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Show WHOLE COUNTRY IS LAID WASTE Latest From the Devastated Lands of Guatemala. 4- SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19. The first of the refugees from the devastated lands of Guatemala arrived today on the Pacific Mail steamer City of Para. They came from the districts far inland from the sea and traveled over, a country laid waste by sand, ashies and pumice before reaching a-railway a-railway station. From the latter places they made the journey by rail to Cham-perico Cham-perico and there took the steamer to San Francisco. They sailed on Nov. 7, and the volcano was still smoking and rumbling of thunder and flashes of lightning gave evidence of more eruptions erup-tions to come. These people fled from their plantations planta-tions in fear for their lives. They escaped es-caped to the seaside with little more than the clothing they wore, transportation transpor-tation being so difficult as to preclude the carrying of baggage. The refugees confirm stores of loss of life. They say that the victims are for the most part Indians. They had not heard of any white people being lost. Thousands or" Indians were asphyxiated or buried in the sand. Miles of plantations are under ashes, and absolute ruin is the lot of many planters, whose all was invested in the fincas. One refugee comes from within half an hour's ride of General Barillos and brings information informa-tion that the general and his family are safe. A cablegram received here when the first eruption occurred stated that General Barillos had been asphyxiated. asphyx-iated. .... The'refugees state that it is not the crater of Santa Maria that is in action, but a smaller mountain rising from one of the western slopes of Santa Maria, called El Rosario. Bands of Bobbers. Bands of Mexican robbers are now swarming the desolated regions, robbing rob-bing and murdering refugees on the road and looting the abandoned and desolate plantations. The -iieople left behind on the plantations, plan-tations, it is said, are in danger of death from starvation, for the food supplies have been cut off and there is no way to send in supplies to the afflicted af-flicted districts. Those who came on the City of Para were the " Bardwell family and Miss Florissa Mero. The Bardwells consist of Ferdinand, his mother, his sister Julia and brother Albert. Another brother, Augustine, remained behind to save, if possible, some of the coffee. The Bardwells owned the Magnolia plantation, near L Argentina, and about thirty miles south of Quezaltenango. The steamer City of Para met evidences evi-dences of the volcanic eruption soon after leaving Ocos. Great quantities of pumice were found floating on the water, wa-ter, and some of the pieces were about the size of a man's head. The sea was covered with the stuff. When the vessel ves-sel got up off the coast of Guatemala the shore was seen to be covered with a light ash. At Champerico there was about half an inch of ash over the roofs of the houses and the ground was covered cov-ered as though there had been a snowstorm. snow-storm. Ashes were falling, although it was then sixteen days after the first eruption of the mountain. During the night of Nov. 6, just a few hours before be-fore the City of Para sailed out of the port, loud rumblings of the earth were heard, and heavy reports as of distant thunder came from the direction of the volcano. ' Ashes and Eava. Word had been received from Maza-tenango, Maza-tenango, on the outskirts of the ruined .territory, stating that on Friday, Oct. 24, at about 5 o'clock in the eVening, Santa Maria opened a crater on the west side, near its base, and not far from Helvetia, and all that night it belched great volumes of ashes and lava over Xolhuitz and Costa Cuca. On Saturday morning it was ,noticed that several more craters in the neighborhood neighbor-hood of the mountain had opened up, and they were all pouring volcanic debris de-bris over the plantations of the district. dis-trict. These fresh craters were further to the west, and for over twenty-four hours they were in constant eruption. The earth was in continual commotion, shaking down buildings and causing much destruction from the quaking. All the territory about Palmar, San Felipe, Pueblo Nuevo and Rtalhuieu was buried under ashes. Many of the plantations were buried bur-ied under from five to seven leet of debris and all hope of ever reclaiming reclaim-ing them had been given up. The whole neighborhood for miles was a burning wilderness. At Mazatango, on the south side of the. volcano, only ashes had fallen, and not then to such a great depth that it was not possible to save some of the plantation property. News from that town said that hundreds of refugees refu-gees were collecting there and many more were pushing on to places further fur-ther away from the volcano, fearing further destruction from it. Many of the refugees were without bread or shelter and their condition was pitiable. piti-able. At that place most of the buildings build-ings had been badly damaged, if not completely destroyed, by the fierce earthquakes that accompanied the eruptions of the volcano. When the last word came from Mazatenango, fifteen fif-teen days after the first eruption of Santa Maria, the earth had been in constant trembling. At Champerico a modest estimate of the loss to the coffee crop places it at 400,000 quintals. Ferdinand Bardwell, in telling the story of the eruption and the experience experi-ence of himself and his relatives during, dur-ing, the awful time of the eruptions of the burning . mountain, said: Smoke and Fire. "A great column of smoke and fire rose, seemingly from the peak of Santa Maria. That was on the night of Oct. 24 about 5 p. m. All that nisht the earth shook in almost constant vibration and the next morning the sky was enveloped in a. thick cloud of smoke. "Ashes much like coarse sand fell in a heavy shower. That continued for several hours, and then the ashes became lighter and drifted about in clouds of light dust. Breathing was difficult and the atmosphere was so hot that.it .seemed as though the skin would be peeled from a person's body. "For three days," said Mr. Bardwell, "we were in almost total darkness. On the fourth day, with a light breeze from the south, the smoke clouds were rolled back toward the mountains, and at times streaks of light would break through. Then we saw the ruin that I had come over our plantation. We were on the side of the volcano least exposed to the fury of the' eruption and fully thirty miles away from the mountain, yet our place is ruined beyond be-yond all hope of recovery. It is covered cov-ered deep with volcanic ash. We decided de-cided to get out of the country before be-fore anything worse happened. We were obliged to abandon our horses and all the goods we did not absolutely need for our own personal -comfort, at the banks of a river a few miles before be-fore we reached Retalhuleu. There the . gorge was so deep and the current; so swift that we could not get the. horses across, and we were obliged- to go across the stream sitting in-a rope sling suspended" from a rope that had been -stretched across the tops of the "high bands. At Retalhuleu we got a train that carried us to the seaport. 'There - were' robbers all, along the road, but we were well known in the district and we took good. care not to, give them a chance, and we were not molested. Food in the district of our ruined plantation was scarce and we saw hundreds of natives along the trails wandering aimlessly about without with-out food or shelter and almost on the verge of starvation. Complete Destruction. "At Champerico while waiting for the boat, we met several of the planters plant-ers from the vicinity of Costa Cuca, Palma, Reforma, Kolhuitz, where the destruction was much more severe than on the side of the mountain from where our plantation is situated. They said that the destruction to the property prop-erty there was complete, and that from 3,000 to 4,000 of the natives and em- ployes of the planters had perished. One of those refugees from the ruined district said that on his way out over one of the roads leading from Xolhuitz he counted seventy natives lying half buried under stones and ashes from the volcano, and every one of them was lynig beside a pack or" his household house-hold goods. They had tried to escape from the fury of the mountain when It first broke. The country about these ruined plantations was thickly settled and in some of the more densely populated popu-lated districts there were villages in which thousands of natives lived. Most of these villages are covered with stones and ashes to a depth of from five to seven feet. The frail houses were unable to stand the terrible downpour down-pour of the volcanic debris and the people beneath the roofs were buried after being stunned by the awful hail of stones. - "Many refugees who were fleeing from the scene of destruction have been killed by the bands of robbers who now infest every trail. Men who had reached the seaport from the district about the base of the mountain said they had passed numerous corpses on the roads that had been the victims of these murderous bands of robbers. Those who have been murdered were those who were fleeing from the ruined district with what provisions and little lit-tle money they had saved from the deluge of ashes and stones, and were seeking places of safety. The food they carried is what particularly incited in-cited the cupidity of the robber bands. "The houses that had been deserted at the first outbreak of the volcano and to which the 'owners had a few days later returned to, were found to have been looted by the robbers. Everything Ev-erything that was of value was carried away, and in some cases articles that could not be carried away were destroyed." |
