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Show DOWN IN MEXICO Earthquakes and Volcano Explosions Ex-plosions are Common. SINKING OF THE "ELBE." Late Particulars of the Awful Casuality Three Hundred and Seventy-Four Per-sons Per-sons Were Drowned Only Twenty Were Rescued The Collision Came Wholly Without Warning. City of Mexico. Jan, 31. Since the great earthquake shock of November 22, JS94, which caused the loss of fifteen fif-teen lives in this city and destroyed thousands of dollars' worth of property, a reign of terror has prevailed in the towns of Jamiltopec and Tuxpec, in the state of Oaxaca, where the earth trembled from oix to eight times a day. The churches and houses are a heap of rains and the inhabitants have nearly all fled to neighboring hamlets. The eruption of some yolcano, presumed to exist in a subterranean form close by, is momentarily expected. Last night earthquake shocks were felt in many places in the state of Oaxaca. The time of duration was three seconds. TWO HUNDRED KILLED. Colon, Columbia, JaD. 31. A severe engagement has been fought at Bogota between the government forces and rebels. Two hundred of the latter were killed. The government troops were under the personal command of the president. The victorious troops have been sent by train from Carta-genia Carta-genia to Michinau to engage the rebels. reb-els. Six liberals have been arrested at Cartagenia. The men are bein.' pressed into service of the government. The steamer Amerique is aground near Savinalla. The position is serious. seri-ous. THE SINKING OF THE "LBE." Lowestoft, England, Jan. 31. As fr as ascertained 374 of the passengers and crew of the Elba are missing. Bitterly cold weather is prevailing and lack of news from along the coast shows that there is little if any hope of auy survivors of the disaster reaching land. A life boat has been washed ashore near Yarmouth. t is believed to-. be the boat from which the listing 6iuak 'Wildflower" resct.e-1 Jthe few passengers passen-gers who escaped from the steamer after the collision yesterday morning. The following statement was officially of-ficially given this afternoon to an associated as-sociated press correspondent by the German vice-consul, Herr Bradber, after siftirjg all the interviews with survivors and cross-questioning the officers and the crew, and may be classed as the consensus of the officers' opinion : "The collision occurred forty-five miles from Merchelling lightship. Though both the Elbe and the colliding collid-ing steamer were going at full steam ahead, the collision was very slight. Immediately after the collision the Elbe began to settle down, stern first, her bow mounting high into the air and rendering it immpossible to reach some of the boats. As everybody crowded upon deck immediately after the shock and in a state of great alarm, it was impossible for the orders of the captain, who was standing on the bridga, that women and children should be saved first, could be obeyed. A rush waB made for the boats that were accessible. The first boat to touch water was immediately swamped and the passengers who had crowded into it were drowned. 'The second boat launched was lost sight of in the high sea, which was running, but; it is feared she capsized. Into the third boat at the last moment when the water was up to the dio-menade dio-menade deck, the vessel sinking under their feet, and two minutes before she disappeared, there crowded nineteen men, women and children having rushed to the other side, owing to the command that they should get into the boats there. The third boat pulled away from the ship and in so doing shortly afterwards passed a lady pas-Eenger, pas-Eenger, Miss Anna Boecker, who clung to the gunwale or side of the lifeboat. Some time elapsed before she could be pulled into the boat. "Twenty survivors drifted about until un-til 11:10 a. m., the heavy seas repeatedly repeat-edly washing over the small craft,which was in constant danger of being swamped and drenched its occupants, who bad not a morsel of food. Miss Boecker lav in the bottom of the boat, half drowned and semi-conscious. The lights of many vessels were seen all around, but no one approached, though after daylight a steamer and two fishing fish-ing vessels paased. Their crews, however, how-ever, did not notice the signals of the liteboat. Finally the waving of a shirt from the boat attracted the attention of the crew of the fishing smack Wildflower, which rescued the survivors sur-vivors with extreme d. faculty. After the collision an unknown steamer passed under the stern of the Elbe and proceeded on her course without paying pay-ing nny hesd to the cries of the people on board the sinking steamer." PRELIMINASY INQUIRY, London, Jan. 31. On behalf of the board of trade this afternoon a preliminary prelim-inary inquiry was held here into the sinking of the Elbe. The surviving officer of-ficer said in substance: The Elbe was proceeding on a south-southwest south-southwest course, down the channel, steaming about fifteen knots. When about forty-live mileB off the Tersjhel-ling Tersjhel-ling lightship, a vessel was seen approaching ap-proaching two and a half points off the port bow. This vessel's cousse was apparently ap-parently west-northwest. According to the rule of road at sea, the vessel should have ported her helm and passed under the Elbe's stern. Both vessels, however, kept their course and struck. j The shock of the concussion was very slight. Third Office Stollberg denies the statement of Captain Gordon of the Crathie that no signals of distress were made from the Elbe He says rock3ts were fired after the collision. The Ramsgate life savers returned to the station today, having found no trace of the missing life boat. It is believed the rockets seen were those of the Elbe. CRATHIS'S CAPTAIN TALlSs. --it Rotterdam, Jan. 31.; ntervf ews had here this afternoon with Captain Gordon Gor-don of the steamer Crathie ' And the second officer of that vessel,vfave no doubt that it waB that steamshf p which ran into and sank the Elbe. Gordon said the Crathie at 5:3C a. va. was about thirtv-five miles from Waterway. The wind was north by west.haif west: It was very dark and the sea and wind strong. "I stood at the bottom of the cabin case," he said, "and was going on deck when there was a he3vy shock,, and the water began to pour into '"eck. I ran on de,k and saw a large, strange ship lying acros3 the bows of the Crathie. After the collision we re turned to the spot where it occurred, or as near as we could make out, but were unable to see any signs of the steamer, which, we thought, had proceeded pro-ceeded on ber voyage. We followed after some time, but lost sight of her. We waited two hours and then proceeded pro-ceeded to Maasluis. We reached there yesterday and came here for repalis which wilVtake fiye days. SECOND OFFICER'S VERSION. The second officer ot the Crathie said, "There was no fog; but it was dark. It was my watch on deck and I suddenly sud-denly saw ahead of us three lights and made out a steamer, paiihted in light color with two smoke stackes also painted in light color, coming toward us. It was impossible to escape a collision, col-lision, although ten or a dozen yards more would have cleared ns. After we struck it was impossible for some time to disengage the two ships and our gear had to be cut. We heard no cries and there was no commotion on board the steamer as far a3 we know. "After the collision the other vessel showed blue and red lights. We returned re-turned the same signals, ur.dei standing stand-ing that it meant that ntne us needed assistance. Our CEptai-' was below at the time I sighted the sttner. A stoker asleep had his right eal torn off by an iron plate whi3h was iTven through the side of "the" (Jrallp'J - i don't believe the ship e collided with was the Elbe, but I did not see the name. The Crathie's bow was completely com-pletely stove in and was not fit to proceed pro-ceed in the high sea." |