We read the report addressed to the Governor in 1851, by the Commission which had examined the volcano. It results from it that the eruption of the Pelée mountain does not offer any danger. This volcano never launched but mud and ashes. Prêchotins, my friends sleep quiet!
Newspaper l'Opinion, may 7 1902.
Official statement of the Scientific Commission showing the absence from danger. (May 7, 1902)
The Commission charged to study the volcanic phenomena of the Pelée mountain met yesterday evening, May 7, in Saint-Pierre, the hotel of the intendance. After examination of the facts noted successively since the beginning of the eruption, the Commission recognized:
1. That all the phenomena which occurred so far do not have anything abnormal and which they are on the contrary identical to the phenomena observed in all the other volcanos;
2. That the craters of the volcano being largely opened, the expansion of the vapor and muds must be continued, as it already occurred, without causing earthquakes nor projections of eruptive rocks;
3. That the many detonations which are made hear frequently are produced by vapor explosions located in the chimney, and which they are not by no means due to collapses of grounds;
4. That the hot water and mud flows are localised in the White valley;
5. That the relative position of the craters and the valleys emerging towards the sea makes it possible to affirm that the safety of Saint-Pierre remains whole;
6. That the black water rolled by the rivers of the Fathers, Low-Point, the Preacher, etc..., preserved their ordinary temperature and that they owe their abnormal color with the ash which they cart.
The Commission will continue to follow all the later phenomena attentively, and it will keep the population informed of least remarked.
Letters sent to their close relations by pierrotins at the beginning of May 1902.
