The Portland daily press., 1862-10-24
From the Independent.
The Danish West Indies.
BY MRS. FRANCES d. GAGE.

Those who have kept up with the tide of
| passing events during the last six months will
| perhaps remember that some time in the spring
1t was stated in the public journals that the
Government of Denmark had addressed the
| Cabinet at Washington officially, making them
the offer OF an asylum on their West India Isles
| Tor certain contrabands escaping from the Sc
cession tyrants of the South; that they would
| require them TO give three years apprentice
| ship under their provisional Government"
and after that they should enjoy uncondtion-
al liberty. Ii the United States would consent
TO this, then the Danish Government would
transport them at his own expense from the
Southern coast to the Danish Isle.
After few days, a paragraph followed in
the same round, lin the public prints,) assert
ing that the Government at Washington had
accepted the proposal.
But how many of the millions of readers of
thousands of dailies, weeklies, and monthlies
that bestrew this country like autumn leaves.
ever paused for one moment to inquire, "What
does that mean?" How many ever knew where
the Danish Isles were, or how many i'm num-
Der, or to what kind OF climate or country they
were consenting to expatrate native-born
American citizens?
l would like to provoke inquiry upon this
subject and will endeayor, by a short sketch
of the islands, their status twenty years since,
and their condition now, to do so.
The islands of the Caribbean Sea belonging
to Denmark, are ST. Johns, st. Thomas, and
St. Croix. ST. Johns is a very small island.
lying few miles distant from the others, and
was once land would be now, if cultivated
famous for producing the best coffee in the
Western world. St. Thomas has a remarka-
Bile harbor. The island is not ten miles long,
and less than eight in breadth. But on its
Southern coast is bay almost surrounded
with hills, or mountains,a as they are there call
cd which has THAR i,,af in tI,a
and lift their heads into the clouds fifteen hun
dred feet above. The city of st. Thomas is
bullded upon three spurs of these mountains
which form an amphtheater around the bar
Dor, the entrance to which from the ocean is
not over sixty yards wide. Ships of all nations
lie at anchor in this beautiful bay, and an i'm
mense trade IN merchandise is carried on from
the town-the ships bringing all needed fab
rics for the long chain OF islands to this port.
and from thence they are taken in smaller
boats or packets, from st. Thomas even to
Curacao.
Forty miles due south from this port. four
hours sail with pleasant breeze, and forty
miles east of Porto Rico, lies the lar-tamed isle
OF St Croix, or, as we knew it long ago, Santa
Cruz (who has not heard of Santa Cruz rum p
This island is twenty-four miles long, and from
three to nine in breadth, far less in territory
than the smallest county in New York; and
yet ii has history of intense and thrilling in
tereat, reaching back to the days of the grand
old discoverer of worlds, who according to
Washington Irving, found even its women
more than match for his gallant cavaliers.
But do not propose to write its history. nor
to tell what rich bone of contention this
gem of the sea-" as it is now christened. was
among the quarreling nations of Europe dur
ing the XVIII, XVIth, and XVIIth, centu-
ries.
Nor have | time to say aught of the weird
stories which tradition has handed down. of
the fearful deeds of daring of old Blackboard
and Bluebeard, the two terrors of the days of
the buccaneers of the XVIII century, whose
great stone castles are still pointed out as
crowning the mountain peaks of St Thomas
One fact of these islands is potent to all
readers and thinkers, that almost from their
discovery by people who called themselves
civilized, Christianized, they have been given
over to African slavery. Twenty years ago,
so say the people now, the island of St. Croix
had a population of from 10000 TO 10000
slaves, and 5000 free white people. The land
was divided into 226 estates, the largest COM
| prising 800 acres, the smallest but 6. All of
these estates, except very few on the sleeps
4 OF the mountains, were cultivated in cane for
| making sugar and rum.
The immense preponderance of the servile
| population rendered the utmost rigor in the
management of slaves necessary; and to this
day the people give the most horrible accounts
of crueltes practced upon the poor blacks
Byand-by, when we shall copy the laws of
these isles, dear reader, you will Judge for
! yourself whether these tales are likely 20 be
1 true or false.
There are good hearts everywhere, and even
| here, in this almost den of demons. were found
men that feared God, and loved mercy.
| cannot pause now to tell OF the long suffering
/ patient endurance, and unfaltering faith of the
min yhn far
strove to win their way among the planters
/ and their people, and to teach them the Protes-
tant faith. 1t is Il touching sight to look up
! on their graves, some thirty in number, lying
| ing green shady glen of the mountain near
the city of St Thomas, each with a low mar
bic block at the head, and the name of the
sleeper chiseled thereon, while the great palms
wave their never-fading green above, and the
sea breeze sings their requiem amid the droop-
ing branches.
AT last their labors of love were crowned
with success. The court of Denmark was
moved. Christiana, the wife of Christian, the
King of Denmark grew to have serious doubts
as to the divine origin of an institution that
cut off mems limbs, gave 80 lashes on the bare
back, pinched them with red hot irons and
| hung, or put them to torturing deaths, for low
ing liberty better than slavery. The Quakers
of England, too, moved their Queen on the
| subject, and so it fell out that Denmark in
| 1S4I, issued a decree that all the slaves born
after that date upon the island, belonging to
| her crown, should be FREE, and that all per-
sons held as slaves at that time should have
freedom in twelve years.
President Lincoln's proclamation, to take
effect on the 1st of January, 1863, will not
more exasperate the shareholders of Soa.h
Carolina, or old Kentucky, than did this edict
of King Christian, of Denmark, the besotted
! Shareholders of the Danish Isles.
They swore resistance. But what could six
thousand men, women, and children do against
Denmark. They finally agreed to keep quiet
They would not even tell the slaves of their
good time coming. lest they should grow dis
contented, and desire to throw off their chains
before their time - the strange, ungratefnl
wretches, who were taken care of all the year
round, and no compensation asked of but to
work eighteen hours day. seven days in the
week. under the lash. True, there might
have been found those who had an easier time
of II than free factory girls at the North, who
fourished in silk and broadcloath, wore gold
chains, and grew fat and lazy on one peck OF
corn, and two pounds of herring week But
if the representation of the people is to be be-
lieved, of the young men and old men, of min
listers and maidens, of the present day. their
fate was so terrible that the average life of a
slave man or woman, after being put into the
cane-feld, was not over eight years.