396 
l)R>^. T. ANDERSON AND J. S. ELETT ON THE ERUPTIONS OF THE 
surging masses. They Heel into the houses and shut the doors. Onward it rushed 
with a loud rumbling noise and tilled with lightnings. Any who were in the open 
air perished at once. Many of the negroes’ huts were so densely crowded with peojde, 
that there was hardly standing room. At I^ot 14 the manager and his wife and 
family had shut themselves up in the rum cellar below the house, and firmly closed 
all dooi's and windows. They had a terrible experience, but they survived. All of 
those in the house itself or in the negro village were killed. It will be understood 
that as the tropical houses are so built as to secure free entrance of air, it is almost 
impossible to close them up securely, and the suffocating blast reacljed the interior 
and stifled all who were there. All tlie animals in the fields also perished. 
At Rabaka many who were prevented from fleeing to Georgetown by the floods of 
hot water in the river had withered in the manaii'er’s house. In one larp-e room there 
were fifty jJeople. When they saAv the dark cloud coming, they firmly shut all the 
windoAVS—fortunately they Avere substantial and Avell-glazed—and eA^eryone in this 
room Avas saved. They felt the heat most Intense. It Avas quite dry, and there AA'as 
a Amry strong and irritating odour of sulphur. Some fainted, but all suiwiA'ed. The 
OA’erseer told us that from the AvindoAv he saAv the black cloud rollinv on towards 
them ; AAdien it reached the house there AA'as dai'kness, and a sharp fall of stones on the 
roof The cloud rolled doAvn upon the sea beloAv the house, and Avhen it struck the 
AA'ater it Avas “filled AA'ith fire.’’ It seemed then to rebound from the .surface of the 
sea and return toAA'ards the building, and at this time the AA'all of a ruined sugar store 
was knocked doAvn, probal)ly by lightning, as nothing else Avas OA'erturned. It AA'as 
when the cloud i-eturned from the sea that the suffocating feeling Avas exjjerienced. 
Perhaps this Avas becau.se it took a little time for the noxious gases to penetrate to the 
interior of the house. Practically all avIio AA'ere in the negroes’ huts or in the open air 
peri.shed. 
At Orange Hill there Avas a large substantial stone-built rum cellar, Avhich, by the 
orders of the manager, Avas left ojAen to aft’ord a refuge for any avIio Avished to aA'ail 
themselves of it. About seventy croAvded together there. The avIikIoavs Avere not 
shut, but tliey were small and faced the sea, so that the blast did not directly strike 
them. One man stood by the door holding it ajar, to admit any aa4io fled from the 
Imts in the village. Forty Avere in the cellar, and all Avere saved. Thirty Avere in the 
pa.ssage leading into the cellar, and they AA'ere all killed.'"^ None of those suiwiA'ed aaTio 
remained in the labourers’ huts, or Avere fleeing to and fro about the yard in abject 
terror. Many shut them.seh'es uj) in a store AA'ith a galA'anized iron roof All died, 
and AA’ere found buried in sand Avith the roof collap.sed and fallen u])on them. In the 
* Mr. E. 0. IIOA’EY states that 1.32 persons Avere saved unharmed in this cellar. (“ Martiniciue and 
St. Vincent: a Preliminary Report.” ‘ Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,’ vol. 16, p. 344.) This is an example 
of how divergent are the statements of different Avitnesses of the catastrophe. Our informant AA-as care¬ 
taker of the estate in June, 1902, and he Avas an occupant of the cellar during the afternoon of the 
eruption. (See Appendix HI., p. 547.) 
