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CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES

CANALE
AD
A ROAD IN THE CARIBBEES-TRINIDAD
CRUISING AMONG THE
CARIBBEES
SUMMER DAYS IN WINTER MONTHS
BY
CHARLES AUGUSTUS STODDARD
AUTHOR OF “ACROSS Russia," “SPANISH CITIES," “ BEYOND THE Rockies"
Editor of "THE NEW YORK OBSERVER '
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1895
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co. - Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.
TO
IRENE STODDARD HOFFMAN
WHO AS DAUGHTER, WIFE, AND MOTHER
ADORNS THREE HONORED NAMES
THIS RECORD OF TRAVEL
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
BY THE AUTHOR
154753
CONTENTS
I. LITERATURE OF THE ISLANDS
PAGE
Seeking for Knowledge in Libraries - Père Labat and his
Chronicles — Hunt Collection of Books on the West Indies
- Ober's Works - Kingsley's “At Last”
1
II. DISCOVERY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CARIBBEES
Voyages of Columbus Where and what the Caribbees are
Volcanic and Coral Origin - The People and their Destiny
7
III. A SEA CHANGE
New York in a Snowstorm - A Ship with a History and an
Adventurous Captain - Rare Company Outsailing a
Blizzard — From Winter to Summer - Ship Island ....... 14
IV. THE VIRGIN Group
The Danish Island of St. Thomas How the United States
lost it- War Vessels of Many Nations -- Black Divers and
Sharks -- Human Beasts of Burden
23
V. ST. THOMAS AND ITS PEOPLE
Landing under Difficulties Strange Fruits and Shells —
Tobacco, Cigars, and Spirits — Dominant Races - Relig-
ion, Work, and Wages in St. Thomas
32
vii
viii
CONTENTS
VI.
SANTA CRUZ
PAGE
Coldest Day for Years — Drinking Fresh Cocoanuts - Sugar
Cane Plantations How Sugar is made by a New Eng-
lander - On board the Cruiser New York
41
VII. FROM SABA TO St. Kitt's
Bottom on Top - Ship building on a Mountain - A Pennsyl-
vania School Ship — Mount Misery and Monkey Hill
Wonderful Fishes — Banyans and Palmistes
51
VIII. LIFE ON ST. KITT'S
The Aborigines, the Settlers and their Wars — Churches of
St. Kitt's — A Story of Deaf Mutes — Photographs, Coins,
and Curios — A Drive around the Island and a Negro
Wedding
60
IX. A REAL WEST INDIAN ISLAND
Beauties of Sea and Shore - Drowsy Old Town — In Days of
Auld Lang Syne - A Fountain of Youth - Birthplace of
Hamilton and Marriage Place of Nelson
68
X. ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
Montserrat and its Lime Juice Factory - Praying for Rain
A Tale of Abduction, Jealousy, and Death · Indian
Warner — Turtle Soup here and in London
76
XI. WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
Ignorance and Credulity of the Negroes ---Obeah, what it is
and how practised - Similar Beliefs in Other Nations
Anansi, Jumbee and Duppy Stories Spiritualism and
Hypnotism
86
CONTENTS
ix
XII. GUADELOUPE
PAGE
Up Salt River Hurricane Work --- A Great Steaming Vol-
cano -- Coffee Plantations and Culture — Brilliant Market
Scene - Extracts from Père Labat.
96
XIII. SABBATH DAY ISLAND
Rainbows among the Groo-groo Palms — Monsieur Cockroach
and his Man Isaac - A Rare Mountain Ride - Tropical
Airs, Sights, and Sounds — A New Paradise with Some
Snakes — History of Dominica...
108
XIV. CARIBS OF DOMINICA AND ST. VINCENT
Columbus and the Caribs - A Forgotten Language
A – The
Remnant of a People — Jenny the Monkey and her Reflec-
tions.
119
XV. ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
France in the Tropics — Fountains and Flowing Waters
Mardi Gras and Wild Revelries - The “ Swizzle" and its
Uses - Snake Stories - Empress Josephine, her Early Life
here and her Statue — Madame de Maintenon
126
XVI. BATTLES AMONG THE ISLANDS
Buccaneers of the Spanish Main — Count de Grasse and
Admiral Rodney -- A Decisive Naval Battle--The Sloop of
War Diamond Rock
145
0
XVII.
ST. LUCIA
The Best Landing Place in the Caribbees -- Town of Castries
- The Lofty and Weird Pitons - Tales and Traditions ... 151
XVIII. ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
A Superb Amphitheatre — Outburst of a Volcano — Making
Arrowroot-Bargaining for a Baby - A Little Archipelago 159
X
CONTENTS
XIX. BARBADOS
PAGE
A Scene of Busy Life - Swarms of People — Bridgetown and
the Ice House Crisis in the Sugar Trade – Beneficent
Effects of British Rule ..
167
XX. TRINIDAD
The Dragon's Mouth and the Gulf of Paria — Discovery by
Columbus Three Fearful Fires - Railways, Steamships,
and Active Commerce - Famous Gardens
176
XXI. HINDUS AT TRINIDAD
Contrast of Races — Coolie Apprenticeship, Labor, and Life-
A Collection of Living Curiosities - Hindu Priest, Acca-
wai Indians, and Coolie Belle.
184
XXII. LA BREA AND THE PITCH LAKE
Where the Pitch comes from — Blackness of Darkness
Turning Pitch into Gold — Homeward Bound - Au Revoir 192
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
A ROAD IN THE CARIBBEES, TRINIDAD
Frontispiece
FAOING PAGE
ST. THOMAS
32
SUGAR CANE PLANTATION
46
BASSE TERRE, ST. KITT'S
60
PALM GROVE, ISLAND OF NEVIS .
68
ST. JOHN'S, ANTIGUA
76
A WEST INDIAN TYPE
86
MILK SELLER, GUADELOUPE
102
INDIGO MAKING, DOMINICA
112
ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE
128
STATUE OF JOSEPHINE, MARTINIQUE
138
THE PITONS, ST. LUCIA
156
ST. GEORGE'S, ISLAND OF GRENADA
160
NELSON SQUARE, BARBADOS
168
GOVERNOR'S HOUSE, TRINIDAD
176
BARBAJEE-HINDU COOLIE PRIEST
188
0
xi
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
I
LITERATURE OF THE ISLANDS
SEEKING FOR KNOWLEDGE IN LIBRARIES
PÈRE LABAT
AND HIS CHRONICLES
HUNT COLLECTION OF BOOKS ON
THE WEST INDIES
OBER’S WORKS
KINGSLEY'S “ AT
22
LAST
ONE who is bound for a region which he has never
visited before usually desires some specific knowl-
edge of it in advance, though I have met occasional
travellers who declared that one great enjoyment of
travel was to “go it blind,” meaning thereby that
the unexpected gave pungency and flavor to their
experiences. It is better to go intelligently pre-
pared, however; for one may be reasonably sure of
adventures enough in any long journey, especially
if it be somewhat out of the beaten track.
The four-hundredth year of Columbus and the
Columbian Exhibition gave a considerable stimulus
to literature relating to the West India Islands, but
after all that has been written during the past three
years about the great discoverer, the books upon the
B
1
2
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
islands which he discovered have not been largely
multiplied. In New York one naturally goes to the
Geographical Society and to the reference libraries
for information, but the chief information obtainable
at the former, aside from excellent maps, was in vol-
umes published from one to two hundred years ago.
Among these the work of Edwards is a standard, and
the chronicles of Père Labat has been a treasure-
house full of interesting accounts of scenery, animals,
and people from which subsequent writers have not
hesitated to enrich their pages. An interesting char-
acter was this Labat. He spent two years at Marti-
nique, then in 1696 passed to Guadeloupe where he
established a-station of the Dominican Order, with
which he was connected, and distinguished himself
as an agriculturist and an engineer. Returning to
Martinique, he became procureur-général of the mis-
sion, and was held in high esteem by successive
governors for his diplomatic and scientific services.
He explored the archipelago of the Antilles, founded
in the year 1703 the city of Basse-Terre, and in the
same year made himself felt in the conflict with
England for possession of the island.
He tried hard to convert the Caribs. They were
ready to sell their secrets of healing and of poison,
and to accept Christianity and be baptized for French
brandy or money that would buy it, but there was
LITERATURE OF THE ISLANDS
3
no connection in their minds between religion and
morality. He records his acquaintance with the Carib
queen of Dominica, a woman of a strange history
among the French and English, more than a hundred
years old and with a large number of descendants.
She was naked and bent double, but the French
Father made her talk, and they exchanged gifts.
A visit to the Mercantile Library at Clinton Hall,
which is one of the most wide-awake and useful
institutions in the city, revealed the fullest cata-
logue of books upon the West Indies. There were
to be found here Charles H. Eden's “ West Indies,"
and Bates's “Central America," and the “Cruise
of the Falcon," by Knight, and Charles Kingsley's
"At Last" -all London books — and McQuade's
“ Cruise of the Montauk," a rollicking tale of a
yachting trip, published in New York ten years
ago, and two capital books by F. A. Ober. The
last of these is called “In the Wake of Colum-
bus,” and is a record of the author's experiences in
visiting the West Indies to solicit the co-operation
of the various governments of the islands in the
World's Fair at Chicago. A previous visit to the
West Indies a dozen years before had qualified Mr.
Ober for such an embassy, in which he was measu-
rably successful, as all visitors to the departments at
the Fair relating specially to Columbus will remem-
4
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
ber. Besides these books, there is Lafcadio Hearn's
delightful “ Two Years in the French West Indies,”
pervaded throughout with the dreamy and delicious
atmosphere of the islands, and Paton's “Down the
Islands,” a veritable guide-book in a most agreeable
disguise. Further researches produced a list of the
names of English and French works, and reference
to a variety of magazine articles through fifty years;
but the former were not to be had or consulted here,
and the latter were chiefly of that impressionist style
of literature which every child of the pen can create
for himself and his transient readers; pleasant read-
ing which is by no means to be despised, but not
valuable to the knowledge seeker.
After my return from voyaging among the Car-
ibbees, I found at the Public Library in Boston the
Hunt collection of books, maps, and charts upon the
West Indies. This is one of the most complete col-
lections in existence; of great service to the traveller,
and of especial use to the student of African slavery
and emancipation.
Mr. Ober's book is perhaps the most useful and
instructive book for the tourist who wishes to camp
and hunt in the various islands. He has visited and
described more of the Caribbees than any modern
writer. He is an enthusiastic naturalist, and was
specially devoted to birds and woods, two subjects
LITERATURE OF THE ISLANDS
5
which have more wonderful illustration in a small
space in the Caribbean Islands than elsewhere in the
world. His visits to the West Indies for the pur-
poses of natural history naturally led him to take an
interest in the great navigator, whose trail he was
continually crossing, and as special commissioner to
the West Indies, he made an exhaustive examination
of everything in these islands which had reference to
Columbus. Mr. Ober has followed Columbus through
all his voyages, writing, as he says, “every descrip-
tion from personal observation, and using the histori-
cal events merely as a golden thread upon which to
string the beads of this Columbian rosary. His
book is lavishly illustrated and decorated, and con-
tains more than five hundred pages, of which less
than one-fifth are given to the Lesser Antilles.
Charles Kingsley's book, “ At Last,” is one which
will repay reading, even though the reader never
intends to follow in his track; for it is careful and
keen in its observation of men and things, abounds
in truthful descriptions and vivacious anecdotes, and
is the work of a thorough and conscientious scholar,
whose comparative estimates are impressive and val-
uable. It is fairly illustrated, but art has not yet
been summoned to the illustration of this part of the
world, although it has more wonders of beautiful
and strange scenery than almost any region of equal
6
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
extent. Of geographical illustration there is no
lack, and the reason for this is evident. Sailors must
have complete and trustworthy charts by which to
guide their ships in this age of the world. Vessels
no longer creep around the coasts, and by reason of
their light draught, find their way into little bays
and harbors which had never been dreamed of. Now
they strike boldly across wide and dangerous seas,
and run equally through night and darkness and at
noonday. Lighthouses and charts and steam and
telegraphs and meteorological observations and re-
ports have become essential to commerce, while art
and pictorial illustration have been only the hand-
maids of pleasure and luxury. But a new day is
dawning, the system of picture teaching is rapidly
being developed, the magazines elegantly, and the
newspapers rudely illustrate their articles, and ere-
long there will be no corner of the earth which can
be read about that will remain unknown to human
vision. Then perhaps it will be needless for the
traveller to describe anything except his adventures,
perhaps hardly these. I am thankful that the full
development of the pictorial age has not arrived; for
its full advent would probably prevent me from trav-
elling at all, and would also debar my friends from
taking with me what I trust will prove an entertain-
ing tour among the Windward Islands.
II
DISCOVERY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF
THE CARIBBEES
VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS
WHERE AND WHAT THE CARIB-
BEES
ARE
VOLCANIC
AND
CORAL
ORIGIN
THE
PEOPLE AND THEIR DESTINY
It was on the 25th of September, 1493, that Co-
lumbus set sail from Cadiz on his second voyage to the
New World. It was a different scene and company
from that which marked his first departure. The
mystery of the western ocean had been revealed, the
spell of secrecy which had hung over it was broken,
and the great navigator was going forth to gather the
harvest which he had sown in tears and weariness.
Could he have looked to the end of his career, per-
haps on that September morning he would have been
content with what he had achieved, and allowed
others to toil and suffer and die for the fame and
gold which allured him to his ruin. But that was
yet far off, and the ships sailed away to the Canary
Islands, where they were to rendezvous, and whence
they were to make the start for Hispaniola,. now
called Hayti.
7
8
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
On this voyage Columbus had gone much farther
south than upon his first one. Then, after thirty-
three days of sailing, he discovered the Bahamas, and
landed either on the island of San Salvador, or on
Watling Island, not far distant. Now, the fleet had
not been in the open sea more than twenty days
before land was seen. It proved to be an island, and
Columbus named it Dominica in honor of the day,
Sunday, upon which it was discovered. He could
find no good harbor in Dominica, and, therefore,
went ashore at another smaller island, which he
called Marigalante, after his ship. He had found
the Caribbean Islands, which are said to be the most
beautiful group of islands in the world, covered with
perpetual verdure and teeming with the rarest prod-
ucts of tropical regions, and it is not to be wondered
at, that he thought he had attained to an earthly par-
adise. But these lovely spots were inhabited by a
fierce race of Indians. The Caribs were said to be
cannibals. At all events they successfully resisted
the white invaders. Spaniards, and French, and
Dutch, and English, in turn, sought to conquer them.
They were crowded a little way back into the forests
only to issue forth again and drive their enemies
into the sea. Power and civilization could not
subdue, they could only decimate and destroy them.
So it has come to pass, that now, after centuries of
DISCOVERY AND CHARACTERISTICS
9
conflict, the European has worn out the West Indian
Caribs. There are a few hundred of the natives
left on Dominica. They are crowded into a small
reservation and live upon the charity of a govern-
ment which once tried in vain to conquer their
ancestors.
The West Indies make a great group of islands,
which, doubtless, once formed a portion of the con-
tinent of America. One who looks at their position
on a globe, or studies their physical geography and
natural history, will come inevitably to this con-
clusion. They lie mostly in the tropics, between
the fifty-ninth and eighty-fifth parallels of west
longitude, and contain a total area of more than
one hundred and fifty thousand square miles. The
greater portion of this territory is embraced in four
islands - Cuba, Santa Domingo, Jamaica, and Porto
Rico, but there are more than a thousand other
islands. Geographers have separated this great group
into four, dividing them according to their position,
their size, and their relations to each other. Thus
the six hundred little flat coral islands, which form
the northernmost group, are called Bahamas; the
four large ones named above, with some other small
islands adjacent, are called the Greater Antilles;
while the curving chain of islands which extends
from Porto Rico, southwesterly to the delta of the
10
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Orinoco, is called the Lesser Antilles. These are
also known as Caribbean, since they lie chiefly in
the sea of that name. Sometimes they are divided
into Windward Islands - by contrast with the fourth
group --- and Leeward Islands, the former class end-
ing at Martinique, and the latter beginning there
and extending to the coast of Venezuela.
The Antilles are volcanic; earthquakes have
shaken the whole archipelago; there have been
eruptions of lava and ashes during this century in
some of the islands; smoke and steam arise on St.
Lucia, and there is no reason to suppose that there
will not be eruptions again, from some of the many
craters upon the islands which now seem so extinct
that a colony of Dutchmen dwell peacefully in one
of them. Froude says : “The islands are merely
volcanic mountains with sides extremely steep.
The coral insect has made anchorages in the bays
and inlets, elsewhere you are out of soundings al-
most immediately.” According to another writer,
the West Indies are remains of a mountain range
which at some remote period united what we now
call North and South America. The islands have
been repeatedly likened to Vesuvius, and the waters
about them to the Bay of Naples. Charles Kingsley
in explaining this resemblance, says: “ Like causes
have produced like effects, and each island is little
DISCOVERY AND CHARACTERISTICS
11
but the peak of a volcano, down whose shoulders
lava and ashes have slidden toward the sea. Some
carry several crater-cones complicating at once the
structure and scenery of the island, but the majority
carry but a single cone."
The soil formed from the lava ashes is very rich,
and when well watered, as it is by frequent rains in
most of the islands, it is very productive. Among
the articles which are chiefly raised are the sugar-
cane, tobacco, coffee, and cotton. Large establish-
ments with improved machinery for making sugar
are to be found upon most of the islands, though
this industry has not added to their real wealth and
prosperity since the emancipation of the slaves.
There are fine forests of choice woods, lignum-vitæ,
mahogany, and rosewood, and these forests which
cling to the steepest mountain sides have a dense
growth of vines and ferns and orchids, and are full
of most beautiful but songless birds. There are few
wild animals remaining, but a great variety of snakes,
some of which are very dangerous and poisonous,
multitudes of lizards and insects of all sorts and
colors and character, in which the bad are pre-emi-
nent, being represented by the tarantula spider and
the mosquito. The inhabitants are a curious mixture
of all European nationalities, in which English and
French predominate; there are also Hindus and
12
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Chinese, and negroes and the descendants of negroes.
who have been allied with whites, but the blacks far
outnumber the whites and are steadily increasing
while the white population is as steadily declining.
It seems only a matter of time when these islands
will return, not to the Indian tribes which Columbus
found when he discovered the New World, but to the
descendants of a race of black men who were brought
to the islands as slaves.
This future is discussed with earnestness by the
English writers who have visited the West Indies,
and various plans are suggested by which the evil
day may be deferred. Froude says that, as to the
West Indies, there are only two alternatives; one is
to leave them to themselves to shape their own des-
tinies; the other is to govern them as England gov-
erns India, and continues: “Great Britain leaves her
crown colonies to take care of themselves, refuses
what they ask, and forces on them what they would
rather be without. If I were a West Indian, I should
feel that under the Stars and Stripes I should be
safer than I was at present from political experiment-
ing. America would restore me to hope and life;
Great Britain allows me to sink, contenting herself
with advising me to be patient.” Sir Spenser St.
John, in an elaborate work upon Hayti, shows that it
is a country in a state of decadence, falling rapidly
DISCOVERY AND CHARACTERISTICS
13
to the rear in the race of civilization; and with the
steady withdrawal of the pure whites from the other
islands, the same results might be expected to follow.
But it is unprofitable to theorize; we will go and see
with our own eyes the condition of things and try to
report them impartially.
III
A SEA CHANGE
NEW YORK IN A SNOWSTORM
A SHIP WITH A HISTORY
AND AN ADVENTUROUS CAPTAIN
RARE COMPANY
OUTSAILING A BLIZZARD
FROM WINTER TO SUMMER
SHIP ISLAND
THERE was a dense snowstorm enveloping New
York on the Saturday in February when I started
for the Windward Islands. As I drove through the
streets to the pier at the foot of West Eleventh Street
on the Hudson River everything was wintry in the
extreme. The street cars had four horses, the cable
road was being cleared by an enormous snow plough,
the lamps at the corners were covered with great
white hoods, the employees of the street cleaning
bureau looked more helpless than usual as they
leaned reflectively upon their brooms and shovels.
By the time I had reached the pier the large flakes
had formed a thick covering to the carriage and its
load of luggage. A winter storm had begun which
for the fury of its winds and the intensity of its cold
has been unmatched in many years.
On the ocean
14
A SEA CHANGE
15
its ravages were disastrous beyond record, and even
now we have not heard the last of them. The steam-
ship Madiana lay wrapped in a fleecy mantle beside
the wharf. She is a large and handsome, a powerful
and well-appointed vessel of 3,050 tons, originally
built for the English service to the Cape of Good
Hope and specially adapted for cruising in hot lati-
tudes. In 1893 she was refitted for the service of the
Quebec Steamship Company between New York and
the Windward Islands. What tales these ships could
tell! This steamer was first the Balmoral Castle of
the famous Castle line, and Carey, one of the Phoenix
Park murderers, who turned informer and gave evi-
dence against his associates, was sent on board this
vessel with O'Donnell, another one of the assassins,
to be deported to South Africa. O'Donnell shot and
killed Carey and was returned to England and hung
for his crime. The story perhaps clung to the old
name of the ship.
However that may be, when she entered a new
service she received a new name, the Indian name
of Martinique, Madiana, sometimes also written
Madinina. We have thoroughly proved her good
qualities, in storm and calm, under the northern
sky and the Southern Cross. She has been our home
for many weeks, and a more safe, comfortable, and
well-behaved ship it would be hard to find. Her
16
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
captain is a thorough seaman, and his name, Rodney
Fraser, recalls some of those stirring incidents of
West Indian history, when Rodney the British ad-
miral raised the naval power of England to its high-
est point in these waters. He has faced danger and
death in his sea service and was once thrown from
the yard and lay with a broken leg in a cask of
oakum, while his ship sailed sixteen days to Amster-
dam. There the leg had to be broken' again before
he could walk, and even now there is a curious swing
in his gait which is not entirely due to a life on the
ocean wave.
We were provisioned for a long cruise; the tanks
were full of Croton water, there were eighteen tons
of pure ice in the ice-house, and in the refrigerator
were fish and flesh and flying fowl and butter and
milk and eggs and fruit, and abundant stores of all
kinds to supply the demands of a large party of
healthy Americans for many weeks. From first to
last the table was well furnished, and the French
chef proved his ability, while the stewards never
failed in attention and courtesy. There was no
crowd in the cabins. The ship could have accom-
modated one hundred, but our company only
numbered fifty-six, and to this fact perhaps was
due the remarkable comfort which we enjoyed in
a tropical excursion of such duration, where our
A SEA CHANGE
17
home was always on the vessel. There were four
clergymen, two Protestants and two Roman Catho-
lics, one physician, three editors, half a dozen law-
yers, nearly as many married couples, four agreeable
boys and girls, several single ladies and gentlemen,
a jolly set of young men, and gentlemen of leisure
and of business. There were no chronic invalids
nor grumblers, no Sir Oracles nor high mightinesses,
but a happily adjusted and well-balanced American
party bound for a pleasant cruise, wind and
weather permitting, from northern frost and rigors
to sunny and warm southern seas.
Under the dripping awnings we stood awhile in
the wintry air saying last words, but when the clocks
struck twelve the deep whistle sounded, the pro-
peller began to churn the ice in the slip, and slowly
the steamer moved out into the North River and
headed towards the bay. We soon passed the
Statue of Liberty, which was covered with a white
robe, and ploughed onwards through the Narrows
towards Sandy Hook. Half-way down the bay the
huge bulk of the Cunard steamer Etruria rushed
by us, snorting through her steam pipe, and throw-
ing a white cataract of foaming water from her bows
with every plunge into the swelling seas. Before
we discharged our pilot she was out of sight, ,
wrapped from view in drifting clouds of snow.
C
18
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
From Sandy Hook we steamed directly southeast,
and soon began to feel the swing of the sea, which
increased as the night came down. Next day huge
rollers came plumping over the main deck, and now
and then a wave crest mounted the upper deck and
buried the deck cabins in hissing wreaths of foam.
One bark crossed our track bound north, otherwise
we were alone for five days upon the deep. The
second night closed in with heavy weather and
high seas, which increased till it was evident that
we were running before a gale of wind. Had we
known from what we were escaping, we should have
been thankful that our weather was no worse. All
day no one was 'allowed on deck, and the lunch
table was thinly attended, but towards night we
were off Bermuda, the wind moderated, the sea grew
smoother, the growing moon came out, and the air
was mild. Next morning the passengers were sit-
ting on deck without overcoats, though glad to be
in the sunshine, the ladies had come to breakfast,
and everybody was on hand at noon.
The sky was
flecked with light clouds like cotton-wool, the sea
was blue like the Mediterranean, and now and then
patches of a yellowish brown seaweed were seen
floating on its surface. All day soft winds blew,
the sea grew to an azure tint contrasting beautifully
with the white lace work which edged its broken
A SEA CHANGE
19
waves. Evening came on with new beauties, a half-
full moon directly overhead, with its evening star
at hand strangely brilliant. The constellations be-
gan to change their places in the sky. The “ Dip-
per" was far down towards the horizon, and the
North Star proportionately low. We sat out late
into the night star-gazing. Morning dawned like a
moist June morning in England, with occasional
brief showers and rainbows with broad bands of the
primary colors, then an outburst of sun warm and
bright.
We sat under the awning and talked and read
and enjoyed the wonderful transition from winter
to late spring. The air grew warmer, the ocean
was a deeper blue, and the afternoon sun drove us
to our cabins to put on thin clothes and pack away
our heavy ones. A rich sunset crowned a perfect
day. The sea was smooth, and the sun dropped
from a clear sky in less than two minutes into the
waves. Immediately the wreaths of mist which had
been hovering near the west took on a rosy tinge,
a deep green color grew around the eastern horizon,
which rose upward in three distinct shades, and was
edged with soft folds of delicate pink. In the west
a mass of umber-colored clouds bound with flaming
red light, floated thinner and thinner till they were
transparent. Then the red glow faded and darkness
20
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
came at once. Soon a single star appeared near
the horizon, like a diamond, and the moon white as
silver rose unclouded. A few minutes later there
was an afterglow, as beautiful, though not as lasting,
as those which gleam along the Nile; then the host
of stars came out and the evening breezes began to
blow. We were all on deck; a violin, a guitar, and
a mandolin had found their way into the open air,
and with music and song the hours passed till the
cabins were cool, and it was sweet to sleep.
The sixth day came.
The sun rose fair after a
night of soft showers; the sea was as blue as indigo,
with little white crests where the wind ruffled its
surface. Schools of little flying fish, which looked
from a distance like the insect commonly called
"devil's darning needle,” fitted above the waves,
and the sunlight struck through their filmy wings.
They rose from the water and flew straight forward,
sometimes one hundred feet, now and then skim-
ming the tops of waves, seeming to get a new start
as they touched the water. They were not much
larger than a large smelt, and their wings were
about as long as a man's hand. They are nice eat-
ing, and plentiful in the Windward Islands, espe-
cially at Barbados.
Soon after noon we began to see the dim outline
of steep and high hills on the southern horizon.
A SEA CHANGE
21
Gradually they became clearer and increased in
number. We could see the surf dashing high on
the coasts. The lower parts of the hills were rough
and rocky, the upper portions covered with vegeta-
tion and trees to the tops. No houses or structures
of
any
kind were visible on the ocean side.- St.
Thomas was just ahead of us, and in the southeast
were St. John and Tortola. Towards the west we
could discern the outlines of Porto Rico and its out-
lying islands.
We scented the land as well as saw it, for the soft
breeze was laden with fragrance. We kept a straight
course towards a curious object which seemed to be
a ship under full sail. It is known as Ship Rock,
and so striking is the resemblance to a vessel under
sail that one is ready to credit the story which is told
of a French ship of war a hundred years ago. She
was in chase of buccaneers, and seeing this rock on
a hazy morning supposed it to be a ship under sail
and fired a gun for her to heave to. Receiving no
reply, the Frenchman laid his ship alongside and
poured a broadside into the imaginary foe. When
he wore ship and prepared to give another broadside
the rising mist and the unmoved object showed
him that he was attacking a rock and not an enemy.
The sunlight had faded away and we entered
the harbor of St. Thomas under a blaze of light
22
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
cast by the search lights of the New York, Cincin-
nati, and Raleigh, of the North American Squad-
ron, which were at anchor in the outer harbor.
Four ships of war of other nations were lying here,
and great festivities had been going on and were
still in progress when we arrived. The French
admiral was giving a dinner to the officers of the
other ships, and as we anchored between the Du-
quesne and the Moltke, their bands enlivened our
evening. Many of the passengers went ashore in
boats, which is the only method of landing in these
waters. They strolled through the streets of the
town of Charlotte Amalia, the local name of the only
town on the island of St. Thomas.
We were about fifteen hundred miles south-
east of New York, it was the first week in Feb-
ruary, the thermometer marked seventy degrees as
we sat under the moonlight in the picturesque and
landlocked bay, the shadow of the high hills with
their conical summits around us. By-and-by the
youths returned from town bringing white duck suits
and straw hats, in which they duly appeared at
breakfast and for weeks thereafter. We were in the
tropics, winter was over and gone, and in a day or
two the voice of the turtle was heard in the land,
and the taste of the turtle was ours to enjoy.
IV
THE VIRGIN GROUP
THE DANISH ISLAND OF ST. THOMAS
HOW THE UNITED
STATES LOST IT
WAR VESSELS OF MANY NATIONS
BLACK DIVERS AND SHARKS
HUMAN BEASTS OF
BURDEN
THE Virgin Islands form the northern part of the
chain of Windward Islands Columbus discovered
them on St. Ursula's Day and gave them a name
commemorative of the eleven thousand virgins whose
bones, together with St. Ursula's, are now exhib-
ited to credulous travellers at Cologne. The islands
are mostly small, and some of them are precipitous
and hardly habitable. Washed by the waves of the
Atlantic Ocean which are dashed against them by
the steady force of the trade winds, and by furious
storms, their windward sides are rough and shaggy,
and the trees which grow on these sides are so bent
out of shape, that they look more like flags than
trees. Yet moisture and heat produce vegeta-
tion which covers rocks and cliffs that in northern
climes would be bare and ironbound. On the lee-
23
24
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
ward or sheltered sides of the islands, trees and
shrubs and flowers and grasses grow in profusion,
and where cultivation is given to the soil it pro-
duces abundantly.
Of the Virgin group, and those which lie adjacent,
St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix or Santa Cruz, and
Saba belong to Denmark; Tortola, Virgin Gorda,
Anegada, Culebra, Crab, and Anguilla are British;
St. Martin's is divided between the French and Dutch,
and St. Bartholomew, or St. Bart as it is usually
called, is French. Anguilla is a long, low, and ser-
pentine island, treeless and unfruitful, about fourteen
miles in length by three miles in breadth. It is
inhabited by a population of twenty-five hundred; of
these, less than one hundred are whites. The people
are mostly devoted to pasturage. Several small out-
lying islands are associated with Anguilla in forming
a British colony, which is under the general govern-
ment of St. Kitt's. St. Martin's is an island of lofty
mountains and broad plains, whose fertile plantations
cover the meadows and hillsides, while dense forests
clothe the highlands. It is divided between the Dutch
and French, having about three thousand inhabitants
of the former and five thousand of the latter national-
ity. The great industry of the place is the evapo-
ration of salt. Twelve miles southeast from St.
Martin's lies St. Bartholomew, which once belonged
THE VIRGIN GROUP
25
to the Swedes, who named its chief town Gustavia,
but it is now reckoned as belonging to France.
St. Thomas, a Danish island, has an
area of
twenty-three square miles, little of which is level or
cultivated. It lies in 18 degrees and 20 minutes
north latitude, and 64 degrees 48 minutes west longi-
tude. Its highest point is about fifteen hundred feet
above the sea and it consists of a range of mountain
peaks with supporting slopes or foot-hills. There
are no rivers or streams, and but a single spring of
water on the island. On this account, and because
of its precipitous character, the soil is not tilled to
any great extent, though a population of fourteen
thousand live on the island. The climate is warm,
there are frequent showers, and it is a healthful
place and a favorite resort for invalids. This was
the island which Mr. Seward, when secretary of
state in 1866, bought for the United States from the
king of Denmark for five millions of dollars. It was
intended to use the island chiefly as a coaling and
refitting station for United States ships of war.
After the bargain had been completed, Congress
refused to ratify it, and our government stood dis-
graced, and the Danish king justly angry, before the
world. A glance at the map will show how valuable
such a possession would be to a maritime nation, and
how much more valuable to the United States than
26
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBETS
to any foreign power. Indeed, a careful survey of
the location of the West Indies, aside from questions
about their populations, would convince any impar-
tial observer that their proper relations and destiny
should lie with the continent to which they are adja-
cent. Political and social considerations modify
such ideas materially, and it is doubtful whether the
United States would now accept the outlying islands
of the continent as a free gift. That we could take
them, and govern them so as to increase their pros-
perity and our own ultimate wealth and advantage,
there is little reason to doubt.
We were awaked on the morning after casting
anchor in the harbor of St. Thomas by strains of
martial music, and the firing of salutes from the
French and Russian ships of war which were
anchored in the harbor. Three vessels of our own
North Atlantic Squadron, a German, and a Haytien
warship were here. The band of the French vessel
played all the national airs except that of Germany,
and we were told that on Emperor William's birth-
day the Duquesne was absent, having sailed away a
day or two previous for target practice! Yet there
were dinners and a formal interchange of courtesies
between the officers of all the ships, which had culmi-
nated in a grand ball on the night before our arrival.
Upon looking around in the morning light a
THE VIRGIN GROUP
27
beautiful scene met our view. The harbor of St.
Thomas is formed by a semicircle of mountains,
which throw out prominent headlands on each side
of the entrance. The mountains lie back from the
sea and terminate in sharp ridges and peaks. The
town is built on the slopes of three of these moun-
tains, in the little valleys between and around the
curving shore at their base. The mountains are
covered with green of various shades which is
formed by cultivated patches of soil and the foliage
of masses of different trees. On the lower slopes
white houses with red-tiled roofs are grouped, each
house having some garden or greenery about it.
Two large isolated structures, each with an ancient
tower, bear the names of “Bluebeard's and Black-
beard's Castles.” Their inhabitants are by no means
robber chiefs, however, for in one of them lives Mr.
Edward Moron, the very polite and hospitable agent
of steamship companies which do business here.
St. Thomas is not a producing island. Its import-
ance consists in its position as a harbor of refuge and
a coaling station, and as a place for refitting vessels.
Almost its only industry is the manufacture of bay
oil and bay rum, for which the materials are brought
from other islands like Porto Rico and Dominica, but
there is a good market supplied not only with West
Indian products but with the goods of many nations. .
28
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
The harbor has from three to nine fathoms of water,
will afford safe anchorage for several hundred
vessels, and is constantly used by steamers from
Europe and the United States, as well as by a great
number of sailing ships and coasters. Upon our first
visit, this harbor was full of vessels, besides the men-
of-war of which I have spoken. Upon our second
visit we found, among others, a German steamer
which left New York the day after we sailed, and
had put in here in distress, after battling with the
elements for sixteen days, her decks swept, her bridge
and wheelhouse gone, one of her officers drowned,
and her hold half full of water. In another part of
the harbor was a schooner dismasted and damaged,
which had been blown far out of her course, which
lay from New York to Maine, and found refuge
away down here in the tropics. We could not be
too thankful for the kind Providence which had
ordered our sailing from New York a few days before
one of the severest weeks in many seasons, during
which the ocean was swept by fearful gales. We
felt the beginning of the storm, but before it had
reached its height were in the Caribbean Sea, under
the friendly protection of the Windward Islands.
Before we were ready to go ashore, the steamer
was surrounded with boats manned by negroes who
were eager to secure us as passengers, and by canoes
THE VIRGIN GROUP
29
and boxes, from which naked dark-skinned youths
were begging to dive for silver coins. This novel
method of begging proved very successful, and the
sides of the ship were lined with passengers eager to
part with small coin. No sooner did the coins touch
the water, than the divers would plunge out of their
frail craft, and follow them down rapidly, getting
beneath the sinking coins and soon reappearing with
them in their hands. These black divers paid no
heed to the huge sharks which we could plainly see
swimming about the ship, and seemed to enjoy entire
immunity from them. Sometimes several divers
would plunge after a single coin and contend
beneath the surface for its possession, remaining
under water for so long a time that we thought they
would surely be drowned. At last they would
reappear, the victor holding the coin high above his
head, and the whole group puffing and blowing like
a school of porpoises. All day they haunted the
steamer, calling to those who looked over the rail:
“Father, throw a sixpence to your son;" “ Massa,
see your boy dive for one shilling;” “Now, missis,
see I not 'fraid shark, down I go.” At nearly all the
islands similar black divers surrounded the vessel,
and afforded great amusement by swimming races
and diving under the keel, as well as by catching
coins before they could reach the bottom. As the
30
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
water was often so clear that the bottom could be
seen at a depth of seven fathoms, their movements
could be plainly traced beneath the surface.
Before going ashore at St. Thomas some of the
party rowed over beyond the huge dry dock, to see
the women dumping coal from a large British steamer
which had just arrived with a cargo. The vessel
was alongside a jetty, and a wide gang-plank had
been rigged from its deck to the pier. Two files
of women passed up and down this plank constantly,
one line bearing baskets containing a hundred
pounds of coal on their heads down the plank, and
the others balancing the empty baskets as they
walked up to have them filled. They walked from
the hips, keeping the body perpendicular, and sang
a sort of a rhythmical chant as they stepped swiftly
along to the dumping ground. Black, rough, coarse
in face and feature beyond description, they seemed
like huge human beasts of burden. With long arms,
great prehensile hands and fingers, large, misshapen,
and unshod feet, with dirty turbans on their heads,
bare breasts, and rags half concealing their naked-
ness, they marched up and down the planks for
hours, a weird and disgusting spectacle. The pay
is prompt and good, and many women and girls earn
a living for the family by this hard and dirty work.
They become rude and vulgar as the natural con-
THE VIRGIN GROUP
31
sequence of such an employment, and when work
is done they are ready for a drinking bout or
a satyr's dance. But in these tropical countries
negro men and women do all the work, and do it
under the most primitive, difficult, and disagreeable
conditions.
ST. THOMAS AND ITS PEOPLE
LANDING UNDER DIFFICULTIES
STRANGE FRUITS AND
SHELLS
TOBACCO, CIGARS, AND SPIRITS DOMINANT
RELIGION, WORK, AND WAGES IN ST. THOMAS
RACES
THERE are no piers or wharves at any of the ports
in the Windward Islands, except at St. Lucia.
Freight is, therefore, put on board or removed in
lighters, and passengers and their luggage are trans-
ferred in most cases by means of rowboats. At St.
John's on the island of Antigua and at Port of
Spain on Trinidad this service was performed by
a steam launch. With these exceptions, the black
boatmen had to do the transportation, and very eager
they were to get the job. But for the forethought
of the steamship company and the attention of its
officers we should have been the prey of a howl-
ing mob of boatmen, to whom the wild Arabs of Tan-
gier would have been as tame as sucking doves.
Each passenger was furnished with boat tickets,
and the purser and his aids summoned the boats
in order and determined how many each should
carry. In spite of these preliminaries and limita-
32
ST. THOMAS AND ITS PEOPLE
33
tions, embarkation either in going or coming was
of the nature of pandemonium and purgatory. Each
boatman would seek to get the bow of his boat
nearest the gangway or staircase which hung along-
side the ship, and as there was often a swell and
always the chance of tumbling overboard, these
scenes were sometimes exciting. Yelling and scream-
ing, pushing and pulling, vociferating the names and
attractions of their boats, and abusing one another
in the grossest language, the half-naked negroes
struggled and bid for passengers. When once these
were obtained, the tempest of words ceased, and the
oarsmen pulled with perfect good-nature and much
deliberation to the landing-place. But though the
boatmen ceased to quarrel, they never ceased to
chatter and to either laugh or sing. Some travellers
have spoken of the silence and melancholy of the
black races. These quietists do not live in the
West Indies; the whole population chatter and laugh
and make a noise all the time that they are avvake,
and the language which they use at most of the
islands, in talking with each other, is utterly unin-
telligible to the ordinary linguist. They speak
English to the visitor or tourist in all the islands
except those which belong to France, and under-
stand him in his own tongue, but between them-
selves they have a jargon curiously compounded.
34
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Morning had not fully dawned before a fleet of
small boats, with from one to three negroes, clustered
around the steamer. From these boats certain privi-
leged women came on deck and established a bazaar
under the awning, where they displayed oranges,
bananas, green cocoanuts, sugar-cane, sapodillas, and
other fruits, together with skull-caps, mats, and bags
made of shining seeds, and strings of red and white
beans, and other West Indian curiosities, which
were tempting to the eye. In the boats were fruits
and shells, and long branches of coral and palm tree
canes, all of which were offered at such low prices
that the passengers were soon well supplied.
We landed at St. Thomas in front of a little
square which was overhung with palm and mango
trees, and also shaded by lofty ferns, and were at
once among a strange population. A few white
men, standing here and there, were entirely swal-
lowed up by the crowd of black, brown, and yellow
men and women. The clothing of the crowd was
brilliant in color, but scanty in amount, the men
wearing little save short trousers and an old straw or
felt hat, and the women a single robe of dirty white
or pink, looped up to the knee, with a turban made
from a gaudy bandanna handkerchief on the head.
The children were all dressed in black, just as nature
made them, with eyes that shone like glass beads,
ST. THOMAS AND ITS PEOPLE
35
and white ivory teeth that gleamed and smiled all
the time as they ran or tumbled about. Some of the
women were carrying trays full of vegetables, fruit,
bread, or small wares upon their heads; others were
squatting upon their heels, while in front of them
were little piles of sweet potatoes, peppers, limes, or
a few sticks of sugar-cane; others again were hawk-
ing strings of shells and shining beans called “ Job's
tears,” or pieces of coral and sweet cakes. The town
of Charlotte Amalia is mostly built along one street
which curves with the shore, and there is a road
in each direction beyond the shops. The red tiled
roofs of white houses rise in regular gradations
from the business street for some distance up the
mountain side, so that the view from the water
is picturesque. If one climbs to the hill above
the town, he obtains a charming picture, of which
the high-colored villas form the foreground, the
beautiful bay, with its ships and little islands,
occupies the middle distance, while beyond, across
the blue sea, are the shadowy forms of other islands
like Santa Cruz and Porto Rico.
The island of St. Thomas belongs to Denmark,
but if it were not for the fact that there is a little
band of Danish soldiers here, that the Danish flag
is hoisted on the public buildings and the dilapi-
dated fort, and that one gets change for American
36
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
dollars in money that is current nowhere else, even
among diving boys, this ownership might pass un-
heeded. The business seems to be done largely
by English, Spanish, and Jews; there is, as I have
l'emarked, little planting and much importing; there
is said to be also a good deal of smuggling from the
island to the United States, of tobacco, cigars, and
spirits. Certainly the cigars which come into St.
Thomas without duty offer a temptation to smug-
glers. The best Cuban cigars, which sell in New
York for seventeen and twenty dollars a hundred,
were purchased by some of our party for eight and
ten dollars, and we bought delicious bay rum at
twenty cents a bottle, which costs three or four
times as much in the United States.
The population of St. Thomas is about fifteen
thousand, and they are mostly black. We began to
see at once the fact, which was impressed upon us
more and more forcibly at each island, that black
people inhabit the West Indies, and that the great
majority of these black people are negroes. There
are mixed races which have been formed by the union
of white and colored people, but the black effaces the
white, and in general where there has been negro blood
in the alliance it dominates in the result. Black
people everywhere formed the rule, with white people
now and then as exceptions. But yet the whites are
ST. THOMAS AND ITS PEOPLE
37
the rulers and magnates. They chiefly own the es-
tates or manage them for absentee owners, they are
the agents and shippers, and they usually bear them-
selves with the pride of a conscious superiority
towards the other races. I
say races, for in some
of the islands there are Caribs, and Hindus, and
Chinese, besides the Creole descendants of English
and French and Spanish people. As for religion, the
Roman Catholic faith pervades the islands. In the
English possessions there is always a Church of
England, which embraces the English planters and
their attorneys, and a few of the West Indians
and negroes; also a Wesleyan Methodist church,
which is nearly, if not quite, composed of black mem-
bers with a black pastor. Both of these churches
are well supported in British islands, but the masses
of the people everywhere are Roman Catholics. In
the French islands the exceptions are not worth men-
tioning, and in all, the influence of the priests over
the colored people is great, and usually beneficent.
They exhort them to industry, and faithfulness in
their relations to each other; they urge marriage, it
must be said with small success so far as the legal
and ceremonial contract is concerned, but there is
much fidelity really practised without oath or
promise.
I had heard a great deal of the indolence of the
38
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
negroes in the West Indies. I saw little. Taking
into consideration the low pay for labor - from
four cents a day, in Barbados, to a shilling or thirty
cents a day in the best labor market of the
islands — and considering also climate and the possi-
bility of easy existence without laboring, it seemed
to me that the negroes were an industrious class
of people. They are very strong, and use their
strength without stint; they have few resources
when they are not actually at work, and hence
they lounge about or lie in the sun, and chatter and
laugh immoderately; but on the plantations, in the
sugar-houses, in the loading and unloading of ves-
sels, as porters and servants, and in all menial
employments, they appeared as industrious, and far
more faithful than the high-priced laborers of New
York City or of the farming regions of America with
which I am acquainted. For downright, wicked
laziness the full-paid employee on the public works
of New York City can beat any West Indian negro
out of sight. The negroes are not thriftless either.
The savings banks in the islands are full of their
deposits. In St. John's, Antigua, the savings bank
holds forty thousand pounds. One-quarter of this
belongs to negroes, and out of nineteen hundred
depositors they represent more than one-half. This is
but an example of what is true of other islands also.
ST. THOMAS AND ITS PEOPLE
39
Most of the white people have come to the West
Indies to make a fortune and intend to return to
Europe or America to spend it; they are not careful
to contribute to the interests of their temporary
home, except so far as these bear upon their ultimate
prosperity. To this fact is due in a large degree a
deterioration of morals and personal character among
the black people, who are naturally imitative and are
powerfully influenced by the superior race; but they
are very much better than they have been portrayed
by careless and often immoral writers and travellers.
St. Thomas has a public library and hospital, few
sights except the robber castles and the house where
Santa Anna lived when he was banished as a traitor
from Mexico; and its great interest centres in the
arrival and presence of ships of war, for which it is a
favorite winter resort, and of other vessels which put
into the port for repairs. It had given us our first taste
of life in the Caribbean Islands, and we were ready
for new experiences. Laden with bay rum, and
island postage stamps, which had a boom at the time
of our visit, with Carib baskets filled with green
cocoanuts, sapodillas, soursops, green oranges of de-
licious odor, and bunches of tiny bananas, we made
our way back to the Madiana. The cargo had been
unloaded, the hatches were on, and at four o'clock
the anchor was out of its bed, the vessel had swung
40
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
around and was headed for Santa Cruz, which could
be dimly seen upon the horizon forty miles away due
south. The rich green of the mountain deepened to
purple as we moved out of the harbor, the picture of
the town gradually diminished till it was like a view
from the wrong end of an opera glass, and the war-
ships became white dots on the black water. More
and more faint the outline of St. Thomas faded as
the sun dropped, and night came quickly, recalling
the oft-quoted lines of Coleridge's “Ancient Mar-
iner":
“ The sun's rim dips, the stars rush out,
At one stride comes the dark."
Then the moon appeared, clear and full, and all the
sea glowed in her silver light. A gentle breeze
ruffled the waters, the air was pure and balmy, and
we were in a region of terrestrial delight.
VI
SANTA CRUZ
COLDEST DAY FOR YEARS
DRINKING FRESH COCOANUTS
SUGAR CANE PLANTATIONS
HOW SUGAR IS MADE
BY A A NEW ENGLANDER
ON BOARD
THE CRUISER
-
NEW YORK
SANTA CRUZ 'is but a few hours' sail from St.
Thomas, and there are schooners which taking advan-
tage of the trade winds make the run back and forth
several times a week. We left St. Thomas between
four and five o'clock and by eight had made the run
of forty miles and cast anchor in the roadstead.
Santa Cruz is the largest of the Virgins, being
twenty-five miles long and five miles wide. It sus-
tains a population of about twenty-five thousand, and
though the island belongs to Denmark the people
speak English, and give no signs of their nationality
beyond their little garrison and its flag. As soon as
the anchor was down, the young men of the party
went ashore. They returned with glowing accounts
of a dramatic festival which they had attended in a
Moravian church, where amateurs were entertaining
41 ,
42
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
five hundred people in a building designed for three
hundred. As the waits were long and both actors
and audience were negroes, the atmosphere soon
became intolerable for the New Yorkers. They had
seen and heard enough, however, to awaken our
curiosity and they brought back a band of negro
minstrels in a boat, who made night hideous. The
next morning was an epoch in the history of the
island. The thermometer marked sixty-seven de-
grees at eight o'clock.
This is unprecedented for
Santa Cruz, where during the winter the mercury
usually ranges from seventy-six degrees to eighty-
two degrees, and the climate is very equable. The
oldest inhabitant-I regret that I failed to obtain
his age -- declared that it was the coldest winter
day for many years, and he feared that they would
have snow! We had just read a meagre telegram
from New York, which stated that there was a
blizzard there with thermometer several degrees
below zero; so buttoning up our linen jackets,
we thanked God that we were not in New York
but amid the winter scenes of the West Indies.
By daylight the island of Santa Cruz seemed most
attractive. It is not so abrupt and severe as some of
its associates, though it bears abundant evidences of
volcanic origin. It consists of a multitude of little
peaks and rounded hills, with ravines and valleys
SANTA CRUZ
43
between them, and trends off towards the south into
lowland plains and a tongue of land and sands. The
mountains, where uncultivated, are colored a bluish
green, but where the sugar-cane is largely grown, the
color of the country is so light and rich a green that
it seems as if opening spring had just spread her man-
tle over the land. Yet the cane is all ready to be cut,
and we saw loads of it being carted to the mills. The
colors of hillsides and savannas are beautifully con-
trasted on this island; there are long avenues of
cocoa palms, with trunks rising fifty feet like pol-
ished marble shafts, and then bursting out into a mir-
acle of waving foliage and nests full of golden-green
cocoanuts. I offered a negro boy a sixpence, and he
at once “shinned” up the smooth pillar and brought
me down two of the great green globes. I opened
one end with my knife and drank a delicious, cool
draught of sweet and juicy liquid. It was neither
water nor sirup; it was simply “the milk in the
cocoanut"!
There are two towns on the island, Frederikstad
and Christiansted, which are not known by these
names, but are generally called “West End” and
“ Basse End.” Our view of Frederikstad from the
vessel had prepared us for a beautiful place. It has
some buildings with arched fronts and many white
and pink and yellow houses, half hidden among
44
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
strange tamarind and palm and mango trees, but
when we got ashore the vision vanished. The
arcades were clumsy and crumbling and dirty ;
the streets unpaved and irregular, and the cabins
where the negroes lived were far from picturesque.
Throughout the islands these cabins are small and
inexpensive, and often dilapidated and ruinous in
the extreme. The shanties which are built along the
lines of new railroads in the United States for work-
men, are nicer than the majority of these negro
houses. They are built of wood, and usually con-
sist of one or two rooms, in which a large family is
huddled at night. The people spend most of the
daytime out of doors, and meals are prepared in the
open air. There is no glass in the windows and
wooden shutters serve to keep out the wind and
rain. The foundations are rarely more than a few
posts or large stones. A tempest would easily over-
turn these cabins, and they are placed so near to-
gether in the towns that a fire would naturally burn
a great number before it could be put out. When,
therefore, we hear that a hurricane or a fire has de-
stroyed several hundred houses in a West India island,
it is not necessary to conclude that a vast amount
of property has been destroyed. The buildings serve
the purposes of a shelter and a rendezvous for the
family, and if destroyed, they can be easily replaced.
SANTA CRUZ
45
The sugar
Beet sugar,
Santa Cruz is covered with sugar-cane plantations.
They climb the hills and crown many of them, and
skirt precipices, and sweep their waves of golden
green down to kiss the white sea-waves.
interest is dreadfully depressed now, but the plant
for making sugar is here, the capital has been
invested, the land has been given up to the sugar-cane
culture; what can the planters do?
and the low price of sugar in England and in the
United States, competition and hard times have
joined to render sugar planting unprofitable; all the
planters feel poor, while many think that they are
ruined. Others, more sensible, have awakened to
the folly of cultivating only one staple, and are try-
ing to change their plans for the future; some have
kept right on in spite of losses, in the hope that bet-
ter times will come to help them. The emancipation
of the slaves was a terrible blow to the prosperity
of the West Indies, and they have never recovered
from the entire revolution in labor which this change
produced. The negroes are hard-working men and
women, but it is after a fashion of their own. They
will work only when and as they please. Such
labor is unfavorable to regular production, and un-
profitable where competition is keen and margins are
small. The sugar question of the West India islands
is one of the most serious which now confronts com-
46
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
merce, and it demands careful study, judicious prac-
tical treatment, and wise legislation for its solution.
Meanwhile the islands are still covered with the
green fields of cane, among which run superb roads,
beneath avenues of cocoa palms. Drives in the island
of Santa Cruz, over these roads, led us into valleys
where there were tamarind trees delicate leaved as
our locust, and giants called flamboyants, leafless
but all aflame with scarlet flowers; and the silk cot-
tonwood with enormous misshapen roots and long
horizontal branches, on which grew a multitude of
parasites and air plants. Here, too, were the curi-
ously formed frangipani, with hooked or claw-like
branches, the banana tree with clustering fruit and
its huge purple and cone-like blossom. Flowers of
all colors and shapes, from the fragrant white jasmine
to the yellow and red cacti, adorned the roadsides.
Black pelicans floated on the sea, or sailed in long
and continuous flight through the air; the groves
were never without modest music from numbers of
elegantly dressed birds, and innumerable brilliant
butterflies harmonized in the beauty of their coloring
with the superb flowers upon which they fed.
It was at Santa Cruz that we first visited a large
sugar plantation. Driving on a fine hard road,
neither muddy nor dusty, beneath a noble avenue of
cocoa palms, which bordered fields of sugar-cane, we

SUGAR CANE PLANTATION
SANTA CRUZ
47
came in due time to the sugar mills of Bartram
Brothers, one of the largest establishments on the
island. It is under the care and management of
Colonel Blackwood, a retired Maine sailor, who
knows the West Indies and the Spanish Main by
heart. After many voyages he has cast anchor here,
and is doing his best to make these fields and mills
remunerative. Thus far, by introducing new machin-
ery, by keeping up with the times, and by untiring
industry and personal supervision, he has made them
pay, but the present outlook is almost discouraging
even to such sagacious industry. The colonel showed
us the processes of growth and manufacture in detail
and with extreme courtesy. The cane is planted on
prepared ground in wide rows, in the fall, and grows
to a great height in a year's time. It must be hoed
and kept free from weeds. The resemblance of a
cane field to a closely planted field of Indian corn is
striking. When it has attained its growth, black
men and women cut the cane with a machete or cut-
lass, trim off the leaves and pack it into carts, which
are drawn by oxen or mules to the weigh-house, which
usually stands close to the mill. As soon as the cane
has been weighed, it is pitched upon a moving
inclined plane, which carries it up to the cutter and
squeezing rollers. These seize it, and the sweet
juice, colored a dirty brown, comes out beneath the
48
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
rollers, and is conducted to and through a variety of
strainers, and boilers, and vacuum pans, and wringers,
until it appears in brightest sugar crystals, though
still very brown. It is then placed in canvas bags of
three hundred and two pounds each, and marked to
be shipped for refining. The molasses, which is
sweet refuse from the boiling, is taken off into tanks
during the process and barrelled. The waste cane,
called “ bagasse” is dried in the open air and used
for fuel. One of the labor-saving processes invented
by Colonel Blackwood enables him to burn the
bagasse just as it comes from the rollers. The whole
of this establishment is run by steam power, and the
machinery is most expensive and elaborate. Many
mills are simple, the power being obtained from a
windmill and the machinery being very primitive.
These mills in good times have made as fair com-
parative profits for their owners as the more costly
ones on account of the small cost of running them, but
when times are bad and competition is keen they can-
not make money. Everywhere upon the islands are
abandoned plantations, and buildings going to decay.
This is due to many causes, among which are the
absentee system of ownership, lack of thrift in man-,
agement, extravagant modes of living, the unreliable
character of labor. But recently, added to all these
reasons has been the competition of the beet root sub-
.
SANTA CRUZ
49
sidized sugar of Germany, and the low price of the
cane sugar in almost all civilized countries. One
owner told me that his estate and mill, which three
years ago paid him more than fifty thousand dollars'
profit, would this year hardly pay expenses. The is-
lands have been so entirely given up to sugar cultiva-
tion that it will be years before they can recover from
the great losses which these hard times involve, or be-
fore they can raise up new industries to take the place
of those which have failed.
A New Haven shipowner, Captain Perkins, who
has settled in a charming part of Santa Cruz after
more than a hundred voyages to the Caribbees,
kindly invited us to his house and treated us most
hospitably. His piazza looks upon the turquoise sea,
over which our White Squadron was tracing its
course in lines of foam, as the gunboats steamed
towards the roadstead; the garden was full of tropi-
cal fruits and flowers, and at the foot of the hill on
which the house stood, were some of the most majes-
tic mahogany and cottonwood and thibet trees that I
have ever seen. The afternoon passed rapidly away
in pleasant visiting, and before the evening gun was
fired, some of us went on board of the cruiser New
York. We were courteously welcomed by Admiral
Meade and shown over the vessel by the chaplain,
Rev. Mr. Clark, who is a Methodist Episcopal clergy-
50
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
man hailing from Calais, Me., and has been at the
Annapolis Naval Academy and in the navy for
twenty-two years.
Some of the party had taken a long drive and
dined at a vast hotel at Christiansted or Basse End,
the capital of the island, which they described as
much superior in every way to West End, but the
island seemed attractive to all wherever they had
dined or strolled, and Santa Cruz is considered to be
one of the most healthful and desirable places for
residence or resort in the West Indies.
VII
FROM SABA TO ST. KITT'S
BOTTOM ON TOP
SHIP BUILDING ON A MOUNTAIN — A
PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL
SHIP
MOUNT MISERY AND
MONKEY HILL
WONDERFUL FISHES
BANYANS AND
PALMISTES
SAILING from Santa Cruz, we came with a
straight course to Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Kitt's.
The two first named are lofty cones, the craters of
volcanoes whose fires have gone out. Saba is sur-
rounded with rocky precipices. It rises sheer out
of the sea more than a thousand feet, while the
top of the cone is nearly three thousand feet high,
and in many places quite inaccessible. The land-
ing is effected at a rocky cove over breakers that
shoot the boat towards the stony beach with the
force of a catapult. Then comes a climb up a path
well named the “ladder," consisting of steps cut
in the rock, an ascent of eight hundred feet, so
steep that visitors must be helped up with ropes
over parts of the way. This difficult path leads
to the town of “Bottom,” which certainly seems
51
52
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
cano.
like a misnomer after such a climb, but it occupies
the level surface of a vast crater of an extinct vol-
The town is surrounded by hills, with one
opening to the east, and another to the west, through
which the inhabitants reach the sea. Everything
has to be transported from the shore to the town
on the heads of the people. Each man carries one
hundred pounds up these steep cliffs, taking his
load three miles with a perpendicular ascent of
thirteen hundred feet. There is said to be on Saba
the largest mine of pure, cool sulphur in this hem-
isphere. Its owner was murdered in New York,
a few years ago, and the mine has not been worked
since.
In the quaint town of Bottom live two thousand
Dutch people. They all have fair skins and rosy
complexions, with some freckles, but little tan,
while there is a predominance of tow heads among
the juvenile population. The whites outnumber the
blacks three to one, and true to their Dutch ances-
try, they are sailors and boat builders. Up in this
mountain crater they build the stanchest fishing
boats that sail the Caribbean Sea, and when these
are finished, they lower them down the side of the
mountain with ropes and launch them in the ocean.
The Dutch have always been famous for overcoming
obstacles. They love to accomplish what seems
FROM SABÀ TO ST. KITT'S
53
impossible ; and here on Saba, an almost inaccessible
island, where no timber grows, where there is no
dock and no harbor, and not even a smooth beach,
they have established a shipyard and from hence
have sent their vessels built in a mountain through-
out the West Indies.
St. Eustatius is a great volcanic cone, whose lip
has been broken down on the northern side, the
land falling away into low hills and meadow land
which makes up far the greater part of the island.
The island is a Dutch possession, but thinly inhab-
ited, and without trade or importance. It was once
held by Great Britain in the days when Rodney
brought all these islands under English control, but
it was inadequately defended, and erelong fell an
easy prize to French and Dutch adventurers. In
old times its caves and secret valleys served as hid-
ing-places for pirates and smugglers, and it is not
entirely free from suspicion at the present day.
It is a great resort also for picnic parties from St.
Kitt's, and judging from the condition in which a
party returned, some of whose members paid a visit
to our ship after their day's outing, there must still
be stores of spirits in the crater and a readiness to
share them with all comers. One of those visitors
a prominent planter who had just returned
from travelling in Europe. With his “attorney,
,"
was
54
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
as they call the managers of the estates here, and
other friends, he was determined to appropriate the
Madiana and make a night of it on board. The
captain had to be called, before the inebriates could
be induced to enter their boats. They went vowing
in thick and incoherent language that they would
ship no sugar by a line that denied them the hos-
pitalities of its vessels. Next morning, however,
they were more sensible and apologized for their
rudeness. Drinking is not done upon the sly in
the West Indies. The first sign that met my gaze
on landing at St. Thomas was “Rum Shop” in a
conspicuous place and style, and the same name is
given to the many places in the various islands
where rum and other drinks are to be had. We
saw abundant evidence of the effects of rum drink-
ing, though these were mostly secondary, intoxicated
persons not being numerous, except at Martinique
during the Mardi Gras celebrations.
It was early on a February morning that we
sighted the island of St. Kitt's, and after skirting the
coast for an hour or two, came to anchor off Basse
Terre, the principal town. There were a number of
vessels moored in the port, among them the Pennsyl-
vania School Ship Saratoga, with about ninety boys
on board. They were a fine set of young fellows,
under good training for a maritime life. The gov-
FROM SABA TO ST. KITT'S
55
ernment of the United States is doing a wise thing
in fostering this kind of education. These lads will
not only supply officers for our increasing merchant
vessels, but will have that fundamental knowledge
which will fit them for emergency service in our
navy.
When the sun rose, we found ourselves in a beau-
tiful curving basin of indigo-colored water, which
was breaking into white lines of surf upon a yellow
beach. Along the beach, and for a mile inland, lay
the picturesque town of Basse Terre, its red and
white roofs appearing among tall cocoanut and cab-
bage palms, breadfruit and mango trees. Beyond
the town, on gradual slopes, were many light green
sugar plantations, each having a tall chimney and a
group of white stone buildings in the midst. Then
the mountains rose, dark green and purple in color;
rugged, and broken into wild ridges and ravines for
several thousand feet, till they met the sky with an
edge like a knife-blade, while a pyramid of black
lava formed the summit of Mount Misery. Upon
this lofty peak and often upon its companion, called
Monkey Hill, a mass of vaporous clouds hangs nearly
all the time. In a drive around the island we once
saw this cloud cap lifted for half an hour, when only
Precipitous, black, jagged rocks,
Forever shattered and the same forever,"
56
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
stood revealed. The contrast between the emerald
billows of verdure which tossed up from the low-
lands, and this infernal crest, was striking and sug-
gestive. The lava, and sulphur, and ashes, which
have been cast out from the crater, and which have
formed its slopes, and are still washed down to the
ocean shores, have made the island fertile and beau-
tiful. Thus the hideous ogre is changed into a fairy
godmother, or in more pious phrase, our bountiful
Creator is always and everywhere
“ from seeming evil, still educing good.”
Every morning after breakfast we landed on some
of the islands, to ride or drive or visit or study the
people and their customs. The struggles of the
negro boatmen for the privilege and profit of row-
ing us ashore, became in time no more exciting than
the cries and gestures of the cabmen in front of any
great railway station in America; and we chose
Champagne Charlie ” or “Black-eyed Susan," with
supreme indifference, and were rowed ashore over
the tossing waves to a long wharf and so came to
the sandy beach. Here was a curious sight. Be-
sides the lighters and gangs of longshoremen who
were at work upon hogsheads of sugar and hogs-
heads of molasses and barrels of rum, and the ragged
negroes, with ruinous carts and raw-boned horses
FROM SABA TO ST. KITT'S
57
and starved donkeys, there were the fishing boats
which had just arrived with the products of their
nets. These were spread out upon the sand, and a
more brilliant piscatorial picture I never saw before,
but such variety and beauty in a fish market I saw
again and again in the markets of the Windward
Islands. The fish were of all sizes and shapes, from a
hideous shark to the graceful and beautiful bonita.
There were the parrot fish, a gray-blue and yellow fish
that looked like a drowned “Polly," with watery eye;
the gar-fish, two feet long, as slender as a lance-
blade, clothed in gleaming silver, and with a long
black bill like a bird's, which is set with rows of fine
pointed teeth; there was the butter fish, and the
redsnapper, and the gauze-winged flying fish, and
the beautiful angel fish, with its delicate arrange-
ment of scales of pearl and silver and bronze and
gold. Curious eels of vast size lay coiled like ser-
pents in boxes, and there were lobsters large enough
to take a small darky in their claws and walk off
with him, and crabs of all sizes and colors, and forty
other strange and wonderful dwellers in the sea.
Dozens of men and women, squatting or kneeling
in the sand, were chaffering and chattering, and
handling and weighing, and selling and buying.
I saw nothing but copper coin used in the purchases,
and when I offered half a crown for change, in pay-
58
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
ment for two breadfruit, which cost a half-penny,
there was a sensation among the dealers equal to
that caused upon the Stock Exchange in New York,
by a large and sudden exportation of gold.
Some writers say, that this chief town of St. Kitt's
is formal, and that its population is not picturesque,
but they must have seen it in rain or mist, or during
a hot noontide, when the Kittefonians, as they call
themselves, were resting out of sight. It is really
a bright and busy town, with many neat streets of
well-built wooden houses on one-story stone founda-
tions, a handsome square containing a wonderful ban-
yan tree, a number of fine palmistes, thibet, and other
trees, and beds full of gorgeous hibiscus flowers and
fragrant mignonette, and a multitude of plants and
shrubs. Within the enclosures, which contain some
of the best houses, are gardens full of flowers and
fruits, where one could lounge under wide-spreading
branches, through which the cooling breath of the
trade winds finds its way from ten o'clock in the
morning till long after dark. St. Kitt's does not
afford such varieties of color and costume as are
found in the French islands, but you will see many
tall and comely women, walking with erect figure
and attractive dignity which comes from carrying
water-jars and other loads upon the head. The
men are not
not all black; some are yellow with
FROM SABA TO ST. KITT'S
59
straight raven hair and eyes like black beads which
indicate Spanish or Portuguese descent, but the
majority are black as a coal, and look blacker still,
because they are clad, if clad at all, in garments
which were originally made of white material.
They delight in the sugar-cane, which they gnaw
constantly and vary with tobacco smoking, and they
are as fond of all kinds of fruit as an Englishman is
of various sorts of meat. At St. Kitt's we ate sapo-
dillas, which have been inelegantly called “sweet
mud”; mangoes which are of a beautiful color and
contain a creamy substance of a slightly resinous
taste ; guavas, small yellow globes full of seeds and
sugary pulp; soursops, a fruit like a large prickly
pear,
full of a substance which would be familiar to
lovers of ice-cream soda, and great purple raspberries
rather lacking in flavor. Baked breadfruit was
pronounced a valuable addition to those products
which can be used as vegetables or for the stock of
puddings and other desserts, while yams and sweet
potatoes, and plantains, and bananas, and all sorts of
oranges, were familiar to us, though not in the pro-
fusion and at the small cost for which they can be
had in the West Indies.
VIII
LIFE ON ST. KITTS
THE ABORIGINES, THE SETTLERS AND THEIR WARS
CHURCHES OF ST. KITT'S — A STORY OF DEAF MUTES
PHOTOGRAPHS, COINS, AND CURIOS
A DRIVE AROUND
THE ISLAND AND A NEGRO WEDDING
AMONG the pleasant acquaintances formed at
St. Kitt's was that of Captain George Locke and
his amiable wife. The captain lives on the island
in the service of the Quebec Steamship Company,
and he accompanied our party on the southern tour
through the islands as far as Trinidad. His house
is in town, but stands in a garden with palm trees
and clustering vines and an ancient rose bush whose
branches climb over a long veranda and adorn it,
with great blossoms of the “cloth of gold.” From
him we gathered much useful information as we
sailed along, and some of the facts about the island
of St. Kitt's will be of interest before we resume
our voyage. The island is oval-shaped, being thir-
teen miles long, from three to six miles in width,
and contains an area of about forty-four thousand
60

BASSE TERRE-ST. KITTS
LIFE ON ST. KITT'S
61
acres, three-fourths of which is under cultivation.
The uncultivated part is mostly embraced in the
Conarrhee hills, the precipitous crags of Mount
Misery, and a long lowland stretching out to sea
upon the southeast. The remainder of the island
is well tilled and fertile.
The aborigines were Carib Indians, a sturdy and
warlike people who inhabited the island in 1493,
when Columbus discovered and gave it his name.
Tradition declares that he was moved to call it St.
Christopher, because one mountain seemed to him
to be bearing a smaller mountain on its shoulder as
the Saint Christopher is represented in early art
carrying the infant Saviour. The English, when
the island came into their possession, changed its
name to St. Kitt's. But the Carib name
Liamuiga, “ the fertile," a designation which is more
beautiful and appropriate than either of the others.
The Spanish discoverers did not settle here, and it
was not until after the Pilgrims had landed at
Plymouth Rock, that fifteen Englishmen took posses-
sion of St. Christopher. A party of Frenchmen
came about the same time, and their common danger
from the Caribs led English and French for once
to join forces, massacre the natives, and divide their
conquest. The English settled at the northwestern
end called Sandy Point, and the French at Basse
Was
62
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Terre on the southwest. But the league thus
cemented in blood was soon broken, and English
and French quarrelled for more than half a century,
till finally in 1690 the English mustered three thou-
sand armed men, and eleven men-of-war and other
vessels, drove the French out of the island, and
exiled them to Martinique. The island has been
in English hands ever since, but while Sandy Point
is still a small village, Basse Terre has about seven
thousand inhabitants and contains the Government
House and other public buildings and a number of
churches. We attended service in three, the Roman
Catholic church opposite the Botanic Garden, where
the congregation was almost entirely composed of
colored and negro people; the Wesleyan church
with a similar congregation but having more of
the negro element, and the Church of England,
whose services were held in a large and handsome
stone structure well filled with white people, with
here and there a colored person, but few if any
negroes. The distinction between colored persons
and negroes is very marked and is always insisted
upon. Colored people may associate with whites
upon terms of equality, but the negro still bears
the curse of his lineage and is reckoned as belong-
ing to a servile race.
The service at the Church of England was
LIFE ON ST. KITT'S
63
crous ;
conducted by a venerable archdeacon who seemed
to be eccentric. He omitted parts of the service
without any reason, and mixed up other parts, and
his enunciation was so strange as to seem ludi-
he smiled derisively and wagged his head
to and fro till some of our ritualists in the party
became indignant. But our tendency to mirth or
anger was changed to pity when we learned after
service that the poor rector had been paralyzed
and was struggling bravely to retain his place and
perform his duties. I recalled the story of the
lady who had gone to Notre Dame in Paris to
hear a celebrated priest. She found one chapel
occupied by a congregation and presuming that she
was in the right place, kneeled for a few moments
in prayer. On rising from her knees, she saw that
the preacher was making an address, but she could
not hear a word. She tried to listen, but no sound
reached her ear. Frightened at what she supposed
was a sudden deafness on her part, she rushed into
the main body of the church, where she met a
friend, who seeing that something was wrong asked:
“What is the matter?” “Thank God, I have
recovered my hearing,” exclaimed the lady; “I
feared that I should be deaf for life.” Upon hear-
ing the story, her friend informed her that she had
entered the chapel where one of the successors of
64
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
the famous teacher De L’Epée was conducting a
service for deaf-mutes! It is not always safe to
draw conclusions from appearances, especially when
travelling in foreign lands.
One of the objects of interest to the modern
traveller is the photographer. Next to the pleasure
of carrying one's own camera, and choosing the
point of view, is that of overhauling the local photog-
grapher's stock. At St. Kitt's, Mr. Lyon, who fills
this post, is a character. He has lived long in the
Windward Islands, knows all their beauties and
salient points, is an enthusiastic artist, and also an
untiring collector of coins and curios and postage
stamps. It was a curious experience to find in this
far-away island some of the rarest Roman and Greek
coins and things that antiquarians and amateurs long
to possess. Mr. Lyon was proud to show his
treasures and to share his pleasure with a group of
eager travellers. I have nothing to say about the
hotel facilities and accommodations at Basse Terre,
except that we greatly preferred the private hospi-
tality of the inhabitants to any public provision, and
were thankful here as elsewhere, that there was
French chef on board the Madiana and stewards who
knew the art of serving a meal.
In good company, I twice drove about St. Kitt's.
A fine road runs from Basse Terre towards the
а.
LIFE ON ST. KITT'S
65
southeast, gradually ascending from the anchorage,
till the broad Atlantic with its breakers on the rocks
and its far-extending billows, greets the eye. From
the crest of the island the road traverses the wind-
ward shore, sometimes climbing a hill and anon
sweeping down almost to the foaming waves. Run-
ning northward along the entire eastern side, a
superb ocean view meets the eye upon the right
hand, and a mingled landscape of sugar-cane planta-
tions, dense forests, and ragged cliffs is upon the left.
We visited a sugar mill of the simplest sort on one
of these drives. The work was done by negroes,
oxen, wind, and water, and the sugar which was
turned out was the cheapest sort of muscovado.
The owner lives in Scotland and is perhaps content
with a very moderate profit upon his investment,
and in these times he will be lucky if he does not
pay out more than he receives, even with such primi-
tive methods and machines.
On another drive we witnessed a marriage in the
Episcopal church of St. Paul's, near Sandy Point.
A large population had turned out, and the roads
were so full that we inquired whether it was a fête
day, and were told that a wedding was at hand. So
we made our way to the church and joined the com-
pany. The bride was tall and large-limbed, and as
black as night. She was dressed in white lawn, with
F
66
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
a large necklace, made of great glass beads like pearls,
around her neck, and a huge white satin bonnet on
her head. A medium-sized negro girl, who also wore
a white muslin dress gayly bedecked with cherry
ribbons, was the bridesmaid, and the groom was a
tall and powerful black man, in a gray suit, white
waistcoat, and blue necktie. After the knot was
tied, the party were called upon to sign the register.
This operation occupied nearly a quarter of an hour,
and was accompanied with much twisting of the
tongue into the corner of the mouth, and difficult
adjustment of the fingers so as to bring fingers and
pen and page into perfect unison. At last the signa-
tures were made, the minister got his fee, and the
happy pair were driven off in a rickety coach with a
raw-boned team and a charioteer clothed in white
linen, followed by the cheers and blessings of a wait-
ing crowd. They must have gone to Basse Terre,
thirteen miles distant, upon their bridal tour, for this
is the longest journey one can take on the island.
The rector told us that such occasions were rare
among the negoes, as the women preferred an
arrangement in which they were left free to leave
their partners, if they proved to be lazy or unkind;
he said also, that those who were legally married
were treated with more respect among their own
people as well as by others. At the church and
LIFE ON ST. KITT'S
67
along the road we were met by men and girls with
missionary boxes, who were collecting funds for
benevolent uses, and though some doubted whether
the shillings which they gave would reach further
than the pockets of the solicitors, most of the party
were charitable in their judgment as well as in their
gifts.
On this drive we passed through the villages of
Caro and St. Paul's, and embarked again at Sandy
Point, where the steamer had come for some bags
of sugar. There is no place to lunch or lodge on
the island, outside of Basse Terre, and though the
planters are doubtless hospitable enough to entertain
visitors, the days when any traveller felt free to
make himself at home without an invitation, have
passed away. About midnight we steamed away
from St. Kitt's by the light of the Southern Cross,
which was now becoming familiar, and a host of
other new and brilliant stars which gemmed the
firmament.
IX
A REAL WEST INDIAN ISLAND
BEAUTIES OF SEA AND SHORE
DROWSY OLD TOWN
.
IN
DAYS
OF AULD LANG
SYNE-A
FOUNTAIN
OF
YOUTH
BIRTHPLACE OF HAMILTON AND MARRIAGE
PLACE OF NELSON
ONE of the most intelligent and agreeable of
my companions in our winter tour among the Wind-
ward Islands was Mr. Alfred M. Williams. He was
one of the men who helped to make the New York
Tribune in the days of Horace Greeley, and has since
edited that able and influential New England news-
paper, the Providence Journal. Mr. Williams is a
lover of literature and of old books; a poet and an
author, as well as an editor. His last book, is an
interesting collection of poetical folk-lore, under the
title, “Studies in Folk-Song and Popular Poetry.”
My friend became enamored of the beautiful island
of Nevis, which he visited while the Madiana lay
at St. Kitt's, and which I visited with others upon
the return voyage. Mr. Williams has kindly given
me permission to print his poetic and vivacious
68

PALM GROVE-ISLAND OF NEVIS
A REAL WEST INDIAN ISLAND
69
descriptions of Nevis, and I am sure that my readers
will join me in thanks for his courtesy.
“ The most distinctly West Indian island which we
have yet seen, our port of call including St. Thomas,
St. Croix, and St. Kitt's, is the little island of Nevis.
It is not in the regular routes of the steamers,
but is gained in an hour and a half's sail by a small
boat from Basse Terre, St. Kitt's. The morning was
a delightful one, the sky full of soft, fleecy clouds,
which now and then darkened into mist and rain,
sweeping in sheets of falling water over the wine-
dark sea, and again lifting into white veils upon
the mountain tops and letting the sun shine in
unclouded lustre upon the sparkling vegetation and
the sea, which was turned by its caress to the
richest turquoise blue. The white gulls screamed
with that voice which is the very accent of the
ocean, as they swept about in what seemed like
a madness of activity, and now and then a greater
pelican would wing his heavy way above the sea.
The little steamer coasted along the shore of St.
Kitt's, with its high hills apparently covered with
unbroken forest, and then played and rolled through
the heavy waves that swept through the channel,
which divides the island from Nevis. Nevis is
dominated by a lofty hill, which looks down on
the open roadstead. This morning it wore a light
70
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
gauze veil of Vapor around its summit, but down
its sides there were patches of the soft green verdure
of the cane fields, and the darker woods were bathed
in the sunlight. As we approached the shore the
white foam of the breakers was seen combing far
up on the beach, and the heavy thunder of their
fall gave a strong symphony of ocean music. The
sea was so rough that the steamer could not ap-
proach the wharf, and the few passengers were
transferred to the shore by the skilful hands of
the negro boatmen.
“The town of Charlestown, which is the capital of
Nevis, is a small hamlet of a few hundred in-
habitants, and is hardly more than a single street,
stretching along the open beach. On the sea front
there is a single line of cocoa palms lifting their
feathered heads high in air, and beneath them are
the huts of the negro fishermen, with their boats
hauled up on the beach and their nets drying in the
The town is made of quaint old houses of
the ancient period of West Indian architecture, with
mossy stone walls and tiled roofs. There are no
signs of any business except a few shops of general
merchandise, and an air of gentle decay broods over
the whole place. There is a little public garden
of a few feet square, in which roses and rho-
dodendrons were in bloom, and around it were a
sun.
A REAL WEST INDIAN ISLAND
71
few negro women with cakes and vegetables for
sale.
“ The white population were few, but in amends the
negroes were many. Strong black wenches passed
by with heavy burdens on their heads, walking with
that firm, solid, and graceful step which comes from
the habit of carrying burdens, with only the move-
ment of the hips, the bust and head remaining
perfectly steady and upright. All were smiling and
happy, showing their white teeth, and ready to
respond with a soft "good m-a-a-wning' in the
sweet, drawling Creole accent. Some were carry-
ing baskets of bright-colored West Indian fish of
strange shapes and abnormal aspect, and others great
burdens of vegetables, boxes and loads of a very
miscellaneous character. One would not have been
surprised to see a negress with a kerosene lamp
or a mirror on her head, or, if there were a square
piano on the island, to see it borne with a steady
step by four of these women caryatides. The men
seemed to have little to do, and to be doing that
without any energy. They idled on street corners
and talked with a conversation heavily punctuated
with guffaws, or munched sugar-cane in sleek and
shiny content. Shoes, it is needless to say, were
unknown, and garments were reduced to the sim-
plest articles of necessity. Altogether, Charlestown
72
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
seemed sunk in a gentle and tranquil sleep, its
slumber soothed with the tranquil booming of the
surf, and steeping in the warmth of the kindly
sun.
"But Charlestown was once as wealthy and lively
a place for its size as any in the West Indies. In
the days when a plantation in the rich soil of Nevis
was a gold mine, there were wealthy merchants who
dwelt here, and a rich and luxurious planting
population to lead a grand train of luxury and ex-
pense. Besides, Charlestown was the Saratoga of
the West Indies, where all the wealth and fashion
of the Windward islands gathered to spend the
season at the famous sulphur baths. About ten
minutes' walk from the town are the ruins of an
immense stone hotel, which must have been able
to accommodate several hundred guests. It now
looks like the ruins of an ancient castle, so heavy
are the crenellated walls of a massive gray,
* By the caper overrooted, by the gourd overscored,
and three magnificent flights of stone steps lead
up to the entrance hall. One can imagine what
bevies of dark and languid Creole beauties in
diaphanous muslins have passed up those steps,
escorted by white-coated planters, or officers from
the ships and garrisons in more brilliant uniforms,
A REAL WEST INDIAN ISLAND
73
or danced and flirted in the lofty ball-room, where
now the clothes of the negro family which keeps the
bath are hung to dry. Only the central portion
of the building is roofed, the top story of the wing
having entirely fallen in, and from the walled ter-
race to which one climbs by a rickety stair there
is a magnificent view of the town and the gleaming
plain of the sea, while the soft and spicy breeze
gently caresses the cheeks. It is a gentle ruin,
embowered in luxuriant vegetation that has kindly
wrapped and softened its decay, and is perhaps more
suited to the scene than when it was alive with
hilarious gayety.
“The bath-house is at the foot of a gentle declivity
in front of the hotel. It is an ancient and dilapi-
dated building, whose battered doors move reluc-
tantly on their hinges. To get to the bath you
descend a long flight of brick steps leading to a pool
of limpid green water with a gentle stir and flow.
It is dark, the only light coming through cracks in
the shutters, and it is not reassuring to hear the
scuttle of a lizard or some other beast as you reach
the platform. However, you take heart of grace
and disrobe. At the first step the water seems
unpleasantly warm, but soon a gentle languor and
a sense of infinite deliciousness comes over you.
You fairly wallow in delight as you sit with the
74
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
water rippling up to your chin, and you feel that
you could rest for hours in absolute beatitude as
the gentle warmth steals through your limbs. And
when you emerge you feel as though you had
never been clean before, so complete is the sense of
the removal of all impurities. It is like the foun-
tain of youth in its effects, and if Ponce de Leon
had found it he would have been assured temporarily
at least that the object of his long quest had been
attained. Although a strong sulphur spring, there
is not the slightest unpleasant smell, such as some-
times accompanies a mineral bath, and the waters
are of a limpid purity. Its effects are considered
very good for rheumatic complaints and stories of
wonderful cures are told of its waters. It does
not seem impossible that in the future, when the
attractions of the West Indies as a winter resort
become better known, a new hotel may arise near
the old one, and that an unusual crowd of visitors
from the United States may replace with their
exotic ways the departed glories of the extinct
Creole aristocracy. There are certainly far less
attractive places where fashion resorts in search
of health or to dissipate the burden of its ennui.
But in that case Charlestown would cease to be
a typical West Indian town and become a mere
tourist caravansary like Bermuda or St. Augustine,
A REAL WEST INDIAN ISLAND
75
and those who can now delight in its quaint and
old-world flavor would not come to be dinned and
dazed by American hotel life.
“Nevis is not one of the historical West India
Islands. It was not fought for and refought for as
were the other islands, when France, Spain, and
England struggled for the possession of the pearls
of the Antilles, nor was it a place of enormous loots,
as was the neighboring island of St. Eustatius when
Rodney swooped upon it. Every one will tell you
that it was the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton,
as they will in Santa Cruz that the illustrious Peter
Jackson first saw the light there. A more famous
man than either has, however, left the trace of his
visit there. In the old Fig Tree church a few miles
from town, the register shows that Horatio Nelson,
then a post captain in the British navy, was there
married to Mrs. Fanny Nesbitt, the faithful woman
whom he deserted for the brazen charms of Lady
Hamilton, and of whom he wrote in one of the
most singular expressions of feeling ever uttered
by man “that if the Lord should remove the obstacle
to their union' (meaning his own union with his
mistress), as though heaven should interfere to sanc-
tion his adultery by murder. Meditating upon the
strangeness of humanity, we may leave Nevis to
its sempiternal calm."
X
ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
MONTSERRAT AND ITS LIME JUICE FACTORY
PRAYING
FOR RAIN -A TALE OF ABDUCTION, JEALOUSY, AND
DEATH - INDIAN WARNER
TURTLE SOUP HERE AND
IN LONDON
THE night air on the Caribbean Sea was mild and
refreshing. When the passengers had retired, and
all lights were out which the rules required, I used
to come out from my stateroom, and spreading a
steamer chair astern on the hurricane deck, recline
and gaze for hours at the heavens, and at the dark
masses of black mountain land along which we
coasted. The West Indian night is beautiful, the
sky a deep violet, the atmosphere clear, and while
multitudes of stars are visible to the naked eye, the
larger planets shine with a refulgence unknown in
the temperate zone.
In such a night we rounded Nevis and passed
Redonda, which seemed little more than a black rock,
and then sailed by the lofty crags of Montserrat.
.
This is a port of call for trading vessels, which
76

ST. JOHNS-ANTIGUA
ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
77
receive large quantities of the lime juice manufact-
ured here for export to the United States and else-
where. The trees are planted closely in the orchards
in order to prevent vegetation beneath from exhaust-
ing the soil. They begin to bear after three years
and continue to yield well for half a dozen or more
years. The limes are gathered as they fall to the
ground by children and squeezed between sugar
rollers. The juice is then boiled till it is thick, and if
intended for shipment is run into hogsheads of fifty
gallons. The juice is used as an anti-scorbutic and
largely for making citric acid. It is made at other
islands, notably at Dominica ; but the best quality
of juice known to commerce is made on Montserrat.
The industry was originally established by Quakers,
and it has been of far more use to mankind (and I
am happy to say, of equal profit to the capitalists)
than the making of rum which employs so many of
the West India islanders. Many a scurvy-stricken
sailor has had reason to bless the founders of this
beneficent industry. Steaming slowly through the
night, on account of reefs and shoals, we cast anchor
off Antigua, in an open roadstead just before sunrise.
When the sun rose, at once everything was bright
and began to be hot. We looked upon the light-
house on a reef near which we had sailed, and at the
wreck of a steamer lying upon another reef about
78
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
eight miles from shore, with the sea dashing over her
decks. Masts and funnel were still standing, though
the vessel had been ashore for two years and the
insurance money had been paid.
Antigua is long and low, without high mountains
or striking features. There are a few hills at one
end and an eminence of about fourteen hundred feet
not far from the centre of the island. Seen from a
distance the island seemed rough and barren, but as
the voyager draws near, hills and valleys open to his
view, and the shore puts on an appearance of luxu-
riant vegetation, though destitute of trees except
around the town of St. John's. This is the capital of
the Windward Islands, and the governor resides here,
in an unpretentious house with a public park near at
hand and the beginning of a botanic garden beyond.
The whole island is under cultivation and all in
sugar, hence the present depression of that staple is
severely felt. The want of springs and an insuffi-
cient rainfall are the only serious drawbacks to the
fertility of Antigua. A story is told of a man who
during a period of drought brought casks of water
from Montserrat and sold the precious liquid for so
high a price that he was induced to make a second
excursion for water. Arriving with his cargo, he
increased his figure so much that the inhabitants
refused to buy, and instead united in solemn prayers
1
ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
79
for rain, which being speedily answered, at once re-
warded their faith and punished his greed. The
moral of the story is a good one whether it be fact
or fiction. There are but two or three springs and
no river, and the rainfall is less than on the other
islands, yet on account of its dryness and sandy soil
the health of the island is excellent.
Antigua lies twenty-five miles northeast of Mont-
serrat and forty miles north of Guadeloupe, in lati-
tude seventeen degrees north and longitude sixty-
two degrees west. It is eighteen miles long and
seventeen miles broad, and contains about sixty thou-
sand acres.
When slavery was abolished in 1834, the
population consisted of about two thousand white and
colored people, and thirty-three thousand negroes.
Since the emancipation of the slaves the white popu-
lation has steadily declined and the negroes have as
steadily increased. Antigua has been the scene of a
number of insurrections in the days of slavery. The
island was discovered by Columbus on his second voy-
age, but as he found it full of Caribs, and could get no
good water, he simply gave the island a name after
the Church of St. Mary of Antigua at Seville, and
sailed away. In 1520 Don Antonio Serrano, of
Spain, tried to colonize it, but failed; a century later
a French captain of a privateer made a short stay;
and in 1632 Sir Thomas Warner, who is buried at
80
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Old Road on St. Kitt's, and who was a notable man
in West Indian history, sent his son with a British
army to take and settle the island. There was con-
tinual fighting for years with the Caribs, who had
no mind to have their possessions taken from thein
by Englishmen, and in 1640 a Carib chief stole the
English governor's wife and carried her away to
Dominica.
This raid is celebrated in the ancient legend of
Ding a Ding Nook, which is briefly as follows:
The wife and child of the governor of Antigua,
who were very dear to him, were one day missing
from the government house. Inquiry from all the
neighboring planters revealed no traces of them.
Gradually it dawned upon the agonized husband
and father that his wife and child had been carried
off by the Carib Indians. He heard that some
Caribs with their chief had been seen upon the
island and that they had returned to their homes in
Dominica. With a few friends he sailed down the
islands and landed where the town of Roseau now
stands. There he learned that his suspicions were
correct, and that the chief with his captives had left
shortly before for his lodge in the centre of the
island. He followed after, and before long found
spots of blood on the path. Believing that these
spots indicated that his family had been slain, the
ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
81
pursuers hurried forward and came upon a party of
Indians, whom they slew after a severe battle. A
short distance beyond the place of conflict, the gov-
ernor came to an Indian lodge, and upon opening
the door his wife and child fell into his arms. The
blood upon the path had dropped from the bruised
feet of the captives as they walked up the rough
mountain path.
Full of gratitude and happiness, the governor
brought his family back to their Antiguan home,
but, alas, the anxiety and excitement through
which he had passed disordered the mind of the
husband. He began to be suspicious of his wife,
and imagined that she had gone freely with the
Carib chief. No devotion or affection on her part
seemed able to break the dark spell which enchained
him, and fierce jealousy and hate took the place of
love. The efforts of friends to dissipate his fancies
proved unavailing and it became necessary to sep-
arate the unhappy man from one whom he had ten-
derly loved and rescued from captivity, lest he
should take her life. Whether the cloud ever lifted
and happiness returned, the legend does not inform
us.
Antigua was again captured by the French in
1656, but was restored by the treaty of Breda the
next year. There was little peace for the colonists,
G
82
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
however, for the Caribs kept up their raids till a
deliverer arose in the person of Philip Warner.
He was the son of General Sir Thomas Warner,
the English governor of St. Kitt's. An illegitimate
son of Sir Thomas by a celebrated Carib woman,
who lived far into this century, had become a great
Carib chief, and ruled the Indians with despotic
sway. Philip determined to put an end to the
Carib raids, and taking a party of men, he went to
the place where his brother lived. There was great
joy, says the French historian, Dampier, at their
meeting. Philip made a great feast, and invited
his brother and the Indians to the merrymaking,
but at a given signal, his men fell upon the guests
and murdered Indian Warner and all his tribe. For
the murder of his brother, Philip was tried, but
triumphantly acquitted, had his lands restored, and
was reinstated as governor of Antigua. In 1689
Colonel Coddington, a man famous in West Indian
annals, came from Barbados to govern the island.
He was succeeded by Daniel Parke, from the colony
of Virginia, in 1708.
Parke was
an American
planter, but turned out a great rascal. In 1736 the
negroes, who had now become numerous, led by
Klaas, a powerful black, tried to blow up the gov-
ernment house, but the plot was revealed by an
Obeah witch. Succeeding years have been marked
ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
83
by hurricanes and pestilences, the year 1835 having
been signalized by both of these calamities. There
was a previous earthquake in 1833, which gave
twenty-three distinct shocks which were felt through-
out the islands. The town of St. John's has also
been visited by many disastrous fires, the worst of
which was in 1841, when the loss reached a million
of pounds. In 1825 came the first Anglican bishop,
Coleridge, who has written an interesting book
upon the Caribbees. St. John's is now the resi-
dence of a bishop, and the cathedral, with its two
lofty yellow towers, and long nave full of the tombs
of English residents, is a striking feature of the town
as it is seen from the sea.
The island, though destitute of imposing char-
acteristics, is yet a beautiful member of the group.
It is marked by the peculiarities of the tropics.
Overhead is the clear blue of the sky. The crystal
waters are sparkling in the beams of the blazing
sun. Green hills descend to the very shore. Here
and there a calm and silent glen opens to the
siglt. Numerous creeks run far inland, and appear
amid the surrounding verdure like chains of silver.
A few negro huts are seen nestling at intervals
among clumps of trees. At Grace Bay the land
looks sprinkled with gold from the flowers of the
aloe which grows there in profusion.
84
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
In the midst of such natural beauties the higher
classes of the inhabitants of these islands while
away the hours of daylight until the sun reaches
the west and throws his rich beams on every cloud
which
“Throngs to pavilion upon him."
Suddenly he appears to touch the bosom of the
flaming waves, and then, sending forth one vivid
line of glory, he sinks to rest upon his golden
couch. I wish that I could write with truth as
well as poetry,
“Now comes still evening on;"
but no sooner does the sun go down, than sounds
of all sorts fill the air. Negro men and women
and children gather in groups and begin to gab-
ble, crickets and frogs raise their shrill pipes,
mosquitoes hum, and cockroaches scrape the floors
or crawl in myriads over the tables, while in
country places land crabs clatter about, owls hoot,
and multitudes of insects make unmusical noises.
We were fortunate in sleeping upon a steamer
most of our nights, and, being anchored some dis-
tance from shore, enjoyed a peace which the lands-
man could not secure.
In advance of our arrival we had sent word to
have a turtle dinner prepared, and as this delicacy
ANTIGUA AND ITS ANNALS
85
is to be had in great quantity, visions of rich
green fat, and white meat, and yellow eggs, filled
the imaginations of the epicureans of the party.
But such dreams were destined to a rude awaking.
Our restaurateur was overwhelmed by the size of
the order which he received, and no one who dined
that day at Antigua desired to repeat the expe-
rience, even for the fun of seeing a mob of negro
men
and women scramble after dinner in the
street for bits of silver which were lavishly scat-
tered among them like corn among a flock of
chickens. The stately turtle soup of the lord-
mayor of London, which I have eaten on several
occasions, is more to my taste, even though it be
suspected of relationship to a calf's head, than all
the real turtle cooked in this far-off West Indian
island.
When we had eaten the banquet and seen the
sights, we bade farewell to the town of St. John's,
its streets of white wooden houses with green
blinds, its grand cathedral and miniature harbor,
and sailed due south towards a mighty mass of
dark green land, over which clouds were continu-
ally rolling and tossing, half revealing, half conceal-
ing the peaks and ridges of what we soon learned
to know as Guadeloupe, one of the largest and
strangest of the islands of the archipelago.
XI
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
IGNORANCE AND CREDULITY OF THE NEGROES
OBEAH,
WHAT IT IS AND HOW PRACTISED
SIMILAR BELIEFS
IN
OTHER
NATIONS
ANANSI, JUMBEE AND DUPPY
STORIES
SPIRITUALISM AND HYPNOTISM
the negroes.
No account of a tour in the Caribbees would be
complete without reference to the superstitions of
One cannot talk with them, or visit
their cabins, or observe their habits, without recog-
nizing the fact that they are like children in their be-
lief in ghosts and devils and evil influences. These
have led them to frightful practices in the past, and
I was credibly informed, that while there is apparent
advance in knowledge and civilization, there are
places in the islands where dense superstition and
barbarous customs still prevail. Among these super-
stitions none has been more potent than the
“Obeah," concerning which I shall give some facts,
derived chiefly from persons who from residence in
the West Indies and familiar acquaintance with the
negroes, have had abundant opportunities of observa-
86

(D)୯୦
A WEST INDIAN TYPE
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
87
tion. Among the writers who have treated the
subject Père Labat has been most frequently referred
to, but more than two centuries have passed since
his interesting work was published. It is still an
important aid to the tourist among the Caribbees,
so far as general topography, natural history, and
phenomena are concerned. But the state of society,
and the manners and customs of the people, are much
changed from what they were in his days. Carmi-
chael's “Domestic Manners of the People of the West
Indies ”; “West Indian Folk-lore," by Mary P. Milne;
Hesketh J. Bell's book upon “Obeah," as well as the
books of Mr. F. H. Ober, to whom I have more than
once referred, contain chapters upon these subjects,
and I have availed myself of all of them.
The term “ Obeah" is most probably derived from
“Obi," a word used on the east coast of Africa to
denote witchcraft, sorcery, and fetichism in general.
The etymology of Obi has been traced to a very
antique source, stretching far back into Egyptian
mythology A serpent in the Egyptian language
was called “Ob” or “ Aub." - Obion” is still the
Egyptian name for a serpent. Moses, in the name
of God, forbade the Israelites even to inquire of
the demon “Ob," which is translated in our Bible,
charmer or wizard, divinator or sorcerer. The witch
of Endor is called “Oub” or “ Ob,” translated Python-
88
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
issa, and “Oubois" was the name of the basilisk, or
royal serpent, emblem of the sun and an ancient
oracular deity of Egypt.
Hesketh Bell, writing from St. Vincent, says that
“the Obeah of the negro is nothing more nor less
than a belief in witchcraft, and this operates upon
them to such a degree as not unfrequently to pro-
duce death. There are few Indian estates upon
which there is not one or more Obeah men or women;
the negroes know who they are, but it is difficult for
white people to find them out. The way they pro-
ceed is this: A negro takes a dislike to a negro or
negroes, either upon the same estate with himself
or upon another; he goes to the Obeah woman
and tells her that he will give money or something
else as payment if she will Obeah such and such
persons. The Obeah woman then goes to those
people, and tells them she has Obeahed them. Slow
poison is at times secretly administered, but in by
far the greater number of cases the mind only is
affected; the imagination becomes more and more
alarmed, the spirits sink, lassitude and loss of appetite
ensue, and death ends the drama.
“ The practice of Obeah is too common among the
negroes, and very fatal to them. I know of an
instance where fifteen people, in the course of a
few months, died of no other cause. It is vain to
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
89
reason with them. Missis, I'm Obeahed, I know
I'll go dead,' is all you can obtain from them.
Negroes so firmly believe this that they have bottles
hung round and about their houses, and in their
grounds, full of some sort of infusion which they
prepare to prevent the Obeah from affecting them;
they often wear an armlet, or some such thing, for
the same purpose.
“ The practice of Obeah is death by the laws of St.
Vincent, but there is no possibility of conviction.
Negroes believe that spirits occasionally appear, and
that devils, or, as they call them, "Jumbees,' are
frequently to be seen; nay, that Jumbee sometimes
compels them to go away with him; but I rather
think they make a convenience of Jumbee upon such
occasions. The name is different, but the truth is
negroes believe in witchcraft; and so do many of the
lower orders in Britain. I have seen country ser-
vants in the county of Mid Lothian who were as
firm believers in it as any negro can be. I have seen
a dairymaid churn with the dairy locked for fear of a
man coming in whose eye she declared would spoil
the butter. I have often reasoned with this woman,
who was in other respects a shrewd, sensible female
for her station in life, and she never ceased to tell
me that if I disbelieved in witches I must disbelieve
the Bible; there was no arguing with her, for in her
90
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
و 2
opinion it was sacred ground. I have also often
heard the lower classes in Scotland use the same
argument. Not long ago a respectable man in one
of the western counties of England sent to borrow a
churn from a lady of my acquaintance, because, as he
alleged, “the devil had got into his churn and he
could not make butter in it.'
Half a century since, the practice of Obeah caused
so much loss of slave property by poisoning that
it was found necessary to enact the most stringent
laws for its repression, and an ordinance was passed
in all the West Indian colonies, imposing heavy
penalties on any person found guilty of dealing
in Obeah. Unfortunately, through the knowledge
possessed by some of the old negroes of numerous
bushes and plants, unknown to medicine, but found
in every tropical wood, it is to be feared that many
deaths might still be traced to the agency of these
Obeah men.
The secret and insidious manner in
which this crime is generally perpetrated makes
detection exceedingly difficult. A Roman Catholic
priest, who was asked to give his opinion upon the
subject, replied: "Ah, my dear sir, I can't remember
half I hear and notice on these ever-present super-
stitions of the people, but I assure you that it is
one of the greatest obstacles I meet with in my
work among my parishioners; these foolish but so
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
91
deeply rooted beliefs of theirs in the power of
Obeah and witchcraft meet me at every turn, and
after talking hours and trying to prove to them
how ridiculous and senseless all these ideas are, I
only obtain a seeming acquiescence and make no
lasting impression. I have tried everything to com-
bat the baneful influence, and endeavored to make
them ashamed of their ignorance and credulity,
but with precious little effect. I have even adopted
the Japanese custom of punishing a whole street
for the misdeeds of one criminal living in it, by
refusing the sacraments for a time to a whole family,
if a member of it be known to be dabbling in Obeah
all to the same purpose.'
“ West Indian Folk-lore” contains many similar
instances of the influence of Obeah upon the
negroes. It has also a collection of fairy tales and
silly stories with which the people amused each
other, from which I extract an example: “In the
West Indies if you desire to be told a fairy tale or
anything of the kind you must ask for “Anansi’
stories. In the old days these were usually told
at local gatherings of the people; such as wed-
dings or funerals, the latter being equal occasions
for festivity with the former. The old women keep
the children quiet with these tales, and the small,
white · buccra,' sitting by its nurse, will have a flood
..
92
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
of folk-lore wasted on its entertainment, which an
elder interested in the same will vainly endeavor
to hear, the narrator repeating: Dat foolishness;
wonder missus car to har dat.' Anansi stories,
which are those usually told to children, owe their
name to a mysterious personage who plays the
principal part in them - a hairy, old man with
long nails, very ugly, called brother or Father
Anansi. In some way Anansi bears a resemblance
to the Scandinavian Troll' or 'Scrattle,' and
the Lubber fiend' of the English north country;
and his character is not unlike that of the German
· Reinecke Fuchs,' or the Japanese •Kitsuri Fox,
thievish and cunning. Here is one of the Anansi
stories : Anansi and Baboon were disputing one
day which was fattest; Anansi said he was sure he
was fat, but Baboon declared he was fatter. Then
Anansi proposed they should prove it; so they
made a fire and agreed that they should hang up be-
fore it and see which would drop most fat. Baboon
hung up Anansi first, but no fat dropped. Then
Anansi hung up Baboon, and very soon the fat
began to drop, which smelt so good that Anansi
cut a slice of Baboon and said: "O brother Baboon,
you fat for true.'
But Baboon didn't speak. So
Anansi said: “Well, speak or not speak, I'll eat
you every bit to-day,' which he really did. But
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
93
when he had eaten up all Baboon, the bits joined
together in his stomach, and began to pull him
about so much that he was obliged to go to a doctor.
The doctor told him not to eat anything for some
days, then he was to get a ripe banana and hold
it to his mouth. When Baboon, who would be
hungry, smelt the banana, he would be sure to run
up to eat it, and so he would run out of his mouth.
So Anansi starved himself and got the banana, and
did as the doctor told him, but when he put the
banana to his mouth he was so hungry he couldn't
help eating it. So he didn't get rid of Baboon,
which went on pulling him, until he went back to
the doctor, who took a banana and held it to Anansi's
mouth, and very soon the baboon jumped up to
catch it, and ran out of his mouth, and Anansi
was glad to get rid of him. And baboons to this
very day like bananas. Besides Anansi stories
there are also Duppy or Jumbee stories which relate
solely to ghosts, and resemble what the French
call "revenants, the Germans 'wald gheist,' and
are also similar to the Irish fetch.'
The want of grace and description about the folk-
tales seems to be less striking wherever the French-
man or Spaniard has had dominion; in Martinique,
for instance, there seems to be more romance and
graceful sentiment about the negro and Creole super-
94
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
stitions than in the English islands, the ghost stories
are more weird and powerful, and the expressions
used are happier and more refined. Perhaps the
grace and esprit of the old French settlers have
left an impression upon their descendants.
In Martinique prevails a curious
curious superstition,
that of the “diablesse," a beautiful negress with
piercing eyes, who passes silently through some
lonely cane-piece where men and women
are at
work, and whatever man she smiles upon must arise
sooner or later and follow her -- to death, since he
is never seen again. This superstition is apparently
akin to that prevailing among the Russian peasants,
of the Baba Yagas, or witch woman, whose look
wiles a man away to death.
People who are out of doors very early in the
morning in tropical latitudes, often feel in the midst
of the cool freshness, sudden breaths of hot air -
a curious phenomenon. This gives rise to another
superstition, and the negroes say they are passing
by “ Jumbee's fireplace,” where he made his fire over
night. The beautiful silk cotton tree is supposed
to be Jumbee's favorite haunt, and a negro is loth to
cut down one of these trees, certain that some evil
will overtake him after so doing. For this a lover
of nature is inclined to bless Jumbee, as the means
of saving many of those grand kings of the forest.
WITCHCRAFT AND SUPERSTITION
95
The advance of education will doubtless do much
to dispel these silly and dangerous superstitions,
but when we realize how many people are under
the control of spiritualists, and Christian scientists,
and faith cures, in the most enlightened and Chris-
tian communities, it does not seem strange that races
that have only been emancipated from bondage for
a few generations, and from heathenism for perhaps
a few centuries, should be thus blinded and deluded.
XII
GUADELOUPE
UP SALT RIVER
HURRICANE WORK
A GREAT STEAM-
ING VOLCANO
COFFEE PLANTATIONS AND CULTURE
BRILLIANT MARKET SCENE
EXTRACTS FROM PÈRE
LABAT
It was evening when we saw the gleam of the
lighthouse at Point à Pitre on Guadeloupe, and let
go the anchor in the harbor. The electric lights
still shone in the town and one or two boats came
out to the steamer, but even the quartette of young
men, who were usually ready for an excursion
ashore at any hour of the day or evening, were
content to wait till morning. Some of the party
were polishing up their French in the cabin; for
Guadeloupe and Martinique inhabitants speak only
the French language, though their speech is not
the dialect which Americans call “ Parisian." The
negroes throughout the islands speak a French patois
which is hardly intelligible to other people, and is
a meaningless jargon to foreigners. Morning re-
vealed to us a beautiful landlocked bay with a
96
GUADELOUPE
97
thoroughly tropical aspect. Mangroves lined the
banks of the river, cocoanut and other palms over-
hung the town and grew in groves beyond its limits,
tall breadfruit trees with rounded tops and dark foli-
age diversified the landscape, and a nearer view re-
vealed orange orchards, and gardens full of hibiscus,
begonias, and roses. Upon the right was an immense
group of sugar factories, the Usines Centrales, where
the sugar-canes are brought by the planters and sold
to be manufactured into sugar. Huge smokestacks
were vomiting out black smoke, and the industry
was in full blast, as we landed at a stone pier from
a little naphtha launch which plies in the harbor.
The town of Point à Pitre lies on the south-
western side of the island, at the southern mouth
of a river called Salee, or Salt River. It has an
excellent harbor protected on every side. The
town is new, having been rebuilt not many years
ago, after a fire which laid the old town in ashes.
It had previously been shaken down by an earth-
quake, and blown to pieces by a hurricane. The
first town was built of stone, which the earthquake
tumbled into ruins; the second was built of wood
to prevent damage from this source, but a hurri-
cane blew the frail structures away; and fire
burned up the next town. The present town is laid
out upon broad, straight streets, with several public
H
98
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
squares, and many fine buildings. It is said to be
built of iron-framed houses filled in with brick, to
guard against the varied attacks from the elements
which have proved so destructive in the past.
Guadeloupe, of which island Point à Pitre is one
of the chief towns, is the largest of the West India
Islands which belong to France, and has an impor-
tant commerce. It lies in latitude fifteen degrees
north, and longitude sixty-one degrees west, embraces
with its outlying islands six hundred and twenty-five
square miles, and has a population of more than one
hundred and fifty thousand souls, three-quarters of
whom are blacks. The main island is divided by
Salt River, which is navigable for small boats, but is
largely swamp. Guadeloupe proper lies on the west
and Grande Terre on the east of the river, and each
division is about thirty-five miles long; though
Guadeloupe is a third wider than Grande Terre,
being eighteen miles across from sea to sea, and
contains the mountain range, whose summit is the
steaming volcano, Soufrière. Grande Terre is low,
flat, and marshy and is not composed of lava but of
coral and marine shells; Basse Terre is a vast mass
of volcanic débris rising five thousand feet into the
air, clothed with majestic primeval forests whose
trees are of enormous proportions. We came to the
southern end of the island upon our return trip and
GUADELOUPE
99
cano.
did not land, but we lay to for an hour to take the
mail, and consequently could reconnoitre through
the field-glass. This view revealed deep ravines
whose sides were covered with dense forests out of
which towered groves of vast magnitude, and now
and then as the cloud-caps lifted, we caught sight of
the awful blackness of the Soufrière, the crater
formed of a dozen peaks like giant teeth of the jaws
of hell. Steam and sulphurous smoke poured forth
from the abyss, and it was a relief when the pearly
vapors once more shrouded the horrid place from
mortal view. This is no imaginary picture of a vol-
In 1797 the Soufrière hurled forth dense
masses of ashes and pumice and sulphur smoke; in
1843 its convulsions shook the island and tumbled
its towns into ruins; and before and since that date,
smoke by day and flames by night have shown its
fiery temper and unquenched power for evil, yet the
French people increase, prosper, and are merry here.
There are numerous coffee plantations on Guade-
loupe, and also on Dominica. At the latter island I
met a young Englishman, who had a small coffee
plantation, which gave him a comfortable support
and a visit home once in five years. The coffee
plants are usually raised from seeds sown in beds,
upon the mountains, where the thermometer varies
from fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit in winter, to
100
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
eighty degrees in the heat of summer. When they
are two years old, the small shoots are set out
in rows six feet apart each way. In three years
they begin to yield; they are increasingly fruit-
ful for fifteen or twenty years, and live for a century.
It was February when we were at Guadeloupe, and
the trees were in bloom; the fruit ripens from
August to December, but blooms and green fruit and
the ripened berry may be sometimes seen at once
during the latter part of the year. The berry is red,
of the size and color of a cherry, and coffee is made
from the kernel or seed, which is divided into two
hemispheres. This seed goes through a variety of
processes before it becomes the coffee of commerce,
and is prepared for use in the delicious beverage
which is known all over the world. Most of the
coffee of the French islands goes naturally to France,
.but it is not as cheap as the South American product,
and its cultivation is encouraged by government
bounties. The coffee and sugar interests do not con-
flict, for the former occupies the highland and the
latter the lowland.
The government of this French island is vested in
a governor and his council, and a general council of
thirty members. Basse Terre is the capital, and the
jurisdiction embraces the islands Guadeloupe, Marie
Galante, Désirade, Les Saintes, and St. Martin.
GUADELOUPE
101
Columbus discovered these islands in 1493 - naming
the second one after one of his ships. France took
possession of them in 1635, and after many changes
of owners, in 1816 they became her permanent
possession, and her policy has made them prosper-
ous and productive, in spite of earthquakes and hur-
ricanes. Slavery, which had been abolished in the
English islands in 1834, continued in Guadeloupe
till 1848.
Landing at Point à Pitre from the naphtha launch
at a pier near the fish market, our company dispersed
through the town, some seeking the sugar mills, and
others the market and museum. The market is held
in a covered building in one of the principal squares,
and presented a novel and exciting scene. Several
hundred women - black, yellow, quadroon, and octo-
roon, with very little negro blood and hardly any
negro features -- were chattering and chaffering,
screaming and gesticulating like monkeys, over little
piles of fruit and vegetables and roots and meats and
bouquets of flowers. They wore loose and long flow-
ing gowns of gaudy and brilliant prints, which they
held half-way up to their waists as they walked in
the market-place. On their heads were turbans
which equalled anything in Damascus or Assouan,
formed of Madras handkerchiefs, rolled and twisted
about the head in many folds with one end sticking
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CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
up at the top. All the women wore jewels, neck-
laces of huge beads, great hoops and cylinders of
gold in their ears, bracelets and rings without num-
ber. The passion of the Frenchwoman and of the
blacks for the display of jewelry and gay clothing
seems to have united in this race of islanders,
and their appearance was gay and festive in the
extreme.
The women of Guadeloupe are good-looking, and
we saw a few Creole girls who were beautiful. They
had pure and fine complexions, brown and pale with
a rose tint on the cheeks, and a thin skin through
which the blue veins in the forehead could be traced.
Their hair fell in glossy ringlets; dark and lustrous
eyes half hid by long drooping eyelashes, and pen-
cilled brows, relieved the prevailing color of the face.
Pearly teeth gleamed through thin coral lips, and
when pleased or excited the whole face seemed to
shine as water gleams in the sunlight. They were
petite as compared with the large-limbed and broad-
shouldered black women; with small and beautifully
shaped hands and feet, and forms which might have
posed for a Venus de Medici. Their voices were not
soft and pleasant like those of the negroes, but treble
and high-pitched, so that the illusion produced by
their beauty was often dispelled as soon as they
spoke.

MILK SELLER--GUADELOUPE
GUADELOUPE
103
The population of Guadeloupe seemed to be in-
dustrious, thrifty, and happy. The women came into
town bearing on their heads baskets filled with bottles
of milk, fruits and vegetables, coffee and vanilla beans.
The shops were numerous and well supplied, and an
air of activity and prosperity pervaded, the place.
There was none of the solicitation and begging
among the street negroes of Guadeloupe which is so
great a nuisance in most of these West Indian towns.
“Father, I beg you a penny,” said many a man and
woman and boy to me from St. Kitt's to Barbados.
I have not been begged more persistently in Italy
and Spain than under the English flag in these
islands. Travellers generally have themselves to
blame for encouraging this kind of tax, but the
negroes are such cheerful and natural mendicants
that it is almost impossible to refuse them, especially
when their rags and nakedness offer prima facie
evidence of destitution, but these evidences were
lacking at Point à Pitre.
There is an interesting museum in the town which
contains specimens of the animals, birds, and reptiles
of the islands, and also many curiosities and remains
of the Carib tribes who dwelt here when Columbus
came.
There were some living specimens of the
mongoose. This rodent kills snakes, especially the
dreaded fer-de-lance (whose bite is instant death);
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CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
there were also some specimens in alcohol of this
deadly snake. We never saw one alive in all our
tours, though our ears were filled with stories about
them, and we had read the thrilling descriptions
of Père Labat till it seemed as if the Windward
Islands without the fer-de-lance would be very tame
places to travel in. A few extracts translated from
Père Labat's chapters on Guadeloupe will be read
with interest in this connection. Writing of the
sulphur waters, he says:
“ There is a part of Anse, particularly near the
river, where the beach is covered with rocks and
pebbles of different sizes, but the rest is white, firm
sand, which makes an agreeable walk. About three
hundred paces to the left of the church I noticed
that the waters of the sea in some places were bub-
bling. I went out in a little canoe to see if it was
really true, as they told me, that one could cook eggs
and fish in the water. At a distance of about three
fathoms from the shore, where the water was four
feet deep, I found it so warm in these bubbling
places that I could not hold my hand in it. I sent
for eggs and boiled them by holding them sus-
pended in the water by means of my handker-
chief. On the beach I found the surface of the
sand was no hotter opposite the places where the
water boiled than anywhere else, but digging with
GUADELOUPE
105
66
my hand for five or six inches I began to feel
heat, and at a depth of two feet I found the sand
burning hot and smoking with a strong odor of
sulphur.
They took me to a sort of pond or pool, where
the water was whitish, as if it had been disturbed.
Spouts of water were constantly seen, more fre-
quently in the centre of the pool. I took some
of this water in a shell and it was really boiling.
When it cooled I tasted it, and found it good, but
with a slight taste of sulphur.
It is a pity
that these waters are not in the hands of people who
could make use of them, for it is certain that they
are excellent for many diseases. I was assured
that many hydropathics had been completely cured
after having sweated in this sand, and many others
with chills and nervous affections found relief."
Respecting one of the most famous birds of these
islands, he writes: “We were at Guadeloupe at
the season for hunting certain birds called devils.
They were to be found in Guadeloupe and Domi-
nique, where they came at certain times of the
year
to lay their eggs and hatch them. This bird is
about the size of a grown chicken, its plumage is
black, and its wings are long and strong; its legs
are short with feet like a duck's, but with long claws;
its beak is long and hooked and very hard ; it has
106
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
he says:
large eyes which serve it well in the night, but are
so useless in the day that it cannot stand the light
or distinguish objects, and if surprised by daylight
far from its nest, the poor bird dashes itself against
all obstacles in its path and finally falls to the
earth. The manner of hunting devils is to force
them out of their holes into the sunlight by means
of dogs, when they are easily caught and their
necks wrung.
wrung.” Again, speaking of the produc-
tion of ginger, one of the most profitable exports,
“Ginger comes from the root of a plant
about two feet high. This plant needs good but
light earth to grow in, which is the reason it thrives
in the soil of the Grande Terre of Guadeloupe, which
is of this quality. They plant the ginger at the end
of the rainy season, that is, in October and Novem-
ber, and when it is ripe its leaves become yellow
and dry. The plant is then taken up, separated
from its roots, and dried by being exposed to the
air or wind, but never to the sun, which would
consume its delicate substance almost immediately.
Thus prepared, ginger will last as long as
wishes to keep it, but of course it is better when
fresh."
Guadeloupe left pleasing impressions. It seemed
less savage and rude and more interesting than any
of the islands we had yet seen. After we had
one
GUADELOUPE
107
visited the cathedral, the various quarters of the
town, the shops and the photographer's and the
museum, we entered the launch and were soon on
board and steaming on a fine afternoon towards
Dominica.
XIII
SABBATH DAY ISLAND
RAINBOWS AMONG THE
THE GROO-GROO PALMS
MONSIEUR
COCKROACH AND HIS MAN ISAAC - A RARE MOUNTAIN
RIDE
TROPICAL AIRS, SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
A NEW
PARADISE
WITH
SOME
SNAKES
HISTORY
он
DO-
MINICA
As we moved along over a waveless sea towards
the next landing-place, I remarked especially a
phenomenon which had been noticed several times
upon the voyage. The island of Guadeloupe, which
is one of the largest islands, seemed very small, and
appeared to hang as it were between sea and sky.
Other travellers have alluded to this appearance
which has some of the elements of the mirage, but so
far as I have read, no one except Charles Kingsley
has attempted an explanation. He ascribes this
foreshortening to a combination of causes, among
which the extreme clearness of the air, the simplic-
ity of the form of the islands, and their isolation,
which prevents comparison with other objects, are
chief. Whether the explanation be correct or not,
108
SABBATH DAY ISLAND
109
his observation accords with my own when he
says that “one fancies at moments that the island
does not rise out of the sea, but floats upon it, that it
is held in its place not by the roots of the mountains,
and deep miles of lava wall below, but by the cloud
which has caught it by the top, and will not let it
go. Let that cloud but rise and vanish, and the
whole beautiful thing will be cast adrift; ready to
fetch away before the wind, and (as it will seem
often enough to do when viewed through a cabin-
port) to slide silently past you while you are sliding
past it."
One of the pleasantest afternoons that I remember
was the one on which our vessel skirted the leeward
side of the bold and beautiful island of Dominica,
whose steep shores were bordered with groo-groo
palms, and whose lofty heights were clothed in
every shade of green, or rather in hues ranging from
pale yellow to a sapphire blue; down whose far-
reaching valleys waterfalls poured a white line of
foam, and on whose lofty spurs and peaks a dozen
rainbows were forming and fading, and reforming as
the showers shifted with the changing gusts of air.
What we saw in outline then was revealed in all its
wealth of beauty the next day when we rode on
horseback more than half-way across the island,
ascending through the valleys and along the
110
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
mountain side to the height of more than three
thousand feet.
We cast anchor in front of the pretty town of
Roseau, at the southern end of the island, at six
o'clock, and five minutes later the sun went down
with a bang from the gun in the fort, and in two
minutes more it began to be dark. With the dark-
ness came on board the steamer Monsieur - Cock-
roach,” who is the tourist agent of Dominica. He
gathers the horses and guides and attendants for
travellers who wish to go to the boiling spring or the
lake of the clouds, or to climb to the high places of
the Caribbean earth. He notifies “Isaac" and his
Creole wife to provide ices, and liquid refreshment,
and fruits and a variety of mementos for an ap-
proaching company, and he intimates that original
Caribs may be seen and heard at the half-way house.
How he came by his name I do not know. It does
not suggest the man, for he never crawls, and he
is clothed in clean white linen, with an immaculate
hat. With him we made arrangements for our ride
of thirty miles next day, and had no occasion to
regret our contract.
The morning was clear and warm. For a wonder
in Dominica no rain fell all day in the part of the
island which we traversed. At nine o'clock we
went ashore and found “Cockroach” waiting for us
SABBATH DAY ISLAND
111
with about forty horses of various sizes, shapes, and
breeds, though the majority of them were tough
little ponies evidently accustomed to hard usage and
to mountain roads. Captain Fraser and a friend
from Quebec were soon off with one company to
visit the sulphur springs. Our good Pennsylvania
priest and other friends were mounted by the Roman
Catholic bishop of Roseau, and they took the course
to a lime plantation, returning in the evening with
glowing accounts of shady bowers and cooling
drinks, and the music of waterfalls and genuine
West Indian hospitality. The colonel had a good
mount and rode as became a graduate from West
Point and a cavalry officer throughout our civil
The Lawrence quartette were all on hand, but
as there are no wheeled vehicles on the island, only
one lady accompanied the party.
The young men were in full force with their
enthusiastic and never-wearied leader, and this
island has rarely had a more intelligent and inter-
ested band of visitors. The party followed the
valley for a mile or two, wondering at the breadth
of the river channel, which was more than fifty feet.
A small stream of water ran through the centre, but
we were assured that when the rainy season comes
a full tide of rushing water fills the course from bank
to bank. We soon struck into a woodland road, and
war.
112
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
realized what it was to be in the midst of tropical
vegetation. Great masses of foliage covered the
most precipitous and jagged mountains. Looked
at from a distance, it seemed as if the mountains
were wrapped in vast robes of sheeny silk and
velvet, gemmed with rubies, and emeralds, and
topazes. Whole expanses of gray-green, shining
leaves reflected the sun with dazzling effect. Be-
yond rose a ridge crowned with palmistes, their tall,
smooth stems standing up against the horizon,
crowned with an umbrella-shaped top, which waved
perceptibly in the wind, even at such an altitude.
Near at hand, along the road, which later became
only a path, trees and vines were dense and often
interlaced. There were breadfruit, mango, lime, and
lemon trees; forests of cocoa trees loaded with fruit
about the size of a large cucumber, colored accord-
ing to the stage of development, green, yellow, or
rich purple, and seeming to grow directly from the
branch without any stem ; clumps of green and
graceful bamboos rising a hundred feet into the air
and waving their feathery tops; huge ceiba trees
covered with parasites and orchids; almond trees
and giant flamboyants with red blossoms. Further
up, in vales and hollows, we came to manifold tree
ferns, whose slender stalks supported at the height
of twenty or thirty feet the most delicate green lace

INDIGO MAKING-DOMINICA
SABBATH DAY ISLAND
113
work parasols and umbrellas that were ever seen.
The ravines were full of those of larger growth, and
the banks along our path were covered with little
ones all infinitely beautiful. Here, too, were banana
and tamarind trees loaded with clusters of fruit,
while half hid from view by their enormous fronds,
some curious red flowers, shaped like lobster's claws,
clung to the green stems of a strange plant. I
counted fifty kinds of flowers on a single bank, and
the ferns and mosses were innumerable.
As we rose higher, the air, which had been warm
and languorous, became fresh and clear, and the
ocean could now and then be seen on each side of the
island. Anon we descended into deep valleys, where
limes were cultivated on a plantation, and into
denser valleys, where nothing met the eye but an
ocean of foliage, heights crowned with trees and
interlaced with shrubs, a Colorado cañon resplendent
with rich vegetation of the rarest and most beautiful
sorts. However high we climbed, there were higher
mountains, and the more we explored, the greater
the wonders and the rarer the treasures were.
Language utterly fails to describe the richness and
beauty and variety of trees and shrubs and flowers
and greens and colors in nature, which ravished our
eyes. Odors, delicious and sensuous, filled the air,
and the place seemed in all respects a woodland
I
114
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
paradise. The strange songs of birds which we did
not know often startled us. Beautiful humming-
birds of peacock-colored plumage, or black, with
garnet spotted throats, or golden green, glistening
like winged jewels in the sunshine, flew about, and
not hovering on the wing as they do in our gardens,
but lighting on twigs and plants, they gazed upon
us with more curiosity than fear.
Through such beauties we rode on and on for a
dozen miles to a lovely fresh-water lake embosomed
in the hills and girt about with tropical forests ;
after resting here and comparing our gathered treas-
ures of plants and fruits and flowers, the party
retraced its steps to the half-way house, where Isaac,
in obedience to “Cockroach," had provided a good
luncheon. After luncheon we
were entertained
with Creole songs and dances, which have evidently
descended from the days when planters lived on
these islands with their families of slaves. The
melodies were sweet and quaint, unlike modern
negro songs, and yet with little resemblance to the
music of civilization. The dances were graceful
and pleasing, and consisted largely of swaying
motions of the body and gestures of the arms and
head to rhythmic music. These pleasures ended,
we rode down the mountain and through the little
town, full of delightful memories of lovely scenes.
SABBATH DAY ISLAND
115
even
Roseau, the chief town upon the island of Domin-
ica, is picturesquely situated on the sea at the
mouth of a river which comes rushing and roar-
ing down through hills which, though broken and
ragged, are yet densely covered with a vast variety
of foliage. It is a little place, with a few streets
running at right angles, paved with large stones,
and ending in three roads which lead into the
mountains and up and down the coast. There is
a row of solid houses near the landing. The other
houses are small and mostly built of wood, one story
high and twenty feet square.
Some are
smaller. I went into a little enclosure containing a
one-story house, a cocoanut tree and a breadfruit tree,
and also a small garden patch. A man and two
women were squatting around a kettle containing
the dinner. The door of the house stood open, and
its one room was only large enough for an ordinary-
sized bed and a chair beside it. There were hooks
on the rough board walls, and clothes and tin dishes
hung indiscriminately upon them. This was the
home of five people, three adults and two children.
The climate is warm and they live mostly out of
doors. But as there is much rain in Dominica these
people must be wet a great part of the time. I
passed a Sunday here, and attended the Wesleyan
Methodist and English churches. The latter is a
116
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
large stone building with a clock, and some grand
palmistes in front of it. The old French Catholic
Cathedral is larger than both the other churches,
as it well may be, for almost the entire population
is of that faith. Opposite the English church is
the governor's house and a well-stocked botanical
garden. Each of the islands has a garden of this
sort, well kept and a source of evident pleasure and
pride to the inhabitants. Each town of any size
has also a public library with a fair assortment of
books, and a reading room. I remembered that New
York has as yet no public library, and that the
charter for a botanical garden has only just now
been obtained. The frequent showers and hot sun-
shine in Dominica cause a prolific growth of vegeta-
tion. The gardens are full of trees and plants,
flowering vines cover the walls, and there are many
birds and butterflies flitting about in the sun-
shine.
I must add a few interesting facts about Dominica.
The island is twenty-nin:
broad, and is the most southern of the islands
belonging to what is called by the British the
Its area is two hundred and
ninety-one miles, its population twenty-seven thou-
sand. The island is noted for the amount of its
rainfall, which greatly adds to its fertility. The
Leeward group.
SABBATH DAY ISLAND
117
thermometer stands at eighty degrees Fahrenheit
in the shade during the months of June, July, and
August; and at seventy degrees during the other
months. The sun is vertical from May to August,
and the inhabitants ascii (or shadowless) at noon.
The longest day is thirteen hours, the shortest ten.
September and October are the least healthy months
of the year. Its exports are cattle, cocoa, lime juice,
rum, molasses, and sugar. The chief town is Roseau.
It was discovered by Columbus on Sunday, Nov.
3, 1493, hence its name. It was colonized by the
French, whom the Caribs allowed to settle. In
1748, by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, England and
France stipulated that Dominica should be regarded
as neutral, and left to the Caribs. Later, French-
men settled on the island, but in 1756 it became
by conquest a dependency of Great Britain. Culti-
vable lands were sold, and yielded to the crown
312,092 pounds sterling. The French settlers were
generously treated, and allowed to remain secure in
their possessions.
In 1771 Dominica was constituted a separate gov-
ernment. In 1776, attracted by its fertility, the
French took advantage of the war between Great
Britain and her North American colonies and at-
tacked Dominica from Martinique. The French
inhabitants of the islands invited them to do this,
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CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
and aided by making the English soldiers at the fort
drunk and then filling the cannon with sand. The
English troops and colonists made desperate re-
sistance, but surrendered in 1778 and were badly
treated. In 1783 the island was restored to the
British. A final attack was made by the French
in 1805 under General La Grange, who landed on
Roseau, but the French only held the place for five
days, levying contributions and destroying the ship-
ping; then they re-embarked. This was the last
invasion, and the inhabitants still date from La
Grange or 1805.
XIV
CARIBS OF DOMINICA AND ST. VINCENT
COLUMBUS AND THE CARIBS
A FORGOTTEN LANGUAGE
THE REMNANT OF A PEOPLE
JENNY THE MONKEY
AND HER REFLECTIONS
This is perhaps as good a place as any to tell the
story of the Carib Indians who once dominated these
islands. We saw a few of their descendants, and it
is claimed that upon their reservation at Dominica,
and at St. Vincent, there are still some families of
pure Carib blood. When Mr. Ober visited them in
1876 he found about twenty families. His last visit,
in 1892, was made for the purpose of ascertaining how
many
of these Caribs could be prevailed upon to go
to the Chicago Columbian Exposition; it being the
intention of the managers to include all the represen-
tatives of America in their ethnological department.
At that time there were about two hundred Caribs
in Dominica, and of this number less than fifteen
families were uncontaminated with negro blood. .
They were living in very much the same style as their
ancestors did when Columbus found them in 1493.
119
120
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Columbus saw the Caribs first, not on this island,
but at Carbet, near the point of Capesterre, on the
eastern coast of Guadeloupe. They were dwelling
in huts covered with palm branches; they made
cassava bread from the manihot plant, and caught
fish along the shores, using the boats for the purpose
which they had dug out of gum tree logs; and they
wove baskets like those which are now offered to the
traveller.
But when Columbus found them, they were not
the peaceful and indolent people who now bear their
name. Irving describes them as trained to war from
their infancy, able to use the bow and arrow with
unerring accuracy, and having sufficient knowledge
of the heavenly bodies to enable them to calculate
times and seasons. They let their coarse black hair
grow long, painted their faces and bodies, and both
men and women fought the Spaniards desperately.
Proofs were found in their huts that they were can-
nibals. They were treated as such by the Spaniards,
but they struck back, and many a proud hidalgo bit
the dust before they were subdued. Columbus called
them Caribs or cannibals, both of which names are
designations of valor or strength. The Caribs of
South America claim a similar meaning for their
name, and the author of " Myths of the New World,"
thinks that Shakespeare drew the plot of “ The
CARIBS OF DOMINICA AND ST. VINCENT
121
Tempest” from South American mythology; that
“Caliban," the savage native of the island in the play,
is undoubtedly the word “Carib, often spelled among
South American Indians - Caribana” and “ Calibani."
Another curious fact, is that Robinson Crusoe's
“ Man Friday” was a Carib, and his “island” was
Tobago in the Caribbean Sea, which we saw but did
not visit. But they had changed little in a hundred
years, as may be seen from the account given by a
writer of the last century: “ The Caribs are of clear
copper color, and have sleek, black hair; their persons
are well made, but they disfigure their faces by flatten-
ing their foreheads in infancy. They live chiefly by
fishing in the rivers and the sea, or by fowling in the
woods, and in both pursuits they use their arrows
with wonderful dexterity. It is said they will kill
the smallest bird with an arrow at a great distance,
or transfix a fish at a considerable depth in the sea.
They display also great ingenuity in making curiously
wrought panniers or baskets of silk grass or the
leaves and bark of trees.” They have preserved this
art of basket making to the present day. I bought
at Roseau a beautiful and useful basket, about the
size of a small trunk. It is chiefly valuable on
account of its lightness and also because it is water-
proof. It is made from a plant called mahoe, in two
thicknesses, with layers of wild plantain between.
122
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
w
This basket was not cheap, for the materials of which
it is made are scarce, and the makers have a monopoly
of the market, but it is a most serviceable article at
home or in travel. I saw sets or “nests of these
baskets, as well as of another smaller and more delicate
sort of Indian basket which is common in the islands.
The Carib reservation in Dominica extends from
Mahoe River to Crayfish River, about three miles
along the Atlantic coast, and as far as they choose
to cultivate inland. They raise the yam, sweet
potato, cassava, banana, plantain, and tannier.
Their little settlement, a mere hamlet, is called
Salibia. Here they live, no longer warlike or enter-
prising, satisfied with the careless and monotonous
existence of uncivilized man. Of the whole number
of two hundred, perhaps ten could make a canoe
and twenty weave a perfect basket. The majority
display no mechanical ingenuity. They raise the
vegetables and gather the fruits which grow almost
without planting and mature without care.
Their ancient language is no longer used to any
extent, and a patois made up of French and English
in unequal proportions, is their common, and to a
stranger unintelligible tongue. Though called
Indians, they have little in common with the tribes
which we designate by that general name. Their
faces are oval, with broad and handsome foreheads,
CARIBS OF DOMINICA AND ST. VINCENT
123
rather high cheek bones, the eyes far apart, the nose
regular and well proportioned, the mouth of moder-
ate size with rather thin lips; their skin is yellow or
golden brown, and they have long, abundant, and fine
hair, purple-black in color, like the hair of many
Spanish women, though not of so fine a quality as
theirs. They have graceful forms in youth, and
very well shaped arms and legs, with small hands
and feet. Like all the people of these islands, they
stand erect, hold their heads with natural grace, and
walk with an air of dignity and honor. But they
grow old soon and are then even more hideous than
the negroes about them. They are nominally Roman
Catholics and the priest of Roseau visits them and
administers the sacraments. Their ancestors believed
.
in some sort of a future state, and in a supreme being
to whom they offered sacrifice. The brave among
them were supposed to go after death to a state of
felicity; the cowardly were banished to dreary deserts
and rugged mountains.
Mr. Ober lived for two weeks with the Caribs
of St. Vincent, in a little wattled hut thatched
with leaves, for the purpose of securing a vocabu-
lary of their ancient language. He found but six
families of pure Carib blood and but a few persons
who could speak the Carib tongue, and most of
these were
were women. He says that “they have
124
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
few terms of abuse, and about the most offensive
is, you are no good,' or 'you are no livelier than
a turtle.' They have no word for virtue, which
even at the present day is rare indeed. In count-
ing they cannot express themselves above twenty
and then only by means of the fingers and toes.
My wife is my heart'; a boy is a little man’;
the fingers are the babes of the hands'; the rain-
bow is 'God's plume. There is a people among
them called Black Caribs,' formed by the union
of the American and the Ethiopian. These com-
prise a small community on the northwestern shore
of St. Vincent, at a place called Morne Ronde."
Throughout the island he found traces of the ancient
inhabitants, weapons, domestic utensils, axes, spear-
heads, chisels, and fragments of pottery. Some of
the rocks are covered with rude hieroglyphics, but
there is no reason to believe that the Caribs ever
came to or from the continent of North America.
If they came originally from the southern conti-
nent, as is likely, they had no relation to the
Aztecs, but were a ruder and more warlike people.
Some of the South American Caribs were pas-
sengers with us on the homeward voyage under the
care of an agent of Barnum's show. He was bring-
ing them to New York to join the ethnological
department of the great show, which was about
CARIBS OF DOMINICA AND ST. VINCENT
125
to make its annual progress through the United
States. They were good-looking, yellow, long-
haired, red painted men and women, stout-bodied and
with extremely broad shoulders and strong limbs.
The children were fat, with white teeth and mis-
chievous black eyes, but they were not half so
amusing as “Jenny,” the monkey which one of
our party bought at St. Kitt's. She was a veritable
actress and was often brought out for our amusement.
A more pathetic and ludicrous scene was never
enacted, than that which took place when she first
saw her own reflection in a mirror. No Carib
Indian child or adult could give so interesting a
performance. But alas, these Caribs are immortals,
though their day on earth is nearly done.
It was sad to meditate upon the speedy extinction
of such a race. Once they were brave, powerful,
and in happy possession of some of the fairest
regions of the earth. Now, the few remnants are
spiritless and degraded, without even a knowledge
of their ancestors, unable to speak their language,
content with a mere existence, and gradually yield-
ing to the pressure of a civilization which is sweep-
ing them into oblivion.
Xy
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
FRANCE
IN
THE
TROPICS
FOUNTAINS
AND
FLOWING
WATERS
MARDI GRAS AND WILD REVELRIES
THE
SWIZZLE
AND ITS USES
SNAKE STORIES
EMPRESS
JOSEPHINE, HER EARLY LIFE HERE AND HER STATUE
MADAME DE MAINTENON
WE had been looking forward to Martinique as
the queen of the Caribbees, and in some respects
were not disappointed. The island is one of the
most beautiful in its outlines, admirably cultivated,
peopled with lively and enterprising inhabitants, and
full of sights and sounds which attract and entertain
the traveller. Its lofty Montagne Pelée is hooded
with clouds a great part of the time, but now and
then the summit is revealed, a mass of green, sky-
piercing and grand, supported by vast flanks that
sweep in graceful undulations to the sea. There are
luxuriant plantations, dense and dark forests, vil-
lages upon the high slopes, and two picturesque
towns, St. Pierre and Fort de France, along the
shores. The anchor of the Madiana dropped into the
126
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
127
azure sea, and straightway a little fleet of coffin-
shaped boxes, propelled by naked boys each with two
little paddles, came hurrying out to meet us. They
had come as at St. Thomas to dive for coins, and
soon they were plunging into the harbor after little
silver pieces which the passengers lavishly threw
overboard. The boys were quick to see the coins as
they touched the water, and tumbled out of their
queer tubs in a wild scramble for them. Long before
the coin was out of sight, they had swam beneath it,
and with the speed of fishes reappeared, holding the
treasure high uplifted in their hands. This scene
was repeated daily and at all hours, and the lithe
brown bodies of these coin fishers became familiar
objects about the vessel while we lay in the harbor
of St. Pierre.
The town is unique, a strange mingling of France
and the tropics. It lies along the curve of a pretty
bay and rises in terraces upon the mountain side.
The prevailing color of the stone houses is a golden
yellow, which is set off by red tiled roofs here
and there. A hurricane desolated the place a few
years since, and when the houses were rebuilt many
of them were roofed with corrugated iron, which
has none of the picturesque effects of the old red
tiles. The houses of the town are mostly built
along narrow streets, and have unglazed windows,
128
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
which at night are covered with heavy wooden
shutters, in which there are movable slats. The
streets are steep and well paved, and through the
wide gutters a constant stream of water pours down,
carrying all the sewage to the sea. This rushing
mountain water is the feature of the town; it rises in
numerous pretty fountains and is the public scaven-
ger of the island. Men with huge poles and hooks
keep the gutters from becoming clogged and clear
the cesspools at the foot of the streets, which other-
wise would become stuffed with cocoanut shells and
palm leaves and plantain skins, and all sorts of rub-
bish which are constantly thrown into these street
channels. On the quay are thousands of hogsheads
of molasses, and casks of rum and bags of sugar,
waiting shipment; powerful blacks swarm among
them, rolling and carrying them from place to place.
There was not much work performed after our first
day in Martinique, for it was the festival of Mardi
Gras and the people gave themselves up to a strange
mingling of devotion and dissipation. The costumes
of the women are fantastic and bewildering at any
time, but as the festival advanced, they became as
grotesque and brilliant as any scene that was ever
set upon the stage. The various faces of black, and
red, and brown, and yellow, and of delicate cream
and rouge, were a study for a painter or an ethnol-

ST. PIERRE-MARTINIQUE
IŚLE DE MARTINIQUE
129
ogist, and the straight bodies and easy swinging gait
of the unshod feet of most of the inhabitants pro-
duced a novel impression upon the beholder. On
Sunday morning high mass was celebrated in the
Cathedral and afterwards the whole town seemed
to be given up to revelry and dissipation. Bands
of masked men and women paraded the streets
dressed in the most vulgar style. As night came
on the tumult increased, the great theatre was
crowded to suffocation, and yelling, laughing, danc-
ing, and deviltry of all sorts made night hideous.
We were glad of the refuge which the steamer
afforded from such a pandemonium, but even at
our anchorage we could hear the blare of the trum-
pets and the shouts of the excited crowds upon
the shore. I had seen the festival in New Orleans
and elsewhere, where great license was allowed,
but here it became, before it was ended, a wild
and disgusting orgy.
The island contrasts favorably with those which
belong to Great Britain. There is none of that
abject poverty and incessant beggary on the French
islands which meet one at every turn in the Eng-
lish possessions. The people have an air of thrift
and self-respect which finds expression in the clean-
liness, dress, and taste displayed in their streets,
houses, and costumes. Some of the women are
130
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBÉES
very pretty and they wear their gay dresses in a
style which leaves one arm and shoulder bare, and
with their long skirts looped up at the hips. A
large proportion of the population are of mixed
blood, and have the fondness for ornaments and
display which is common to all half-breeds. At
the Cathedral, a large and handsome building with
a sweet chime of bells, I saw a congregation which
filled the place, and was composed, like most
Roman Catholic assemblies, chiefly of women.
Nearly all of these wore yellow and green turbans,
made of Madras handkerchiefs with one end stick-
ing out above the regular rolls of the silk or linen,
like the plume of a soldier's cap. Some of the
women had many bracelets and bangles on their
arms, chains of huge gold beads around their necks,
and curious earrings of three or four cylinders of
gold fastened to the ears by enormous hoops.
These heavy pendants dragged down the lobes of
the ears till it seemed as if the flesh would be torn
through by their excessive weight.
Passing through the avenue Victor Hugo, which
is the main street of the city, one morning, I over-
took a crowd of boys who were following a rough
and unkempt specimen of humanity, who carried a
large iguana, which he had caught in the woods.
He had tied the clumsy legs of the reptile across
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
131
its back, and was carrying his captive by the tail.
This immense lizard was as ugly a creature as I
ever saw, about three feet long, with a black coarse
skin divided into large diamond-shaped sections, a
triangular head with lustreless eyes, and a cavern-
ous mouth.
His legs were long and thick, and
ended in finger-shaped claws. The animal is not
uncommon, is not at all dangerous to attack, and
its flesh is said to be white and very much like
chicken. This one was sold by its captor at the
first butcher's shop, and for all I know we may
have eaten it, in some of the highly seasoned ra-
gouts of which we partook while on the island. It
was at Martinique that some of the party made
their acquaintance with the “swizzle," and in mem-
ory thereof brought home the swizzle-stick, a deli-
cate twig with three or four small branches stripped
of its bark, and prepared for the same use as the
toddy-stick of former times. Of all beguiling drinks
the “swizzle” is said to be the most delusive. It
is apparently compounded of ice water and lime
juice and lemonade, with a little pure rum, and a
liberal allowance of sweet sirup. It tastes like
sweet sherbet, and reminds one of the bazaars of
Cairo and Damascus, but let not the unwary tray-
eller quench his thirst as freely with this seemingly
innocent beverage as he would among the temper-
132
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
ate Mohammedans. The intoxicating quality of
the alcohol is immensely increased by the fermen-
tation of the sweetening, and those who ventured
to test the chemical qualities of the “swizzle” by
the personal analysis of more than one glass, were
sorrowful and apologetic thereafter. Total absti-
nence is always a good rule where strong liquor is
an ingredient in any drink, and especially useful
in dealing with unknown mixtures.
This island was for a long time the residence of
Père Labat, to whose chronicles I have already
referred. He was a keen observer of all natural
phenomena, as well as an expert judge of men. He
tells how at the beginning of the rainy season the
crabs, the turtles, the lizards, and the serpents leave
the woods and go to the sea. After the latter have
bathed there, they pass between underbrush which
has thorns, to which they attach themselves by the
collar, and leave their whole skin. They then hide
in some hole or in the root of a tree until their
new skin is sufficiently hardened to expose to the
air. During these times, when they are obliged
to remain in seclusion, they become very thin and
feeble, but no one pities them under these or any
circumstances. The time when the serpents are
most dangerous is during the heat.
Then one
may hear them hiss to each other, and it is not a
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
133
good plan to go hunting. The negroes scent these
serpents as a dog would a hare.
“One morning," writes Labat, “I was in the
woods with our men, one of whom was walking
before me. Suddenly he stopped and said : “My
father, look at your feet, there is a serpent near here
somewhere. I asked him where, and he said: 'I do
not see it, but I smell it,' and truly, I was sensible of
a faint odor. A few moments later we discovered
the serpent and killed it as is the custom. It was
six feet long, and thick as a man's leg. I gave the
body to some of our negroes, who easily disposed of
it. I would have eaten some with them, for the
meat is very nourishing, when not eaten too often,
but for the fear of alarming the others of the party.
At another time I had the pleasure of seeing a
snake swallow a pillory. This is a sort of rat, native
to these islands, nearly white and much larger than
the ordinary sized rat of Europe. As soon as the
serpent had bitten the pillory, it climbed quickly into
the branches of a tree at the foot of which the pillory
struggled for about fifteen minutes and then died.
The serpent then came down and rolled himself on
the pillory, until he had arranged it with its front
feet by its sides, and its back feet alongside of its
tail, and after it was well laid out he took it by its
head and sucked it little by little into his stomach,
134
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
although it was quite difficult, for he was little and
the pillory very big! It was his last meal, for after
I had seen what I wanted to see I killed him."
There are many things to detain and interest the
tourist at Martinique. The scenes and society of the
island are different in many respects from those
with which he becomes familiar in British colonies.
The people do not regard themselves as temporary
exiles hoping erelong to return to the mother
country, as British colonial people generally do.
The French have made the island their home and
are proud of its loveliness and prosperity. Mar-
tinique is inseparably associated with Napoleon as
the birthplace of Josephine, and it has a large place
in the history of the seventeenth-century conflicts
between England and France.
We made sundry excursions to the interior of the
island. One morning we drove for several hours up
the heights to the village of Morne Rouge, two thou-
sand feet above the sea, over a fine smooth road
along which were shrines, and little chapels, and
crucifixes, and statues, with lamps burning before
them and numerous votive offerings. The road led
us by the botanical garden, a choice and beautiful
retreat from the noise of the town and the noonday
heat of the sun. The river beside which the road is
built for a portion of the way, was at this season a
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
135
small stream, and its channel was filled with half-
naked washerwomen who covered the rocks with
garments after having reduced them to a pitiable
condition by pounding them with stones. At the
lower end of the town near to the outlet of the river
is the market-place, a large open structure occupying
a handsome square. It was full of people, a great
proportion of whom were women in the gayest of
costumes, and as noisy as parrots. The markets of
any town are interesting, and give an idea of one
phase of the life of a people; for what a nation eats
and drinks has much influence upon what the nation
does. Judging the natives of the Antilles by this
rule, we may account for their unwarlike, good-
natured, and passive character. Very little flesh is
seen in the markets compared with the amount of
fish and fruit. Nowhere else have I seen such fishes
as swim among these islands. A painter would revel
in their colors, scarlet and pink and green and gold
and lilac and bronze and glistening silver. Their
shapes are equally wonderful; long and sharp like a
sword-blade, flat and oval like a griddle, circular as
a ball and covered with sharp thorns, or round like a
cane and mottled as a snake. Next come the vege-
tables and fruits - I have described them as I saw
them at other islands, but Martinique seemed to
have gathered from all the islands and added special-
136
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
ties of her own. The sellers were chiefly women,
who squatted on their heels among their wares,
while the restless many-colored crowd wound about
among them, making a kaleidoscope at which one
was never weary of looking. It was a change from
this scene of clatter and confusion to the quiet of the
botanical garden. This is about a mile from the
town, and its natural features are sufficient to make
it attractive. It lies along and within a ravine,
whose lofty trees and tumbling water and deep quiet
pools, and masses of vines and creepers, and confused
assemblies of ferns and orchids and miniature palms,
combine to give dense shade and coolness, and a
sense of repose, which are most grateful after the
glare and heat and noise of the market-place and the
city streets. There are thickets of bamboo, and
beautiful tamarinds, and wide-spreading ceiba trees,
palms and palmistes in endless variety, great lianas
and swinging vines, and parasites coiling around, and
hanging from, and sitting upon the tree branches.
The garden has a certain amount of care, and is
better than any which I saw in the islands except
those of the government houses of St. Vincent and
Port of Spain, but with such a wealth of resources
and a tropical climate, it is easy to imagine what
wonders and beauties might be developed.
Leaving the garden, we climbed Morne Rouge over
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
137
well-made roads, with solid stone bridges and care-
fully prepared water channels in case of floods. The
views were of indescribable loveliness, combining the
grandeur of the mountains, the rich and varied
greenery of the hills and cultivated slopes, and the
deep blue of the distant sea. Now and then a cloud
of mist swept for a few moments like a veil over the
face of beauty, only to reveal after its passage a
scene fresher and fairer than before. High above
the neat and pretty villas, which form the village of
Morne Rouge, is a steep slope which has been
arranged for pilgrimage purposes. On the mountain
side a succession of little chapels has been built--
each of which contains some representation of the
Passion of Our Lord. It is a Roman Catholic
“ Calvaire,” and pious Romanists climb the mountain,
sometimes on their knees, saying a prayer at each
shrine. It is easier to get up with such intervals
than to try to walk profanely to the top without
resting. Even superstition has its compensations,
and it may be added that the view on a fine day is
enough recompense for the climb. The French
islanders are better Christians after their kind, than
the other inhabitants, but the amount of ignorant
devotion to shrines and images is large. Besides
the numerous little idols scattered along the roads,
there is an immense “Christ” overlooking the bay,
13:8
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
and on Morne d'Orange, south of the city, stands a
huge white “ Virgin of Sailors."
But there is one statue on Martinique which every
traveller desires to see; the statue of Josephine
in the Savane at Fort de France. A little steamer
runs daily from St. Pierre to Fort de France.
The town stands on a level plain and consists of
wooden houses built along wide streets crossing
at right angles. The park lies near the shore, and
contains long rows of mango and tamarind trees,
which bend over broad promenades. Enclosed in
this double row of trees is the Savane, and there,
encircled by majestic palms, fronting the sea, but
with the face turned towards the valley where
she was born, stands this beautiful memorial to one
of the loveliest, and noblest, and most unfortunate
women who ever lived. The family history has
recently been given by M. Frederic Masson in the
Revue de Paris, from which the following facts
are translated. Mr. Ober published essentially the
same statement, in his book upon the Caribbees.
In 1726 there came to Martinique à noble of
Blaisois, named Gaspard-Joseph Tascher de la
Pagerie. He belonged to an ancient and formerly
very powerful family, but when Gaspard-Joseph
landed in the West Indies the fortunes of his race
had very much declined. He took good care, how-

10000
STATUE OF JOSEPHINE-MARTINIQUE
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
139
ever, to have his claim to noble descent fully
established. His sons obtained places at Court,
but the eldest preferred to live at Martiniqué and
obtained a subaltern position in the Royal Marines
stationed at Martinique. In 1755, when a new
war had broken out between France and England,
the king sent to Martinique, as governor of the
West Indian Islands, one François de Beauharnais,
a gentleman who had held high positions in France.
Exactly how it came about no one seems to know,
but the Taschers, poverty-stricken and without influ-
ence, managed to raise the fortunes of the family
through their women, who established themselves
in the good graces of the new governor.
M. de Tascher's three daughters married well, and
his son also made a good match through M. de Beau-
harnais, for Mlle. Rose-Claire Des Vergers de Sanois
belonged to one of the richest and most influential
colonial families. Young Gaspard-Joseph proved
himself worthy of the good graces of the governor;
he distinguished himself with conspicuous bravery
when the English made a descent upon the island
in 1763. On the 23d of June in that year his wife
was delivered of a girl, which, five weeks later, was
christened Marie-Joseph-Rose. This was Josephine.
Between 1761 and 1791 six different priests held
the parish of Trois-Flets, and this assisted in giv-
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CRUISING AMONG THÊ CARIBBEES
ing credence to the later rumors that Josephine's
birth could not be proved by the parish registers.
But there is no possible doubt either of her iden-
tity or of the exact date of her birth. In 1766 a
terrible storm destroyed the plantation at Trois-
Flets; it took M. de Tascher thirty years to obtain
the means for rebuilding his house, and thus
Josephine passed her childhood in and around the
sugar-house, the only building which withstood the
storm, and in which the family had established
themselves. At the age of ten she was sent to
the Convent of the Dames-de-la-Providence, at Fort
Royal, where she remained until she was fifteen.
She was an accomplished coquette even then; Cap-
tain Tercier, then stationed with his regiment at
Martinique, flatters himself that she was not quite
indifferent in his presence, and a young English-
man who rose afterward to high honors loved her
so much that he never married because she refused
him.
Madame Revandin, Josephine's aunt, had gone to
France with M. de Beauharnais, over whom she
exercised undue influence. Madame Revandin made
up her mind that the Taschers de la Pagerie should
profit by her good fortune. Why not marry young
Alexander, the son of the Marquis de Beauharnais,
to one of her nieces? Influenced as he was, the
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
141
seau.
marquis writes, on behalf of his son, to M. Tascher
for the hand of one of his daughters. Originally
it was intended to marry Josephine's younger sister,
Catherine-Désirée, to Alexander Beauharnais, but
the young lady's death intervened. Josephine,
then, was sent to France, and Madame Revandin
spent twenty thousand francs on the girl's trous-
Alexander was not very enthusiastic about
the marriage, but the bans were published and the
marriage took place within a month after the bride
had landed.
The union was not a happy one. Alexander did
not attempt to introduce his wife to society, and
did nothing to assist her in completing her scant
education and to improve her provincial ways. He
complains, too, that she had the most absurd ideas
of what conjugal affection should be like, required
too much attention, and was jealous. Young Beau-
harnais — he was only nineteen at the time of his
marriage – travelled to divert himself, and left his
wife at home. He quarrelled with his wife's rela-
tives, and accused Josephine of infidelity, and the
latter retired to the Abbey of Panthemont, a con-
vent which served as a kind of refuge for wives
who were separated from their husbands, or were
about to obtain a separation. Here she was for the
first time made acquainted with the wiles of society.
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CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Later M. de Beauharnais rendered the most com-
plete apologies, acknowledging that Josephine was
not at fault, and as a reconciliation seemed impos-
sible, a separation was agreed upon. She returned,
with her little daughter, Hortense, to the scenes
of her childhood, and thus she wrote of this peace-
ful time so soon to be exchanged for a life as excit-
ing and wonderful as any that woman ever knew :
“ Nature has strewn the banks of our rivers with
flowers, and planted the freshest forests around
our fertile borders. I cannot resist the temptation
to breathe the pure aromatic odors wafted on the
zephyr's wings. I love to hide myself in the green
woods that skirt our dwelling; there I tread on
flowers which exhale a perfume as rich as that of
the orange grove, and more grateful to the senses.
How many charms has this retreat for one in my
situation.” From this seclusion she came forth to
ascend the throne of France and to adorn with her
matchless charms the most brilliant court in the
world. The keenest writer of fiction could not
have conceived of anything more romantic than
the making of this charming spot the birthplace
of so distinguished a woman.
There another illustrious Frenchwoman
whose early years were passed in Martinique, who
swayed for years the destinies of France. Madame
Was
ISLE DE MARTINIQUE
143
de Maintenon, known before as Madame Scarron,
grew up as Françoise d’Aubigné in this beautiful
island. The story of her coming is romantic. Her
parents were Protestants, living in Northern France,
and hoping to improve their waning fortune and
enjoy more religious freedom, removed to Martinique
after the birth of their daughter. Soon after sailing
the infant D’Aubigné became very ill and apparently
died, and the captain insisted upon speedy burial in
the sea and preparations were duly made. After some
slight religious services just as the body was about
to be thrown overboard, the mother, weeping vio-
lently, rushed forward and begged for one more
look at her child, and passionately kissing the
remains, she discovered some faint signs of life.
The body was taken back to the cabin and efforts
for resuscitation were crowned with success, and
recovery was rapid.
Great was the joy of the pious parents, and earnest
and devout their thanksgiving over recovering from
the jaws of death their darling one. How little they
knew what they were doing! This Protestant child,
this child of prayer and faith, lived to be the scourge
of the church of her parents; for few doubt that
Madame de Maintenon was the chief agent in induc-
ing Louis XIV. to revoke the edict of Nantes and
inaugurate a persecution of untold blood and vio-
144
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
lence and horror, which nearly obliterated the
Protestant name from the fair land of France.
With the memory of such great names it is not
wonderful that French Creoles are proud of their
heritage, and plan and labor for its prosperity.
XVI
BATTLES AMONG THE ISLANDS
BUCCANEERS OF THE SPANISH MAIN
COUNT DE GRASSE
AND ADMIRAL RODNEY
A DECISIVE NAVAL BATTLE
THE SLOOP OF WAR DIAMOND ROCK
BEFORE leaving this part of the Caribbean Sea
we ought to recall the naval history which has been
enacted among the Windward Islands. The battles
which Columbus fought with the natives were inci-
dental to discovery and settlement; then came cruel
wars for the conquest of the islands, and in order to
grind gold in one way or another out of the islanders.
The Roman Catholic church is responsible for much
of this early fighting, for she had given the islands
to the Spaniards by a papal bull, which no Protestant
adventurer felt bound to respect, unless it was more
than a brutum fulmen, and had ships and soldiers
behind it. The freebooters and buccaneers of the
Spanish Main were the terror of the dwellers on
shore as well as of all who sailed the seas. Drake
and his comrades were “pirates to the Spaniards
so writes Froude, "to be treated to a short shrift
145
146
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
wherever found and caught. British seamen who
fell into their hands were carried before the Inquisi-
ition at Lima or Carthagena and burnt at the stake
as heretics.” French privateers seized Tortuga near
St. Domingo, and English, French, and Spanish all
ravaged the seas in a wild anarchy.
Then came the period of French occupation, when
nearly every island of the Antilles was settled by
French colonists. Language, religion, customs, were
all French, and the impress made in those days upon
the islands has never been removed, though all save
Martinique have passed from under French control.
England determined that the Lesser Antilles should
be hers, and fierce battles were fought for their
possession; they were taken and retaken, and when
the British under Cornwallis surrendered to Wash-
ington at Yorktown, French and Spanish allied to
drive the British from the West Indies. Rodney,
who was in command of the islands, had been
ordered home to answer some charges which political
enemies had brought against him; but when the
news came that the Count De Grasse with his vic-
torious fleet was about to sail for Martinique, Rodney
was hurried back to his station with all the ships
that he could muster. He arrived not a day too
רן
soon.
We shall let Froude tell the story of the naval
BATTLES AMONG THE ISLANDS
147
battle, one of the severest in English annals, of
which he says that if it had been lost to England,
“ Gibraltar would have fallen and Hastings's Indian
empire would have melted into air.” De Grasse had
refitted in the Martinique dock-yards. He had the
finest ship then floating on the seas for his flag-ship,
and his navy seemed invincible, a fleet with which
he did not believe that even Rodney would venture
to contend. “He held all the Antilles except St.
Lucia — Tobago, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vin-
cent, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Montserrat,
Nevis, Antigua, and St. Kitt's -- a string of gems,
each island large as or larger than the Isle of Man,
rising up with high volcanic peaks clothed from base
to crest with forest, carved into deep ravines and
fringed with luxuriant plains. In St. Lucia alone,
lying between St. Vincent and Dominica, the Eng-
lish flag still flew, and Rodney lay there in the
harbor at Castries. On April 8, 1782, the signal
came from the north end of the island that the
French fleet had sailed. The air was light, and
De Grasse was under the highlands of Dominica
before Rodney came up with him. Both fleets were
becalmed, and the English were scattered and divided
by a current which runs between the islands."
De Grasse failed to attack as he should have done,
and only fired long shots which did considerable
148
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
damage. Thus the fleets maneuvred for two days.
“On the night of the eleventh Rodney made signal
for the whole fleet to go south under press of sail.
The French thought he was flying. He tacked at
two in the morning, and at daybreak found himself
where he wished to be, with the French fleet on his
lee quarter. He had the advantage of the wind and
could force a battle or decline it as he pleased.
“In number of ships the fleets were equal ; in
size and complement of crew the French were
immensely superior, and besides the ordinary ships'
companies they had twenty thousand soldiers on
board who were to be used in the conquest of
Jamaica. With clear daylight the signal to
engage was flying from the mast-head of the Formid-
able, Rodney's ship. At seven in the morning,
April 12, 1782, the whole fleet bore down obliquely
on the French line, cutting it directly in two. Rod-
ney led in person. Having passed
Having passed through and
through and broken up their order, he tacked again,
still keeping the wind. The French, thrown into
confusion, were unable to reform, and the battle
resolved itself into a number of separate engagements
in which the English had the choice of position.
“ Rodney in passing through the enemy's lines the
first time had exchanged broadsides with the Glo-
rieux, à seventy-four at close range. He had shot
BATTLES AMONG THE ISLANDS
149
tered spar.
away her masts and bowsprit, and left her a bare hull,
her flag however still flying, being nailed to a splin-
So he left her unable at least to stir,
and after he had gone about came himself yard-arm
to yard-arnı with the superb Ville de Paris, the pride
of France, the largest ship in the then world, which
De Grasse commanded in person. One by one the
French ships struck their flags or fought on till they
foundered and went down. The Ville de Paris sur-
rendered last, fighting desperately after hope was
gone, till her masts were so shattered that they could
not bear a sail and her decks. above and below were
littered over with mangled limbs. De Grasse gave
up his sword to Rodney on the Formidable's quarter-
deck. The gallant Glorieux, unable to fly, hauled
down her flag, but not till the undisabled remnants
of her crew were too few to throw the dead into the
Other ships took fire and blew up. Half the
French fleet were either taken or sunk; the rest
crawled away for the time, most of them to be picked
up afterwards like crippled birds.
On that mem-
orable day was the English empire saved. The
American colonies were lost; but England kept her
West Indies." This naval battle settled the ques-
tion of sovereignty in the Lesser Antilles.
Between Martinique and St. Lucia, but close to
Martinique, there is a solitary rock, precipitous and
sea.
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CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
apparently inaccessible, which claims our atten-
tion. It lies a mile south of the promontory known
as Morne du Dimant, and is five hundred and
seventy-five feet in height to its level top. There
the English admiral, Sir Thomas Hood, once landed,
and hoisted a garrison of dare-devil sailors with guns
and provisions to the top of the rock. The crag was
christened “His Majesty's sloop-of-war Diamond
Rock"; and for nine months, from this sea-girt cita-
del, the British seamen startled the vessels of France
and Spain, as they swept the neighboring seas with
the guns of this strange man-of-war. The crew of
Diamond Rock were finally compelled to yield to
starvation what they never could have been obliged
to surrender by force of arms, and the rock has ever
since been carefully guarded against capture by the
Frenchmen of Martinique.
XVII
ST. LUCIA
THE BEST LANDING PLACE IN THE CARIBBEES
TOWN OF
CASTRIES
THE LOFTY AND WEIRD PITONS
TALES
AND TRADITIONS
LEAVING Martinique after midnight, the early
morning found us coasting along a most beautiful
island, with forest-clad hills and deep, dark valleys
lying between. The color effects were as wonderful
here as at Dominica. The near slopes were covered
with rich yellow-green fields of sugar-cane, the lofty
peaks beyond were blue and purple, and the sea,
which was hardly ruffled by the morning breeze,
was like mother-of-pearl with streaks of silver where
the currents changed its shining surface; far in the
distance twin peaks were dimly seen through the
haze above the nearer mountains, which on approach
proved to be the two Pitons, the most remarkable
of all the strange creations which we saw in this
region of subterranean and volcanic forces.
St. Lucia is the largest of the islands that we
visited, with the exception of Guadeloupe and
151
152
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Trinidad. It has an area of one hundred and fifty
thousand acres, a coast line of one hundred and fifty
miles, and is forty-two miles long and twenty miles
broad. From its lofty mountains, watered by fre-
quent rains, numerous streams descend to the ocean;
and at their mouths there are many bays and road-
steads for vessels. The island lies in 13 degrees
50 minutes north latitude and 60 degrees 58 min-
utes west longitude. It has between forty and
fifty thousand inhabitants, the vast majority of
whom are blacks. At the northeastern extremity
of the island is a high cliff detached from the
mainland, where Admiral Rodney, a century ago,
established a signal station, and from which he
watched the mancuvres of the French fleet whose
headquarters were at Martinique. Passing through
a narrow strait between two lofty headlands, the
steamer entered one of the best harbors in the West
Indies, and was soon alongside a fine stone wharf.
This was the only place during our voyage among
the Caribbees, where we were able to land from a
gang-plank and without the service of a small boat.
Large sums of money have been spent here by the
British government to deepen the harbor, and make
the place a coaling station for the British navy and
for the Royal mail steamers. Here is the town of
Castries, named in honor of the French marshal
ST. LUCIA
153
De Castries in 1785, when the French held the
place.
The ruins of an ancient fortress crown the heights
of Morne Fortune upon the southern side of the
town, and a few British soldiers showed us by their
presence to whom the island now belongs.
Castries has been built upon made ground, at the
foot of the heights, and is occupied chiefly by blacks,
who live in long rows of little wooden houses with
corrugated iron roofs. There is a handsome market,
neat and well supplied; a pretty botanical garden
with a rich variety of trees and tropical plants, with
its ground full of snake holes; and a comfortable
reading room and library of about a thousand vol-
The people speak English, and the whites
all live upon the hills around the harbor; for the low
ground is unhealthy, and has a bad reputation for
fevers.
Here, as at St. Thomas, we saw women coaling
the vessels. Their short skirts and naked arms
and shoulders revealed brawny limbs and chests
on which the muscles stood out as on a sculptor's
bronze when, with the great baskets of coal upon
their heads, they mounted the gang-planks of the
vessels at the pier. They sang a monotonous chant
as they worked in the grime and dust of the
coal breakers or marched in single file across the
umes.
154
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
wharf to throw in their loads. Even the coal dust
could hardly make them blacker than they came
from nature's hand, and there was little except
their arrowy uprightness to differentiate them from
the animals among which they labored. We were
not disposed to linger at Castries, though we had
invitations to visit in the island. We were becoming
rather impatient for a more extended civilization
than this island afforded, and were already thinking
of Barbados and Trinidad.
The voyage from Castries to St. Vincent was one
of our finest experiences. We coasted the leeward
side of St. Lucia till sundown, watching peak after
peak of a superbly foliated mountain chain with
admiration, till the climax came in the wonderful
Pitons, two immense cones 2720 and 2680 feet
in sheer height from the water's edge. The loftiest
one seemed to be almost as difficult of ascent (except
for its ice) as the last three thousand feet of the
Matterhorn in the Zermatt valley, which it much
resembles in shape. But their forms change as the
vessel passes by these wonderful peaks, and so also do
their colors change under the varying atmosphere.
At their foot a beautiful bay opens, where a green
plantation and the white houses of a little hamlet
relieve the severity of the landscape. Above and
behind this bay, however, rises the sombre mountain
ST. LUCIA
155
of the Souffrière, a smoking sulphur vent whose
blue fumes mingle with gray mists and rain-clouds,
which are forever hovering about the mountains.
No description can do justice to the fantastic and
awe-inspiring picture which these towering masses
present. Even photographs fail to convey the at-
mosphere of the scene, but the landscape painter has
here, as elsewhere among these islands, a noble
subject, in form and color unique and wonderful,
for his study and reproduction upon the canvas.
History or tradition tells a story of three sailors
who tried to climb these awful steeps, watched with
breathless interest by their less adventurous com-
rades. As they neared the summit one and another
were seer. to fall suddenly, as if stricken by an
enemy, and the third also, just as he was waving
the flag in triumph on the summit, fell backwards
a corpse. These repeated disasters were ascribed to
the deadly bite of the fer-de-lance, that dreaded
serpent which infested St. Lucia in past years, but
whose descendants have been nearly extirpated by
the mongoose, which is now in turn voted a nuisance
by the planters of the island. A practical view of
the tale, with the Pitons in sight, lessened our faith
in the tradition of the climbing and bitten sailors.
Even with the aid of a powerful field-glass, it would
be quite impossible to look through the dense
156
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
thickets and watch the progress of any climber on
the seaward side of the Pitons; and so, though the
tale is illustrative of the reckless courage of the sea-
men of former times, and the dreadful enemies which
lay in wait for early travellers in St. Lucia, we can
only offer it as a bit of sensational literature with
rather a slight foundation of fact.
St. Lucia has, however, a wonderful record of
battles on land and sea which well attests the bray-
ery of the peoples who fought for supremacy in the
Spanish Main in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. In 1605 sixty-seven colonists landed at
St. Lucia and took possession in the name of James
the First of England. Two months later the Caribs
drove them into the sea. It was more than thirty
years before another attempt at settlement was
made by a British colony and with the same result.
In 1642 the king of France, who had assumed the
sovereignty of a large part of the West Indies, sold
St. Lucia to two Frenchmen for about eighty thou-
sand dollars. These Frenchmen established a col-
ony, which was attacked and conquered in 1664
by a party of English from Barbados; but the
treaty of Breda gave the island back to France.
St. Lucia changed hands many times, and was also
a neutral ground during the next fifty years.
From 1756 to 1782, France and England fought

THE PITONS ST. LUCIA
ST. LUCIA
157
again and again for the possession of St. Lucia.
The greatest and most decisive conflict was on
April 12, 1782, a naval battle which I have already
described, when Admiral Rodney almost annihilated
the French fleet and took De Grasse, the French
admiral, a prisoner; for which service he was made
à peer of the realm and received a pension of two
thousand pounds for himself and his heirs. The
French government was restored by treaty in 1784,
and under the Directory, in February, 1794, Gen-
eral Ricard, the French governor of St. Lucia,
abolished negro slavery throughout the French
Antilles, forty years before English emancipation in
the West Indies, and seventy years sooner than the
abolition of slavery in our own republic. Strange
as it seems, this blow for freedom was struck from
Paris by the leaders of the French Revolution.
Bloody battles continued to be fought between
the French and English for the ownership of St.
Lucia, from 1794 to 1803. What the English gained
by fighting, was often given back to the French
by treaty. In the famous battles of 1796, the
negroes united with the French and made a gallant
struggle, for they were fighting to retain the free-
dom which the French had given them. It was,
however, in vain, and the island, after more than
a century and a half of warfare for its possession,
158
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
became English soil. The English soon lost all
interest in what had cost them so dear, and only
within a few years has the English government
awaked to the value and importance of St. Lucia
among her West Indian colonies. It is a most val-
uable island with fine harbors, full of tropical pro-
ductions, and with sulphur mines in the Souffrière
which could supply the powder factories of the world.
Those who are interested in natural phenomena
should visit these volcanoes and read in Humboldt's
" Personal Narrative," book fifth, his descriptions
of the Antilles and their natural history, and espe-
cially those pages which treat of the great erup-
tions of 1812, which culminated in the tremendous
outbreak of the Souffrière of St. Vincent - whither
now the Madiana had set her course.
XVIII
ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
A. SUPERB AMPHITHEATRE
OUTBURST OF A VOLCANO
MAKING ARROWROOT
BARGAINING FOR A BABY
A LITTLE ARCHIPELAGO
RUNNING southward through the night, we crossed
the channel south of St. Lucia, and in the morning
reached the next link in the chain of the Caribbee
Islands, and came to anchor off St. Vincent. It has
been said that four islands among the Caribbees
realize one's ideals - Guadeloupe, Dominica, Mar-
tinique, and St. Vincent. The first is vast, grand, and
gloomy; the second sombre in its mountains, but
breaking out into smiling tracts of cultivated land;
the third combines features of the first two, and adds
the element of a large and picturesque population ;
while St. Vincent has all the natural wonders and
beauties of the other three, and a certain air of deli-
cate culture which is entirely its own.
We were anchored in a lovely bay with a fort
crowning the headland on our right, and facing
Kingstown. The town is situated in a superb
amphitheatre which rises from the water with its red-
159
160
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
roofed houses showing through palm groves, and a
few fine stone structures, among which are churches
of five denominations of Christians. Behind these
buildings are the botanical gardens and the governor's
house overlooking all the town. St. Vincent is a
single peak, with no outlying rocks or islets. It is
larger than it seems, being seventeen miles long and
ten miles broad, with an area of one hundred and
thirty-one square miles and a population of nearly
fifty thousand. A mountain ridge divides the island,
and here, at the height of a mile, is the vast crater of
Morne Garon, which was the scene of a tremendous
eruption in 1812, when the earthquakes which for
two years had terrified the South American coast
and the West India Islands, had culminated in an
explosion which at Caracas buried in a moment ten
thousand people; wrought ruin along the whole line
of the Andes, and ended in an awful outburst from
the Souffrière of St. Vincent, whose dust darkened
the sun for an entire day, and spread over a hundred
miles of sea and land. This eruption changed the
appearance of the island, and seemed to have de-
stroyed its eastern end. The present crater, formed
at that time, is half a mile in diameter and five hun-
dred feet deep. The old crater is now a beautiful
blue lake, walled in by ragged cliffs to a height of
eight hundred feet.

ST. GEORGES ISLAND OF GRENADA
ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
161
But the devastation of April, 1812, has not been
repeated. The volcano did its work and gave vent
to the hidden forces of a continent, and beneficent
Nature has repaired the ruin and made the island
more beautiful than ever. We landed from boats at
a little wharf built out from the sandy beach which
curves from the northern headland around to the
southern promontory, and found Kingstown a neat
and pleasant town. Some of the party made friends
with residents, and were invited to bring their pa-
jamas and make an interval in the voyage under the
palm and cinnamon trees with tropical company and
its delights; but they were loyal to their companions
and, though sorely tempted, followed the example of
Ulysses without being tied to the mast or having
their ears plugged with wool after the style of the
Homeric hero.
We found that the stone buildings along the sea-
shore were occupied by a police station and govern-
ment stores. Three streets, broad and lined with
good houses, are laid out fronting the water, and
these are intersected at right angles by other streets
which run back to the foot-hills, from which roads
lead into the mountain regions and around the shore
to the north and south. Along these streets are
rows of palms whose columnar stems are crowned
with waving fronds, so that the town lies in a beauti-
M
162
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
ful crescent leaning back against the verdurous hills,
itself half-hidden in a lovely grove, while far above
and beyond rises the dark mountain around whose
torn and rent edges the clouds are ever floating.
Froude was reminded of Norway by the scene, and it
is true that St. Vincent has some of the characteris-
tics of those bright wooden-built towns which the
traveller finds upon the steep sides of the dark fjords
of that northern land, and here nature is so lavish of
her treasures that the sentiment of grandeur is quite
overcome by the softer beauties of the landscape. In
the centre of the picture as seen from the roadstead
is the handsome government house. It stands at the
highest point of a richly stocked and well-cultivated
botanical garden, where we saw plantations of pine-
apples, the cinnamon, clove, camphor and nutmeg,
mahogany, ceiba, cottonwood and many wildwood
trees, and a great variety of plants and flowers. The
main room of the government house is a wide hall
reaching from front to rear, furnished and used for
both salon and dining-rooms, with bedrooms opening
out on either side. Beyond these is a large and deep
tank for bathing, and still further on are the ser-
vants' offices and farm buildings. Loaded with
flowers and fruits we descended to the town, passing
upon our way an arrowroot plantation with its simple
mill. The root grows in fields which are planted
ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
163
as corn is planted for fodder.
When sufficiently
grown it is dug up and carted to the mill. The
tubers are there broken off, ground, washed, and
strained, and the mass is allowed to settle for a few
days. The product is then placed on wire-work
frames of different-sized meshes, to dry. It gradually
sifts down from the coarse upper frame to the lowest
fine netting, and by that time it has become dry and
is ready to be barrelled and shipped. It now brings
five dollars a barrel, or about eight cents a pound.
Not many years ago it brought from forty to sixty
cents. This high price led many into the business
and like most West Indian industries, this has been
overdone, with the usual result.
We visited several of the island schools and
found that the process of teaching was largely
oral, the whole class reciting in unison with the
teacher and memorizing their lessons. The chil-
dren were, of course, all black, and seemed bright
and attentive, and the teachers were painstaking,
but education does not appear to elevate the people.
They are not idle, dissipated, or wicked, but only
lacking in ambition. Like most of the negroes in
the islands, they prefer to be governed rather than
to govern. They do not know how to rule, and
they do know how to serve; and in the service of
a superior race they are kindly, and fairly faithful
164
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
where they are well treated, now that there is no
slavery. Their morals cannot be judged by the
standard of white communities, and it seems to
be almost impossible to apply the notions of civil-
ization to them. As I came into the town, a number
of negro women were sitting in front of their cot-
tages, while the naked children played around.
One little fellow of perhaps five years was carrying
a large pail upon his head, followed by a smaller
child bearing a cocoanut, and a toddling two-year-
old bringing up the rear with an empty tomato can
neatly balanced on his growth of black wool. They
marched in file, back and forth, without once shak-
ing off their little burdens, and were thus learning
to carry those huge loads upon their heads without
mishap or apparent effort, which never cease to as-
tonish the traveller. One of the women held up
to me by one leg a beautiful specimen of black
humanity, and in jest I offered five francs for the
child. “You give ten and have him," was the un-
expected reply, to which I at once demurred. The
mother was evidently in earnest, and urged: “Take
him to New York and he grow big and wait on
rich gentleman; plenty same here ; say ten, gentle-
man; see I give him for ten.” Had it been a
monkey, I must have surrendered, but the risk and
responsibility for a soul bought for ten francs was
ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
165
too much for me, and I was sorry for my jesting
offer.
Our voyage to the southward was drawing towards
its end. We steamed from St. Vincent past the
Grenadines, which are a group of long, low islands
varying from mere rocks to islands having an area
of eight or ten thousand acres. Most of them are
inhabited by a contented and fairly prosperous
population. Becquia is the largest and nearest to
St. Vincent. It is six miles long and a mile wide,
and its highest hill is nearly a thousand feet above
the sea. Balliceaux, Battowia, Mustique, Canonau,
Carriacou, and Union Island are some among many
owned perhaps by one person or firm. Cattle and
sheep are raised on these islands, but the only com-
munication between them and the larger islands is
by boats. Grenada is the farthest south of the
Caribbee Islands and is one of the most beautiful
of the chain. It is eighteen miles long and seven
broad, with lofty and extinct volcanic craters, and
a picturesque lake more than two miles in circum-
ference and two thousand feet above the sea. We
were sorry not to visit its capital, Georgetown, also
called St. George's, with its fine harbor, walled fort,
pretty red-roofed houses on the hillside, and churches
with tapering spires. There are many monkeys in
the mountains of Grenada, and great is said to
166
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
But we
be the sport of hunting them, and there is also
agreeable human society in the town.
were bound for Barbados, and all night long we
rolled, steaming easterly against a head wind and
sea, to the temporary discomfort of some of the
passengers. Morning found us at anchor in front of
Bridgetown among a crowd of vessels, with the green
and white island of Barbados densely dotted with
little cabins among sugar-cane fields, extending as far
as the eye could reach.
XIX
BARBADOS
A SCENE OF BUSY LIFE — SWARMS OF PEOPLE
BRIDGE-
TOWN AND THE ICE HOUSE
CRISIS IN THE SUGAR
TRADE
BENEFICENT EFFECTS OF BRITISH RULE
THE winter sky was cloudless, and the winter sun
in the roadstead of Barbados was as hot as the July
sun in New York. The tKermometer in the shade
marked seventy-four degrees at sunrise; at noon, in
the sun, it rose to one hundred and twenty, and no
white person walked in the streets of Bridgetown
without an umbrella. But a steady trade wind blew
from the ocean all day long, and made a quiet exist-
ence in shady places comfortable. From the deck
of the steamer we looked upon a handsome city
whose dazzling whiteness was relieved here and
there by clusters of green palms, while beyond lay
undulating fields of sugar-cane, among which little
cottages were thickly planted. Carlisle bay was
full of vessels. Great steamers from Europe and
South America were loading and discharging car-
goes into lighters, while four-masted schooners and
167
168
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
other sailing vessels from the United States, from
Canada, Denmark, and Norway, lay moored in the
roads. Our own White Squadron and war vessels
of several European nations added impressiveness
to the marine picture, and multitudes of fishing
smacks, with cargoes of flying-fish, skimmed over
the dancing waves. Rowboats manned by half a
dozen negroes plied to and fro, between the little
artificial harbor where small vessels could lie along-
side, and the larger craft which were anchored in
the bay.
The scene was full of busy life and quite in
contrast with our peaceful and lonely anchorages
for a month past at the beautiful islands on our
southern course.
It was evident that we had come
to a sort of maritime exchange, a port of call where
goods and passengers were transshipped, where ves-
sels stopped for mails and supplies, a centre of trade
and commerce. Everything bore the impress of
Great Britain. The negroes spoke no foreign
patois, but chattered in pure English; the boats
were huge and strong, with heavy oars, such as one
sees in Liverpool and Hull; officials in uniform were
numerous, and on landing we walked over English
roads, well swept and watered, and among shops
and buildings which reminded us of a dozen English
seaports. In an hour we saw more white people

NELSON SQUARE-BARBADOS

ST. THOMAS
BARBADOS
169
in Bridgetown than we had seen in all the other
Windward Islands. There were many heavy car-
riages and carts in the streets, most of which had
come from England, with now and then a lighter
vehicle which betrayed its Yankee origin. Had it
not been for the throngs of black people, we might
have imagined ourselves in a town of the British isles.
But this feature of Barbadian life dispelled all such
illusions. There is no part of the British empire,
indeed no country in the world, which is more
thickly peopled than Barbados, and of course the
vast majority of the people are blacks. It is esti-
mated that nine-tenths of the two hundred thousand
inhabitants are of this race, and they swarm in the
streets and over the roads and seem to crowd the
country with their cabins. There are more than a
thousand people to every square mile of the island,
and when I add that less than one-fifteenth of the
land is uncultivated, and out of this small area much
must be deducted for houses and other buildings,
for public and private parks, and for burial places,
the crowded condition of the black population will
be apparent. They multiply too with rapidity, and
they stay where they are born. Hence the ques-
tion of support is an ever-present problem. Wages
at the time of our visit were at the starvation point,
if there can be any such point in a tropical country
170
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
where nature does so much for man and requires so
little. I was told again and again, that day laborers
worked for a shilling a day, and that even at that
rate there were many who could not get employment.
With the terrible depression of sugar, which is the
main agricultural product of the island, the outlook
for the laborer is very gloomy. While I am writing
these lines a press despatch is handed to me, which
reads as follows:
“ The West Indian sugar trade is passing through
a serious crisis. In Barbados the crop now reaping
is
very far below the average, in some cases less than
half. Many estates are in the hands of the official
assignee, in chancery, and the number is increasing
daily. The present deplorable condition of affairs is
regarded generally as only a beginning. The colony
is over populated, money is scarce, the number of
unemployed alarmingly great, and the wages small.
Agricultural laborers can now be engaged for twenty
cents a day. Women get only twelve cents. Thou-
sands of both sexes are unable to find employment at
even these rates. The government of Barbados has
taken steps to assist emigration. It has sent commis-
sioners to inspect several of the neighboring colonies
to give form to a scheme of colonization. The news
from St. Lucia and Trinidad is that many estates in
these colonies have been abandoned. At Antigua,
BARBADOS
171
Dominica, St. Kitt's, St. Vincent, and generally
through the Greater and Lesser Antilles the same
state of affairs exists. On several islands public
meetings have been held and resolutions have been
adopted for transmission to the secretary of state for
colonies, directing his attention to the impending ruin
of the sugar industry in the British West Indies.
The secretary has been asked to approach France and
Germany with a view to ending their system of
bounties to the growers of beet sugar and, failing in
this, to have a duty imposed on all sugars imported
into England from the bounty countries.”
As a natural result of such hard times, fears were
expressed of riot and crime should this state of things
be long continued. If such danger exists, I am bound
to say that there were no visible signs of a coming
storm. The streets were full of busy crowds, the
markets were heaped with all sorts of food and fruits,
the shops displayed goods from every part of the globe
and were thronged with buyers, and the gardens and
fields were alive with industrious and cheerful men
and women.
There were no anti-rent and labor dem-
onstrations with banners and mottoes, nor gatherings
of sullen and discontented workmen. The negro lives
by the day and is easily satisfied ; and he has none of
that chronic dissatisfaction with the existing order of
things, which breeds so much wickedness and misery
172
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
among what we call “ the masses” in our continental
and highly civilized communities.
Bridgetown has fine public buildings and many
elegant residences. The houses are built of the lime-
stone which has been reared by coral insects over the
old volcanic formations of the island.
It is easily
worked, and so white that under the bright sun there
is always a glare, and so easily pulverized that with
the prevailing trade winds there are always clouds of
dust on the highways, and in those streets which are
not constantly watered. The best part of the place
is occupied by the governor, the bishop, the attor-
ney-general, and the barracks and parade ground of
the English troops, but there are also several long
avenues shaded by rows of palns on which new and
pretty villas stand in richly cultivated gardens.
Some older and larger residences occupy beautiful
parks adorned with superb tropical trees. These hand-
some places are in striking contrast to the crowded
rows of negro cabins which line the road far out
towards the cane fields. A railway runs across the
island, the only one in the Caribbees, and by this
conveyance some of our party made a visit to Codring-
ton College, a long-established and honorable seat of
learning. On Trafalgar Square stand a small monu-
ment to Nelson and a big banyan tree which rivals
in size and age the one in the park at Basse Terre on
BARBADOS
173
the island of St. Kitt’s, though its position in a
crowded city square makes it appear inferior to the
Kittefonian tree.
The great resort for travellers is the Ice House, a
spacious hotel whose lower story is devoted to shops,
and its second floor to dining and public rooms.
Here, meals in which flying-fish form a prominent
item are constantly going on. A blackboard at the
entrance displays the bill of fare for the different
hours of the day, and the tables are always thronged.
The public rooms are also full of people talking sugar
and freights, and reading the tissue paper telegrams
from all parts of the world, which are posted on the
walls. These occupations are enlivened by the con-
tinual serving, by black waiters in white clothes, of
cooling drinks in which the “swizzle” is always
prominent. A few miles from town, not far from the
shore, is the Marine hotel, a well-kept house under
the charge of a Maine landlord, where many Ameri-
cans spend a portion of the winter months. The
climate is healthy and the diversions of sailing and
fishing, added to excellent society if one has proper
introductions, make this place a pleasant and desir-
able resort. Here some of our companions during
the voyage had planned to spend a few weeks, in-
tending to return by other steamers and different
routes, when the winter winds had ceased to blow
174
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
and spring had begun its verdant procession through
the United States. A few of them had bicycles, on
which they proposed to make tours over the excellent
roads of the island; others were to visit friends in
Barbados, and a few, tired of voyaging, were inclined
to exchange their cabins in the Madiana for the large
rooms and the extended freedom which are to be
found in a good hotel on land. We were not yet
ready, however, for city life, with railroads, and street
cars, and telephones, even in such a pleasant climate,
and so, with the majority of the party, having tried
the cuisine of the Ice House, and added largely to
our stock of curiosities, beads, and canes and shells,
polished turtle-backs and fans of gorgeous plumes, we
were ready to embark once more, for the voyage to
Trinidad.
Before we go, a few facts about Barbados should
be recorded. The Portuguese claim to have discov-
ered the island in 1518, and to have given it the
name, which means “bearded," because at that time
there was a large growth of banyan trees on the
island whose masses of fibrous roots hanging from
the branches resembled huge beards swaying in the
wind. Barbados is the most easterly of the Caribbees,
lying in latitude thirteen degrees north, and longi-
tude fifty-nine and one-half degrees west. It is from
eighteen to twenty miles long, and about twelve miles
BARBADOS
175
hundred and sixty-six
square miles, nearly one hundred and seven thousand
acres, of which as I have said less than one-fifteenth
is uncultivated. The greater part of the surface is
a rolling country, though in the northeastern part of
the island, which is called Scotland, there are some
high hills, called Mounts Hillaby and Boscobella.
An abundant rainfall secures the region from
drought, in spite of its scanty water-courses, and the
extreme fertility of the soil assures abundant
harvests. If the entire population had not devoted
their energies to the production of sugar, there
would be less poverty among the blacks and a pros-
perity among the planters which the rise and fall of
the sugar market would not greatly disturb. The
island has always been under British rule, and it
shows the beneficent effects of an undisturbed and
firm government through more than two centuries.
During this period there are records of slight shocks
of earthquake and of several destructive tornadoes ;
but, upon the whole, Barbados may be reckoned as
one of the safest, healthiest, and, from a social point of
view, the most agreeable of the Windward Islands.
We spent a day at Bridgetown, upon the return
voyage, and left the place with pleasant memories
of our brief visits.
wide, and contains one
XX
TRINIDAD
THE DRAGON'S MOUTH AND THE GULF OF PARIA -
DIS-
COVERY
BY
COLUMBUS
THREE
FEARFUL
FIRES
RAILWAYS, STEAMSHIPS, AND
ACTIVE
COMMERCE
FAMOUS GARDENS
SEVENTEEN hours of continuous steaming in a
southwesterly direction from Barbados brought us
within sight of the blue mountains of Trinidad.
We passed by daylight along the northern coast,
and arrived at the narrow entrance of the Gulf of
Paria, known as Boca Drago, or the Dragon's
Mouth. Our course was along lofty hills rising
from the water's edge, which were clothed from
sea to sky in dense, dark forests. The volcanic
appearance which marked the Caribbean Islands is
gone, and Trinidad looks like a part of a conti-
nent. Suddenly a narrow passage opened through
the mountain wall, with a
wall, with a little rocky island,
whitened by sea-birds, in its midst. Far out on
the horizon beyond the misty clouds which hovered
over the sea, could be discovered the continent of
176

SRAMIK
GOVERNOR S HOUSE-TRINIDAD
TRINIDAD
177
South America. Through a maze of currents,
which would have made the passage difficult to a
sailing vessel, the steamer forced its way, and in a
short time we had passed among a few low wooded
islands into the vast Gulf of Paria, the great watery
plain where the floods of the Orinoco spread them-
selves before mingling with the sea. The change
was marvellous; instead of the bright blue ocean
we were ploughing a yellow sea, waveless and blaz-
ing with the reflection of a tropical sun. The hills
of Trinidad rose in the east, westward the sky met
the water, while a low shore could be seen in the
far south fringed with mangroves and palms.
We had come into the gulf by the northern pas-
sage; the southern, by which Columbus entered on
his third voyage, lies opposite and is called the Boca
Sierpe, or Serpent's Mouth. Here after a long and
trying voyage, the great navigator had found land
again, and in fulfilment of a vow to name the first
land after the Holy Trinity, he called the island
Trinidad He found groves of palm trees and
noble forests and abundant springs and streams,
though he had supposed that so near the equator
nature would be parched and sterile. It was Jan-
uary, and he likens the climate to that of Southern
Spain. Equally did the people please him, for he
describes them as “people all of good stature, well
N
178
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
made and of very graceful bearing, with much and
smooth hair.” They were fairer than the other
Indians; their chiefs wore little clothing, and the
women none at all; they were armed with bows
and arrows and carried shields of hide. The Span-
iards came again and again to Trinidad, and made
its natives slaves, and it was not until a century
had passed that Sir Walter Raleigh sailed into the
Gulf of Paria, and landed at La Brea, which is
now celebrated as the shipping place for the
great Pitch Lake, and tarred his ship with the
black bitumen which now supplies the material
for American city pavements. Two centuries of
cruelty and conflict between Spain and France and
England succeeded, during which the natives suf-
fered most of all, till, in 1797, the island became
an English possession. The Carib population has
long since died out, and thousands of negroes and
East Indian coolies have taken their place. All
sorts of people resort to Trinidad for purposes
of gain - English, French, Spaniards, Americans,
Portuguese, Chinese, gather there, and the island
is prosperous. Not more than a quarter of the
soil is under cultivation, but its fertility is great and
the yield is large. Each year sees new plantations
of indigo, and coffee, and cocoa, and sugar-cane;
and even the coolies get rich and go back to India
4
TRINIDAD
179
with bags of gold and silver, as the results of their
five or ten years of toil in exile.
When the anchor of the Madiana went down into
the Gulf of Paria and we steamed ahead to bring
it to a hold, the water became as muddy as the
Mississippi. A steam launch soon came to carry
the passengers ashore, and on our way thither we
passed a dismantled and rusting hulk moored before
the town, and also a river steamer with its huge
stern-wheel. This was the freight and passenger
steamer in which one of our company, who had
entertained us with his mandolin, his monkey
bought at St. Kitt’s, and his photographic views,
was to ascend the Orinoco. I have seen him since
the voyage, and his tales of the dangers and delights
of the way made me long for a chance to go up this
river and the still larger Amazon, and see nature
and man in these fresh routes of travel.
Port of Spain was a curious compound of English,
French, and Spanish buildings placed on broad streets
or around tree-planted squares, with tramways along
the chief avenues, dirty gutters and hundreds of
disgusting black and gray buzzards, gobbling up
refuse or roosting on the trees. I use the past
tense in speaking of the town, for a few days after
we left the place, a fire broke out and spread
rapidly, destroying the business portion of the
180
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
town and entailing a loss of four millions of dol-
lars. It was only through the efforts
efforts of the
marines of the American men-of-war New York,
Cincinnati, and Raleigh that a more terrible loss
of property and of life was averted. The marines
to the number of two hundred and fifty rendered
prompt and efficient service with their fire hose,
which was taken ashore in the ships' boats. This
is the third great fire which has occurred here in
the past dozen years. A fire broke out in the
Union Club House on the morning of January 28,
1884, and in a short time the whole southeastern
portion of the town was in ruins. The principal
hotel and the largest dry-goods establishment were
entirely destroyed. The loss was estimated at
more than $400,000. At that time there was no
fire department in Port of Spain, and the flames
subsided only when everything before them was
consumed.
There was a second serious fire in Port of
Spain early in the morning of February 15, 1891,
which destroyed many lives and much valuable
property. In a very picturesque esplanade called
Marine Square was located a hotel, kept by a
Venezuelan gentleman and patronized largely by
Venezuelans. On the night of February 14 this
hotel had about fifty guests, who retired to bed be-
TRINIDAD
181
tween eleven o'clock and midnight. The fire had
its origin in this hotel at about three o'clock of the
following morning, and destroyed the principal
staircase leading to the street, thus cutting off the
escape of many of the boarders. The hotel was
composed of stone and wood, and consisted of a
basement, upper floor, and attic. Most of the men
lodgers succeeded in getting out, but in the attic
were located three Venezuelan women, - Senorita
Maria Echevarria and Senoras Rosa Echevarria and
Rosaria de Osio. There were also nine children
and two servants sleeping in this attic. When
these persons learned that the building was on
fire, they rushed madly to the staircase, only to
find it gone. Thousands of spectators who had
gathered in the streets witnessed the terrifying
spectacle of these mothers throwing their children
and themselves from the attic windows. A gentle-
man, Geronimo Fagasin, who had also been sleep-
ing in the attic, threw himself out of the window
and broke his neck in the fall. Of those who fell,
only one survived, the little Concha Osio, four
years old. The others all died from their injuries.
The fire meanwhile had spread to the adjoining
buildings, and in a short time something liko
$200,000 worth of property was destroyed. In the
fire of March, 1895, though an immense amount
182
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
of property was burned, fortunately no lives were
lost, but many persons were rendered homeless and
financially ruined, and the commerce of the place
was seriously crippled.
There is an extensive carrying trade between Port
of Spain and Venezuela. Gold and other produce of
the latter country are brought to Trinidad for reship-
ment, and goods from Europe and elsewhere are sent
to Trinidad and re-exported thence to Venezuela.
Port of Spain is the only harbor of any commercial
importance on the island, and it is also regarded as
one of the best in the West Indies. Eighteen steam-
ers a month froin Liverpool, London, and Southamp-
ton give Port of Spain exceptionally good means of
communication with England and with the other
West Indian islands. In addition, four steamers of
the French line, two of the Quebec and Gulf line,
two of the Atlantic and West Indian line from the
United States, and two of the Dutch line run every
month. There are also seven steamers running
between the island and Venezuela. The first rail-
way in the colony, from Port of Spain to Armia,
sixteen miles, was opened in 1876. From St. Joseph,
a station on the line six miles from Port of Spain, a
line has been built to San Fernando, twenty-nine
miles, and Prince's Town, thirty-six miles. The
total length of railway open on December 31, 1890,
TRINIDAD
183
was fifty-four and a quarter miles, the whole of which
was constructed at a total cost of £602,638, and is
owned by the government. Coast steamers ply
three times a week from Port of Spain to San Fer-
nando and on to Cedros in the southwestern corner
of the island, a total distance of sixty miles.
The government house stands out of town, in large
grounds at the foot of the mountains. In front and
around it are the famous botanical gardens. We
had seen nothing equal to them in the West Indies.
Every known species of palm tree, from the tall
cocoa palm laden with fruit, to the traveller's palm
whose stems hold a tumblerful of refreshing water,
were growing here. Nutmeg, cinnamon, and other
spice trees, immense ceibas with their buttressed
trunks, flamboyants and almonds, orange orchards,
coffee and pineapple plantations filled the air with
fragrance, and masses of flowers delighted the eye
with rich and varied colors. Huge vines hung from
some of the largest trees and orchids clung to trunks
and branches. It was a paradise of vegetation, rank
and rich, yet under careful and intelligent supervis-
ion. We spent a morning of delight among these
natural wonders and beauties, and then strolled by
pleasant roads to the beautiful Savannah, and lunched
at a new and well-appointed hotel on one of the streets
which bound this great pleasure ground of Trinidad.
XXI
HINDUS AT TRINIDAD
CONTRAST OF RACES COOLIE APPRENTICESHIP, LABOR
AND LITE -A COLLECTION OF LIVING CURIOSITIES
HINDU PRIEST, ACCAWAI INDIANS, AND COOLIE BELLE
ONE of the most interesting excursions which
the traveller can make in Trinidad is to the coolie
villages. The coolie village in connection with
Port of Spain is about three miles from the town.
The road thither is lined with bamboo thickets and
rows of palm trees, and their shade is appreciated
in this tropical region, where the direct rays of
the sun are painful and dangerous. We drove
through uncleanly suburbs where black vultures
were feeding upon garbage, and soon came to the
village. It is a collection of shanties by the road-
side made of boards or of palm thatch supported
on bamboo props.
props. In front of each were men,
women, and children; a totally different race from
the negroes or the black West Indians. Clothed
in his long white linen gown, with a turban on
his head, or with nothing on but the scarf twisted
184
HINDUS AT TRINIDAD
185
about his loins, the Hindu bears himself with
dignity and reserve. His features are delicate and
clear-cut, his manners are those of a civilization
of which the negro knows nothing, and which
indicates the sway of mind over matter. He may
be a degraded heathen and know little more than
the African, but he does not thus impress the vis-
itor. He has the gravity of the sphinx, and an
aristocratic bearing which is out of harmony with
his environment. One instinctively connects the
negro with the animal creation ; it would be im-
possible to imagine the Hindu as anything but a
man. Even when seated cross-legged before a little
charcoal furnace fashioning silver and gold orna-
ments out of coins, or carrying loads, or working
in the fields, there is something in shape or move-
ment or expression that indicates mental power,
a descent from a cultured ancestry, a superiority
to present conditions. Much of this is doubtless
due to the contrast which is presented in such a
place as Port of Spain between the noisy and loose-
mannered negroes of the town and the silent, self-
contained coolies, who dwell apart in their own
village; but circumstances will not wholly account
for such marked differences as are seen in the
races.
There are many thousand of these coolies in
186
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
Trinidad, and upon the whole the arrangements
under which they emigrate and work in the island
are beneficial to employer and employed. They
are brought from Hindustan at the expense of the
colony under the care of government agents, and
are of course well cared for and fed during the
voyage. On arrival those who are in good condi-
tion are apprenticed to owners who desire them,
for five years. Families are not allowed to be
separated except in the case of children who are
over fifteen years of age. They are bound by law
to work nine hours a day for two hundred and
eighty days in the year, and receive the regular
rate of wages. The law punishes the coolie for
wilful idleness, and the employer for any fraud in
his dealings with the laborer. For the two first
years a part of their payment consists of rations,
but for the rest of their time they are paid in cash.
Each estate employing coolies is obliged to provide
a hospital which is under the inspection of a med-
ical visitor, and all the labor arrangements are
subject to the inspection of a government agent
who visits the estates constantly and reports each
week to the agent-general of immigrants. He in
turn reports to the governor, who has absolute
authority to cancel the contract and remove any
or all of the coolies from an estate. The system
HINDUS AT TRINIDAD
187
is a good one, provided only that the agents and
the governor are of high character, and faithful
in the discharge of their duties; and so far as I
could learn, it has worked well in Trinidad.
When the five years of indenture are ended,
the coolie can make a new contract for a year or
he can work for whomsoever he chooses. After he
has been in the colony ten years, he can claim a free
passage home to India, or he is allowed to receive
instead of that claim a government grant of ten
acres of land. The coolies have usually preferred
the former, though some have settled permanently
in the island, and others have returned for a
second term of service, bringing friends and relatives
with them. Though these Hindus are all low caste,
yet they do not amalgamate to any extent with the
other blacks. They dwell by themselves as far as
possible, they have a priest of their own religion,
and they live a simple family life; they are jealous
of their marital rights, extremely fond of their
children, frugal in their expenditures, and as well
behaved as any class of the community. They live
mostly in the open air, for in the climate of Trinidad
a house is only for a shelter when it rains, or a place
to sleep; and a hammock under one of the umbra-
geous trees is more attractive here than the best bed
under a roof. A charcoal brazier and a brass pot,
188
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
with a few jugs and dishes of coarse pottery, com-
prise all the household furniture which the coolie
needs. Rice and cassaya root, with the fruits which
are ready at hand, supply their scanty meals. They
have little, but their wants are few; they have
no debts and no duns; no clothes at the pawn-
broker's and very few anywhere; they are accumu-
lating gold and silver pieces to support them for
the rest of their lives in Hindustan; they will go
home to a blissful Nirvana, or to its equivalent in
their simple imaginations.
An agent from “Barnum and Bailey's Greatest
Show on Earth” made his appearance while we
were at Port of Spain, and engaged passage for
a curious collection of Indians from South America,
to which he added as stars for the ethnological
department of the show, the Hindu priest of the
coolie village, and “ Julia," a beautiful specimen
of a coolie woman. The agent paid these Hindus
twenty dollars a month for a six months' trip,
and contracted to put them ashore at Trinidad
at the end of their contract. They were all deck
passengers except Julia, who was allowed a cabin
and behaved with as much propriety and conven-
tionality as any of the passengers. The ladies on
board were very kind to her, and we were all
sorry when she fell into the hands of the reporter

BARBAJEE, HINDU COOLIE PRIEST
HINDUS AT TRINIDAD
189
who thus exploited the arrival of the Madiana in
New York:
- With the sword of Adam and Eve' before him
and the rod of Moses' under his arm, the Right
Reverend Barbajee, high priest of the island of
Trinidad, descended the gang-plank of the steamer
Madiana with stately tread yesterday afternoon
as she lay alongside the dock of the Quebec Steam-
ship Company. Attired in full sacerdotal robes, ,
with the sacred turban upon his head and a smile
of trustfulness upon his genial, ebony countenance,
Barbajee has come to convert America through the
channel of Barnum and Bailey's peripatetic summer
camp-meeting, popularly known as the 'Greatest Show
on Earth.' Barbajee was not unattended. Twenty-
one men and women and four children from the
West Indies and South America came with him
on the steamer, under the care of Mr. Bailey's agent.
There were five Accawai Indians and four Warri-
hoones from the Orinoco River, four Caribs, four
Hindu Creoles, two Hindus, and three Barbadians
in the lot.
“Their many-hued raiment was of the chintz
curtain order, but their jewelry was superb. The
women were loaded down with bracelets to the
elbows, rings on their fingers, and bells on their
toes.' Ankle rings, earrings, nose rings, and
190
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
other kinds of ornaments were distributed over
every visible portion of their persons, especially the
Hindu coolies, of whom there are eighty thousand
on the island of Trinidad. There being no law
forbidding contract labor there, they are brought
over to work on the cocoa plantations under contract,
and remain to form an important part of the island's
population. The Indians were nearer to nature.
Their only ornament was paint, with India ink
etching Their raiment is equally parti-colored
but their facial expressions are less engaging. Bar-
bajee is a great evangelist.
“ Next to Barbajee, the star of the West Indian
combination was Julia Blare Lall. Julia is the belle
of Trinidad, and her fortune is her face, and the
golden ornaments thereof. Julia talks good English,
and though her smile is a little twisted because there
are several ounces of gold pendants hanging to her
left nostril, she promises to be a success in New
York society."
Several of the Indians succumbed to the cold of a
New York April, but the others survived. I saw the
priest and Julia in the ethnological procession at the
Madison Square Garden. They recognized a friendly
face and broke ranks to shake hands. It seemed sad
to see them marching around the dusty ring in com-
pany with a lot of bushmen and barbarians, and I
HINDUS AT TRINIDAD
191
only hope that they will get back to their simple life
in the coolie village without disaster. They pro-
fessed that a desire to see the United States was a
more potent motive to make the voyage than the
money which was offered them, and judging by my
own fondness for new and strange countries, I could
not doubt their word.
XXII
LA BREA AND THE PITCH LAKE
WHERE THE PITCH COMES FROM — BLACKNESS OF DARKNESS
TURNING PITCH INTO GOLD
HOMEWARD BOUND
AU REVOIR
SIXTY miles south of Port of Spain is one of the
wonders of the world; a dark and disagreeable thing,
indeed, but yet a phenomenon. Pitch is no novelty,
but a plain of a hundred acres more or less, where
the pitch is bubbling up at the rate of tons a day, is
certainly worth seeing, and I had no sympathy with
the snob who sent his valet to inspect it for him,
because, as he said, it was a dirty job and a black
lake was not half as beautiful as an ordinary lake.
The bitumen deposits by the Dead Sea and at Baku
on the Caspian, and the oil wells of Pennsylvania are
not beautiful to look upon, but they are curious and
instructive, and they promote study and scientific
investigation. It was once thought that the Pitch
Lake of Trinidad had some connection with the vol-
canic forces of the West Indies, but a sounder and
simpler explanation has been given by practical chem-
192
LA BREA AND THE PITCH LAKE
193
ists and surveyors, to wit, that the buried vegetable
matter which has been amassed here becomes a sort
of peat, and then is converted by the chemical proc-
esses of nature into an oily asphalt, which under
the pressure of the upper soil gradually oozes up to
the surface.
We came to La Brea at daylight in order to avoid
the heat, which upon the Pitch Lake in the middle
of the day is something frightful. We were put
ashore in boats through a heavy surf, landing on a
reef of pitch which had flowed down into the sea,
and become almost as hard as cement. The beach is
mostly covered with black pitch, and a road made ar-
tificially of the same material winds up a long but
gradual ascent to the lake. The sun had risen, and
though the road was partly through woodland, its sur-
face soon became yielding under the heat, and was
unpleasantly warm to the feet. It seemed strange to
see rich vegetation everywhere, but it is evident that
the pitch does not injure it. I picked huge waxy
red flowers out of little green oases in the pitchy
plain, and a variety of smaller plants and flowers
were growing in the same places. But everything
was more or less coated with pitch dust, the smell of
pitch was in the air, and after a walk of less than
a mile up a gentle slope we reached our goal. The
black lake with its inky pools, and spots of yellow
0
.194
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
bubbles, and water cracks, and yielding surface, and
strong odor of sulphuretted hydrogen, has been often
described, but it must be seen and smelled to be
appreciated. Anything more black, malodorous, and
repulsive in nature I have never seen upon earth's
surface.
It has been likened to a vast asphalt pavement
with many furrows and holes filled with inky
waters, in which swim ugly fish and black beetles.
Charles Kingsley compares it to a crowd of immense
black mushrooms of all shapes, close together, their
tops on a level, and their rounded rims squeezed
tight against each other, with water poured over
them so as to fill all the seams. But these are inven-
tions, not descriptions. A vast black lake with mul-
titudes of circles such as are made when a stone is
thrown into water, gives a fair idea of the appearance
from a little distance. When one comes to walk
over the pitch, for it is solid enough to walk over, he
finds deep pools and channels of water, and places
where the pitch bubbles up with a yellowish scum
and a sulphurous smell. If he stands long in one
place after the sun is high, his feet sink gradu-
ally; and horses and carts which load the material
only remain a few moments in the same spot. When
pieces of pitch are taken out, nature at once begins
to repair the damage, and in twenty-four hours the
LA BREA AND THE PITCH LAKE
195
hole is filled up again. We saw the process begin-
ning in a dozen different places. Besides the curious
sight of little islands of rich vegetation rising out of
this black plain, there were here and there great
pieces of wood sticking up endwise, having appar-
ently come up through the pitch, for they had
crowns of pitch on the end which rose two or three
feet above the surface. A strange quality of the ma-
terial was that it did not stick to or soil the hands.
I took a ball of the stuff and worked it like putty, and
it was not until the water was thoroughly squeezed
out that it began to show any dirty or adhesive char-
acteristics. This is due to the amount of earthy
matter which is mingled with the vegetable oil in the
product.
We walked over acres of the lake, dug into it
for specimens, one of the lads caught a fish in a
black pool, and lest the sulphuretted hydrogen and
the hot sun in combination should make us sick, we
limited our visit to about an hour. The tract is leased
by the government of Trinidad to an American asphalt
company for forty-one years at sixty thousand dollars
a year, and the company is coining money. Its presi-
dent recently paid nearly three-quarters of a million of
dollars for a palace in New York, and there is no limit
to the business which can be done in this material.
It is used for pavements, for roofs, for cellars, for the
196
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
protection of walls for tombs, for tennis courts and
garden paths, for village sidewalks ; and new appli-
cations are devised every month which will turn this
black and ill-smelling mass into the gold which
Columbus and his comrades vainly sought in Trinidad.
Thus does the world progress, and the discarded and
despised materials of one century become the wealth
of its successors. The asphalt company has estab-
lished machinery near the lake to crush and purify
the pitch as it comes from the lake in carts, to form
it into blocks or pack it in barrels, and an endless
chain of huge iron buckets has been set up from the
works to the shore to facilitate the transportation of
the asphalt to vessels. I was afforded an excellent
example to what base uses fine things may come,
when I saw the Madiana, which was so neat and trim
on our winter excursion, lying on a summer day at
her New York dock, dirty and grimy, and discharg-
ing tons of black freight from La Brea and the
Pitch Lake upon the wharf.
We rowed through a rough sea back to our steamer,
hoisted the anchor, and before noon were once more
at Port of Spain. Our long voyage to the south was
ended and the ship was homeward bound.
Over the azure sea, under the Southern Cross,
among the beautiful islands whose wonderful sym-
metry and exquisite outlines had become a constant
LA BREA AND THE PITCH LAKE
197
delight, slipping into the quiet harbors, palm-edged
and shadowed by wondrous inland forests, saying
“hail and farewell” to friends in the larger towns,
so we cruised back to Barbados and Martinique, to
Dominica, to Guadeloupe, Antigua and St. Kitt’s.
We greeted each island as a personality and bade
them in turn au revoir, for we are sure to come
again into this charming region where the winter of
our discontent is made glorious summer; where
"every prospect pleases,” and it is not needful to
quote the next line of the good bishop's hymn. If
we could only be sure of such agreeable and intelli
gent companions, and so fortunate a voyage each
winter, it would be well to migrate annually like
the birds.
One morning we were again at St. Thomas; the
men-of-war had departed, the town was asleep; we
landed and engaged in commerce; freighted with
cigars, bay rum, fruits, and plants, we returned
to the ship, and were soon steaming northward.
After two days the mercury in the thermometer has
fallen to sixty degrees Fahrenheit at noon; there is
a chill in the morning air; we steam through float-
ing masses of seaweed ; a deep blue water is beneath,
and a cold blue and white sky overhead. The pas-
sengers have packed up their white clothes and
straw hats, and appear in dark tweeds and winter
198
CRUISING AMONG THE CARIBBEES
gray suits, with blue yachting caps and black felt
hats.' West India mangoes and sapodillas have given
place to oranges on the table, and we have an appe-
tite for animal food. Ab, a northeaster has struck
us; we meet cold, sleety rain ; leafless trees; winter
lingering in the lap of spring. But we are heartily
welcomed home. Some of the warmest and truest
of human hearts beat in the colder climates of the
earth, and it is our happy lot to have a multitude of
such warm-hearted friends. God bless them all.
THE END
A NEW BOOK BY DR. CHARLES A. STODDARD.
CRUISING AMONG THE
CARIBBEES
SUMMER DAYS IN WINTER MONTHS.
ILLUSTRATED. 12mo. $1.50.
This new book is a graphic narrative of Dr. Stoddard's experi-
ences and observations during a leisurely cruise among the
Windward Islands. The influence of the romantic historical
associations of this famed Spanish Main is felt throughout his
book; and these pictures of the past bring into relief the author's
vivid descriptions of the islands he visited and his racy sketches
of the peoples, - English, French, Dutch, Creoles, Coolies, Negroes,
and native Caribs, who make up the heterogeneous but infinitely
picturesque population. The illustrations, selected from the
author's collection, are a real euibellishment to the book.
CONTENTS.
I. Literature of the Islands.
II. Discovery and Characteristics.
III. A Sea Change.
IV.. The Virgin Group.
V. St. Thomas and its people.
XIII. Sabbath Day Island.
XIV. Caribs of Dominica and St.
Vincent.
XV. Isle de Martinique.
XVI, Battles among tie Islands.
XVII. St. Lucia.
VI. Santa Cruz.
VII. From Saba to St. Kitt's.
XVIII. St. Vincent and the Grena-
dines.
VIII. Life on St. Kitt's.
IX. A Real West Indian Island.
XIX. Barbados.
XX. Trinidad.
X. Antigua and its Annals.
XI. Witchcraft and Superstition.
XII. Guadeloupe.
XXI. Hindus at Trinidad.
XXII. La Brea and the Pitch Lake.
1
DR. STODDARD'S OTHER BOOKS OF TRAVEL.
ACROSS RUSSIA
FROM THE BALTIC TO THE DANUBE.
ILLUSTRATED. 12mo. $1.50.
PRESS NOTICES.
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ears to hear, with a well-pronounced faculty of keeping the precious
metal separate from the dross. He made good use of his time and
of his opportunities, and we but do him justice when we say that we
know of no book on the same subject in which so much useful, read-
able, enjoyable matter is to be found.” — Christian at Work.
'A most interesting volume. A keen eye, a ready wit, and
great felicity of expression have enabled the author to present to the
public a book of travels quite out of the ordinary style. While truth-
ful as sober history, it is as charming as a novel.” – New York Journal
of Commerce.
"The volume has many fine illustrations. Mr. Stoddard is a good
traveller; he sees well, and his descriptions of people and places are
graphic and of large value. ... Our author takes in all the leading
cities, sees what there is to see of art, visits and describes the famous
palaces and churches and hospitals, and makes his book as profitable
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“In the easy style of a traveller, he tells his readers what is worth
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imposing churches, the capacious palaces, all are described in a concise
yet satisfactory manner, as well as the customs, religious and other-
wise, of the people." Christian Intelligencer.
“ The author of this book sets before his readers vivid pictures of
this interesting country and people.” — United Presbyterian, Pitts-
burgh.
“Mr. Stoddard seems to have had exceptional opportunities to study
objects of interest, and writes about them in a way that cannot fail to
interest. We have had so many dark pictures of Russia lately that it
is a pleasure to get hold of a book that is to a certain degree optimistic.
The book is well illustrated." — The School Journal.
“The eyes through which we look in this pleasant volume of travels
are uot unused to sight seeing, and the descriptions here given are
entertaining and happy.” – Herald and Presbyter, C'incinnati.
“The volume richly deserves a place among those welcome helps
that are bringing the most distant and unfrequented parts of the earth
near to our own doors." - Golden Rule, Boston.
BEYOND THE
THE ROCKIES
A SPRING JOURNEY IN CALIFORNIA.
ILLUSTRATED. 12mo. $1.50.
PRESS NOTICES.
"It is a very seductive book, pleasantly written, and draws the
reader on with the unfailing and romantic charm of the country.”
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Dr. Stoddard has written several books of travel, but none more
entertaining than this. He had exceptional opportunities for seeing
what there is to be seen. The descriptions of life 'Beyond the
Rockies' are vivid and fresh beyond what we would consider possible
of a land visited by so many travellers. A superb series of photo-
graphs illustrate this delightfúl narrative." - Philadelphia Ledger.
"From his long experiences as a traveller he has a faculty of seizing
upon what people are likely to want to know, and his account of the
wonderful land beyond the Rockies is an uncommonly entertaining
book of travel." - Sprinyfield Republican.
“Dr. Stoddard writes easily, pleasantly, and often shrewdly of our
wonderful Western Coast. There is a good seasoning of fun and inci-
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trated."
” — The Outlook.
“ It is not easy to say much that is new of hasty travel in California.
But Charles Augustus Stoddard, in 'Beyond the Rockies,' has given to
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from an expert in travel. New York Tribune.
“This prettily illustrated volume is a well-worded series of sketches
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Those who have been there, and seen and enjoyed, will reread the story
and enjoy it almost as if it were new.” — Chicago Inter-Ocean.
"It will be welcomed as a valuable addition to the literature of the
great West, most of which is in the necessity of the case obsolete
almost as soon as published. From his long experiences as a traveller
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uncommonly entertaining book of travel, while its language is as en-
thusiastic as the most ardent Californian could desire, - Springfield
Republican.
“His style has the merit of freshness; occasionally, indeed, it is
illuminated by that special humor which we are in the habit of associat-
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fully written, and is a conscientious performance in every way.'
Spectator, London.
3
SPANISH CITIES
WITH GLIMPSES OF GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER.
ILLUSTRATED.
12mo.
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style bas sparkle and flavor without froth.”. New York Tribune.
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tences have need of few adjectives to enforce their. meaning. His
descriptions of places are concise and yet clear, and so markedly
elegant as to deserve more than usual commendation. - Chicago
Inter-Ocean.
“Dr. Stoddard's style is easy and flowing, and he gives us, not
merely a chronicle of where he went and what he saw, but he gives us
a series of delightful pen pictures of Spain and its people, their habits
and customs and modes of life. There are sever... excellent illustra-
tions which add much to the interest of the work." — Boston Daily
Advertiser.
“An unusually fresh and beautiful book of travel.” — Brooklyn
Daily Eagle.
“A straightforward, unpretentious, interesting account of travel in
Spain, with interesting descriptions of cities, and passing notes of
Spanish life without tiresome statistics or historical rehashing." -- The
Independent.
A writer who has the power of seeing things as well as describing
what he sees. To read it is to take one of the most delightful trips
conceivable with a charming companion and raconteur. The
illustrations are from photographs, and add very much to the attrac-
tiveness of the volume." - The Detroit Free Press.
He knows well how to find the points and the persons of special
interest, and then understands how to make what interests himself
seem vivid and of similar interest to the reader'. His style, while pure
and simple, is picturesque and easily appeals to the reader's imagina-
tion." - The Advance.
"Dr. Stoddard is a traveller who knows what he wants to see, and
sees it, and a writer who knows how to make his readers see what he
has seen. In this pleasant tour in Spain he saw the present and
recalled the past, and his sketches of what he saw gain an added
touch of romance from the glimpses he gives of what he remembered
of their former history." — The Evangelist.
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers,
743 and 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY.
UNIV. OF MICH.
NOV 27 1906
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
}
3 9015 02193 7282
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