COLXIMBIA UBRARtES OFFSTTE

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C.Wayne Tuthlll, 4029 Tuthil I PLACE. Seaford.L.I.N.Y.

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OUR ISLANDS

AND

THEIR PEOPLE

AS SEEN WITH

Camera and Pencil

INTRODUCED BY

MAJOR-GENERAL JOSEPH WHEELER

UNITED STATES ARMY

WITH SPECIAL DESCRIPTIVE MATTER AND NARRATIVES BY

JOS6 DE OLIVARES

THB NOTED AUTHOR AND WAR CORRESPONDENT AiA«r TVDehaTtktnph," **Tht Cum rf Lof^" "Tlic Uit of the AnguUlw," tnd other Wwt IiuUtn itoftM.

EMBRACING PERFECT PHOTOGRAPHIC AND DESCRIPTIVE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PEOPLE AND THE ISLANDS LATELY ACQUIRED FROM SPAIN, INCLUDING HAWAII AND THE PHILIPPINES; ALSO THEIR MATERIAL RESOURCES AND PRODUCTIONS, HOMES OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR CUSTOMS AND GENERAL APPEARANCE, WITH MANY HUNDRED VIEWS OF LANDSCAPES, RIVERS, VALLEYS, HILLS AND MOUNTAINS, SO COMPLETE AS TO PRACTICALLY TRANSFER THE ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE TO THE PICTURED PAGE.

WITH A SPECIAL CONSIDERATION OF THE CONDITIONS THAT PREVAILED BEFORE THE DECLARATION OF WAR, BY SENATORS PROCTOR, THURSTON, MONEY, AND NUMEROUS PROMINENT WRITERS AND CORRESPONDENTS, AND A COMPARISON WITH CONDITIONS AS THEY NOW EXIST.

COMPLETE IN TWO QUARTO VOLUMES

Price, $15,00 per Set

EDITED AND ARRANGED BV

WILLIAM S. BRYAN

AMIlor of "FootprlDts of the World's History," "Heroes and Heroines of America," "America's War for Humaoltr," ttc. CtO.

PHOTOGRAPHS BV

WALTER B. TOWNSEND FRED. W. FOUT

GEO. E. DOTTER AND OTHERS

Sup^*'6/y Illustrated wiik more than Twelve Hundred Special Photographs^ Colortypes^ and New Colored Maps

VOLUME 11.

N. D. THOMPSON PUBLISHING CO.

ST. LOUIS NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA

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Copyright, 1899, by N. D. Thompson Pdbusbing Compant.

■The Illustrationa in this work are protected by special copyright, aty| any infringemep* will be rigidly prosecuted.

PRIMITIVE PORTO RICO,

Chapter XIX.

UNDER this head we group a number of interesting items relating to-early life in the West Indies, gleaned from an ancient book f^rst published at Amsterdam, in 1678. It is the source from which many of the early facts about the islands have been gleaned by later writers, and it is universally accepted as trustworthy and reliable. The book is written in the quaint style of the 17th century, which, however, detracts nothing from its interest or value.

At the time of the discovery the only mammals found in Porto Rico were the agouti and the armadillo, as stated elsewhere; but the Spaniards introduced horses, cattle, hogs and dogs, and nearly all of the breeds of these animals now in existence there sprang from these original importations, and all of them at some period or other ran wild in the island. The dogs brought over by the Span- iards were of a savage and fierce disposition, and it is asserted by all the reliable historians of the period that tfiey were imported for

that they ofttimes will assault an entire herd of wild boars, not ceasing to persecute tlicm till thoy have at last overcome and torn in pieces two or three. One day a French buccaneer caused mc to see a strange action of this kind. Being in the fields hunting together, we heard a great noise of dogs, which had surrounded a wild boar. Having tame dogs with us. we left them to the custody of our servants, desirous to see the sport, if possible. Hence my companion and I, each of us, climbed up into several trees, both for security and prospect. The wild boar was all alone, and stand- ing against a tree; with his tusks he endeavored to defend himself from a great number of dogs that had enclosed him, having with his teetli killed and wounded several of them. This bloody tighc continued about an hour, the wild boar meanwhile attcmi>ting many times to escape. At last, being upon the thght, one of tliese dogs leaped on his back, and the rest of the dogs, perceiving the courage of their companion, fastened likewise upon the boar, and

A NATIVE HUT AND FAMILY NEAR COAMO, PORTO RICO.

This hut and the family that occupies it are above the average o( the dwellings o( the peon class and the people who inhabit them. The houses are merely Intended as shelters from the rain, and are rarely entered at any other time. At night all the family sleep on the bare floor, without bedding or furniture of any kind.

the purpose of aiding the conquerors in exterminating the natives — a fact that emphasizes the infamy and bloodthirsty disposition of the men who succeeded Columbus. These dogs increased with amazing rapidity, and being deserted by their masters or turned loose to shift for themselves, they soon infested all the mountainous regions and became a source of dread and danger to those who had intended them for a very different purpose. Referring to these wild dogs, the ancient writer whose book we have mentioned says: "In this island there are still remaining a huge number of wild dogs. These destroy yearly multitudes of all sorts of cattle. For no sooner has a cow brought forth her calf, or a mare foaled, than these wild mastififs come to devour the young breed, if Ihey find not some resistance from keepers, and other domestic dogs. They run up and down the woods and fields commonly in whole troops of fifty, threescore or more, together, being withal so fierce

presently after killed him. This being done, all of them, the first only excepted, laid themselves down ui)on the ground about their prey, and there peaceably continued till he, the first and most courageous of the troop, had eaten as much as he could devour. When this dog had ended his repast and left the dead beast, all the rest fell in to take their share, till nothing was left that they could devour. What ought we to infer from this notable action, per- formed by the brutish sense of wild animals? Only this, that even beasts themselves are not destitute of knowledge, and that they give us documents how to honour such as have well deserved, see- ing these, being irrational animals as they were, did reverence and respect him that exposed his life to the greatest danger, in van- quishing courageously the common enemy."

The writer's moralizing on the good disposition of the dogs was evidently well founded, for, however little they may have

(385)

25

OUR ISLANDS AND TH^IIR PEOPLE.

3«7

.'leserved commendation, it is evident from all the known facK that they were more generous and less vicious in disposition than their Spanish masters.

The Spaniards enslaved not only the native Indians, but all whom they captured in their constant piracies and depredations upon the ships and island possessions of other nations. They were the freebooters of the Spanish Main, and made loot and booty of everything that fell into their hands.

In this connection our ancient writer relates the following incident, which aptly illustrates the inherent cruelty of the Span- ish nature :

"It happened that a certain planter of those countries exer- cised such cruelty towards one of his servants as caused him to run away. Having absconded for some days in the woods from tlie fury of his tyrannical master, at last he was taken, and brought back to the dominion of this wicked Pharoah. No sooner had he

ours of that tormented wretch', gave permission to the Author of Wickedness suddenly to possess the body of that barbarous and inhuman Amirn'cidv, who tormented him to deatli. Insomuch that those tyrannical hands, wherewith he had punished to death his innocent servant, were tlie tormentors of his own body. For with them, after a miserable manner, he beat himself and lacerated his own tlesh, till he lost the very shape of man which nature had given him; not ceasing to howl and cry, williout any rest either by day or night. Thus he continued to do until he <lied, in that con- dition of raving and madness wherein he surrendered his ghost to the same Spirit of Darkness who had tormented his body. Many other examples of this kind I could rehearse, but these, not belonging to our present discourse, I shall therefore omit."

Our entertaining author tells us also that the wild boars were protected by the authorities in order that they miglit serve as food for the inhabitants in case of an invasion of the island, ^yhich

THE MILtTARY ROAD NEAR COAIWO. PORTO RICO.

A battle occurred here between the Spanish and American forces, and two distrnguished SpanUn officers were killed, Major Vesco and Cat>tain PniycoM, The lonner fell just where the soldier stands. The scene is on the Military Road nboul half a mile from the city of Coamo.

got him into his hands than he commanded him to be tied to a tree. Here he gave him so many lashes upon his naked back as made his body run an entire stream of gore blood, embruing there- with the ground about the tree. Afterwards, to make the smart of bis wounds greater, he anointed them with juice of lemon and salt and pepper, being ground small together. In' this miserable pos- ture he left* him tied to the tree for the space of four and twenty hours. These being past, he commenced his punishment again, lashing him as before, with so much cruelty that the miserable wretch, under this torture, gave up the ghost, with these dying words in his mouth: 'I beseech the Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, that he permit the wicked spirit to make thee feel as many torments, before thy death, as thou hast caused me to feel before mine.* A strange thing and worthy of all astonishment and admiration! Scarce three or four days were past after this horrible fact, when the Almighty Judge, who had heard the clam-

arrangement subsequent events proved to be a wise and salutary provision. He says:

"In this island abounds also, with daily increase, the wild boar. The Governor has prohibited the hunting of them witli dogs, fear- ing lest, the island being but small, the whole race of those animals in a short time should be destroyed. The reason why he thought convenient to preserve these wild beasts was that in case of any invasion of an external enemy the inhabitants might sustain them- selves'with their food, especially if they were constrained to retire to the woods and mountains. By this means he judged they were enabled to maintain any sudden assault or long i)ersccution. Yet this sort of game is almost impeded by itself, by reason of the many rocks and precipices, which for the greatest part arc covered with little shrubs, very green and thick, whence the huntsmen have oft- times precipitated themselves, and left us the sad experience and grief of many memorable disasters."

388

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

UNIThU M A I KS bOLDIHKS EMBARKING FuK ilOME. This view Shows portions of the SUi and 19lh U. S. Infantry preparing to embark at Pouce for the United Stales. The 19th

to the Pliilippines.

was subsequeotly ordered

The accuracy of the writer's statements has a singular verifi- cation in the last sentence, for his description of the hills and mountains of central Porto Rico as they are now fits them as he depicted them two hundred years ago. The precipices "covered with little shrubs, very green and thick," are there at this very time, and if the wild boars had left any descendants the sportsman who might venture to hunt them in their chosen fastnesses would experience "grief and many memorable disasters."

But the islanders had other food supplies besides the wild hogs,, as our author explains in the following extract from his

intensely interesting book: "At a certain time of the year huge flocks of wild pigeons resort to this island, at which season the mhabitants feed 6n them very plentifully, having more than they can consume, and leaving totally to their repose all other sorts of fowl, both wild and tame, to the intent that in absence of the pigeons these may supply their place. But as nothing in the

THE DOCKS AT PONCE,

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

389

universe, though never so pleasant, can be found but what has something of bitterness joined to it, the very symbol of this truth we see in the aforesaid pigeons. For these, the season being past wherein God has appointed them to afford dehcious food to those people, can scarcely be touched with the tongue, they become so extremely lean and bitter even to admiration. The reason of this bitterness is attributed to a certain seed which they eat about that time, as jbitter as gall. About the seashores great multitudes of crabs are everywhere found, belonging both to the land and sea. and both sorts very big. These are good to feed servants and slaves, w^ho find them very pleasing to the palate, yet withal very hurtful to the sight. Besides which symptom, being eaten too often, they also cause great giddiness in the head, with much weakness of the brain, insomuch that very frequently they are deprived of sight for the space of one quarter of an hour."

The older inhabitants of our Western and Southern States

The wild horses described in the following extract were the progenitors of the animals now in daily use on the island, and the lapse of two centuries does not seem to have improved them either in size or appearance:

"But besides the wild beasts above mentioned, here are also huge numbers of wild horses to be seen everywhere. These run up and down in whole herds or flocks all over the island. They are but low of stature, short-bodied, with great heads, long necks, and big or thick legs. In a word, they have nothing that is handsome in all their shape. They are seen to run up and down commonly in troops of two or three hundred together, one of them going always before, to lead the multitude. When they meet any person that travels through tlie woods or fields, they stand still, suffering him to approach till he can almost touch them, and then, suddenly starting, they betake themselves to llight. running away disorderly, as fast as they are able. The hunters calkli llu iu with

1 111-. UKACH AT AKKOVO. i'DRTO KICU

One of the divisions of the army under General Miles landtd at this place, a small village 011 the southeasteni coast of the Ulaod, and only about five miles distant

from Guayama. the capital of the proviacc of that iiame.

remember the wild pigeons, which used to come in such huge flocks as to darken the light of the sun, and when they settled in a forest the branches were broken from the trees by their weight. They were so numerous that when they rose in flight the roar of their wings sounded like distant thunder, and none but those who have seen them can appreciate their countless numbers or under- stand the feeling of awe that was produced by their presence. Their flesh was never esteemed a delicacy, being flavored by the bitter taste of the acorns that they fed upon; but they were slaughtered by thousands, until they seem to have become extinct.

The crabs still exist in great numbers, especially in Cuba, where they are eaten principally by the poorer classes, and with results similar to those described by our author, if indulged in to excess. But their appearance is so disgusting that the excess is easily avoided.

industry, only for the benefit of tlieir skins, although sometimes they preserve their flesh likewise, which they harden with smoke, using it for provisions when they go to sea."

Our author gives some'interesting information about parrots and the carpenter bird, which is confirmed by the facts of natural history.

"It is already known to everybody," he says, "that the parrots which we have in Europe are transported to us from these parts of the world. Whence may be inferred that, seeing such a number of these talkative birds, are preserved among us, notwithstanding the diversity of climates, much greater multitudes are to be found where the air and temperament is natural to them. The parrots make their nests in holes of palmetto trees, which holes are before made to their hand by other birds. The reason is, forasmuch as they are not capable of excavating any wood* though never so

390

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

QUARANTINE BOAT OFF THE COAST AT PONCE.

The large vesselB at Anchor fliT the U.S. transporl'Mcnde-Hnd the cniisers'BIa^^ The reposeful grandeur of the warshios and the nntnral

effect of the ripplmg water in the foreground constitute the most attractive features of this remarlwbly beautiful plaurl natural

soft, as having their own bills too crooked and blunt. Hence provident nature has supplied them with the labour and industry of another sort of small birds called carpinteros^ or carpenters. These are no bigger than sparrows, yet notwithstanding of such hard and piercing bills, that no iron instrument can be made more apt to excavate any tree, though never so solid and hard. In the holes therefore, fabricated beforehand by these birds, the parrots get possession, and build their nests, as has been said."

One of the most interesting extracts from this ancient book relates to the manchineel tree, a poisonous evergreen that grows wild in the West Indies, in southern Florida, and along the shores of the Carribeaii Sea in South and Central America. It attains a height of forty or fifty feet, has a smooth, brownish bark, and short, thick limbs, and bears a fruit of a yellow-

A CIIARACTF.KISTIC SCENE IN THE bTkEETS ui- I'UNCE- This view shows the entrance of the road (rom Port Ponce into the city: also a portion of the Custom House and the noted wholesale coffee

house ol filasini Uennanos.

ish color when ripe and resembling the apple in appearance. From this latter circumstance it derived its name of "dwarf apple tree." Early accounts represented this tree as being more poison- ous and deadly than the upas, asserting that grass would not grow beneath it, that death resulted from sleeping under its shade, and that a drop of its juice falling upon the skin had the same effect as the application of red-hot iron. But while it is true that the milky sap of the tree is highly poisonous, experience shows that the earlier reports were greatly exaggerated. The juice of the fruit, if allowed to come in contact with the lips or other tender parts ot the skin, will produce severe blisters, and the sap as well as the

smoke of the burning wood produces tem- porary blind ness. On ac- count o£ the beauty of the brown and w bite w o o d when polished, it is much used for cabinet work; but cabinet mak- ers while at work have to protect their faces with veils from the poisonous ef- fects of the sawdust and exhalations from the wood. Woodmen in forests are careful to sur- round them- selves w^itii fires before cutting the trees, in order to thicken the sap and drive

392

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

THE QUINTANA MEDICAL DATHS. NKAK PONCE. PORTO RICO.

off its volatile

poison. With these

well-known facts l)efore

us, it will be seen that

our anthor is not very

wide of the mark in his

descriptions of the tree

and its effects on men.

He says: '^The tree called manzanUla, or dwarf apple tree, grows near the seashore, being naturally so low that its branches, though never so short, always touch the water. It bears a fruit some- thing like our sweet-scented apples, which, notwithstanding, is of a very venomous quality. For these apples being eaten by any person, he instantly changes colour, and such a huge thirst seizes him as all the water of the Thames cannot extinguish, he dying raving mad within a little while after. But what is more, the fish that eat, as it often hap- pens, of this fruit are also poisonous. This tree affords also a liquor, both thick and white, which, if touched by the hand, raises blisters upon the skin, and these are so red in colour as if it had been deeply scalded with hot water. One day, being hugely tormented with mos- quitoes, or gnats, and as yet unacquainted with the nature of this tree. I cut a branch thereof, to serve me instead of a fan, but all my face swelled the next day and filled with blisters, as if it were burnt, to such a degree that I was blind for three days."

The troublesome insects which infest the islands will be readily recognized, from the following descriptions, by all who have visited the

West Indies: "As to the insects which this island produces, I shall only take notice of three sorts of flies, which excessively torment all human bodies, but more especially such as never before, or but a little while, were acquainted with these coun- tries. The first sort of these flies are as big as our common horse-flies in Europe. And these, darting themselves upon men's bodies, there stick and suck their blood till they can no longer fly. Their importunity obliges to make almost con- tinual use of branches of trees wherewith to fan them away. The Spaniards in those parts call them mosquitoes, or gnats, but the French give them the name of marapiguincs. The second sort of these insects is no bigger than a grain of sand. These make no buzzing noise, as the preceding species do, for which reason it is less avoidable, as being able also through its small- ness to penetrate the finest linen or cloth. The hunters are forced to anoint their faces with hogs'-grease. thereby to defend themselves from the stings of these little animals. By night, in their huts or cottages, they constantly for the same purpose burn the leaves of tobacco, without which smoke they are not able to rest. True it is that in the daytime they are not troublesome, if any wind be stirring; for this, though never so little, causes them to dissipate. The gnats of the third species exceed not the bigness of a grain of mustard. Their color is red. These sting not at all, but bite so sharply upon the flesh as to create little ulcers therein. Whence it often comes that the face swells and is rendered hideous to the view, through this inconvenience. These are chiefly trouble- some by day, even from the beginning of the morning until sunsetting, after which time they take their rest, and permit human bodies to do the same. The Spaniards gave these insects the name of rojados^ and the French that of calarodcs.

"The insects which the Spaniards call cochinillas and the English glow-worms are also found to be in these parts. These are very like such as we have in Europe, unless that they are somewhat bigger and longer than ours. They have two little specks on their heads, which by night give so much light that three or four of those animals, being together upon a tree, it is not discernible at a distance from a bright, shining fire. I had on a certain time at once three of these cochinillas

MARIANAO 8TRBET, PONCS. SltowiQir the fire departiaeat a&d a nombcr of promlstnt bniincH hOPtclL

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

so bnght y that w.thout any other light I could easily read in any book, although of never so small a print. I attempted to bring some of these msects into Europe when I came from those parts but as soon as they came into a colder climate they died by the way. They lost also their shining on the change of air. even before the.r death. Th.s shining is so great, according to what I have related that the Spaniards with great reason may well call firrflies'^"' """'^^ A^i'^. that is to say.

These tropical fire-flies, which were fully described in the department relating to Cuba, are really wonderful, and they impart a brdhancy and charm to the darkness of the evenings surpassing the imagmations of any one who has never witnessed the result of their efforts.

But the reader will smile at our author's description of the crickets, which he states are in -excessive numbers.- and "of an

S93

"Land-tortoises here are also in great quantities. They mostly breed in mud, and fields that are overflown witli water. The inhabitants eat them, and testify they k7i ^ery good food. But a sort of spider which is here found is very hi(I< -nis. These are as big as an ordinary egg. and their feet as 'long :is those of the biggest sea-crabs. Withal, they arc very hairy, aha Vav« four black teeth like those of a rabbit, both in bigness an-' .*i£ve. Notwithstanding tlieir bites arc not venomous, although they can bite very sharply, and do use it very conmionly. They breed for the most part in the roofs of liouses. This island also is not free from the insect called in Latin milUpcs and in (Irock scohpendria^ or 'many-feet,' neither is it void of scorpions. Vet. by ^the provi- dence of nature, neither the one nor the other bears the least suspicion of poison. For, altliough they cease not to l)ite. y<:t their wounds require not the application of any medicament for their cure. And although their bites cause some inflammation and swell- ing at the beginning, however, these symptoms disappear of their

VIEW IN COAMO VALLEV.

All the people represented In this photo^ph, except the man on the pony, live in the little shanty that iieHlle<i In the woods to the riifht of the rond. Row they

live and what they think o( life are questions we cannot underliike to answer.

extraordinary magnitude, if compared to ours, and so full of noise that they are ready to burst themselves with singing, if any person comes near them." The cricket is a lively insect wherever he is found, and his vanity regarding his voice, which makes him "ready to burst" with singing whenever any person approaches him, is remindful of a similar weakness on the part of many famous song- sters of the human species. The good-natured cricket is not peculiar in his fondness for the sound of his own voice'.

It is a singular fact, as stated in the following extract, that there are but few poisonous reptiles and insects in these tropical islands, in which respect they have been especially and peculiarly favored by nature. In all other tropical countries the traveler is in constant dread of the fangs of venomous serpents or the dangerous and often fatal bites of equally vicious insects, but Cuba and Porto Rico are almost entirely free from these disagreeable pests. On this subject our entertaining author writes, in his usual fluent and instructive style :

own accord."

The cayman, referred to in the following extract, is a species of alligator, and is still to be found in the waters of the islands and of southern Florida. Its habits are very peculiar and interest- ing and conform in a general way to our author's descriptions, although in some particulars he scen;s to have indulged the traveler's prerogative of "stretching his blanket." Of this won- derful cayman he says :

"After the insects above mentioned. I shall not omit to say something of that terrible beast called cayman. This is a certain species of crocodile, wherewith this island very plentifully ai)ounds. Among these caymans some are found to be of a corpulency very horrible to the sight. Certain it is that such have been seen as had no less than three score and ten foot in length, and twelve in breadth. Yet more marvelous than their bulk is their cunning and subtlety wherewith they purchase their food. Being hungry, they glace themselves near the sides of rivers, more especially at the

394

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

fords, where cattle come to drink or wade over. Here tliey lie without any motion, nor stirring any part of their body, resembling au old tree fallen into the river, only floating upon the waters, whither these will carry them. Yet they recede not far from the bank- sides, but continually lurk in the same place, waiting till some wild boar or salvage cow comes to drink or refresh themselves at that place. At which point of time, with huge activity, they assault them, and seizing on them with no less fierceness, they drag the prey into the water an<l there stifle it. But what is more worthy of admiration is, that three or four days before the caymans go upon this design, they eat nothing at all. But, diving into the river, they swallow one or two hundredweight of stones, such as they can find. With these they render tiiem- selvcs more heavy than before, and make addition to their natural strength (which in this animal is very great), tlicreby to render their assault the more terrible and secure. The prey being thus stifled, they suffer it to lie four or five days under water untouciied. For they could not eat the least bit thereof unless half decayed. But when it is arrived at such a degree of putrefaction as is most pleasing to their palate, they devour it with great appetite and voracity. If they can lay hold on any hides of beasts, such as the inhabitants ofttimes place in the fields for drying in the sun, they drag them into the water. Here they leave them for some days, well loaded with stones, till the hair falls off. Then they eat them with no less appetite than they would the animals themselves, could they catch them. A certain person of good repu- tation and credit told me one day that he was by the riverside, washing his baraca^ or tent, wherein he used to lie in the fields. As soon as he began his work, a cayman fastened upon the tent, pulled on the contrary side with all his strength, he having in his mouth a butcher's knife (wherewith as it happened he was scraping the canvas) to defend himself in case of urgent necessity. The cayman, being angry at this opposition, vaulted upon his body, out of the river, and drew him with great celerity into the water, endeavoring with the weight of his bulk to stifle him under the banks. Thus finding himself in the great extremity, almost crushed to death by that huge and formidable animal, with his knife he gave the cayman several wounds in the belly, wherewith he suddenly expired. Being thus delivered from the hands of imminent fate, he drew

CIGARETTE FACTORY IN PONCE.

At the time of our artist's visit this was the only cigarette factory iu Porto Rico that used machinerj', the work ib alt' of the others being done by hand.

the cayman out of the water, and with the same knife opened the body, to satisfy his curiosity. In his stomach he found nearly one hundredweight of stones, each of them being almost of the big- ness of his fist.

"The caymans are ordinarily busied in hunting and catching of flies, which they eagerly devour. The occasion is, because close to their skin they have certain little scales, which smell with a sweet scent, something like musk. This aromatic odour is coveted by the flies, and here they come to repose themselves and sting.

QUINTANA CRhi; K. .NHAR THE FAMOUS MEDICAL BATHS, This creek, which is quite a good-sized stream, comes from the overflow of the magnesia and sulphur sprinas. The baUis at this PUce are noted for

cunn* disorders of the stomach. « tuc uowru lor

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

395

'^^^^.l^^^^^^^ - ^-^^ t^-y --^y applied to several uses

hatred and antipathy. Their manner of procreating and hatching their young ones is as follows : Tiicy approach tlie sandy hanks of some river that lies exposed to the rays of the south sun. Among these sands they lay their eggs, which afterwards they cover with their feet; and here they find them hatched, and with voung generation by the heat only of the sun. These, as soon as they are out of the shell, by natural instinct run to the water. Many times those e^^s are destroyed by birds that find them out, as they scrape among the sands. Hereupon tlie females of the caymans, at such times as

with great benefit. Such is the Yellow Saundcr. wliich tree by the inhabitants oi this country is called Hois de ChandcUe^ or in Eng- lish. Candlcwood. because it burns like a candle, and serves thorn' with light wliilc they use their fishery in the night. Ik-re also grows Lignum Sanctum^ by others called Gnaiacum, the virtues of which arc well known. The trees likewise that aiTord Gummi Eh mi grow here in great abnndancc. and in like manner Radix Chin<r^ or China Root; yet this is not so good as that which comes from other parts of the Western world. It is very white

tiT^>,, f ^ . ' — ^o...^ vv^iii^s iiuiti uiiifi [Kills ui uic western woru . it is very w ute

over An!w t ? "I ' ^'""^^'^h ',11 the danger is.- find nothing else. Tins island also is not der,cienl of Aloes, nor

^^T h=v. , in "T' ■ "'"^ ■ ""'"""'<-' °f °'>'" medicinal herbs, which may please the

as 1 have told you, brnigmg them forth again ont of their stomach, . enriosity of snch as arc given to their contemplation. Moreover,

e Zn TT " ""^f , "''^ '"^ or for any other sort of architectnre, here

L ? I T , ■ \ ■ '° '''•''J' "5 anc found in this spot of Neptune, several sorts of timber very con-

vvneips would do with their dams, sporting themselves 'veiiicnt. Here grow likewise in huge number those trees called

VIEW ON THE COAMO Rn*ER.

A fight took place at thi?! point between the Spanish troops and a portion of ttic Ifith Pennsylvania Volunteers, and diiriiie the eniciiKeinent C C, Bames o( the Pennsylvanians was killed. The mao ou the horse is Sergeant de Campo, who was with the Spaniarda in the Hatnc cuEaKCincut, ami wum ha Jly wounded.

according to their own custom. In this sort of sport they will oftentimes run in and out of their mother's .throat, even, as rabijits into their holes. This I have seen them-do many times/^as- 1 have spied them at play with their dams over-the water upOii the con- trary banks of some river. A't, which time I have 'ofteh. disturbed their sport by throwing a stone that way, causing them on a sudden to creep into the mother's bowels, for fear of some immi- nent danger."

This ancient writer describes a number of trees that are no longer found in Porto Rico, or at least they are not known by the names he gives them. But there is very little timber of any kind remaining on the island, the Spaniards having long since practi- cally denuded it of its once valuable forests. On this subject our author says :

"As to the wood that grows on the island, we have already said that the trees are exceedingly tall and pleasing to the sight;

Palmetto, whence is drawn a certain juice which s6rves the in- habitants instead of wine, and whose leaves cover their houses instead of tiles."

We close tJiis series of extracts with what our author says about the canoes of the natives, and the manner in whicli tliev were made:

"These canoes are like wherry-boats, Ijcing made of one tree only, excavated, and fitted for the sea. They are withal so swift as for that very property they may be called 'Neptune's postc-horses.' The Indians make these canoes without the use of any iron instru- ments, by only burning the trees at the bottom near the root, and afterwards governing the fire with such industry that nothing is burnt more than what they would have. Some of them have hatch- ets made of flint, wherewith tliey scrape or pare off whatsoever was burnt too far. And thus, by the sole instrument of fire, they know how to give them that shape which renders them capable of navi- gating threescore or fourscore leagues with ordinary security."

396

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

Porto Rico's Territorial Government.

By Act of Congress, passed in April, 1900, the island of Porto Rico was organized into a territory of the United States. Under this act the civil officers consist of a Governor, an Executive Council and a Legislature. The Governor is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, and serves for a term of four years. He has a salary of ^8.ooo a year, and occupies the palace, with its furniture and efTects, free of rent. The powers and duties of the Governor are thus set forth in the language of the law :

"He may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit fines and forfeitures for offenses against the laws of Porto Rico, and respites for offenses against the laws of the United States, until the decision of the President can be ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be authorized to appoint, and may veto any legis- lation enacted, as hereinafter provided ; he shall be the commander-in-chief of the militia, and shall at all times faithfully execute the laws, niul he shall in that behalf have all the powers of Governors of territories of the United States that are not locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other times as he may be rccjuired, make official report of the transactions of the government in Porto Rico, through the Secretary of State, to the President of the United States: Provided, that the President may, in his discretion, delegate and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may in pursuance of law be so delegated and assigned."

The ExpCvitive Council consists of eleven persons, to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for terms of four years. At least five of th** eleven "shall be native inhabi-

AMERICAN MEDICAL OFFICERS AT COAMO SPRINGS. PORTO RICO

The pholOEraph represents (he medicnl officers and their assistants at the vaccine station. Small pox was so prevalent when the Amerjcaas came upon the island that the Government immediately provided for the vaccination of the entire population.

tants of Porto Rico." Six of the eleven also hold offices and draw salaries as follows ; Secretary, $4,000; Attorney General, $4,000; Treasurer, $5,000; Auditor, $4,000; Commissioner of the Interior, $4,000; Commissioner of Education, $3,000. The duties of these six officials, aside from those they will perform as members of the Executive Council, may be fairly well understood from the titles they hold. The law expressly states that the Attorney General of Porto Rico "shall have all the powers and discharge all the duties provided by law for an attorney of a territory of the United States, in so far as the same are not locally inapplicable." In its general aspects the entire act is in line with the laws which govern our other territories.

The Legislature is to be composed of the Executive Council of eleven, five of whom, as already stated, must be natives of the island, and the House of Delegates. The latter body is representa- tive. It consists of thirty-five members elected every two years by the qualified voters of the island. The two houses thus constituted are designated "the Legislative Assembly of Porto Rico." The island is to be divided into seven districts on a basis of popu-

VIEW IN JDANA DIAZ, PORTO BICO. ThU place Is « smaU that th^«'erence do no. .nve^^ it contains buildfne,. like the one on the left, for InsUnce. that would be creditable

w muy aiy. our correBpODdcDls aaaert that there are not more than tnenty or thirty house* in thU piaoc.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE:

lation. Each district is to have five members of the House of

Delegates.

The qualifications of voters for the first election under the new order are thus set forth in the act: "Ml citizens of Porto Rico shall be allowed to vote who have been bona fide residents for one year, and who possess the other qualifications of voters under the laws and military orders in force on the ist day of March, 1900, subject to such modifications and additional qualifi- cations and such regulations and restrictions as to registration as may be prescribed by the Executive Council."

After the first election the law provides that "all future elec- tions of delegates shall be governed by the provisions hereof, so far as they are applicable, until the Legislative Assembly shall otherwise provide."

The organization of the House of Delegates, the term of sessions, the pay of members and other details, conform closely to those of territorial Legislatures. With the exception of the follow- mg provision, the Legislative Assembly is given the same powers

397

interests of the island should be protected against indiscriminate and unwise concessions to favorites and intriguers. an<i the clause just quoted, if carried out in good faith, will accomplish that object.

The judiciary is organized very closely along territorial Hues. Porto Rico becomes a judicial district of the United States, and the President appoints a District Judge, Attorney and Marshal. The court appoints tlic subordinate officials, assistants and com- missioners. A Supreme Court is also established, conforming to the Supreme Courts of territories, the Judges being appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. The various salaries are as follows: Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, $5,000; Associate Justices of the Supreme Court (each), $4,000; Marshal of the Supreme Court. $3,000; United States District Judge, $5,000; United States District Attorney, $4,000; United States District Marshal. $3,500.

All court proceedings are to be in English, but the law pro- vides for official interpreters.

THE GOVERNMENT VACCINE STATION AT COAMO SPRINGS. PORTO RICO. Showing the vaccine herd aud native attcadants.

as those possessed by territorial Legislatures in the United States: "All grants of franchises, rights and privileges or concessions of a public or quasi-public nature shall be made by the Executive Council, with the approval of the Governor, and all franchises granted in Porto Rico shall be reported to Congress, which hereby reserves the power to annul or modify the same."

This provision was doubtless inserted with a view to protect- ing the people of the island against rapacious concessions like that made to the French company for building the belt railroad around Porto Rico — a road that was never built, but upon which the people were paying interest at the rate of eight per cent on an estimated cost of $30,000 per mile, when the Americans took pos- session of the island. It is natural to suppose that for a generation or more to come the men to be elected to office will come princi- pally from'the old, influential Spanish class, and that they will be largely influenced by the ideas of government that prevailed during the Spanish era. It is well enough, therefore, that the material

One of the principal variations from the territorial line is the provision for a "Resident Commissioner" instead of a Territorial Delegate. The law provides that at the first general election following the passage of the bill, the voters will choose "a Resi- dent Commissioner to the United States, who shall be entitled to official recognition as such by all departments, upon presentation to the Department of State of a certificate of election of the Governor of Porto Rico, and who shall be entitled to a salary, payable monthly, by the United States, at the rate of $5,000 per annum; provided, that no person shall be eligible to such an election who is not a bona fide citizen of Porto Rico, who is not 30 years of age. and who does not read and write the English language."

Three Commissioners are to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, one of whom shall be a native of Porto Rico, whose duties sliall be "to compile and revise the laws of Porto Rico; also the various codes of procedure and systems of

398

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

4 = 5;^

SCliNKRy ON THE ROAD FKOM COAMO TO SANTA lSABiiI„

Saota Isabel is on the coast directly sotilh of Coamo, and about ten miles distant. The road follows the banks of the Coamo River nearly the entire distance

and crosses it several liiQcs,

municipal government now in force, and to frame and report such legislation as may be necessary to make a simple, harmonious, and economical government, establish justice and secure its prompt and efficient administration, inaugurate a general system of edu- cation and public instruction, provide buildings and funds therefor, equalize and simplify taxation and all the methods of raising reve- nue, and make all other provisions that may be necessary to secure

and extend the benefits of a republican form of government to all the inhabitants of Porto Rico."

The work of this Commission is the most important feature of the entire measure, for upon it will depend the future for good or ill of the people of the island.

Provision is made in the law for the exchange of Porto Rican currency for that of the United States, within three months from the passage of the bill, at the rate of sixty cents in American money for the Porto Rican peso. This piece, at the time of the passage of the law, was circulating at the rate of forty cents in American money. The exchange at sixty cents was there- fore adopted as a compromise, wdiich it was supposed would be satisfactory to the people of Porto Rico.

The tariff feature of the law was a distinct departure from all previous custom in this country with reference to terri- tories, and it provoked a warm discussion all over the nation. It provided for a tariff of fifteen per cent on all goods imported into the United States from Porto Rico, and fifteen per

PRINCIPAL STRHET OF JUANA DIAZ. PORTO RICO.

Sbowlny our srtlsft outfit as the obiective point of interest lor a typical crowd ol natives. JncludinE the policeman in the slory of bla new unilorm and the ever-

preseot and alway* intereiting and entcrUinioB small boy.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

399

■per cent of the existing tariff rate on all goods exported from this country to the island, with the following exceptions: "All mer- chandise and articles entered into Porto Rico free of duty under orders heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall continue to be admitted free of duly coming from the United States."

The articles entitled to free entry into the island from this country include bacon, bags for sugar, coopers' wares, and wood cut for making hogsheads or casks for sugar or molasses : fresh beef, codfish, flour; machinery and apparatus and parts thereof for making and refining sugar or for other agricultural purposes; mineral, carbonated and seltzer waters: natural or artificial root beer, ginger ale and other similar non-alcoholic beverages; modern school furniture, mutton, crude petroleum, lime, plows, hoes, hatchets, machetes for agricultural purposes and other agricultural implements not machinery; pork, rice, rough lumber, tar and mineral pitch, asphalts, bitumen, trees, plants and moss in natural or fresh state.

The tariff on sugar and tobacco bore harder on the Porto Ricans than any other feature of the law. because these are their

great staples, and they had hoped a market for them in the ' ^ _ . Utiited States to replace that which

they had lost in Spain. It was to

This measure therefore guarantees free trade between the United States and Porto Rico as soon as the latter sluUl have provided by local taxation for the expenses of the government of the island: and in no event is the tariff to be continued longer than March ist. 190J.

There is no tariff on coffee in the United States, but under this law Porto Rico has a tariff of five cents a pound against all importations of the coffee bean into tlte island from other coun- tries, which is one cent less than it was under the Spanish law.

Other important general provisions of the law are as follows:

The capital remains at the city of San Juan. All inhabitants who were Spanish subjects April iith. 1899, and their children, "shall be deemed and held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as sucli entitled to the protection of the United States." Exception is made of those wlio may have registered tlieir allegiance to Spain

PLAZA AND CIU'kCH AT ;>ANTA ISAHl.I.. I'OKTO KICO.

This town is od the south const, and was noted in lormer times ns a fninuus Kanthling resort, where laree fortuntrs vrrrc vron and iont it) n iilnKie nlirht

at thir uiiminK talilc.

the sale of these products that they looked for the recuperation of their wasted plantations and the restoration of their fortunes, and the failure of Congress to give them this relief was a bitter disappointment.

The law provided that all revenues collected by means of the tariff should be turned into the treasury of Porto Rico, to be used for the benefit of the people of that island. It also provided that, "whenever the Legislative Assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and ^nit into ppp;-ation a system of local taxation to meet the . necessities ^of :the -govej-nment of Porto Rico, by this act established, and shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into the United States from Porto Rico shall .cease, and from and after such date all such merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports of entry free oi duty; and .in no event shall any duties be collected after the day of March, 1902. on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from the United States or coming into tiie United States from Porto Rico."

before April 1 ith. 1900. All others, "together with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of 'The People of Porto Rico,' with governmental powers as hereinafter conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such."

The old Spanish law "forbidding marriages of priests, minis- ters or followers of any faith because of vows that they may have taken." is repealed.

".All persons lawfully married in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred by law upon parties either to civil or religious marriages."

All vessels owned by inhabitants of Porto Rico shall be nationalized and admitted to the benefits of the coasting trade of the United States, the same as vessels owned by citizens of the United States.-

All of the public property acquired in Porto Rico by the United States under the cession of Spain, is by the law "placed uufler the control of the government established by this act, to be administered for the benefit of the people of Porto Rico; and the Legislative Assembly hereby created shall have authority, subject to

400

CUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

the limitations imposed upon all its acts, to legislate with respect to all such matters as it may deem advisable." Harbors and coast defenses are, of course, not inclu<led. They remain, as in the United States, under control of the general Government.

This law went into effect May ist, 1900, and we have given this extensive resume of its principal features, (i) because it is a dis- tinct new departure in American legislation, and (2) because several of its provisions were not clearly understood by the public.

America, and were wrecked at various times and places on their way to Spain with their precious burdens. The location of each of these treasure • ships is fairly well known, and now

that the United | States have a preponderance of con-

trol over the waters of the Caribbean Sea,

reason of their

VIEW IN THE rows OF COAMO. PORTO KICu

This is quite a nolcd place on accouiit ol the .uii.eral sprinRs «ear Ihc-re The view is typically Por(o Rican. from the loae ox water cart to the boy who aids hi9 mother m her domestic affairs by seeing that his little naked brother does not get into trouble

Ships that Passed jn the Night.

Tliere is a certain degree of fascination in the fact that the bottom of the Caribbean Sea, from the western point of Cuba to the eastern termination of Porto Rico, is strewn with the wrecks of Spanish treasure ships. These vessels were loaded with the spoils of the rich gold and silver mines of Mexico and Central

over the islands, it is proposed by certain enterprising citizens to seek this ancient Klondike at the bottom of the sea and enrich our nation with its treasures. Their efforts will be greatly expe- dited by the recent invention of a submarine vessel that dives under the water and noses around at any desired depth, like a monsler fish seeking its prey. By aid of this unique boat and the com- paratively definite location of the lost ships, their discovery will be a mere matter of a little time and patience.

The number of these derelicts of the sea and the bewildering magnitude of the wealth enclosed by their antique hulks, may be inferred from the following account, supplied by a correspondent who obtained his information by a careful search of the marine records. He says:

"Our new islands in the West Indies furnish one oppor- tunity for Yankee speculative genius that has been curiously overlooked. On the submerged rocks and reefs and in the dangerous passages around Cuba and Porto Rico lie untold wealth — millions of dollars in eold coin.

NAfn J; HLT IN THK OUTSKIRTS OP COAMO

Cur islands and their people.

4pt

silver bars and jewels. In the past Spain's rapacious nile has pre- vented the recovery of much of this treasure, although several men have been made millionaires by the findings of divers in Cuban waters.

"During the early years of Spain's rule in the New World, hundreds of galleons sailed yearly from Mexico and the shores of South America for Spain, stopping at the ports of Cuba and pass- ing out into the Atlantic through the Windward Passage. For more than a century there was a close rivalry between the bucca- neers and the hurricanes to see which could sink the greater number of these treasure fleets. In many cases the location of the wrecks is now definitely known, while in many others the records at Madrid and at Havana show the location only approximately. West Indian waters outside of the harbors are exceedingly clear, so that it is oftentimes possible to see to the depth of eighteen or twenty feet, rendering it easy for divers to make the necessary

approximate location of scores of the treasure wrecks, so that they could be visited with very little ditTicuUy.

"My researches have been hmitcd to such ancient Spanish records as may be found in America, and from these alone — and their number compares witli the immense libraries of such works in Madrid as a drop to a stream— 1 have unearthed the stories of more than a score of vessels and fleets, the wrecks of which now lie in American waters.

"East of the Isle of Pines are the Gardirillos, or famous Jardine Rocks, where lies a whole fleet of good ships. It was here that the daring buccaneer captain, Bartliolomew Portugues, lost the richest prize he ever took in his adventurous career, and it lies there to-day, awaiting the lucky sul)marine explorer. The account of the wreck in the old books is most circumstantial."

This adventure of Portugues, and the several remarkable circumstances connected with it, have already been related on

AIBONITO PASS. IN THE MOUNTAINS OF CENTRAL PORTO RICO.

The photograph shows the mountain pass and Ireoches built by the Spaniards for its defense. These trenches cut tlic hills in almost every direction, and being ■covered with ?rass and concealed by the natural growths of the soil are almost imperceptible. If they had been occupied by soldiers posscsBcd of SKhliD2 qualities they could have stopped the advance of any army that might have been brought against them— except an army of American volunteer:).

explorations. Indeed, with some of the recently invented subma-

nne boats, such a boat, for instance, as Simon Lake's "Argonaut,"

which crawls on the bottom of the sea, it would be a comparatively

easy task to prowl around in the ocean's depths and discover these

old wrecks and loot them of their gold. There is fascination in the

very suggestion, as well as the promise of adventure.

"A little research into the musty records of Madrid shows that

during the early part of the seventeenth century over $30,000,000

worth of silver alone was shipped from Spain. During the latter

part of the seventeenth century one mine, the Valenciana r Gua-

nazuato, employed 4,000 slaves and the company owning it lost

$1,000,000 every year by pirates and accidents at sea without in

the least impairing its credit in European markets. Most of these

enormous losses strew the ocean bottom around the West Inaian

Islands. A careful search of old Spanish records would reveal :he 2fi

pages 68 and 69 of this work, so that it is not necessary to repeat them here. The sunken ship contained over $100,000 in gold and silver bullion, and her location at the time of the wreck was accurately established by one or two sailors who succeeded in escaping. This treasure, for which they had risked so much and lost, is still heaped in some rock-bound bed of the sea, waiting for some enterprising American to bring it to the surface and put it once more into the commerce of the world.

"Another account of sunken treasure is told as a musty joke in a musty tome. In 1650 three canoes, manned by fifteen bucca- neers each, crept around the western ^nd of Cuba and came suddenly upon one 01 Hi? Maiestv p treasure ships, bound from Caraccas to Havana. They swarmea ^ver the side of the great vessel like so many rats, and threw every Spaniard overboard. The uncouth victors ransacked the vessel for booty, but to their

402

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

disgust, found only a small quantity of wine in the officers* quarters, and in the hold

a lot of grayish metal, which some wiseacre on board decided to be tin ore, and not wishing their newly acquired vessel to be ladencd with such trash, the leader ordered |

it to be thrown overboard; and there it lies to tliis day, not far from the Colorado banks — not less than fifteen tons of fine silver bars.

"Sir William Phipps, a baronet of New England, who was once governor\of Massa- chusetts, enriched his ancestral house and left his descendants among the wealthiest in

New England by sharing the secret of a

smuggler, who saw a plate-fleet go down in

a storm, about half-way between the nearest

points of Cuba and Hayti, 'Phipps' fortune'

has been famous ever since. And yet it is said

that he found only one of the sunken ships of the fleet, containing not less than thirty-two tons of silver, with jewels enough to make $2,000,000. The remainder of the vessels still lie ofif the eastern point of Cuba, and they are estimated to contain many millions of

0. S. RECRtnTmC STATION AT COAMO.

dollars. Another treasure wreck is the center of a most romantic and thrilling story of crime. In the year 1717 Charles Vane, a notorious pirate of the West Indies, captured about $80,000 in pieces of eight that were b.i.-g taken by divers from one of five plate-ships that had gone dt.wn in a storm just east of Key West. The silver bars, as they were brought to the surface by divers, were stored in a little fort on the mainland to await the 'Guardacosta/ which was carrying the treasure in installments to Havana. Vane learned of this and made a sudden descent upon the fort, captured the treasure, rowed out to the vessel where the divers were at

COAMO HANGS. POKTO RICO

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

work, captured the ship and sailed away, leaving the destitute crew

and divers marooned upon the barren key. The plate-Heet of five galleons, on which these divers were working, was carrying $4,000,000 in bullion when it was wrecked, and less than one- fourth was recovered and captured by Vane. The old records estimate that $3,000,000 still remain in the sea at this point.

"Another circumstantial but incomplete report tells of the wreck of several treasure galleons in the Gulf of Florida in 1676. Of this treasure $8,000,000 in pieces of eight were recovered and carried to Havana. Fifty thousand more, after being stored on the shore, were captured by the famous Capt. Jennings, who had hastily equipped three sloops in Jamaica. After this assault the Spaniards abandoned all further work on the sunken galleons and lost all knowledge of their exact location. There is no question but that a little exploration here will reveal this sunken fleet, wliich still contains, according to the old records, several million dollars in gold and silver.

"Somewhere, a few miles southwest of the Isle of Pines, there is a princely fortune in diamonds and gold awaiting the hunter who will travel the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. and cast a search- light carefully over the hulls of sunken treasure ships. It is the

crosses of enormous value and presents that were to win the favor of the great king of Spain, besides many tons of silver bullion, which was actually used as ballast. But many times richer than all these were the bars of gold which most of the olVicials were carrying with them back to Spain, in the hope of living the rest of their days in distinguished opulence. One of the ladies. Dona Inez Escobedo, was taking with her an Indian .slave as a present for her brother, who was governor of one of the Canary Islands. The few negro slaves on board were servile enough, hut the Indian, whose name the records do not give, was unmanageable and grew more obstinate at every punishment.

"One morning, when the ship was a few leagues southeast oi the Isle of Pines, the captain was horrified to find that water was pouring into the hold. He was about to descend through the hatchway to discover the cause, when the warning voice of the Indian declared that the first man to appear through the opening

MOUNTAIN SCENERY NEAR AIBONITO PASS. PORTO RICO. Showioe the National MilitaTy Road and peon huts on the mountain sides.

remains of a Spanish ship in the royal service, whose commander, Don Sebastian Jeminez, touched at Santiago de Cuba, in 1560, on his way to Spain. He was carrying the 'king's fifth' from the silver mines of Guanabacoa, amounting to nearly twelve tons of good silver bars, and unknown but immense quantities of personal treasure shipped by home-going merchants. Upon sailing from Santiago, he was caught in a terrific tempest, which tore the ship from its anchor and drove it upon the rocks within sight of the observers on the bluffs at Santiago. No vestige of ship or crew was ever seen again. The galleon probably lies not far from the recent naval battle ground between the Spanish and .American fleets, and it offers a princely lure for the bold submariner who will con- duct a patient search.

''Another, and probably the richest of all treasure ships lost in the West Indies, was wrecked in 1679. A notable company of officials, ecclesiastics and citizens of New Spain were on board, bound for Spain, at the invitation of the king. They carried the most costly personal possessions. The record tells of diamond

would be shot. Immediately those who gathered about heard the blows of a hatchet upon the bottom of the vessel. The horrible truth then dawned upon them that the untamable Indian intended to escape slavery by wrecking the ship with all on board. They threw down a negro slave, believing that his body would receive the fire of the Indian, but everything above the hatches was plainly visible from the darkness below and the negro lay where he fell, stupefied with fear, while the blows of the hatchet rained faster than ever and the roar of the water constantly increased in volume. At last an old officer, Jose Nunez, sprang suddenly through the opening into the hold, waist-deep in water, and charged upon the Indian, sword in hand. He was followed by half a dozen others. They splashed around and finally found the savage under a beam, beneath the water, where he had crawled and drowned himself. The most frantic efforts w^ere made to stop the leak, but the ship sank, and it was with difficulty that even one boat-load of passengers was able to escape. Numerous attempts were made by the Spaniards to recover the treasure from this ship,

♦04

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

but divers never

could find it.

"These are only a few of many scores of similar wrecks, the records of wiiich can be found in the olt

whom Queen Elizabeth called a little dear, and Coke a spider from hell, sailed once upon a time that way. Precisely as I'once de Leon sought in the neighboring waters for the fountain of eternal youth so did this picturesque adventurer seek the El Dorado. The belief in the existence of a city of gold and of gems was one of the hallucinations of the age. Orellana, one of Pizarro's lieutenants inspired it. Near to the Orinoco stretched, he declared, a land so rich that the wealth of Mexico and of Peru was but genteel poverty

SCENE OP THE LAST BATTI.E IN PORTO RICO. "

rms place is cear Coamo. on the Militarv Road Th- in-n..^^ „ ...

^tl^'r^^^; Vht i^rrl" Pennsylvania. 2d and 3d Wisconsin aad a

Spanish reports and histories. They will indicate in some measure the enormous richness of these hitherto undescribed resources of our new possessions."

In may not be inappropriate to close this account of the sub- merged treasures of ournew insular possessions with Edgar Saltus' famous story of the island of Trinidad, the fabled EI Dorado^of the Caribbean Sea. h is one of the most interesting contributions to the fables of history that has ever appeared in print,

and is as follows: "This .-shnd of Trinidad is a , ^

place situated above the Orinoco, much as is the dot on an i. Columbus sighted it f^rst. From the mast- head he sighted three mountain tops. Hence its name. Its interest is elsewhere. Sir Waltei I^aleigh,

m comparison. The story, repeated from Lisbon to London gathered embroideries in transit. It set Europe mad. According to the accounts recited, in the center of an island of glimmering green stood a palace, built of marble, fronted with columns of alabaster, surrounded with galleries of ebony incrusted with pearls It surged an image of what a castle in Paradise may be. Behind it were |three mountains, one of emerald, one of silver and one of

Our artist had tlic pleasure of attend.

r-kJ-.I-AKiNG KOR A NA I OK this (cst-val. which lasted for

W .\L A r LMAMO. PORTO RICO.

' merrv-maluog

OUR ISLANDS Am THEIR PEOPLE.

gold. Within was a delicious court in which Hons roamed, and where a dazzling altar supported a disc of the sun. before which four lamps burned perpetually; while around and about was Fairj'land.

"El Dorado, literally, the gilded, so called because of the magnificence of his appearance, was the sovereign of this enchant- ment. His body, rubbed each morning with gum, was dusted with gold powder. The costume being less convenient than pajamas, at night he was scrubbed and on the morrow regilded. It is worth noting that, according to Humboldt, the Guyana^'chiefs used to roll in turtle fat and then cover themselves with mica, the metallic effect of which must have been equally gorgeous. ' But that is a detail. Expeditions to the fantastic realm of the fabulous Inca succeeded each other from every port. One of them was led by Sir Walter Raleigh. Three hundred and three years ago he sailed for Trinidad. He found it and the mountains, too. but of the heights of emerald, silver and gold, of El Dorado, of the

correspondence at the time I sincerely deplored the prospect that our pending negotiations for the purchase of these islands would probably be broken off by reason of the acquisition of Porto Rico. And I think it not presuming to say that this scntuucut was generally shared by those of my compatriots from the States, whose destiny had led them thither. The conditions which annu- ally allure hundreds of health and pleasure-soekcrs away from the care and turmoil of the great northern cities and combine to make these the most enchanting of all the isles of the West Indian sea, are their faultless climate, unique scenic beauties, romantic associa- tions—and. above all, their freedom from aught tliat is noisome or disquieting to the senses.

There are few travelers upon visiting the Virgin Islands, of which group the Danish West Indies form the western division, who will not accord to them the foremost rank among the gems of the ocean for exquisite loveliness. The cluster consists principally of lofty, reef-girt islets extending about twenty-four leagues east

THK SUMMIT OF AIBONITO PASS.

This is the point renchcd by our soldiers when they received word that the peace protocol had gone into effect. The view it one of (he finest In the world.

jeweled palace, the lions, the altar, and the rest, not a trace. It will be assumed that on his return he exploded the legend. Not a bit of it. He said the place was just as had been described, only more so, and to Queen Elizabeth he related that at sight of her picture the gilded one had swooned with admiration. No wonder she called him a little dear. No wonder that Coke called him a spider from hell, when the lie was discovered."

The Fairest Isles of the Sea.

BY JOSE DE OLIVARES.

It was immediately following the suspension of our recent hostilities with Spain that I visited the Danish Wect Indies, and my impressions of the group are without exception the most vivid of any I formed during my excursions among the Antilles. After Cuba and Porto Rico, with their war-ravaged landscapes, the tranquil shores of these fair Virgin isles appealed to the sense of appreciation with singular effectiveness, I recall that in my

and west and sixteen north and south. Their position is directly north of the Windward Islands and due east from Porto Rico. On approaching these islands by the Sombrero or Virgin's Passage, the view presented is of a most pleasing character. Their blue summits towering aloft in picturcsciue outline are visible long before their verdant cultivated valleys come into view. As the distance lessens, their shores are traced in lines of white, rolling surf, back of which groves of graceful palms and tropical ever- greens extend. The Danish division consists of three islands, namely, St. Thomas, St. Johns and St. Croix, or Santa Cruz. Of this trio the most important is St, Thomas. The island is the most westerly of the entire Virgin group, and lies within thirty miles ol the east shore of Porto Rico. Geographically, it may be con- sidered the top or ridge of a small chain of submerged moun- tains. Its maximum dimensions are thirteen miles in length by three in width, and its total area is about thirty-five square miles. A ridge of dome-shaped hills extends from east to west through

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

VIEW OF THE TOWN OF AIBONITO. Taken from (he Barracks, an.1 showing the class o( houses in the suburbs occupied by thepeons aud laboriug people.

its center, attaining- its highest elevation of about 1.500 feet in West Monntain. AI)out midway of the island another range of hills arises, running parallel with the principal chain. From each of these systen.s numerous short branches reach of¥ on both sides toward the north and south. These hills are a mass of bluish greenstone porphyry, whose iridescent hue. mingled with the variegated foliage of the shrubbery, lends a unique and almost grotesque aspect to tiie scenery. Romantic roadways wind in and out among tliese beautiful island ranges, and excursions thither on horseback in the early morning hours are a source of truly exquisite pleasure. The scenery is never tiresome to the vision,

but. on the contrary, its manifold charms seem to increase the oftener they are beheld. You might read no end of eulogies con- cerning this island paradise, and upon viewing it with your own eyes, discover that the half had not been told.

St. Thomas was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage, and after experiencing many vicissitudes was finally found by the Danes to be uninhabited, and was settled by them in 1671. The principal settlement on the island is the town of Charlotte Amalia. The name, however, is seldom used, the town being

almost invariably referred to as St. Thomas. It is pictur- esquely situated on the south coast of the island, in ^ the midst of a beauti- ful amphitheater formed by aiiigh semi-circular hill which curves gracefully inland with much the

OLD SPANISH HOTEL AT COAMO BANGS.

- lit vwrtiuvj

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

s^TTimetry and splendor of a gorgeous rainbow, then sloping gently away stretches seaward in two graceful peninsulas. These bend slightly in at their extremities and terminate in pyramid-like promontories, the summits of which are capped with red-roofed signal towers. This most majestic of gateways guards the en- trance to a tranquil land-locked haven, perpetually secure, both from the capricious sea without and the terrific hurricanes which periodically sweep down upon the island. But it is along the shore of the harbor wherein are centered the most exquisite attractions of St. Thomas. Xowhere have I ever beheld a land- scape of such varied yet uniformly exquisite features. Rising from among the tangled groves of palm and cocoanut, and above the dense thickets of mangoes and bay trees that garnish the tideless strand, are a series of conical-shaped buttes, their terraced sides, from base to apex, overgrown with shrubbery and abloom with flowers of variegated hues.

Upon tlie summit of the most lofty of these unique formations, situated at the extreme inner curve of the harbor, an ancient castle with grim stone tower stands facing the sea through the

407

masonr>'. The roofs of all the houses, both business and private, are invariably painted a bright vermilion, which contributes largely to their picturesqucness.

Charlotte Amalia boasts of but few public buildings, those few consisting of a modest gubernatorial mansion, a public library and reading room, a governnuMit college, two hospitals antl the tiuaran- tine station on Light House Point, Little evidence of the State of Denmark is seen about the place, save the Danish tlag that tloats above tlic little garrison in the midst of the. town. The population of Charlotte Amalia is at the present time estimated at 10.000 souls, which is about two-thirds the total number of inhabitants on the island. Of this population one-tenth are white, two-tliirds black and the remainder mixed. In the course of niy visit I was impressed first of all by the sanitary conditions existing on every hand. Not only do the flagged streets and dooryards present a thoroughly immaculate appearance, but the natives themselves, from the poorest Carib in the place to the most opulent of frec-

THE MILITARY ROAD NEAR AIBONITO PASS.

The bridE^ in the distance on the riphl is a continuation of the road, and its locatloa with rdtren^e l'» thr central point ot the picture offordM n irood idcfl of the

wiodiuKS of the erade in ascending the mountains.

'jarrow entrance to the bay. This ominous-looking structure is known as Bluebeard's Castle, and is said to be the scene wherein that most popular of juvenile romances concerning the blood- thirsty buccaneer and his unfortunate wives is founded. As a matter of fact, however, the Danish records pertaining to that period repudiate this and numerous other pirate legends connected with the island, and set forth that the somber tower wherein such whole- sale beheading is supposed to have been enacted was erected by the English somewhere about the commencement of the eighteenth century. In addition to Bluebeard's stronghold there are three other castles on the adjoining hilltops, said to have been reared in years long gone, by various pirate chieftains. Clustered upon the sloping sides of three of these natural pyramids are the habitations of as picturesque a city as I have ever viewed in any of my rambles. In appearance, the dwellings of Charlotte Amalia partake both of the Spanish and Danish styles of architecture, the material used in the construction being in some instances wood and ia others

holders, go about attired in garments of spotless white, differing only in point of texture. This extreme cleanliness of person is one of the foremost sanitary regulations of the island, and its inhabitants regard the law which compels them to cleanse them- selves and their apparel daily as a necessary safeguard against the infectious diseases which frequently ravage some of the larger islands in the vicinity. Verily, when I compare Charlotte Amalia, with its quaint beauty and unimpeachable cleanliness, with other cities whose squalor too often combines with their attractiveness to make them famous, I am constrained to lay the palm unre- servedly at the gates of the enchanting capital of St. Thomas.

In former years Charlotte Amalia was a perfect pesthole of disease, which condition was due to the accumulation of filth in the lagoon-like harbor. But within recent times this evil has been entirely obviated by the cutting of a narrow passageway or canal through one of the peninsulas that bounds it. This enables the sea to circulate through the bay continually, removing all obnoxious

40&

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

deposits and rendering the city on its shores one of the healthiest in the world. Though situated in the very heart of the tropical seas, the climate of the island is not excessive, the temperature ranging from 70 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

St. Thomas derives its commercial prestige from its importance as a marine coaling and repair station, and from its industry in the manufacture and exportation of bay rum. The island lies directly in the track of all vessels plying between the United States and South America, and between all European and Latin-American ports. The harbor of Charlotte Amaha is equipped with a large floating dry-dock

ROAD AND BLOCKHOUSE BETWKEN AIBONITO AND COAMO

The blockhouse on the Itnoll in the backeroucd of the picture commaailed the Military Koad in both directions. It was occupied by a stroae (orce of Spanish (roop§. who fled, without firioe a gua, on the approach of the Americans. The little boy in front is in full Porto Rican costume for youne eentlemcD of his ase.

with a capacity for receiving vessels of 3,000 tons displacement; likewise with a marine slip and railway for the hauling ashore and repairing of smaller craft. There are in all, three large coaling docks, one of which is owned by the Hamburg-American line, and one by the Conipagnie Generale Transatlantique, a French line, the remaining one catering to the public demand, which is very extensive. It is estimated that upwards of 70.000 tons of coal are handled annually by these three companies at Charlotte Amalia, independent of the vast amount which has of late been supplied to the vessels of the United States Navy.

Throughout the late war the Island of St. Thomas figured as one of the chief, if not the most important, bases of supplies to ^^^^^ ' which the United States had access.

^^^|H. The distance from Santiago de Cuba

and Porto Rico to this island is much

less than to Key West, hence the warships and colliers of the fly- ing squadron depended almost entirely on St. Thomas for coal and other supplies. The "longshore" work is largely done by women, who supply the ships with coal by marching in procession with baskets on their heads. They are an interesting lot of characters, these Virgin Islanders, pathetically simple in their lives, and it is little to be wondered at that the Danish government should insist upon the enforcement of the modest regulation which protects for its wards the mainstay of their livelihood. Many of the natives eke out a scanty subsistence by selling fruit and small merchandise to the crews of visiting ships. The boats of these enterprising tradespeople constitute a flotilla of exceedingly wide proportions and clamorous tendencies. A better natured lot of people it would be dif?icult to imagine, and with all their importunities in the vending of their

AMONG THE MOUNTAINS OP CENTRAI. PORTO RICO. tkcM moaoUiiu »re covered with • rich cUy aoU to Uieir verr tops, aod produce large crops of cofle«. oraDEea, baoaoaB and other tropical Dtoducta.

wares, wrar.nng seems to be an unknown propensity among

lout LlTrT"' '""^'^"-'-^ intensely religious

bout one- h.rd bemg classified as Roman Catholics, whil^ the remamder are divided between the English. Wesleyan and Moravian churches. ■ j ^

The soil of St. Thomas is of poor quahty and the products of the island are nisufficient for one-twentieth of its iniuibitants There are no runnmg streams, and but one small spring, hence it is necessary to collect rain for drinking purposes and general use. Notwithstandmg these serious drawbacks, combined with the fre- quent droughts, the island presents by no means a barren aspect. The staple frmts grown are bananas, alligator pears and mangoes which are augmented by several other varieties peculiar to this section. The distilling of bay rum from the leaves and berries of the bay tree is carried on very extensively on the island, the superior quality of this article, so indispensable to the tonsorial art, bemg famous the world over. In addition to the spirit a very

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEORLE

46$

The third and largest island oC the Danish group is Santa Cruz, or St. Croix. It lies at a distance of sixty-five nautical miles in an cast-southeasterly direction from Porto Rico. The length of the island is twenty-tive miles, and its breadth is five miles, while its total area represents about eighty-four square miles. The population is estimated at about 25,000. The physical ciiaracter of St. Croix is somewhat undulating, with a compara- tively high range of hills in the western part. The highest point of elevation is about 1.300 feet. The island is for the most part highly cultivated, of the 51.168 acres of land only 4.000 being untillable. The soil is exceedingly fertile and adapted to a great variety of products. In former times an immense amount of sugar cane was grown, but with the abolition of slavery, and the subse- quent depression in the sugar market, its cultivation has been greatly neglected. The principal town on the island is Cliristian- stead. situated at the head of an inlet on the north coast. At a distance the buildings of this town, embcliished with coats of

SCENERY NEAR SAN ISABEL, PORTO RICO.

X^ls pbotOBTapti affords a eood idea o( the density of the loliaKC in the uncultivated portions of Porto Kfco. But even such locnlitlcB are not Ixirren of products,

as will be observed by the heavily ladea wild coffee bushes on the right.

excellent toilet soap, of which bay oil is a principal ingredient, is also largely manufactured and exported.

The island of St. Johns, the second of the Danish West Indies from a standpoint of position, is small in area, and of correspond- ingly little value. A small town of the same name, and of little commercial importance, is situated on the north coast. There are on the island only about 1,000 inhabitants, who manage to eke out an existence by the raising of scant crops, among which sugar, coflfee, fruit and vegetables are included in very limited quantities. The island lies near Tortola, and entirely remote from the beaten steamer routes. But on its eastern side is an excellent harbor, which is much resorted to by the local fishermen as a haven of refuge from the heavy winds that frequently appear in those lati- tudes. The harbor is pr jperly named the Corral, which is the Spanish for enclosure, but which the English persist in contracting to "Crawl Bay." The island became the property of Denmark by purchase, but has proved a most unprofitable investment

white, pink and yellow, covered over with red and purple tiling, form a most attractive picture, but close at hand they prove to be dirty, shabby and anything but interesting. The island was purchased from France by Denmark in 1733, for $150,000. It was taken by the British in 1807, but eventually restored to the Danes by the conditions of the treaty of Paris. Negotiations for the purchase of the Danish West Indian Islands by the United States Ciovernment on a basis of $1 1,500,000, have been pending since 1867. At that time the question was voted upon, and although passing the House by an overwhelming majority, failed to receive the ai)proval of the United States Senate. The result was generally regretted, espe- cially by the islanders themselves, who thoroughly appreciated the benefits they would derive as United States citizens. And there is no reason to believe those sentiments have become in the least modified by the lapse of time, or that they will ever be modified until all of the West Indian Islands become a part of the great American Republic.

4 to

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

A COFFEE PLANTATION IN CENTRAL PORTO RICO.

This plantalion ia located high up in tlie mountains, and it produces n very fine quntity o( coffee. The pholograpli shows the methods oi hulline and dryins the berries, the assortiua being done by hired ifirls and members of the family ia their liviog-rooms.

Our Island Gateway,

It was a dream of Thomas Jefferson that Cuba should become a State of the American Union, and serve as an outpost or sentinel to guard our Gulf ports ajjainst foreign invasion. Necessarily, with Cuba tliere would have come numerous smaller islands that cluster around it like emerald gems. Whether or not the dream of the great statesman shall be realized is a matter for speculation.

Cuba is free and may decide to remain an independent republic; but Porto Rico is ours by treaty and the consent of her people, and with Porto Rico there comes to us a vast flock of thirteen hundred or more isles and islets, some no larger than a dot on the ocean, while others possess areas of considerable dimensions. There are a number of other important islands in the Caribbean Sea, belonEf- ing at present to various foreign mon-

A RELAY STATION IN THE MOUNTAINS OP PORTO RICO.

The "fUtloa" consists of the primitive shed in the foresTOund. The horses in the rear belong: to a U. S, cavalry regiment encamped at this point, where the

cUnute U pleasant and healthful.

414

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

Notivesirnther the wild coffee thnt (irows all over the island and sell it at the nearest market town for abont fiv«- cents per pound. It is inferior to the cultivated varieties, but is claimed to be better than the bulk of cofiee sold in the American markets.

all. But, on the other hand, their varied and mixed populations are un- suited by temperament and education for the duties of American citizenship, and their admission to the Union might prove to be a dangerous ex- periment.

The most important of these islands, outside of the few that are classed as French and Danish terri- tory, belong to England, and the statesmen of that country have inti- mated that they would not be averse to exchanging their West Indian possessions for the Philippines. Un- der our form of Government the consent of the governed would be an essential feature in such an exchange, but this of course is a principle that does not enter into the calculations of the British im- perialists.

For many years — indeed, for a century — the West Indies have been to a great proportion of the Ameri- can people an indistinct chain of islands somewhere to the south, and associated chiefly, when anybody thought of them at all, W'ith sea tales of piracy and adventure, or with constantly recurring revolutions. General knowledge about them was extremely vague among the un- traveled public. However, the late war with Spain thrust the islands daily before the public eye, both in type and map, until they began to come out of the mist of romance and assume definite shape, and interest in them intensifies constantly.

Nevertheless, England's possessions in that part of the world are somewhat confusing as to location, extent and importance.

archies that are casting friendly glances toward the great Western Republic; and these also may in the near future become American territory. Whether we want them or not is a question for our own people to decide; but events of the past year have created in And well they may be, for they are almost innumerable and dot a the United States a keen interest in this subject. The danger of allowing these islands to remain under foreign control, to serve as fortifications and bases of attack in case of war, is recognized by

A MOUNTAIN STRRAU NKAK AIBONITO PASS. POKTO RICO.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

vast expanse of salt water. Roughly speaking, they «:tretch in semicircular form from off the coast of Florida to the mouth of the Ormoco River, and vary in size from the Slate of Connecticut to a rock that barely pushes its barren crest above the tide. Those that are habitable are veritable ocean gems.

For administrative purposes the English government has divided these islands into a number of groups, the most important of which is composed of the island of Jamaica and its depend- encies. Then, in indiscriminate order, are Turk's and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas, the Leeward Islands, St. Christopher, Dominica, Montserrat. the Virgin Islands, the Windward Islands, Barbadoes and Trinidad, making seven governmental groups in all.

Jamaica is the largest and in many respects the most important British possession in the West Indies. It lies about one hundred miles south of the eastern end of Cuba, in the Caribbean Sea, and is reached from tlie north through the Windward Passage. Geologists rate the island of volcanic origin. It is distinctly mountainous. Near the center lofty peaks rise to the

The island was first occupied by the Spanish in 1509. and passed into the hands of England in 1655. By this time the original owners of the soil had been practically

height of seven thousand feet, and thence the land drops in a succession of

hills and precipitous ridges to the sea. Countless streams of fresh, pure water spring from the mountains and wind through the valleys, which seem in beauty and fertility to rival the Garden of Eden. Flora of tropical nature and abundance, consisting of palms, bananas and cocoanut trees, mangoes, plantains, orchids and orange trees, adorn the landscape everywhere. On all sides

are abounding evidences of the hand of man. Cultivation is practically coextensive with the territorial limits of the island, and human art has aided and husbanded the exuberant resources of the soil. In fact, Jamaica is one great garden where peo- ple live in perpetual summer.

HUT AND NATIVli6 O.N THl-; HANKS Ol' Till-; tiUAMu K1VI-:U, Nl^AR SAN ISAltlil,. TOKH' HHi»

exterminated, and those remaining sought refuge in the moun- tains. For a long period the island was a rendezvous for pirates, but England's navy finally got the better of the freebooters and a lucrative and legitimate commerce was established.

A regular colonial government was formed in 1661, with a legislative assembly elected in the island. The suiTragc, limited at the beginning, was gradually extended, until, in i.S(i6, a charter was granted which conferred large local riglus. At the present time the population of the island is estimated at 700,000, of wliich 16.000 are whites and about 20.000 Asiatic coolies. The vast majority of inhabitants are African negroes, who were frrafted

NATIVE HOTS IN THE SUBURBS OF SAN ISABEL. PORTO RICO.

This collection of Bhaoti« consUtuteB . populous village, and the fact that from si. to a "<>°« *° °* "P^^^"'

4 010 tunck-wuii «• o" populauoa ol Uie island is provided wiU» soclter.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

414

on the island by the slave trade. Kingston, located on the south side of the island, is the principal city and capital. The city has a population of 40,000. Near by is Spanish Town, the old capital, and on the north coast arc Port Maria, with 7.000 inhabitants; Montego Bay, with 5.000; Falmouth, Port Antonio and Port Morant.

Industry and trade, once so promising, have undoubtedly lan- guished in recent years. Many causes are assigned for this unsatisfactory state of affairs, the most common being the tariff duties enforced by England. Out of this depression has grown a popular discontent, wliich recently manifested itself in demonstrations against the government. Proba- bly, difficulties in dealing with the labor question since the abolition of slavery have iiad a great effect. The imports of Jamaica now amount to about $1^,000.000 a year, of which over half goes from the United States.

The exports are vahied at $10,000,000, and are steadily dwindling. Industry is almost wholly confined to garnering the products of the soil and shipping them out of the country. For- merly, sugar was the most valuable export, but the subsidizing of beet sugar in Europe and the duty on cane sugar in the United States have given this industry a decided

backset, and now it ranks second to coffee. Rum is a very In aspect the Bahamas are more like the land of our Florida

important article of export, and of late years fruit culture has coast and keys than the other West Indian Islands; in fact, there is been given a mighty stimulus by an American company, which little resemblance between them and the latter. Geologists con- practically controls the fruit output of the island. sider them wind-blown piles of shell and coral sand, much of whose The Bahama group of islands, which stretches through a total former surface is now under shallow water. The islands are merely distance of 780 miles north of Cuba, includes nearly 700 islands the exposed tips of a vast submerged ridge, divided into several and over 3,000 rocks. Tlic entire group, with its innumerable groups, of which the great Bahama Bank is the largest. Some channels and passages, embraces an area of 5.600 square miles. ancient and populous continent may have existed here.

A NATIVE AND HIS TOBACCO PLANTATION.

The scene is located near Cayey, Porto Rico, in the midst of a rich tobacco reBion. A drying-house of the kind used in that country is seen on the hill in the backEromid. The tobacco plants are spread out ia irreKuIar patches over the sides ol the hill, without order or system.

OCBAN View N^AR SAN ISABEL, PORTO RICO.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

From the sea the Bahamas appear as low stretches of land, with here and there a village. With the exception of Andros.thcy are destitute of running water. The flora are tropical, but quite different from those of the Antilles, being similar to those of the Florida coast. Stunted timber covers some of the islands.

The Bahamas have been under the British flag since 1718 They were originally the resort of pirates, who first settled upon the island of New Providence. Here is located the capital. Nassau, and the seat of government. The soil is not ricli. but is suitable for the cultivation of small fruits, vegetables, pineapples, oranges and cocoanuts. Of recent years there has been little commercial and industrial progress, owing to the fact that the United States, the only available market, placed an embargo upon the products in the shape of a tariff. Except in the Caicos and Turk groups, where salt is found in considerable quantities, most of the inhabi- tants earn a livelihood from the products of the sea. such as sponges, shells and pearls.

Only thirty-one of the Bahamas are inhabited, the total population reaching about 50,000. Most of the inhabitants are negroes. Nassau has telegraphic communication with the United States, Halifax and the West Indies, through Jamaica.

England's possessions in the chain of islands which constitute the Les- ser Antilles form as picturesque a group as

4IS

majority of the Lesser Antilles, but culminates in a vast volcanic crater, which was last in eruption in iSij, when thousands of people lost their lives. Kingstown, the capital, has a population of S,ooo. In this island also, the sugar industry has decayed.

The Grenadines are a series of islets, extending for about sixty miles. They are very picturesque, and are inhabited by planters, Grenada is the most southern of the Caribbean chain. This island is just the size of St. Vincent, and is similar in all essential respects. It is distinctly British, and in St. George, the capital, one may find excellent English society. Cocoa is the chief product.

Barbadocs stands, somcwliat isolated, out to the eastward of the Caril)hcan chain. It is a large and beautiful island. Bridge- town is the port and principal city. It is a pretty town, with public buildings, churches, handsome residences, clubs, libraries and shops. The beaches are exceedingly line. Here are the head-

A GAME OF "BOLARA.-

This game is similar to bowlinE;. and is very popular with the natives, who make it subhcrve tbclr passion for Kamblinn. an they do many of thtir other sport*.

may be found on our planet. The principal islands are St. Lucia. St. Vincent, St. Christopher, the Grenadines, Grenada. Barbadoes and Trinidad. Of these it would be difiicult to say which is more beautiful than any other. All have the same rugged aspect of the Caribbees, the same lofty hills glowing with verdure; the same beautiful roads, pretty houses and smiling, contented people.

Perhaps St. Lucia may be taken as a model, for it is noted as one of the loveliest, it not the very loveliest, in the chain. It is forty-two miles long and twenty miles broad and has a coast line of 150 miles. Coral bluffs hold back the sea and steep acclivities extend up to cloud-capped summits, of which the highest is 4,000 feet in altitude. A veil of mist usually covers the tips of the mountain chain and spreads, hazy and fanlike, over the island, moderating but not barricading the rays of the sun.

St. Vincent is seventeen miles long and ten miles wide, and has a population of 50,000. It has more extensive valleys than a

quarters of the Royal Mail Steamship Company, and extensive marine repair and supply shops. The entire island is under culti- vation, and the sugar is the finest produced anywhere. Owing to its superior quality, this industry has so far escaped disintegration.

The Bermudas do not properly belong to the British West Indies, but in the event of a transfer of sovereignty they would be included with the others. They are probably better known than the rest, for every winter many thousands of Americans visit the principal islands. There are excellent hotels, good society, and a number of British warships are always in the harbor at Hamilton. The general impression is that onions are the principal product of the Bermudas, but the agriculture is quite varied, and the climate is unequaled in any part of the world.

It will be seen from the foregoing that there is a vast insular empire lying at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, which, by the natural trend of affairs, must some day become American icrncory.

4^6

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

It will constitute the gate- way to the continent, and

efTectiially bar the passage

of unfriendly fleets.

InView of tlie foregoing,

it will appear, even to the

casual observer, that the po- sition of Porto Rico makes

this island a very important

part of our territory. It is

in the ouler circle of the

chain of our insular defenses,

and it ought not only to be

well fortified, but it should

also be peopled by inhabi- tants in close sympathy with our institutions and entirely friendly to us. The people now on the island fill these requirements in an eminent degree, and their good will and loyalty can be made permanent by open-handed sincerity and kindness on our part.

Whatever imperfections the bill establishing civil government in Porto Rico may have contained, it marked the commencement of a new era for the inhabitants of the island; and if they shall continue to manifest the same earnest devotion to the principles of liberty that has characterized them from the beginning of their connection with us, the time will not be far distant when they can justly claim all the high privileges and immunities of American citizenship. All classes seemed eager to fit themselves for the new duties that benevolent fate had so unexpectedly thrown in their way. They quickly organized a political party and issued a platform pledging their devotion to republican principles, and

HARBOR OF ST. THOMa» aND BI,UEBEARD'S CASTLE.

This tranquil scene is graphically described in Mr. Olivares' article, "The Fairest Islands of the Sea," beginain^ on page 405< AccordtDK to his estimate, the island ol St. Thomas is one of the most beautiful in the entire West Indian group.

otherwise manifested an earnest disposition to put th^^elYes in harmony with our institutions. This was especially'tlie cas*e with reference to public education, which they recognized as the true foundation of popular government. They were particularly well pleased with the assurance that English would not supplant their native tongue in the schools and the proceedings of the courts, and yet they so fully realized the advantages that a knowledge of our language would bring to them that all classes were imbued w^th an enthusiasm to acquire its use at the earliest possible date. This enthusiasm extended even to the little children, most of whom learned to read within a few weeks when the opportunity offered.

GOVERNMENT HII.L. CHARLOTTE AMALIA. ST THOMAS.

Tlns Island Ucs only thirtr miles east of Porto Rico, and contains an area of thiny-five square miles. Much interest centers in It. owing to the fact that negotiatloDi for its purchase bave been in proeies» for some time between our Government and Dcnmarlc. to which the island at present belongs

ricli

UNIQUE PRODUCTS OF HAWAII.

By ]OSt DE GUVARES.

Chapter XX.

WHATEVER may be the strategic advantages possessed tubers contain more nutriment for a given weight than any other by our newly acquired Hawaiian Islands, their im- vegetable food. The young tops when cooked arc hard to distin- portance from an agricultural standpoint is most sig- guish from spinach. The tubers must be cooked before they can . nihcant, and their productiveness will add materially be used as food, in order to dissipate a very acrid princinle thnt to the national resources. The area for agriculture is not. as com- exists in both loaves and roots. The Kanaka's fanning consist h pared with the great areas of the United States, very large, but the cultivation of this plant alone; other things may grow if'they

but to the taro nearly all of his labor is rent skill is displayed in irrigat- paring the soil. The beds are soft mud, each bed being en- all of earth impervious to water, propagalctl by setting out the ripe root : water is then let in and retained until the planting of the next crop. It is said that forty stjuare feet of taro will supply food for an aver- age-sized family for a year. Tile plant nourishes perenni- ally in the islands and consti- tutes the chief articleof di"t to thousands of Cliinese and Ja- panese laborers, in addition to the majority of the Kanaka natives. Tlie latter are most fond of it when made into poc, a glutinous concoction at once nourishing and pleasing to tiie taste. However, the root can be eaten in various ways— boiled, baked or frie<l it is equally palatable. It is I said, with much truth, that all who cat the taro (poe), particularly the natives, are never troubled with indi- gestion. In fact, many for- eigners have been completely cured of this universal ail- ment by the use of the taro flour, whicii has lately been introduced from Honolulu.

Another peculiar plant that yields abundantly is the cassava {Manihot utilissima). This plant furuislies the staple food for the population of Brazil, and the date of its in- troduction into the Hawaiian Islands is comparatively re- cent. It is easily propagated by planting pieces of the woody portions of the stems and branches. The tubers are available in nine or ten months after planting. There are two kinds, the sweet and the bitter, the latter being the more pro- lific. The sweet variety can be fed to pigs without cooking. The bitter contains a poison- ous substance which is entirely destroyed by cooking. There

STATtTE OF KAMEHAMEHA THE GREAT.

.t. This statue stands in front of the Govemment House at Honolulu. It is composed of bronze and represents the peat chieftain, clad in his roya robe o( birds' feathers, addressine his assembled warriors. This statue is one of the features of the capital, and is admued by all visitors.

its limits for cultivation will not be reached for many years. Intense interest attaches to the various products, alike because of their multiplicity and uniqueness.

A valuable food plant, indigenous to these islands, is the taro {Colocasia esculenta). Tlie variety known as dry land taro will grow on land that is sufficiently moist for the cultivation of cofTee trees. The taro is an exceedingly resourceful product. The

(417) 27

is no danger of animals eating the bitter variety in a raw state, for no stock will touch it, while the sweet kind is eagerly eaten in the raw state by pigs, horses, cows. etc. The tubers are prepared for human food by grating them. The juice is then expelled by press- ure, and the residue pounded into a coarse meal, which is made into thin cakes. It is an excellent food, and said to be much more digestible than bread and other foods made from wheat.

419

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

OUR ARTIST IN HAWAIIAN COSTDMR.

Pigs can be very cheaply raised on the ^weet variety of this plant. A field of the plant being ready to gather, a portion of it is fenced off ard the pigs turned into it. They will continue to feed until every vestige of the tubers is eaten, leaving the ground in a fine condition for re- planting. The tubers never spoil in the ground, in fact the soil is the very best store- Iiouse for them. How- ever, if left for two or three years, they grow very large and tough.

Pumpkins and squashes grow to an enormous size in the Hawaiian Islands and yield an immense quan- tity of feed, much rel- ished by cows and pigs. In fact, almost all kinds of vegetables will grow in such profusion as to astonis'h those who have lived in northern climes. Green and sweet corn, Irish and sweet potatoes, cab- bage, tomatoes, beans, lettuce, radishes and many other kinds of vegetables, all of the finest quality and in the greatest profusion, can

it

I?

be had every day in the year. Strawberries and raspberries can also be had all the year round.

The poha [P/iysalis cdnlis) is a quick-growing shrub, bearing a berry that makes excellent jelly and jam. The shrub grows w^ild

on elevations of i,ooo to 4,000 feet. A patch of pohas planted in a corner of a garden will grow and yield a bountiful supply almost without cultivation.

In addition to oranges and limes, which grow to perfection in this country, many other fruits peculiar to tropical and semi- tropical climates grow well and flourish. Among the more import- ant is the Avo- cado pear [Persea gratissima ) , com- / monly called the alligator pear. This tree grows well and bears fruit of splendid quality in from three to five years from seed. The alligator pear is usually prepared in the form of a salad, and has a taste similar to that of an egg. It is extremely wholesome, and a

great flesh producer. Being perishable, it is never shipped in any quantity to the States, and such of the product as does occasionally reach here is regarded as a great delicacy by epicureans. Another tropical product abounding in these islands is bread-fruit. This fruit is globular in shape, and when ripe measures half a foot or more in diameter. Its color is a vivid green. Like the orange, there are many varieties of bread-fruit, the most prized of which

A NATIVE HAWAIIAN.

1^ •9'T- '.::r

A HONOLULU HOTIiL.

GuefltB HlopplQE at this house can pluck ripe bananas without leaving their rooms while the air is filled with the sweet odor ol flowcTS bloomias on tli$

IrcUucd verandas aod Ln all the convenient spaces ol the adjoming yard.

420

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

contains no seeds. The pulp of the breadfruit re- sembles that of the bana- na in consistency, and the juice while raw is flat arid disagreeable to the taste. The fruit, there- fore, is never eaten until after it has been baked or cooked in some manner. A favorite style of pre- paring it among the na- tive Hawaiian s is to enclose the puip in a large gourd or calabash, into which several pieces of heated blue lava stone

4

three times as large. The fruit springs from the trunk of the tree, as the branches would be unable to bear the weight of the enormous clusters in which they grow. The seeds are enclosed in a sack of juicy, yellow pulp, which has an exceedingly disagreeable odor. When, how- ever, the repugnance to the smell is overcome the pulp becomes a favorite edible.

Another vahiable fruit indigenous to this country is the Pzpnya (Can'ca Papaya). This fine fruit can be raised in enormous quantities and is a most fattening food for pigs and chickens. The tree is seldom over twenty feet high, is a foot in diameter at the base and gradually tapers upward without branching, bearing at the summit a crown of long-petioled leaves. The latter attain an im- mense size, often being two feet across, deeply cut into

seven irregular lobes, which give the tree much the ap- pearance of a palm. The fruit is oblong in shape, somewhat like the pawpaw, except that it is much larger, being about ten inches long and half as broad. Externally, the fruit is ribbed and of a dull orange color. It has a thick, fieshy rind and numerous small, black, wrinkled seeds, arranged in longitudinal lines along the central cavity. It is some- times eaten raw with pepper and sugar, but is most gener- ally cooked with sugar and lemon juice. The unripe fruit is boiled and eaten as a vege- table, and is also pickled. The juice of the raw fruit is used as a cosmetic and will readily remove freckles, while that of the green fruit is a remarkably efficient vermifuge. The leaves are used by the natives as a substitute for soap in washing linen. The tree abounds in a milky, bitter juice, which is remarkable as containing fibrine, a principle otherwise found only in the animal king-

arfi incprt#>M -inri ti,a • .1 , . dom; the juice has been com-

IZI Z^L n r M T " r '"'^ '° P''- P^'"^ «° blood deprived of its coloring material. A few

.t T, , hT-^' 1 u '\ ■ """^^^ d^°P^ °' ""^ i"''^ with water will in a few moments render

until hv V ;• ^"T'""'" P"'P ^"''"^"^ '''^^ ^""-"^ '■'^"""y '^"'^'1 °^ "1^=" fender. The same effect is produced until Dy the evaporation of ^- ■ ■ ■ ^

the juice it reaches theprop- er consistency, when it is baked in an oven like bread. But it loses much of its flavor in going through this process and is too dry to suit the taste of the breadfruit ^ater. This is a taste, any- ^ay, which has to be ac- quired, for no one likes the fruit at the beginning. But every one soon grows fond of it, even to the extent of relishing it with every meal.

The breadfruit is a na- tive of the Pacific islands, and is found in all the clus- ters and groups covering the wide area from Borneo to Hawaii.

The yack is another product somewhat resem- bling breadfruit, except that it is longer and two or

KING DAVID KALAKACA.

San P^a'ie^r Car/j'aVu7.;"ah'"?.i?'' H^l^^lZT^ il^r^.^l^ "T, ^ied «,

Lunalilo. who died the M of thai monlh. " Legislature on the 12th of February. 1874, to succeed

NATI\'E AND CANOE,

Sbowine peculiar form of paddle used in propelline their frail boats. The photoeraph also embraces a very fine view of Diamond Head, a prominent landmark near Honolulu, wUich. it is claimed, resembles a recumbent Uon.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

421

oy wrapping a piece of meat in a leaf of the tree and keeping it thus over night. It is also claimed that if old swine or poultry be fed upon the leaves of the papaya their flesh will be tender when killed.

The mammee apple {Mammea Americana) grows in great profusion in the Sandwich Islands. It is a large, round fruit, which sometimes grows to the size of a child's head. Among other peculiarities, it has a double rind, the outer of which is leathery, rough and brownish yellow, while the inner one is thin, yellow and closely adherent to the flesh. The latter is firm, bright yellow in color and of a singularly pleasant taste and a sweet, aro- matic smell. The skin and pulp are very bitter and resinous. The pulp is eaten alone, or cut up into slices with wine and sugar, pre- pared as a jam or marmalade, or with syrup. From the close similarity of its pulp to that of the apricot, it is called by the French, Abricot Sauvage. The seeds, which are sometimes as large as hen's eggs, are used as anthelmintics, and an aromatic liquor called eau de Creole is distilled from the flowers. The fruit occasionally

Until a dozen years ago, the banana was comparatively unknown except as a curiosity, and now we buy them by the carload. This affects the trade in flour, bacon and other common foods of the people. One pound of bananas has as much nourishment in it as four pounds of bread. There is a great market west of the Mis- souri River, which is practically virgin, and the cost of raising bananas in the Hawaiian Islands will be undoubtedly decreased by the scientific growing of them, and the conditions are such that they can be transported to points east of the Pacific slope and west, of the Missouri River as cheaply as tliey can be brought from west of the .Atlantic and cast of the Mississippi. At present, a bunch ot bananas from Honolulu, sold in the markets of the Pacific slope,, outside of San Francisco, will bring from $3.00 to $4.50. '

The pineapple is another food which is being raised system- atically— more so, probably, than bananas. They can raise and mature pineapples every month in the year, which, however, is alsoi true of bananas. Conditions are different in the Hawaiian Islands from any other portion of the world. This would insure a high price

PORTION OF THE iSTH R

The reeiment was od Uie way toUie Philippices, aod while the transport lay in

city and show the people the kit

finds its way into our seaboard cities, but rarely in an edible con- dition. The tree of the mammee apple presents a handsome appear- ance, frequently attaining a height of over sixty feet. It has large, oval, or obovate, opposite leaves of a shimmering green hue, and prior to fruiting is laden with beautiful white, sweet-scented flowers.

One of the most important of Hawaiian fruit products is the banana. It is raised usually in small patches by Chinese, who dis- pose of the bunches through middlemen, which makes them cost on board ship at Honolulu about 100 per cent more than in any of the West Indian countries. Notwithstanding this great drawback, however, the industry is rapidly gaining in volume and importance. In 1892 there were $175,000 worth of bananas shipped from the Hawaiian Islands. Ten years before there was none. Experiments are now being made, and organized plantations are going into the matter in a scientific way. Eventually, banana culture will unques- tionably take rank with the leading industries of the islands. This is from the fact that there are few other commodities they can raise which will have so great and popular a market.

GIMENT AT HONOLUI,D.

e harbor at HodoIiiIu the men availed Uiemselves of the opportunity to ace the I of soldiers America turns out.

in the markets of the Pacific Coast. The pineapple crops con- stitute an important feature in the commerce of the islands. It is a fruit that grows in popularity with use, and the industry has a promising future.

Other delicious fruits that grow well in Hawaii are guavas, mangoes and peaches.

The Guava {Psidium Guayava) grows wild in all parts of the islands below 3,000 feet. The fruit, of which there is a great abund- ance, is made into jam and the very finest of jelly. In the fruiting season large quantities of the latter commodity can be made, and without doubt exported at a profit.

The Mango {Mangifera Indica) is a tropical fruit tree that grows in the greatest profusion and bears enormous crops of deli- cious fruit. It comes into bearing in five or six years from seed and does well from sea level to an elevation of 2,000 feet. The fruit is much relished by every one; the green fruit is made into a sauce closely resembling, but much superior to, apple butter.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

necessitates applied energy to Hawaii in order to create a suitable trade in such products.

From a strictly lucrative standpoint, the cultivation of coffee, sugar and rice undoubtedly constitute the most important of Hawaiian re- sources. The introduction of the coffee industry into the islands dates back to 1838, from which time it increased rapidly and promised well until tlicre came a drought in the years 1851-52, which caused a blight tliat for a time ended the advancement of the industry.

The soil of Hawaii is of a dark chocolate or reddish brown color. The darker color is said to be the best adapted for grow- ing coffee. The soil is extremely rich and fertile. Being of vol- canic origin, the fertility varies according to the state of disinte- gration of the lava, and the amount of decomposed vegetable matter. The lava flow is of two kinds, called "Aa" and "Paho- ihoi." Where the ground is covered with broken aa the soil is very rich. Coffee thrives as well in soil that is clear of stone as it does in that mixed with it; but in the wet districts, the stone is thought to be advantageous, because the drainage is better. Land that is covered with large timber which has begun to die is sure to be good.

In Hawaii, coffee has been found to thrive best at alti- tudes varying from 500 to 2.000 feet. Trees grown near sea level are more susceptible to blight than when grown at higher altitudes. The coffee crop will eventually rival sugar in amount and value, as there are large areas of yet unoccupied land not available for sugar but peculiarly adapted to coffee. This product is the hope of the country, as it can be produced profitably by farmers with small capital. Unless a man is particularly vigorous and in earnest, he should not attempt to start a coffee plantation without some capi- tal, say $5,000 at least, as the trees take three years to mature. The work is practically the same as that on a fruit farm in the

EX-OUEEN LThlVOKALANl.

dr«s.dmherrWsofro^X Ldw%lH^^^^^ '^'"^ °' the ex^ueen. and .hows her

Hawaiian peaches are much esteemed by all classes. A small quantity of the fruit is shipped to California; what reaches there in good condition is quickly bought at high prices. It can only be carried safely in cold storage, and this involves very expensive freight charges. A native peach does well, and will bear fruit in two years from seed. The fruit is much smaller than the American peach, which, by the way, does not flourish on elevations below 4,000 feet. The Ha- waiian variety is very sweet and juicy and makes excellent pre- serves and pies. Without doubt this product could, in a few years, be improved so as to rival peaches of any other country, for the islands have the finest climate in the world, and are in every way adapted to the successful propagation of all fruits indigenous to trop- ical or semi-tropical climes. The United States tariff has heretofore precluded the ex- port of these fruits, either green or preserved, but under the present favorable condi- tions, and with a fair market on the Pacific Coast, it only

DRIVBWAY AND BBACH IN FRONT OP TUB HOUB OF TUB LATE PJUNCESS KAIULANl.

United States, and is eminently suited to a ma^^^■ith a large family, stand until th as the children make as good pickers as adults.

CUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

e crop ripens, when it is drawn off.

423

jrees of heat.

In these islands it grows and produces from very nearly the

sea level to the elevation of 2.600 feet. The highest eleva- tion of bearing coffee known here is twenty-fave miles from

the town of Hilo, and in the celebrated

Olaa district. With such a range it is

evident that in a tropical climate the

cultivation of coffee presents greater

opportunities for an investor than otlier

tropical products.

Coffee occupies the fifth place in

commodities sliipped to this country

from the Hawaiian Islands. For years it

was thought that the berry would only

grow to advantage in the Kona district

of Hawaii. Practical experiment has

shown that it can be grown with suc- cess in almost any part of the islands.

The opening up of the Olaa portion of

Puna district, by a well-mncadamized

road leading from Hilo to the volcano,

may be regarded as the commencement

of the coffee industry on a large scale

in the Hawaiian Islands. Where only

a few years ago there was nothing but

primeval chaos, there are now innumer- able plantations, and many tliousands of

acres of land yet awaiting development.

The Olaa land is government property,

and can be acquired under the land law.

The location is very desirable, as there

is direct communication with Hilo by

an excellent road, and the crop can be

readily taken to the shipping point.

The area cultivated witli sugar cane

in the Hawaiian Islands is approximately

80.000 acres. Tlie export of sugar in

1896 amounted to 221,000 tons. The

land available for sugar cultivation by

natural rainfall or irrigation from streams

is about all in use; but recent develop- ments have shown that water can be

profitably pumped to an elevation of 450 feet, and probably higher, for irri- gation of cane, and new plantations

with a probable output of 100.000 tons annually will be established within the current year. The plantations now be- ing organized are on a basis of from $500,000 to $2,000,000 cash capital each. Nearly all sugar plantations are carried on by corporations. The principal labor on such plantations has heretofore been done by Japanese, Chinese. Portu- guese, and a few other European laborers. An effort, however, is now being made to induce American white laborers to work on the sugar plantations on shares, the plantation advancing wages to the laborers while the crop is maturing, and paying them a pro- portion of the gross receipts from the sugar. It is hoped and be- lieved that this method of procedure will partially meet the labor problem, which is the most serious one now confronting the country.

Rice farming is a staple as well as substantial industry of the country, and is carried on principally by the Chinese and Japa- nese. The rice raised on the Sandwich Islaads grades with what is known commercially as No. i, or on a par with any rice of the South Sea Islands or of South Carolina. Water is allowed to

every reason to believe that it will be success- ful. Nearly all the laborers on the coffee plan-

OUR ARTIST AT HIS HOME IN HONOLULO. ^-

Mt. Tovmsend spent srvtrral wcrk^ in thv city of Honolulu a* the gnrst of n prnmincnl citiicn, who Accomptoled bim on many of his tripn tbrouifh the inland ol uahu in (jucst of subjects fur hm camera and ^eukil.

tations use rice as their staple food, and it has to be brought from the island of Oahu to the islands of Hawaii and Maui. There is no doubt that the rice used on the coffee plantations can be raised on the spot, which will reduce the cost of living to the laborers, and will make them far more contented. The returns of the year 1896 showed that our imports of rice from the island of Hawaii amotmted, in round numbers, to 4.354.500 pounds, with a value of $10^^^^!.

While the soil of the Hawaiian group is generally prolific throughout, there are certain localities which are much' better favored than others. Probably the richest farming locality in the islands is the Makaha Valley. This is one of the most fertile valleys on the Island of Oahu. It is about six miles long and contains an

424

area oi 5,000 acres, more or less, from ridge to ridge. At the head, nature has carved out several waterfalls, little valleys and springs, surrounded by a luxuriant growth of native trees, ferns and flowers of unsur- passed beauty. The soil being rich, the climate moist and warm, and walled m on three sides, as it is, with high moun- tains, make it an ideal spot for cofTefc, cocoa, bananas, plantains, man- goes, breadfruit, alligator pears, oranges, lemons, limes; in fact, citrus fruits of all kinds, and the • grapefruit in particular. Among the citrus fruits there is none which appears to be in greater demand and which obtains such a high price as the grapefruit. You can bud it on sour orange or lemo

stock. The . ^

fruit, under ' proper con- ditions, will keep for

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

PRINCESS KAIDLANI.

This beautiful eod talented younir lady, called "The Hope of Hawaii" by her devoted people, died at her residence. "Ainahau." in Honolulu, March 6lh. 1B99. A sketch o! her liie occurs in the test matter.

months, and can be shipped to any part of the world. The fruit brings now from $10 to $12 per box in the New York, London and

Paris markets, this on account of the killing of the grapefruit tree in Florida. At the lower or west end of Makaha Valley are 400 or 500 acres of almost flat land, well adapted to cane, cotton, tobacco, fiber plants and a great variety of tropical and semi-tropical fruits and vegetables.

A number of feed grasses and herbs grow luxuriantly in various portions of the islands. The Teosinte reana {Euchlactia luxurians) plant is a native of Guatemala, and grows splendidly in this country; each plant requires sixteen feet of ground for its full development. It is an annual, if al- lowed to run to seed ; but its growth can be continued by cutting when four or five feet high, and green feed ob- tained all the year round. Guinea grass {Paniciim jnaximujn) , one of the grand- est of fodder plants, has been introduced, and finds a congenial home in this country. It is purely a tropical grass. It grows to a height of eight feet, form- ing large bunches, which, when cut young, furnish an abundance of sweet and tender feed. In districts where there is sufificient moisture it can be cut every two months. Kaffir corn, Egyptian millet and sorghum grow well, and should be planted in order to have a change of feed.

Cattle-raising in so small a place as the Hawa- iian Islands does not pre- sent great opportunities except for local consump- tion. Pigs are profitable to the small farmer. In the Kula district of Maui, pigs are fattened upon the corn and potatoes raised in the district. The price of pork, dressed, is twenty-five cents per pound in Hono- lulu, and about fifteen cents per pound in the outside districts. The Chinese, of whom there are some twenty thousand resident on the various islands, are extremely fond of pork, so that there is a large local market, which has to be supplemented by importations.

IN THU SUUUKBS OP HONOUULU. Sbowlng the Nuattia River and the cloud-capped mountaiDs which ezlead down almoit to the limits o( the city.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

The indigenous woods of the Hawaiian Islands number 150 kinds. The insects have done considerable damage to them- the most common is the borer, a species of bug. On account of the hmited amount of wood on the islands, the question of rain has become quite a serious matter. When hogs and cattle became too plentiful they were turned loose, and the result was they rooted up and destroyed all the trees below 2,000 feet. Laws have been passed prohibiting the cutting of trees except for firewood. The islands produce some furniture woods, but no pine or cedar, and all Uimber for building purposes is imported from Puget Sound. The price of northwest pine lumber is from $20 to $24 per thousand. A fine building stone of lava rock is available and quarried practically all over the country. No clay has yet been found which makes first-class brick. All brick is imported from California. The business portion of Honolulu is built of brick and stone ; all other buildings are of wood, except the roofs, which are. as a rule, of corrugated iron.

425

who dwell upon it. Some of the earlier missionaries wrote voluminous works regarding the conversion of the natives from paganism, but most of their descriptions of the people and their customs are colored by religious prejudice, and are in many instances gross libels on the characteristics of a race that has always been noted for gentleness and hospitality. The Hawaiians love nature— the woods, the flowers, the rolling serf of the sea and the music of their mountain streams, almost to the verge of adoration. In fact, this intense devotion to nature was practically tlicir religion previous to their conversion to Christianity, and it is hard to believe that any people who thus worshipped the Creator through the symbols of liis benevolence, could have been otherwise than gentle in heart and pure in life. Their affection for children, and their absolute devotion to their own Httle ones, disprove the fabulous stories about the willful destruction of their offspring. The very words which auditive uses in addressing a stranger indi- cate the character of the race— net, the first meaning *'great

HAWAIIAN ■ I.m," OR FLOWER WOMEN.

rhi.t',i:i ,1 \,y Prank Dnvcy. IIOEOlulu,

The wreaths

„ f„«^ nf flnw^rs which Ihcy reeard with a certain degree o( relieious veneration. On lenut ilays and other festival occaNions they weiir E tiBtives are very '"^f °' A^!"!"- rndoVtheir heads, as shown in the picture. Owinn to their aversion to heinit photographed, this plcHire could be of flowers around their shouiaers. ana on '"f „,,„ a^nnaint^ri uriih ih# fM-oolf and to whaae courtesv we owe this intereatins view.

S'ned onVyTh^ouVh the ^nfluUcrof Mr. Davey, a local artiit. who was acquainted with the people, and to who.e courtesy we owe thU iotere.ting view.

With the exception of the supplies furnished to the Trans- Pacific shipping, the business and resources of Hawaii are purely agricultural, with such other subordinate industries as are neces- sarily incidental to an agricultural community. Success in agri- culture in the islands depends, as it does in all other countries, upon the intelligence used in the cultivation of crops, and upon the markets, which are a most important consideration.

Facts About Hawaii. Any one who undertakes to write a history of Hawaii will find himself confronted at the start with a dearth of reliable facts about the islands and their people. Volumes have been written concerning them, but the authors of these books have confined themselves to pyrotechnic eulogies of the climate and scenery, instead of giving us solid information about the land and the people

gratification," and the latter, "my country, myself, everything that I have, is yours." And they meant it, for it was their custom while in a state of paganism to surrender their grass huts, and even their wives and daughters, to the full and free gratification of strangers who visited them. This boundless hospitality, be it said to the shame of our higher civilization, was fre(iuent!y abused and out- raged, and bloody encounters and reprisals took place as a natural result. It is said that the death of Captain Cook was due to such a violation of hospitality, and one conscientious writer, in describing the event, says he "got what he deserved."

With infinite labor we have collected a mass of information, incident and description regarding the islands and their people, which we believe will demonstrate their true character better than any history that has yet been written. Much of this information has been supplied by Hon. John W. Stailey, of Lawrence, Kan., who lived in the Hawaiian Islands for a number of years and made

426

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLfi.

NATIVE CANOE WITH OUTRIDER.

The outrider prevents the canoe from upsetlinK. and enables the boatman to venture with perfect safely into routth seas that woiiM be dangerous to any ordinary crall Our artist, who hantJles one of the paddles, has just returned Irom the exhilaralinK sport ol a surl ride.

a special study of them and their inhabitants. He has written voluminously on tliese subjects, and we are greatly indebted to him for placing this matter at our disposal.

Nearly every one of the so-called "histories" of Hawaii gives a different estimate of the number of islands constituting the group, from five up to the fatal thirteen. There are, in fact, eight habitable islands in this cluster of marine gems, named in order of size as fol- lows : Hawaii, Maui. Oahu. Kauai, Molokai, Lanai, Niihau and Kaho- olawe. All of these islands are correctly named and located in the map accompanying this work. They stretch almost in a semicircle from northwest to southeast, Kauai being the most northern and Hawaii forming the southern limit. There are various rocks and reefs which at different times were placed under the Hawaiian flag, but they hardly rise to the dignity of islands. The group is located in the Pacific Ocean, in a southwesterly direction from San Francisco, the distance from the latter city to Honolulu being 2.090 miles.

A NATIVE AND HIS SURF-BOARD. The native sits 01 "tretchcs at full lenglh on the board aud rides the surf with perfect ease and safety The mJId •itmale makes sea-bathtna a pleasant sport all the year round, and the nativcsbecome SO expert In the me oftheie boanU Uut they have been known to nde the mri lor a diatuicc ol haU a oiile or mort. ooaroa

The following descriptions of the eight inhabited islands are gleaned principally from a very meritorious little work by Mr. Frank Davey of Honolulu, who has done mankind a service by correcting many of the inaccuracies of history.

Hawaii, the largest of the group, is about 4,210 square miles in area, and is very mountainous. Three mighty domes, striking the eye at once from the ocean are named as follows: Mauna Kea, 13,805 feet high; Mauna Loa. 13,675 feet high, and Hualalai, 8,275 feet. Mauna Loa, meaning "long or high moun- tain," is composed entirely of lavas which have been thrown out in a highly fluid state, and in consequence they have flowed laterally with such freedom as to build up a mountain with extremely gentle slopes. At a distance it presents the appearance of a smooth, regular dome, partly forest-clad and usually covered with snow at the summit. On the east side the forests cease at an elevation of 5,000 feet, but vegetation on the windward side reaches to a height of 10,000 feet. The surface of the mountain is com- posed of recent lavas in three forms: First, "satin," or blue lava, a dense, solid rock; second, scoriaceous lava, or clinkers; and, third, a black slag or spongy lava, of the horrible roughness and hard- ness of which it is difficult to convey any idea, except by the means of accurate photo- graphs, such as are given in this work. There are numerous craters on the sides and near the summit of Mauna Loa, while at long intervals new ones open and are the source of the grandest Hawaiian erup- tions. The latest of these oc- curred on the 4th of July, 1899, and is fully described in this work by eye-witnesses. The active volcano of Kilauea is located on the side of Mauna Loa, at an elevation of about 4.000 feet, while the summit of the mountain is crowned by the magnificent crater of Mokua-weo-weo. The latter is not so often in eruption as Mauna Loa, but its pro- portions are amazing. It is

circular m form, about 8,000 feet in diameter, with two lateral depressions which increase its dimensions to the north and south to 13,000 feet, while its depth is about ..000 feet, with almost perpendicular walls.

At intervals of years tremendous bursts of lava rol! down one side or the other of the mountain to the sea coast. Stretching away toward the sea there are great tablelands and slopes covered .v.th forest and pasture, or cultivated in large expanses with sugar cane and coffee shrubs. Bold cliffs front the ocean, their feet washed by the dashing waves, while down tiieir perpendicular faces plunge numerous cascades and waterfalls, among which are con- stantly to be seen the brilliant-hued colors of iridescent rainbows A few streams, rushing to meet and mingle with the surf have cut deep and dangerous gulches between the mountains and the sea addmg the gloomy grandeur of their dark seams to the splendid scenery of the islands.

Eruptions from Kilauea often take the form of enormous lava fountams, spoutmg immense sheets of flame and smoke from the

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE,

A^7

composed of two mountainous elevations connected by an isthmus, giving it the appearance on the map of a turtle with its head extended. Its chief summit. Hale-a-ka-la ("house of the sun"), is lo.joo feet high and contains a crater twcntv-scvcn miles in cir- cumference and 2.000 feet deep. The island's head-piece is a cluster of jagged ridges, jutting up at the highest point to an elevation of 5.800 feet. The connecting isthmus is a sandy plain, rising but a few feet above the level of the sea, so low, in fact, that vessels have stranded upon it at night, mistaking it for a channel between the heights on either side. lao Valley, which forms a part of this isthmus, is said to be rich in picturestpic scenery and one of the most beautiful regions in this entire cluster of islands. The soil is practically inexhaustible, and there is never any danger of frost. Sugar culture is the chief industry. 'and it is said that four tons of sugar per acre is not an uncommon yield. Ascending from the valleys up the sides of the mountains the tourist can have his choice of all the climates of the dilTerent zones, from the torrid to the cold temperate. Fruits and vegetables of the temperiiie zone

If

"LOAD." OR NATIVE FEAST IN THE WOODS.

Wbile nominally Christian, the natives still adhere to many of their old pagan superstitions, some o( which resemble the ancient Dnildlcnl worship of the early Britons. The feast represented in this photograph parlaltcs of that character, and is at ihc same time a sucial picnic enlivened by munic and ninKiuu.

center of the burning crater. Such a display occurred in February, 1859, when for the space of three or four days and nights vast columns of white-hot lava 200 feet in diameter and from 200 to 300 feet in height poured out from the bosom of the mountain and spread out in fan-shape above its crest. The light of this eruption was plainly visible at sea for a distance of more than 150 miles. In April, 1868, the lavas forced their way twenty miles underground, appearing near the south point of the island and bursting forth through a fissure two miles long. Four enormous lava fountains spouted up continuously from this opening, two of which occasion- ally united laterally, while now and then the whole four joined in one, making a continuous formation of fire a mile long. It boiled with the most terrific fury, throwing up enormous columns of crimson lava and red-hot rocks to a height of 500 or 600 feet, pro- ducing a spectacle of inconceivable and awful grandeur.

The island of Maui is forty-eight miles in length by thirty in width, but its irregularity of shape reduces its area to about 760 sguare miles, or about one-sixth the size of Hawaii. This island is

are cultivated successfully on the mountain slopes, while at their base and along the lower levels of the valleys sugar cane plantations cluster without end. Lohaina, on the west coast, is the ancient capital of the islands, and is the site of the first seminary for teaching English, established by American missionaries nearly eighty years ago. It is still in a flourishing condition, and is on of the best educational institutions in the Hawaiian governn' free school system.

Oahu is the best known of all the islands in the group, and third in size, embracing about 600 square miles in area. It has a length of forty-six miles by a breadth of twenty-five, with tw" distinct mountain ranges, one, the Koolau, extending along t .e northeastern coast, and the Waianae range, at broken intervals along the southwestern. The two ranges are separated by high, rolling tablelands, very fertile and possessing a delightful climate. Some of the Koolau peaks are 3,000 feet high, while several of those in the Waianae range rise to a height of 4,000 feet. In proportion to its area, Oahu is the greatest of all the islands in its agricultural

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

products. It has seven extensive sugar plantations, besides numer- extremely beautiful. Breadfruit, taro, bananas, cocoanuts, oranges ous smaller ones, and many others devoted to the cultivation of and other tropical fruits grow abundantly. The chief product, rice: while there are innumerable truck-patches of taro and garden however, is sugar, and the raismg of cattle is an extensive industry.

Kauai is better endowed with living streams than any of the other islands, and upon these in the forest depths are many beautiful cascades.

Niihau lies to the southwest of Kauai, being separated from the latter by Kumukahi channel. It is one of the smallest of the group, containing only about 70,000 acres of land, all of which belongs to one firm of sheep-raisers. The whole island is one extensive sheep ranch. In physical conformation it is a miniature likeness of all the others, with picturesque scenery and an extremely healthful climate.

Molokai is forty miles long and seven broad, and is very picturesque and fertile. This island is the first land sighted by vessels from San Francisco to Honolulu. A small peninsula on the north side, fenced off from the rest of the island by a lofty and almost vertical precipice, is the leper settlement, which is described elsewhere. Until within a few years past nearly all of the island was devoted to pasturage, but recently an immense sugar plantation has been opened out, and its success is stimulating other similar enterprises.

Lanai is ten by nineteen miles in extent, a little gem of an island, devoted, until recently* to sheep-raising. But the sugar

A RICB FARM NBAR HONOLULU.

Rice 1b one ol the sinples of the Islands, yieldinj; iminen«e crops in the rich, inieated soil. This cereal also GODStlluIea the principal food of the Chiaese and Japauese populatiou,

vegetables, usually cultivated by Chinamen or Japanese. Honolulu harbor has the capacity to accommodate, in dock or anchorage, the largest steamships plying the Pacific Ocean, while Pearl and Koolau harbors are capable of being made to do the same. All who visit Honolulu are fas- cinated by the climate and scenery, and it has the rep- utation of being as near an Edenic region a.s any known place on the earth.

Kauai is called the "Gar- den Isle" for the richness of its vegetation. It is twenty- five miles long and twenty- two broad, and circular in form. The valleys are deep and numerous, and every ravine is a watercourse. Kauai has a larger propor- tion of arable land than any other of the Hawaiian Islands, the lowlands being mostly on the windward side where there is an abundance of rain. The soil in the valleys is inexhaustible and frequently ten feet or more in depth. On the west coast there is a steep sand bank about sixty feet high, known as the "barking sands," from the fact mat when visitors slide then horses down the face of the bank a noise is heard like subterranean thunder. On account of the greater decomposition of its lavas, the leveling of its ridges, and the absence of volcanic products, Kauai is regarded as the oldest of the Hawaiian group. But like all the others it bears strong evidence of its vol- canic origin. The scenery in all parts of the island is

A WATERPALI, NEAR THE CAPITAL CITY.

e set brilliant buea

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

interest has extended there also, and the resources of the island are being developed in that direction.

Kahoolawe lies near the southwest coast of Maui, and is devoted principally to cattle-raising. Although its area is only six by fourteen miles, its mountains rise to a height 1.450 feet, and present a wealth of scenery in cliff, crag and peak, with interven- ing valleys covered with perennial green, that is not surpassed in any other part of the world.

The whole area of tliese islands is less than that of the State of Massachusetts, and much of this area is so mountainous that it cannot be applied to any industrial purpose. But the portions that are capable of being cultivated are rich enough to make up for the waste and sterile sections.

As a winter resort the Hawaiian Islands must necessarily become of the first importance. The climate is ideal. No other land is more premeated and dominated by perpetual sunshine; and

429

Hawaiian weather, whether the holiday being observed is Chri.st- mas or Fourth of July, the birthday of Washington or of Victoria. A perennial resort for rest or health or recreation, rather than either a winter or a summer resort, would be the correct designa- tion of these delightful islands. The recorded daily average of temperature during July of a recent year was 76.4, and for Decern ber of the same year, 70.7. Perhaps in no otlier part of the world could such a climate be found.

These conditions have naturally attracted large numbers of people to the islands, many of whom have met witli disappoint- ment in securing anticipated employment. The market for all kinds of labor is overstocked, and it would be unwise for any one to go to Hawaii with no capital, on the mere chance of obtaining work. Persons able and willing to engage as agricultural laborers can secure employment on the plantations at wages of $18 per month, with free wood, water, lodgings and medical attendance,

A HONOLULU RESIDENCE AND JAPANESE SERVANTS.

The Japaoese constitute the most popular serving class in the islands, beinu quick, neat and iutclliKcnt. They are Inr superior to the Chinese as a race, and

many of the youus girls are quite beautiful

it is not the blazing sun that smites to the earth, such as denizens of the temperate zones on either hand are fain to fly from in their summers. Sunstroke is unknown in these fair islands of the Pacific. The climate the year round is marvelously equable, gentle and uniform. So true is this observation that it would be just as proper to call Hawaii a summer resort as a winter resort, for the seasons vary so little that the changes are scarcely perceptible. It is a region where one enjoys perpetual spring, and life becomes a dream of pleasure. Here people from the United States meet those from Australasia — the former fleeing from their winter cold and the latter from their summer heat— and both find relief from the climatic extremes that drove them from their homes. The American from New Hampshire and the Australian from New South Wales may prolong their stay in Hawaii until their respective countries change seasons again, for neither can tell by reference to

both for the laborer and his fainily, and, as a rule, sufficient land on which to raise vegetables for their own use.

The small capitalist may acquire land from the government by two methods, viz.: the cash freehold system, and the right of purchase leases. Under the first system the land is sold at auction. The purchaser pays one-quarter in cash and the rest in equal in- stallments of one, two and three years, interest being charged at the rate of six per cent upon the unpaid balance. Under this system the purchaser is bound to maintain a home on the land from the com- mencement of the second year to the end of the third. The right of purchase leases are drawn for twenty-one years at a rental of eight per cent on the appraised value of the land. The lessee has the privilege of purchasing the land at the original appraised value, provided twenty-five per cent of the land is reduced to cultivation, and the other conditions of the lease filled. In this case a home

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

A CHINKSe FARMEK AND HIS TARO PATCH. The Chinest; are industrious and thrifly farmers aiid gardeoers, and they produce most of the vegetables that are sold in the island markets.

must be maintained from the end of the first year to the end of the fifth year. The area Hmit of first-class agricultural land ob- tainable is ioo acres. This amount is increased on lands of inferior quality. Under the above conditions, the applicant must be eighteen years of age and obtain special letters of denization. Land can also be obtained from the various land and investment compa- nies and from private parties. There is but little good government land left. The amount, all told, is less than 2,000,000 acres. Of this, much is sterile, a great part inaccessible, and other parts / are covered with lava. There are perhaps 500.000 acres that

are of some value, and half of this amount is excellent land. The best coffee lands are on the island of Hawaii, and about 60,000 acres of this character will be opened to settlement by the Kohala & Hilo Railway, which is now being constructed.

At present the islands are divided into great baronial estates, owned or leased by rich men or corporations. Oahu has no public land available to settlers; Kauai, the Garden Island, is practi- cally controlled by six corporations, and the Bishop estate owns 600.000 acres outright. The Parkers control 700,000 acres on the

island of Hawaii, including 250,000 acres under irrigation, and the small island of Niihau has 25.000 sheep, all owned by one family. The chances of the young in- vestor are almost exclusively limited to the government lands, and these are compara-

THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE AT HONOLULD. This bulldioj was erected by Uie kines of Honolulu, and is now occupied by the public offices of the island Territory. There are but lew handsomer structures

to be ficen in any city or countrv than the one pbotograDbed above.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

lively so few that they will, in a short time, be exhausted. Coffee- raising probably offers the best inducements to young men of small means, and hundreds of this class have gone into the business during the past few years. The coffee tree will bear as high up as half a mile above the level of the sea, or as low as five hundred feet above that point. The coffee lands therefore lie above the sugar plantations, which are usually found close to the sea.

The Hawaiian coffee is far superior to that raised in Brazil. It ranks with the best Moclia and Java in the markets of the Pacific Slope, selling at retail there for thirty-five and fortv cents the pound. It brings from fifteen to eighteen cents the pound at wholesale in the markets of San Francisco, where Rio sells for six or seven cents. At these rales the planters of Hawaii can figure on a clear profit of about ten cents the pound, and. as a good plantation in bearing will annually produce about 1.500 pounds to the acre, the profits are very large. One plantation on the island of Hawaii produced, in 1899, 3,400 pounds to the acre, or a net

431

In line of the professions, there are about as many physicians, dentists, lawyers, etc.. in private practice as in conununitics of similar size in the United States. Doctors and dentists are required to take out a license, which is granted only upon presenting a dip- loma of graduation from some reputable medical or dental college, or upon passing an examination.

There are a number of large mercantile houses with abundant capital that have been established for years, and do ilic largest part of the trade. The Chinese and Japanese are also engaged in the mercantile business and make sharp competitors. Tlic usual stores, shops and trades appurtenant to an up-to-date American town are to be found in all ihe islands, fully equipped and slocked.

Large capital is required in establishing mills .ind carrying on the sugar business, and nearly all of this industry is under control of corporations. There are, however, an increasing number of small planters, who either grow the cane on shares for the larger concerns or raise it on their own ground and sell it to the sugar

A NATIVE WOMAN WITH HHK WATKR HOTTI,!- AND CA[,AIiASH.

The natives are expert in making vessels o( various kinds out of the fruit of the cnlahash tree, which has a hard, woody rind like the eourd, Only it Is tousher and more durable. Many of these vessels are carved with intricate characters and arc quite omameolal.

profit of $340 per acre, so that it will be seen that even a small coffee plantation might bring in a considerable income.

Heretofore the profits of sugar-raising were so large that everything else gave way to it, the planters preferring to buy their supplies from the outside, just as the planters of cotton in the South did when they received such high prices for that product. But now that the sugar lands are nearly all taken up, other indus- tries are coming into notice. It is claimed that the islands could produce enough pineapples and bananas to supply all of the Ameri- can market west of the Mississippi River, and with annexation these industries have received a new impetus.

Owing to the limited white population, there is a larger supply of white mechanics than the demand justifies. The Chinese and Japanese come into competition with white men to some extent. In the future, as the country grows, there will be an increasing demand for skilled white mechanics.

factories when ripe. Comparatively small capital will suffice under either of these systems.

In planning for a home in the islands, it must be remembered that Hawaii is not a new country. It is not a Klondike where gold can be picked up, nor an Oklahoma where land can be had for the asking. Honolulu was an established city before San Trancisco was on the map. In the later 40's and early 5o"s the people of California sent their children to Honolulu to be educated. People coming to Hawaii, therefore, must not expect to find the oppor- tunities incidental to a new and undeveloped country, but must expect to meet the conditions, so far as business is concerned, found in the older States.

Under these circumstances, the field for engineers, mechanics, bookkeepers, clerks and such employments is necessarily limited.

The ruling and influential class in Hawaii is of course American, and it will remain so. While the population of the entire group

432

OUR T^T ANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

STATION OF THE OAHU RAILWAY AT HONOLUI.D.

Tbose wlio have never visiled Ihe Hawaiian Islands will be surprised at the arid and unproductive appearance of the country, which is due to the (act that very Utile rain (alls, except on the windward side of the mountains, where it rams almost constantly All other sections have to be irrigated to render them productive.

is only about 150,000, it is composed of five distinct and dissim- ilar elements, standing on very different levels of civilization. The American-European element, consisting of white men, chiefly of American origin, with a good many English, and minor sprinklings from other European countries, is the smallest, but most import- ant by intelligence, energy and wealth. It is, in round numbers, about 14,000, and it has -practically had the management of the islands in its hands for many years, since it guided and furnished ministers for the latest native sovereigns. Largest in number, but still very backward, though it is nominally Christian and Protest-

NATIVE CANOEMAN COASTING NEAR DIAMOND HEAD. With an outrider like that m the Photograph, the native canoeman will venture far out to »ea. and in mere iport ride

wave* that would Bwamp a much larger and more aubsUntial cralt

ant, and to a great extent can speak English, is the native Hawaiian element, estimated at 75.000, and apparently diminishing. Then follow three masses of recent immigrants — Japanese, about 25,000: Chinese, about 15,000, and Portuguese, about 9,000. The Portuguese are Roman Catholics, the Japanese and Chinese nearly all heathen. All these four elements, Portuguese, as well as native Hawaiian, Japanese and Chinese, are quite unfit for free govern- ment. The Portuguese, though a good sort of people, have had practically no experience in it, and have no taste for it. The other three races are, of course, in a still lower stage. All these four

race groups have, moreover, no national organization among themselves. Three of them have come lately to the islands, while among the natives the ancient sys- tem of rule by chiefs has completely vanished. Nor has any of these four groups anything in common with any of the others except local contiguity. The two Asiatic races hate one an- other. No group can speak the language of any other, and it will take a good while before they learn to use English as their common medium of communication. This is an advantage for the ruling Americans, be- cause it prevents a hostile combination against their authority. But it increases the difficulty of establishing representative institutions, or of impressing American ideas upon the mass of the inhabitants. The Japanese are the only foreigners who will in any substantial de- gree compete with the Americans for supremacy.

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434

OUR ISLANUii AND THEIR PEOPLE.

PREPARING FOR A ' LDI." OR FEAST.

The scene is nenr Kahiiku Point, on the north coas' of the island of Oaliu. The natives are Catherine drif'wood from the surf with which to roast a pig preparatory to one of their unique feasts. The immediate ancestors of these same people toasted and ate missioDaries just cs their more civilized descendants now roast and eat pics.

The Leper Colony, by hon. john w, staii.ey.

To visit Kalaupapa, Molokai, the leper settlement, is a privi- lege not often granted either visitor or resident, and never except as a giiesc of the National Board of Health. Through the courtesy of Dr. H.G. McGrew, president of the board, the writer, with three other newspaper correspondents, was permitted to accompany the board upon one of their ofTicial visits. Every person was placed upon his honor, and without permission could not even converse with the stricken ones, nor enter any building. Kalau- papa is but fifty miles from Honolulu, yet it required five hours for the little government tug that plies between the settlement and the outside world to make its anchorage, and another hour to make a landing in the lifeboat that the tug carries. There is no wharf at Kalaupapa, and none is desired, although there could be none maintained, as the only point of approach is an

unprotected cove with rocks scattered about — immense masses of volcanic drift that have rolled into the sea from the precipitous clifYs, and are tossed about, at times,

like eggshells by terrific winds , and breakers. In front this rocky coast, across the island, a wall 4,coo feet high, practi- cally perpendicular, which sep- arates the leper settlement from the balance of the island of Molokai, forms a perfect amphitheatre, a natural prison. Notwithstanding these bar- riers— the sea in front an open roadstead filled with rocks hidden just beneath the waves,

VIEW PROM THE '■ PUNCH BOWL "

Thla 1« mn extinct volctno oTcrlooklag the city ana narbor of Honolulu. A smooth roarlway winds up the side of the mountain from the city, and the view from

the oolnt wh*r* our artiat's auiatant ataoda la Bal(\ to be one of the 6neat in the world.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE..

435

a solid wall nearly a mile high shutting the little colony from the lands beyond— there have been some escapes, and other desperate attempts, from the hospital-prison. Only the week previous to our visit, an American girl, the daughter of a Maui planter, had been consigned to the leper colony— for life. Less than a montli from the date of her incarceration there she secured a board, and. aided by an incurable leper, lashed herself to it securely, and went out with the tide — to be dashed against the cruel rocks. She had declared that death was preferable to a life's restraint among the vile, loathsome lepers she must meet, and to some extent associate with daily. To know was to love her— the beautiful Caroline Hartwell, society leader, musician, church worker and patron of art. The dread leprosy attacked her and developed so quickly that her friends had not the opportunity to isolate her, to save her from the leper settlement. First the muscles of the hands began to shrivel and white spots to develop on hands and face— both unmis- takable evidences of the leprosy. An effort was made to keep the fact secret, and her father had prepared to send her to the Imperial Japanese hospital at Kobe, but the Hawaiian authorities, despite protestations and ofTers of a fortune, refused to permit her removal from the islands.

There was a Japanese nobleman with our party, who had presented an autograph letter from his sovereign praying for the

and scaly, and their blood gradually becomes so impoverished and diluted as to refuse its functions of life-giving — then death ensues. As the old blood becomes weak the mucus from the nose and saliva from the mouth becomes more profuse, until, with the incurable leper, the sight is disgusting.

The first indication of leprosy is invari.M)ly the dissolution of the muscles, beginning almost invariably between the lower joints of the thumb and forefinger, then the biceps and calves of the legs become attenuated. The groins are next attacked, and then comes a general decay, lingers and toes dropping off, tlie nose and ears disappearing, simply crumbling away, for there are no running or ulcerous sores in leprosy; simply a dissolution.

At the hospital, where there were a number of the worst cases, some were unable to move hand or foot— or usually the stubs, for the fingers and toes were generally lacking. There were others

THE HARBOR AT HONOLUI.D AS SF.KN FROM DIAMOND HHAD, Sfaips o( all natiotia are to be seen almost constaQtly lyine at anchor or eoterine or departing from this beautiful harbor, the comnierce of which is rapidly lacreaBtng.

pTivilege of studying the Hawaiian lepers. This nobleman had founded a noted leper colony and hospital near Kobe, Japan, and had traveled the world over in the study of pulmonary complaints, leprosy, elephantasis, and kindred diseases, and his sovereign had placed the hospital under the care of other prominent men and made it a national institution. This renowned bacteriologist, whose name now escapes me, had just completed a post-graduate course at a German medical college, after having made a special study of the lepers of Norway and Sweden, Spitzbergen and Siberia. This man claimed that leprosy could not be contracted except by inoculation through mucus from the nose or the saliva from the mouth. He had demonstrated, he claimed, the fact ^hat a child of leper parents, if taken away from the mother at birth, would be clean; that the child might even nurse the mother if the breasts, hands and such parts of the body as might come in contact with the infant's mouth and nose were kept thoroughly disinfected. The leper does not perspire; indeed, the outer skin becomes dry

who had vitality sufficient to get outdoors and sit in the sun, yet unable even to feed themselves, who could see perfectly and could converse freely. As a rule the incurables were willing to discuss their affliction, and none of them seemed dissatisfied with their condition. One old lady who had become a "chicfess," as the women of the higher caste were called, was in a most pitiable condition; yet she was ever garrulous, discussing current events with enthusiasm. She was very much interested in the change that had come to the Hawaiian Islands, denouncing the overthrow- ing of the monarchy, berating the republicans and the provisional government. She was told by the resident physician that she had but a short time to live, and was asked what disposition she wished to make of her property. "I will <lecd it to my Queen," she declared— and she did, later dying as she had lived, happy in the loyalty of her friends, who s(?nt her monthly food, and clothing, and tobacco, and with a loyalty to her sovereign beau- tiful in its earnestness.

436

The celebrated Dr. Nicholas Senn, who is an authority on infectious diseases and lep- rosy, spent a month at the leper settlement on the island of Molokai, during 1899. He went at the request of the Government, and made a thorough examination of the pa- tients and the conditions which environed them. His report is exceedingly interest- ing. He says, in part:

"The Island of Molokai is not. as gen- erally supposed, given over entirely to lepers, only the northwestern part, a penin- sula, is set apart for those afflicted. This section is almost inaccessible to the rest of the island, however, being shut off by a precipice that rises sheer 2,000 feet, where the peninsula joins the main part of the island.

" I climbed this wall by means of the stone steps and rope ladders rather than to go around by way of the coast in one of the fickle canoes the natives use. For, except- ing the harbor of Honolulu, the coast is embroidered with coral reefs, over win'ch the surf rolls in a way that does not encour- age a man to make the trip by water.

"The Icjier colony now numbers about 1,200 persons. Of these, all except fifty are native Hawaiians. The remainder is made

up of Chinese and Japanese, and, when I

was there, one white man. The lepers live

in comfortable bamboo houses, which are

roofed with thatch, and are whitewashed

every month. From a distance tlie colony

has the appearance of a giants' graveyard. " Years ago, it was doubted that leprosy

was infectious. ■ It was argued that if it

were the priests and sisters could not labor

among those afflicted with the disease without contracting it. However, it has been proved that the germ-leprosy, a germ dis- ease, may be trans- mitted. The manner

in which proof was ob- 'jf;^ tained was notparticu- ■ C^Ju

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

NATIVE PlSHERMIiN AND THKIK BOATS. This photograph was taken in the early morniDg and show^ the fishermen preparinu to depart lor their day's work. Two o( the boats have been lashed log«Hi«r lUlC a tatamaraq aud arc propelled by wind and sail.

MKAT A-M' i .-11 -MARKET AT HONOLULU.

Many of the stalls in the markets, as well as the shops and commercial houses in the city, are owned by Chinamen and Japauesc. Very few natives enuage in these pursuits.

larly pleasing to think about, but it aided medical science greatly. A white man, a sailor, who had killed another in a drunken brawl in Honolulu, had been sentenced to death. He was promised his freedom if he permitted the doctors to inoculate him with the germs of leprosy, provided, of course, he was not infected.

"Tlie condemned man did,' not hesitate. He was taken to the colony and there iso- lated. He was inocu- lated and died in six weeks. That settled the question forever.

*' There are two kinds of leprosy; one attacks the skin, the other the nerves. The former cannot be cured by any treatment yet discovered; the latter cures itself. In fact, the form which attacks the nerves is much like paralysis, and while it does not kill its victim, it usually leaves him helpless.

"The form which shows upon the skin is the most loathsome form. Once the aver- age man is infected, he dies in seven years.

"There is really lit- the danger of a white man in good health contracting it, how- ever. Father Damien,

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

the martyr of Molokai. labored amongst these people for thirteen years before he was attacked. And many men beUeve that he was criminally careless. Brother Dutton. who came from Changesville^ Wis., and was associated with Father Damien for years, is negli- gent in looking after his own welfare. I saw that plainly. He reveres Father Damien as he does a saint, and he seems to wish to die as he did. While I was on the island lie submitted to an ex- ammation after discovering a sore on his ankle, and he seemed disappointed when he found that he had not contracted leprosy.

"Five Catholic sisters minister to the wants of the lepers. Some of these have been on the island since 1S85. None of them are afflicted, for they take care to be cleanly. That is the best protection.

"In Hawaii no divorce is necessary if either husband or wife has leprosy. When a man or woman is sent to Molokai, he or she is permitted to marry again without applying to the courts; so is the man or woman who is not afflicted. The priests perform the ceremonies in the leper colony as in any other place, and, strange to say, more children are born in proportion to the population, than in any other spot on the globe.

437

last winter might have spread the disease in every direction. The persons afflicted were employed in a sweatshop. Every piece of cloth they touched might have carried germs when it left the shop.

"One difficulty in discovering leprosy in the first stages is that the symptoms are much like those of another loathsome dis- ease. Neither has been studied sulliciently by the physicians of this country, excepting the specialists, to enable the average practitioner to distinguish between them.

" 1 think that every soldier who returns from the Philippines, where there is considerable leprosy, should be rigidly examined when belauds. If this is not done the disease is liable to be spread through- out this country. I do not mean there will be a plague or anything of the sort, but once it gains a foothold it is almost impossible to destroy it, and it is well to be cautious under existing circumstances."

One of the most grapliic descriptions ever written of the leper settlement at Kalaupapa came from the pen of |tiic late

Robert Louis Stevenson, the distin- guished English novelist. It was written inunediately after a visit to the settle- ment, while the terrible sights that he witnessed were still fresh in his memory, and is as follows:

I have seen sights that cannot be told and

heard stories that cannot be repeated; yet I never

THE "NEWPORT" COALING AT HONOLOXU. ON HER WAV TO THE PHILIPPINES.

All vessels bound [rom the Pacific Coast to the Phi1ipi>ine Islands or China, stop at Honolulu a« n hnlf-way •ilntion. and this fact ndds very ereBlly to the

commercial and stratrKic location ot the city and ihc iKlaods.

" Even Stranger is the fact that not one in 500 of these children are born with leprosy. The girls who do not have the disease are taken to an institute in Honolulu, where they are educated and cared for by the Catholic sisters; I am sorry to say that no provision has been made for the boys, and nearly all of them, remaining, as they do, in the colony, sooner or later contract the disease. There is a chance for some philanthropist to erect a great monument to himself by giving a home to these unfortunates.

" In the United States there are many lepers — more than any one suspects or physicians have an idea of. There are two regular hospitals for these people — one in New Orleans and the other in San Francisco. There are about thirty-five patients in each. *

"I believe, however, that in all the large cities of this country there are lepers who are not isolated and with whom we are liable to come in contact at any time. Two cases found in New York

admired my poor race so much nor (strange as it may seem) loved life more than in the settlement. A horror of moral beauty broods over the place; that's like bad Victor Hugo, but it is the only way I can express the sense that lived with me all these days. And this, even though it was in great part Catholic, and my sympathies flew never with so much difficulty as toward Catholic virtues. The pass book kept with heaven stirs me to anger and laughter. One of the sisters calls the place ' the ticket office to heaven.' Well, what is the odds? They do their work and do it with kindness and efficiency incredible; and we must take folks' virtues as we find them, and love the better part. Of old Damien, wiiose weaknesses, and worse perhaps, I heard fully, I think only the more. It was a European peasant; dirty, bigoted, untruthful, unwise, tricky, but superb with generosity, residual candor and fundamental good humor; convince him he had done wron^ (it might take hours of

438

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

insult) and he would undo what he had done and like his cor- rector better. A man with all the grime and paltriness of mankind,

but a saint and a The place, as regards and bleak. Mighty mountain walls de- scending sheer along the whole face of the island into a sea

hero all the more for that, scenery, is grand, gloomy

PISHIJRMEN NEAR KAENA POINT. This point forms the northwesl extremity of the island o( Oahii. and is a favorite resort for the native Ssbermen.

unusually deep; the front of the mountain ivied and furred with clinging forest, one iridescent clifT ; about half way from east to west, the low, bare, stony promontory edged in between , the cliff and the ocean; the two httle towns (Kalawao and Kalanpapa) seated on either side of it, as bare almost as batliing machines upon a beach ; and the population — gorgons and chimeras dire. All this tear of the nerves I bore admirably ; and the day after I got away, rode twenty miles along tlie opposite coast and up into the mountains; they call it twenty. I am doubtful of the figures."

During the winter of 1899- 1900 the islands suffered from another visitation even worse in some respects than the leprosy. We refer to the Asiatic plague, a disease which, though peculiarly terrifying and deadly in its ravages and definitely marked in its inception and progress, has never been fully understood or classified by the medical profession. Several cases of the plague appeared in Hono- lulu during January, 1900, introduced, it is supposed, by Oriental emigrant laborers. During January and the first half of February, 4,356 Asiatics, chiefly Japanese, were landed at the port of Honolulu as sugar plantation contract laborers. Several companies of these people were photographed by our artist, who was there at the time, and these pictures accurately reproduce their appearance and personal belongings. During the same period vigorous measures were put in operation by the board of health for the suppression of the dreaded disease. The personal effects, homes, merchandise and places of business of more than 5,000 Asiatics were destroyed in Honolulu alone during this time; and it is esti- mated that upwards of $1,000,000 worth of property was burned in the plague infected and quaran- tined districts of the city. These drastic measures soon annihilated the plague in the capital city; but the disease was carried by the immi- grants to several of the other islands, whereafew sporadic cases occurred. Dr. D. A. Carmichael, of Honolulu, gives the results of the ob- servations of a trip made by Consul-General Haywood, President Wood of the board of health and himself to Kaluhui, Maui, and Hilo, Hawaii, to look over the situation at those places. Tliey started February 13th. At Kaluhui the inhabitants of Chinatown, where the disease was discovered, had been moved to a detention camp, Chinatown destroyed by fire and the dead burned. No cases had developed since February 10th, and the situation was well in hand. Sugar is

A GOOD CATCH.

-n.- narive? are expert fishermen, and they verv rarely cast Uieir nets wiUioul briagini: in good returns. Tbey are also famous swimmers end r.no<-m<^

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

shipped directly from Kaluhui to San Francisco. All cargoes are d.scharged and recen ed in the open bay. Complete arrangements were made for the shipment of the sugar direct from the planta- tions to the landmg place and thence to the lighters, so as to avoid as far as possible any danger of infection by the men engaged in the work. At Hilo the doctor found only one case oi plague reported, a Mrs. Zarrao. the wife of a Portuguese merchant, who kept a small store along the water front. She was taken ill on Janu- ary 25th and died on January 28th. She had all the usual symp- toms of the plague. What closely resembled the bacilli of bubonic plague were found in one of the glands sent to Honolulu. Tiie body of the deceased woman was burned, surrounded by quicklime near her residence, and the store and dwelling in wliich she iiad livcil were burned. The source of infection in this case had not been traced and nothing had been found that would throw any li-ht on the matter, except that the store, in which she sometimes served was directly over the mouth of a sewer that received refuse from

439

enlarge, become dusky and are covered by vesicles filled with a dark-colored fluid. The base of the spots is hard, and becomes black, forming a gangrenous eschar with a circumference of an inch or an inch and a half in size; these are tlie carhuucles. Con- sequent upon the appearance of the carbuncles, glandular swell- ings often form, commonly in the groins or armpits, more rarely in the neck. These buboes, as they are termed, occasionally dis- appear without suppuration, but usually pus forms ami corruption sets in. In all severe epidemics of the disease, patients usually die before the development of the eruptions. The plague is transmis- sible by means of miasmata given out by the bodies of the sick, and carried in clothing, merchandise or by other means. It is therefore liable to spread rapidly from place to place, when carried by immigrants, as was the case in the Hawaiian Islands, and each new case becomes a center of infection for that localily.

The "black death." of the middle ages, which ravaged all Europe and produced more frightful devastation than all the wars

This section, located on the neateni coast, is (he principal coffee-raislus; district of the island of Oahu. The extrBordloary producUveoeai o( the toil Is thown Iq

the immense weight of berries growiaE od the braoches of the shrubs.

the Chinese quarters further up-town. No other cases had been reported in Hilo, so far as was then known.

Concerning the treatment of the plague, but little is known. About all that can be done is to make local applications to the carbuncles and buboes, support the patient's strength, and place him under as favorable hygienic circumstances as possible. But in spite of the best treatment that can be given, a majority of cases die, and when recovery takes place convalescence is tedious. The plague is a contagious fever characterized by an eruption of carbuncles and buboes. The course of the disease varies in almost every in- dividual case. Sometimes the local symptoms appear first and the subsequent fever will be comparatively mild; at other times the patient is overwhelmed by the violence of the constitutional dis- order, and dies without the appearance of the local eruptions. In its milder forms, small spots like flea bites first make their appear- ance, especially on the parts of the body exposed to the air, these

that had preceded it, is supposed to have been the Oriental plague. Its prevalence was due to the irregular and filthy habits of the people, to a scanty and unwholesome diet, the accumulation of animal and vegetable matter in a state of putrefaction, the moral and physical poverty of the masses, and their utter ignorance and disregard of the simplest laws hygiene. Tliere is no reason to fear that the plague will ever gain anything like a permanent foothold in modern civilized communities, for the conditions that foster it do not exist in such localities. At the same time, its ravages are so terrible and its progress so fatal to human life, that ho effort should be spared to stamp it out instantly wherever it appears. The only countries in which the plague at present originates are India, Egypt, Syria and Turkey. In all other countries where it appears it is brought there in infected goods or carried by travelers, and, being a germ disease, it is not difficult to eradicate. This fact was established by fhe results in Hawaii.

440

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

The rapid advance of medical science, and the knowledge of what it has accomplished in the past, afford good reasons for believing that leprosy also will eventually be brought under control, if not practically eliminated. Owing to the fact that our popular histories confme themselves too closely to records of wars and battles, it may not be generally known that during a portion of the Middle Ages this dreaded disease prevailed all over Europe, to an equal if not greater extent than it had previously been known among the Asiatic nations and on the continent of Africa. The returning Crusaders brought leprosy with them from the Holy Land, and between the sixth and fifteenth centuries its ravages in Europe reached frightful proportions. No country was exempt, and the authorities were unceasing in their efforts to prevent the diffusion of the dreaded infection. At first the old system of cast- ing out and isolating the afflicted was resorted to. but under the influence of Christianity a more humane spirit eventually prevailed, and hospitals, or asylums, usually under charge of the religious orders, were established for their reception. It is stated that so dreadful were the ravages of leprosy in Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that these hospitals " literally covered the face of the continent," being numbered by thousands in every country. Each principal town had one or more of them in its vicinity. The scourge seems to have been especially severe in France, wliere not only the towns and cities were provided with hospitals, but even the villages and more thickly populated com- munities in the country were compelled to establish them. The Order of St. Lazarus, so called from Lazarus the beggar, patron saint of lepers, had been formed as early as 72 of the Christian era, and during the twelfth century a military branch of this Order was instituted by the Crusaders at Jerusalem, whose duty it was originally to take charge of lepers and their asylums in the Holy Land. The knights hospitallers of St. Lazarus, after being driven

out of Palestine by the Saracens, established themselves in France and instituted a celebrated hospital, or "lazar" house, immediately out- side the gates of Paris. Subse- quently, under the protection and >-^" ^ ,1 friendly patronage of several of the

■ ' * Popes, they settled in Sicily and

lower Italy ; but with the disappear- ance of the disease, which began to decline about the middle of the fourteenth

J-

century, the distinc- tively charitable feature of the or- ganization gradually disappeared, and in the early part of the sixteenth ' century the various societies were merged into the re-

ligious Order of Lazarists, which flourished for more than a cen- tury and then gradually subsided. During this period the Order

established itself in the United States, and some of its institutions still exist here ; but it has grown so weak dur- ing the present cen- tury that it is claimed thai

WATCHING THE FLOOD OP 1S98.

On the Z4th of March. there was a fall of six inches of rain in six hours to Honolulu. produciuE a flood unsurpassed at any previous time in the niemorj- o( the people. Many were terrified at the unusual spectacle, aod they gathered in frightened groups on the streets of the city to watch the downpour.

there are less than three thousand members of the Order now in existence on both continents. In general, hospitals for the recep- tion of lepers were supported by chance eleemosynary contribu-

tions; and in secluded the reach of organized condition of the victims extreme. Even under circumstances the leper from all association kind, and became an world, being consid-

localities, beyond assistance, the was pitiable in the the most favorable was excluded except his own outcast from the ered both legally

4^

4 ALONG THK BOULRVARD FROM HONOLDLD TO WAIKIKI

WtlkikJ 1. • f.mou. bathiag rttoA. vl.lled by hundred, of people everv .itcmooo during lb. ent». ye., lor the mild cllm.te n..kr, hHtnln» alwv. eo^ro^.bl*

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

and morally as a dead person. To such an extent was this custom carried that upon being set apart from his fellow creatures tl>€ ceremonial for the burial of the dead was pronounced over the leper, masses were said for the benefit of his soul, and. to carry out the illusion to the fullest extent, a shovelful of earth was thrown upon his body. His marriage ties were thenceforth dissolved, although he was permitted to contract a new marriage with a person similarly afflicted: he was prohibited from entering any church or place where food was prepared, from dipping his hands in any running water, and from taking up food or any other necessary article without the assistance of a stick or fork; and he was strictly enjoined to wear a peculiar dress, by which he could be known at a distance, and to give notice of his approach by ringing a bell.

With the progress of civilization and medical science, and the improvement in the condition of the poorer classes, leprosy de- clined, and at present it is practically unknown in civilized coT ntries. It still prevails, however, to a limited extent, in some portions of Norway and Southern Europe, put it is no longer regarded there as a scourge. The horror which the various forms of the disease inspired in earlier times remains in full force, and even at the present day the word leper designates a person unfit for human association.

The Hebrews brought leprosy with them into Palestine from Egypt, and the stringent provisions of the Mosaic law show how dreadfu its ravages must have been, and how great the terror which

441

within the next generation or two, but if our Government should unwisely decide to retain the Philippine Islands, it will encounter a serious problem there. Lepers are scattered throughout that archipelago. They exist everywhere, and in many places they asso- ciate with the rest of the people as freely as the unatllicted. They beg at the doors of the churches, and it is probable that they are engaged in the various occupations of industry, even to the hand- ing of food and vegetables that are consumed by the rest of the population. It is said that there are 30.000 lepers in 4he Visayan Islands, and the number in the whole country must be upwards of 50.000. Leprosy exists to an alarming extent in several of the provinces of Luzon, and one of the physicians of the Health De- partment recently stated that he saw several hundred cases in the Island of Negros. The Spaniards paid but little attention to the prevention of the disease. They had only two hospitals — one in Cebu and one in Manila. In Cebu the disease is known to he spreading, and in Manila there are undoubtedly many lepers at

A BUSY SCHNE IN THE HARBOR AT HONOLULU.

Th* n S traiiRoort "Manauense " Mug at (he docks ia the forcuround of the piclure. arrival at Mamin in very had condllion. and was saved from alnkini before The D. S. transport, Manauense. Manila only by the heroic eHorls ol the soldiers who were on board at the ti.oe,

it inspired. The Jews regarded it as a disease sent from God in punishment for sin., for which no natural remedy could be pre- scribed. They accordingly required that the person supposed to be infected should show himself to the priest, and if in the opinion of the latter the disease was leprosy, the unfortunate was declared unclean and instantly separated from the rest of the people. Out- side the gates of cities and in secluded districts leper villages were established, and these institutions still exist in the East, where the outcasts drag out their wretched lives, depending upon their own labor and the alms of the charitable for the means of subsistence. Hospitals for their relief or protection seem to have been unknown among the nations of antiquity, although the disease m its various forms extended back in those countries beyond the earliest records

of history. .. , , ■ r

The methods already adopted in Hawaii for the suppression of leprosy will doubtless eradicate the scourge from those islands

large. Mr. Frank Carpenter, the distinguished correspondent, recently visited the hospital at the latter city, and graphically describes his experiences in the following language:

"I took a carriage and drove out into the country to the leper hospital. It is about three miles from the center of Manila and not far from the outskirts of the city. You pass by a market where hundreds of men, women and children are crowding and pushing one another in buying and selling, thinking as you look how easily one leper could contaminate the whole. You go by thousands of thatched huts of the laboring classes, each hut swarming with people, and at last come to a big, white building which looks not unlike a penitentiary. It is surrounded by large grounds and shut off from the road by a thick wall of stone. It has a barred gate, and as you look up you instinctively remember the inscription over Dante's Inferno—

" 'All hope abandon, ye who enter here,*

442

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

A CHINESE TRUCK FARM NEAR HONOi:.m,U.

The owiitr of llii- (ariii, who appears in llic forr Kmuiul, wbs plioloifrapheil very much aRainst his will, and Rreatly lo hiR (lifcomfitiirt. Thc^ir peuplc hnvc a siipcrslitioii lhat if llit y arc pholouraitht-d n certain part of tlietr soul is taken from llicin (in<I that their lives will lie shorleneil thcreliy The same superstitiou is eutertained by the uneducated Japanese and native HBwaiinn*, aiid on this account our photographer experienced a Breat deal of trouble lo securing satislactory views ol these people.

and wonder why it is not inscribed upon it. Entering the gate is like going into a prison. You are in a long passage between high walls of stone, and far down at tlie end of this you see the barred doors of the hospital itself.

"Come with me, and let us take a trip through it. There is a native at the entrance who looks ugly enough to be a patient him- self. We ask for the lepers. He points across the court and tells us to enter. We do so, and within a few seconds are in the presence of two score horrid-looking objects, who have run to the doors to meet us. Some are young, some olil — all are lepers. Here is a bov. brown-faced, bright-eyed, and as quick in his actions and joy- ful in his laugh as your own boy at home. But look! His hands and his breast are covered with white spots, and one of his ears has already begun to decay. Next to him is a man whose nose has been eaten away and whose eyes are bleared with the disease. Others have foreheads which are falling in, *oes almost gone, and

their bodies covered with sores. It is so horrible, in- deed, that words can hardly express it.

"Accompanied by the resident physician, we go to- gether through the building with the ghoulish crowd at our heels. We pass up-stairs through one long hall after another, each filled with "beds, upon some of which lepers are lying. The halls are clean and well lighted. The walls are whitewashed, and the building is cool and well kept. The floor is of hardwood, polished so that our faces and those of these living dead men are reflected in it as we walk through.

"Leaving the men's ward, we next go to one occupied by the women. There are eighty-one men and fifty-five women and girls now in the hospital. The females are of all ages, from little tots of four up to gray-haired, hor- rible-looking hags of sixty. Most of them are idle, sitting about talking, smoking and chewing the betel. One woman has her mouth so eaten away that neither teeth nor lips are left to hold her cigarette. The whole assemblage has a ghoulish and frightful aspect, like that of beings belonging to some accursed region of- anguish in the nether world.

*'I can imagine nothing more horrible than the condition of the lepers here. They have no amusements and no work. They are just waiting to die, and watching themselves, knowing that they must die inch by inch.

"I saw no Chinese lepers in the Manila hospital, but there is a large population of these people here, and without doubt some of them are lepers. The disease was known in China several hundred years before the days of Confucius, and it is said that one of the disciples of that sage died of this dreadful scourge."

NATIVE CIRW BATHING IN THE SURF NEAR KAPOLANI PARK.

ThU to one of Uie sereral popular reftotts near Honolulu. Many of the native irirls and wotnen are expert swimmers, and their frequent baUiing has instilled

inio tbem the commendable virtue )( perfect cle&aliacM-

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

443

So prevalent is leprosy in the Philippines, and so little dis- cretion do the natives exercise with regard to it. that the famous Dr. Setin advises that all soldiers returning from there be ris;idly examined, and whenever one is found to be infected with the dis- ease, that he be secUided for the remainder of his life. It seems excessively cruel to even suggest such a course with reference to the brave men who have risked life and health in those inhospitable regions, but, with the facts of history before us. would we be justi- fied in risking the infection of the whole continent? Perhaps the wiser and more humane course would be to bring the army back home and thus remove the soldiers from the danger of infection. These islands, including Japan and portions of the adjacent conti- nent, seem to breed lepers. There are said to be more than a million in India. China and Japan, and in this estimate half a million are assigned to Hindoostan. No accurate statistics have been taken for China, for lepers are to be found in all the cities in

be well for those who visit these islands to exercise caution in their associations with the natives and the Asiatic portion of the po])ulation. Many beautiful women in this archipelago are lepers — happy, light-hearted and vivacious; and knowing the fate that awaits them in case of discovery, they are the last who would reveal the poison that lurks in their system. A clasp of the hand a mere touch of the garments, or a kiss — and kissing is a national custom with these people — may transmit the poison. The very thought of such a state of affairs is horrible.

Before leaving this subject we desire to pay a merited tribute to the memory of Father Damien, who, freely and from choice, sacrificed his life for the benefit of the lepers on Molokai Island. He was a moral hero such as the world rarely sees. He went among these wretched people and ministered to their wants with the certain knowledge that it meant exile and death (or hiui — and death by the most horrible and disgusting of all the processes of

\ » t

JAPANESE CONTKACT LABORERS AT HONOLOLD. .h..

the southern part ot that empire. They mix about with the rest of the people, and you see leper beggars everywhere On many of the rivers they go about in boats asking for alms, thrustmg out bags attached to long poles at every boat and ship which goes by. They blackmail the funeral processions and levy tnbute on the mourners, threatening to touch them if they do not give alms^ There is a leper asylum in Canton which has 500 inmates. Both sexes live together in this institution, and many of them marry

and have children. . , , i-

Condttions are bad enough in Hawaii, but the disease treated scientifically there, and it is practically under -"^roh the Philippines were shut off from Japan and the continen of Asia, so as to prevent any further infection from those fruitful sources would require two or three generations to brmg them j.P « ^ Standard already established in Hawaii. There is but httle dang r hat we will import the disease from the latter group, but it would

disintegration. It was his custom to return occasionally to Honolulu on business, but he never remained longer than during the dav; and in moving about the city he walked in the nnddle of the street, continually crying out, - Unclean! Unclean!" m order that no one might approach near enough to receive the infection. He lived like a hero and died like a martyr, rejoicing that the privilege had come to him to sacrifice his life for the consolation of his fellow creatures. Such examples give us a higher estimate of humanity, and a nobler conception of the duties of life-for what greater thing can a man do than give his life for another.

There is naturally a large degree of repugnance attaching to such a place as the leper settlement on Molokai. and few men are capa- ble of appreciating the full extent and meaning of I'ather Damien s sacrifice Nothing but an absorbing and overpowering love ot humanity could ever have induced him to make it. As a rule it requires the strong arm of the law to compel even those who are

444

afflicted with the dread disease to take up their residence in the settlement; and several instances have occurred in which patients have taken their own lives rather than remain there. In nearly every case the sulTerer conceals his condition as long as possible, and at the last frequently resorts to open defiance of the law. The following account of a very remarkable instance of this kind was published but recently :

Some twelve years before the period of annex- ation there lived on a little farm near Hilo.on the island of Hawaii, a native named Kipula and his family. He was industrious and intelligent, and providence seemed to smile on his efforts. His taro patch grew season by season, and with his

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

appearing on the hands of his baby child. The spots grew, and the pretty, healthy little one became ugly and misshapen. The body was covered with festering sores, and mother and father were obliged to keep their darling hidden, lest it be torn from their arms and sent to Molokai. An elder child began to be stricken, and finally excuses had to be made for the absence of the two children.

The natives became suspicious, and asked all " sorts of questions about the

children, but the unfortu- nate parents succeeded in appeasing their curiosity. One day Kipula, while fish- ing in his canoe, felt a strange numbness about his knee and shortly after his limbs began to swell. Then the wife was stricken with the same dire ailment, and now the neighbors would no longer be silenced. The authorities were notified, and the examination set on foot proved the family to be ill of leprosy. Kipula was advised to be ready for transport to Molokai the next morning. When the officers came for him they found his little hut empty and his garden patch for-

SCENK NEAR WAIALUA.

This place is on the north coast of the islaod ol Oahu. and. being adjacent to a rich and well-watered valley, it is srrowloB rapidly

and advancing io commercial importance.

canoe he caught all the fish he needed for his household. One day saken. Kipula and his Kipula, with alarm and horror, noticed the dreat^ white spots ■.v'ife and children had fled.

THE CUFF OVBTt WHICH KAMEHAMEHA CAST HIS ENEMIES.

I at the top of tbU precipice that Rinn Kamehameha the vireat (oueht fats last and mont important battle with the natiTea of Oahu Island. and after defeatlac them burled the chiefs down the face ol this cllfi, a distance of several hundred feet.

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

445

Investigation showed that the outcasts had gone to Mauna Kea, a grim mountain peak. The following day half a dozen of the peace officers went in pursuit, and by footprints in the tropical undergrowth and the soft earth they tracked the leper family to a deep circular basin similar to a small crater. They came upon Kipula on the ledge of a rock, rifle in hand, and motioning his pursuers to return.

The ofhcers took his warnings for idle threats and advanced. There was a shot and the foremost man fell and rolled over the precipice into the valley below. The outlaw placed another cartridge in his rifle and again warned the officers to go back. They knew that he had them at his mercy and returned.

A posse, which outnumbered the first by a dozen men, went to the lair of Kipula. They found that he had built a barricade meanwhile, and held an almost impregnable position. Another shot from the leper's rifle, which flattened itself against the wall of the

was no warning cry, and, pursuing the trail so often trod by the lepers, they reached the hut. Si.x graves outside told the story plainer than words could have told it. One large in size and still fresh evidently held the remains of Kipula's wife. They entered the hut, and there found the old leper witii a bullet hole in his head and the rifle clutched in his diseased and distorted hand.

After all his family had left him he had taken matters in his own hands and ended his troubles and sutYerings.

Another story, similar to the preceding as an illustration of the depth of human love, and the sacrifices that it willingly makes for the object of its devotion, comes from Cuba. In this instance a beautiful and accomplished Spanish woman is the heroine — for her sacrifice is not yet ended.

Fifteen years ago Dr. John M. Dc Soto was prominent in the fashionable set of young physicians in the city of New York. Handsome, talented, highly educated and well oil in

the affairs of this world, his future seemed unusually bright and promising. His father, a prominent physician of Wiscon- sin, and author of several standard works on medicine, was de- scended from a noble Spanish family, and before the son settled- down to regular practice the two decided to visit the home of their ancestors. The young man had no thought of seeking a .rule in that distant coutury, ut while traveling through Gra- nada he accidently met Senorita (\)usuelo Arleaga, a i)atrician ot

A PICTURESQUE INLET ON THE NORTH COAST. This trafQuil scene lies cear the bolel at Wdalua. aad is one ot .he ma.y popalar re.sorU within reach o. the citi«us ol Honolulu.

cliff made the pursuers throw up their arms and promise not to disturb him and his family, provided they continued to live where they were.

However, this was only a ruse; the officers decided to flank him and attacl< him in the rear. They came upon his place o

the Andalusian race of women, so celebrated for their beauty, and the incident changed the whole course of his life. In all Granada there was no maiden more courted than the lovely Consuclo, and none could boast purer lineage or greater accomplishments. One flash from her dark eyes as she drove past him, attended by her

him and attack him in the rear. 1 hey came upon n,s pM.c u disarranged al the plans he had made for the future and

abode, where.his wife and irhlm tr:::imu,g of a hLme where this beautiful Spanish gir.

Kipula was out of range o the.r '^ey had to g p _^

hopeless task. The expedmon --^bandon d^ nd fo s,x year s ^^^^ ^^^^^^

Kipula remained true to his prom.se A guard was Pj^^^^^' ^ something in it of startled inquiry, as if in response to the

foot of the mountain path to prevent htm from ~Sjo..'. M =^ ""^f^ ^j,, 'ue Soto was sympathetic and

the end of six years, under a new chief of pohce, another a temp t^muU o U.s own o , ^^^^^ ^^^^

was made to capture the leper. This time there was a -Pet'tton of ndulgent^ S , e 1 s g ^.^ ^^^^^^.^^^^

former proceedings. A rifle shot "^V'^^ 'T'^^^f ^ 7,tf^;y mad t easy to procure an introduction to the Arteaga family,

that old Kipula was still on hand to defend h,s hut and h.s fam.ly ^^'^'^ Ltor and the Sei^ori.a Const.elo pursued the.r court-

trom intruders, and a second shot killed one of the men. y e . ^^^^ by th« social customs of Spam,

sr.o-= ^^^.x'tU: s:ir. .„ ....... ~ ....

446

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

They were married and set sail for

America.

Dr. De Soto and his bride es- tablished a home in New York, and

quicl<ly won a place in society.

The husband worked hard at his

profession and was rewarded with

a constantly augmenting practice.

Fortune favored the young couple

in every way. Their means and

distinction won them a footing in

fashionable circles, and the story of

their marriage endowed them with a fascinating glamour of romance. At the same time De Soto was aided in gaining an enviable status in the medical world by his father's renown, as well as by his own talents.

It was strange that a political issue should arise to destroy the happiness of a pair so happily mated. De Soto the elder, not- withstanding his Spanish origin, sympathized with Cuba in her fight for liberty, and he had contributed large sums to the revolutionists during the ten years' war. The son shared his father's sentiments

in this respect, and expressed them with all the ardor of his youth. But his wife, true to the traditions of her country and family, looked upon the Cubans as a race of brigands, unworthy a moment's sympathy. And thus arose a discord between these loving hearts which was destined soon to estrange and separate

them. Among -the Cuban patriots to

acquire an influence over Dr. De Soto

was Jose Perez, a former aide of Gen. Salvador Cisneros, the cele- brated revolutionist of Cuba, and named president during the ten years' war and in the early part of the war which ended in American intervention.

Perez came to New York in 1884 to organize a filibustering expe- dition. He assured

A CHINESE DUCK FARM.

This is a very pro6laI)le industry, ducks beiug worth about 51 ,50 each, and many Chinamen are becoming

independent at the business.

De Soto that another important uprising would take place in Cuba before the end of the year. The young doctor, fired by the spirit of chivalry and adventure, gave a check for munitions of war and promised to join the expedition. But when he mentioned his pur- pose to his wife, she was greatly incensed. It wounded her to the heart to think that the man she loved should delight to take up arms against the land of her birth. She thought it a proof that he no longer loved her.

"You cannot hate Spain and love me," she cried. Bitterly grieved because he would not yield to her entreaties, she threatened to return to her own country, but even this did not turn him aside from his purpose. A month later he embarked with the Perez expedition, which was equipped with 3,000 rifles and an abundance of ammunition. The forsaken wife became a prey to melancholy. She alone knew what lad become of her

THE PALI

OUR ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

husband, but she would not tell the world. Perhaps she was too mortified to confess that he had gone to fight against her country. All that society knew was that she had been deserted by her hus- band, and that was humiliation enough.

Meanwhile the Perez expedition made a successful landing in Nuevitas Bay and transferred the munitions to Gen.Cisneros" home, thirty miles inland. De Soto became a captain of insurgents and set to work drilling his men for the insurrection. One day he dis- covered that a Chinaman who had been his body servant for many

months was affected

447

with leprosy. He sent him away and soon forgot the inci- dent. The plan for a general insurrec- tion miscarried, and

ALONG THE DRIVE TO "DIAMOND HEAD." NEAR HONOLILL:. It is claimed that the cocoanul Irers which line this road arc more than lour centuries old, a statement which, if tru«, gives to these particular trees a peculiar degree o( interest, as being amaos the most ancient specimens r' .heir specieo.

in June, 1885, Perez and other conspirators were captured and put to death in the place of execution at Nuevitas. De Soto escaped and shipped on board a schooner for Savannah, Ga., intent on regaining his wife. At a point off Nuevitas, a mast was carried away, and the vessel put into the bay for repairs. One of the sailors, who had lived in Honolulu, stepped up to De Soto and closely inspected his hands and ears, without touching them. Then he spoke to his shipmates, and immediately avoided the pas- senger Ztid looked at him with aversion. A deputation waited on the captain ::nd loudly demanded that De Soto be left ashore.

*'What is the matter with me?" inquired the doctor, who cverheard the colloquy.

*' You are a leper," said the sailor who had first scrutinized him. The unhappy man was rowed ashore and handed over to the alcade as a Cuban leper. The alcade ordered him to flee into the solitudes and not to approach a human dwelling on pain of death.

For a long time he wandered in the forest, fleeing from every sign of life, living on wild fruits, tortured bodily by his disease and mentally by the thought that it was no longer in his power to make reparation to his wife. Thus he found his way to Puerto Principe, whore he was placed in the lazar house, a companion of lepers and the insane.

* From this place De Soto wrote a letter to an old friend, C. E. Hamilton of Madison, Wis., telling him what had happened, and asking him to settle up the property so that his wife might live in comfort, but cautioning him not to reveal to her tlie tcrrilile secret. Hamilton went to New York on this mission, and when Mrs. De Soto entreated him to tell lier the truth about her hus- band, he showed her the letter.

Instantly her mind was made up. Without a mo- ment's hesitation or a thought as to the conse(|ueuccs, she determined to go to her hus- band, and within three months from that time she was at his side. There she has remained, uulilTcrcnt to the danger of contagion, to the s()ualor of the place — to everytliiiig save her conception of the duty of ministering to her husband in his aOliction. She brought with her their joint fortune, and this she invested in some house property in the town, lint the Spanish commander of the province destroyed the iiouses and confiscated the and, so that they were left penniless.

In 1896 the municipality made a pretext of the insur- rection for cutting olT the azar house supplies. It was then that Mrs. De Soto went to work in the hospital to earn a pittance for her charge. And all the time she nursed him unremittingly and kept his cell in a sanitary condition. When not at his side, minis- tering to his wants, she per- formed menial offices in the hospital to secure the means necessary to supply him with fotnl and delicacies. I'rom her heart she banislied all re- sentment because of the day when he left her to grieve in oncliness and humiliation while he secretly joined a lili- )ustering expedition to Cuba. During all these years she has not sought the aid of her former friends. She has been content that the world should forget her and him. And the world forgets quickly. But since the romantic incident that led to the di.scovery of their plight efforts have been made in New York, and Wisconsin to find and awaken the sympathetic interest of those who knew the young people in their days of prosperity. Rut those who have the move- ment in hand ho[)e to accomplish little beyond ministering to the comfort of the doomed man and mitigating the hardships of his wife. They know that any attempt to remove him from Puerto Principe would be unwise, and tliat no inducement could call his wife from his side. But they purpose to establish a fund sufficient to sustain them both in comfort, and to provide the best scientific attention for the patient.