Thibodaux minerva. [volume] (Thibodaux, La.) 18??-1858, 1854-02-11
THIBODAUX LOUISIANA SATURDAY. FEBRUARY l. 1851
st. Domingo-A Visit to the Island.
BY CORA MONTGOMERY.

~OSAAAAA6S SseA~ess'
BY CORA MONTGOMERY.
Have you place in your columns or an inter-
est in your heart for that rich and romantic
island which, with all its wondrous dowry of
tropical beauty, is an orphan and a stranger in
the midst of our American seas? Santo Domingo
is scarcely ten days sale from the port of New
York, and all her magnificent shores TEEN with
historic legends; yet it is an unknown land in
| the United States. There Columbus first plant
ed on church and fortress the cross of Christ
and the flag of CASTLE at the discovery of the
| New World, and there he mourned in chains his
| gift of new empires to the ever cruel and un-
grateful Spain. There tradition still points out
| the scenes where the confding, but not cowardly,
princes of the soil made their last fruitless and
fatal struggles for freedom and existence.
There on the green slopes Of Labrona even
now overlooked by erumbling chapel once de-
dicated to our lady of mercy, amid stately palms
and broad-leaved foliage Of the tropics we may
trace the path Of three strange massaeres-
brutal and furious massacres of race. In sue
cessiye waves of retribution the Spaniards who
had inveigled the princess Of those hills to a
banquet, and there shot down her collected fol-
lowers and family in cold blood, were themselves
slaughtered by the desperate natives they were
collecting to work the gold mines. Again,
century later, those green recesses were stained
with the blood of women and children by negroes
of the west, frantic with successful insurrection
and 50 thirsty for the blood of the whites that
they drank it-literally drank it-in their un-
chained delirium. The venerable priest who
plead for the lives Of these innocent and helpless
victims, fell with his uplifted cross in the midst
of the bloody pile, and from that day the voice
Of prayer and the incense of sacrifice has ceased
in that ancient chapel
Still later, when Santana, the Liberator,"
unfurled the flag of Dominican independence,
party of negroes, led by one Of Soulouque's black
captains, attacked the neighboring village, with
the war-cry of "death to the whites" This
omnous cry, which has so often carried terror
and destruction to the whites of eastern Hayti,
sent the frightened inhabitants to the mountain
dells for refuge, but as they fed they were met
near the ruined church by little band of horse
men, coming to their rescue. The young leader
unfurled the white cross of Dominica under the
light Of their blazing homes, and rallied them
to battle in their own defence. 1t was deadly,
desperate strife They were not many, but they
fought hand to hand with all the cherished Bit
terness Of hostile races until the morning-the
glorious, gorgeous morning Of the tropics
dawned on the field, and revealed the victory of
the whites. Seventeen white men lay dead or
wounded, utamong them more than thrice their
number of blacks, and they we're dressed for
burial, and the last rights were paid them close
beside the ancient church of the palm grove,
where the last princess Of the red men had been
treacherously slain by the Spaniards; where the
children of the Spaniards had been savagely
murdered by the Africans There the children
of the Africans had also paid the blood-penalty
of their own and their fathers deeds. This last
act of this retributive drama of races is a late
occurrence. Happily it has been followed by
q truce which is now consolidating into liberal
and permanent peace Of the races in that district.
This is but one episode Of the wild poetry of
the island history. The gold districts Of Ciboa
and Cotuy abound in tales Of romance. Each
abandoned stronghold on its lofty hills, each
ruined hall falling into decay amid its deep for
ests each silent city Of her once fertile but now
desolate regas, has its own story Of pride, pros
perity and overthrow. #,5gg5.a IL s
From the city Of Columbus to the palace of
Faustin, through her mahogany forests and tan
gled dells, by her lonely bride paths and over
her rough piled Gre mountains, hope to visit,
with ample time and scope, all that ST. Domingo
presents Of the highest historic interest of the
most striking natural beauty, and of the great
est promise to civilization and the advancement
of her own sons in the path of American pro-
gress. The Dominicans make generous invita-
tions to the people Of the "grand eldest daughter
of American iberty-the sons of the North
American Union, to come and share on free and
equal terms the gifts which nature has be-
both republics that the press Of the United
those gifts.-N. +. Tribune.