The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1862-06-14

Z
sand year, and having worked for almost
nothing, are in the end cheated out Of even
that, are fairly embowered in flowers, and
perfumed with what is sweeter than incense.
I cannot give the names of the different
flowers, wild and cultivated, which aiorn
the island, nor would the character of them
be understood from the name IL it was given,
since great part are indigenous to this is
land or others in this intertropical latitude.
/ will merely state, in illustration, that no
less than one hundred and fifty varieties of
the rose are cultivated in this little island.
I had visited the botanical garden at Cape
Town on the Cape Of Good Hope, and seen
much to admire, though it covers only half
q dozen acres, but which are covered with a
forest Of all the rare trees ofSouthern Africa,
with its plants and flow wers. From what
was told by gentlemen of Port Louis, 1 could
not doubt ola higher qualification from a
visit to the Botanical Garden of Mauritius,
far more ample in its dimensions, and in
which q great part of the vegetable and for
al wonders of the tropics had been collected,
while the government had made more liberal
outlays in preserving and adorning ii, and
the Superintendent, whose life had been de-
voted to it, was celebrated for his good taste
as well as for his care and fidelity. It was,
therefore, with pleasure that I received a
polite invitation from gentle man to &C
company him In his own carrisge in a drive
to the garden, which is eight miles distant
from Port Louis, and in the neighborhood of
the reputed graves of Paul and Virginia.
So bright and early we were on our way,
resolved to make the most of the day. The
road lay through charming part of the
island, being in high state of cultivation
and crowded like beehive with the differ
ent colored races who make the laborere =
The island is just within the tropics. and
therefore luxuriates and blossoms in an ever
lasting summer. Here fields wave with the
tallest and rankest corn, a young forest at
least 15 or l8 feet high. Some fields are
ripe for harvest. the long. pendant ears glis-
tening in the sun others are densely crow.
ded with juicy green stalks in the stages of
adolescent life while in other directions are
young crops, shooting up from the naked
soil. Thus crop succeeds to crop in uninter-
rupted succession, the one almost taking
hold of the other, and pushing it along to
find room for ITSELF There are some i'm
mense fields of sugar cane, some estates or
plantations embracing from three thousand
to four thousand acres. Thus q dense for
est is annually created and annually des-
troyed, into which the eye cannot penetrate
-one great jungle for wild beasts, did any
live upon the island. Here and there heavy,
dark piles Of buildings are seen rising in the
centres of the plantations, with their Chin
neys shooting up above the rank vegetation
aud even the trees. These are the sugar
mills Of the estates, and are generally pre-
PEELED by steam. Back from the road at a
small distance. and always embowercd among
the trees and towering shrubs, may be seen,
in the luxuriance of the foliage, the fine
houses of the Planters, which are approached
through high gateways and over smooth and
wide carriage ways, and fine path ways lined
with shrubbery and flowers. Palms, pal.
mettoes, bananas, aloes, some of them thirty
feet high, the cocoa, the shaddok, and other
luxuriant trees, with tall, straight. and grace
ful shafts, border each side of the road
wherever you CO. Amidst this array Of
natural beauty, which no art nor expenditure
in our country can equal, are seen and en-
countered crowds of the degraded colored
races on the roads in continual stream, GO
ing and returning ip all directions, barehead-
ed, barefooted, barelegged, and often utterly
bare, except the small domain covered by q
rag about the loins. Mingling sights ofnat-
ural beauty and human misery and degre-
dation s.,F-
At length we approached village called
Pamplemousses. from . fruit-bearing tree
growing in the vicinity in great abundance.
and which is also known by the name of
Skaddok. Here is . wilderness of the most
luxuriant vegetation, which the eye cannot
pierce, and above whi:h it can hardly RISE
Three or four roads centre here in ar open
area, in the middle Of which rises large
stone Catholic church. A short distance
from the churchis the Botanical Garden.-