Mr. Morris to Mr. Seward
Sir: I regret to be obliged to announce a fearful disaster which has recently covered the island of Mitylene with general ruin and a great loss of life.
On the 7th instant, about 6½ p. m., two successive shocks of earthquake threw down all the villages in the island excepting two, destroying also the greater part of the capital, Mitylene, and burying beneath the ruins over 4,000 people. The people are for the most part without shelter, and are living in the mountains and the open fields. The almost continual succession of shocks since the 7th of March renders it extremely difficult and in many cases impossible to extricate the buried bodies from the ruins, as the shaking earth causes the tottering walls to fall, and is producing new catastrophes. Such few houses as remain are uninhabitable, and the population is obliged to live in the open air, where they, of course, suffer from exposure to the elements. There is a scarcity of food in the island, as all the shops in the villages are destroyed and no bread is baked. The loss of property is incalculable, and hundreds of families in easy circumstances are reduced to extreme poverty. The same shocks were felt in Constantinople and other parts of European Turkey, and in Scio and some of the adjacent islands. On the previous Monday several shocks of earthquake were felt at Smyrna of such force as to produce general consternation among the inhabitants.
The island of Mitylene is one of the most fertile and beautiful islands of the Ægean sea, and contains a population of about 45,000. It bears traces of volcanic action, and in ancient and modern times has suffered severely from earthquakes. There is hardly an island, however, in the Grecian archipelago which is not of volcanic origin, or which does not show signs of volcanic devastation. They are all more or less subject to earthquakes, and their history is marked with great calamities from these convulsions.
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.