10,000 perished in a moment of time. A most curious feature of this eruption was that ashes from this volcano jle- . scemled upon Barbados, ninety-five miles to the windward. ST. PIERRE A BUSY CITY. Town Which Is Destroyed Was Chief Port of Island. The principal towns of Martinique are Fort de France, the political center of the island, mid St. Pierre, the principal port. Fort de France, formerly Fort Royal, was a hundred years ago the leading sort of entry, but has been supplanted by its more enterprising neighbor a few miles away. St. Pierre had an individuality of its own. Its houses were painted yellow, their shutters blue, their tiled roofs were red; so with red, yellow and blue on the deep green background of tropical vegetation one of the most startling combinations that the eye of the artist could desire was noticeable. Like all -tropical towns. St. Pierre was dead in the middle of the day, all business and pleasure being suspended from 9 to 3 o’clock during the hot season, and in these hours everybody kept indoors nnd slept.

CAUSE OF ERUPTIONS. Volcanic Outbreaks Are Explosions of Steam in Subterranean Cavities. Volcanic outbreaks, according to Prof. Shaler of Harvard University, are merely the explosion of steam under high pressure, steam which is bound In rocks buried underneath the surface of the erirth and there subjected to such tremendous heat tbnt when the conditions ore right its pent-np energy breaks forth and it shatters its stoue prison walls into dust. The common belief Is that the water enters the rocks duyiug the crystallization period. The rocks containing the water are blown into dust, which sometimes is carried so high as to escape the power of the earth’s attraction and float by itself through space. The force of the volcanic eruption is shown by dispatches from Barbadoes, which lies one hundred miles east of Bt. Vincent, reporting a shower of dus£ and ashes for several hours.