The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1866-02-17
VOYAGE TO BRAZIL.
"a Beautiful andDesoriptivo Letter.
4 Run ThrougHths Tgest indies and aDOt6n
the Coast Of the Empire. Taa


The following interesting document is
taken from the New York News of the 7th,
and, was furnished that paper BY its special
correspondent W, II Parsons, and dated
RIO DE JASEIRo, JAN I 1856. 2
The establishment of q splendid steam
snip line form New ! ork to Rio Janerio is
an epoch in the commercial history Of the
two. representative snations Gf the Western
Hemisphere. AS New York is the great
monetary, political and social metropolis Of
North America, so Rio is the metropolis OF
the Southern Continent The link which
now connects the twowill be the instrument
atty that will break down the monopoly
which has enabled European capital and en-
teTprise to control the stFade.and destinies Of
this great division of the globe, and which
viii place the people, merchants and emf
grants in prompt mail communication, IN all
their varied business and social relations.
between the two countries.
We deemed it a privilege to be among the
frst to embark as a voyager in this pioneer
line, on the staunch steamer South America,
the veteran Captain Tinklepaugh command
ing ''. %
On the 30t1 November, punctual to the
hour Of departure (although day behind
schedule time, this splendid vessel moved
down the nOblest harbor, of the Northern
Continent for the open sea and punctual
to the hour and day of schedule time, g
clock P. NJ, on December 81 1861 we
were steauing into the Bay Of Rio de Jan
eric, having touched at four cities and traV-
ersed 1920 miles of The Atlantic Ocean!
Without a storm, with a clear sky and favor
ing winds, the voyage, was to all a grand
pleasure excursion, giving US opportunities
for sight seeing at the different ports touch
ed, and relief from the usual mOnOtonv of a
sea voyage, not less gratifying than the sense
of security enjoyed by tie consciousness
that our commander was proYerbially the
best navigator on the seas, reaching his
points with a certainty precision and pune
talIity, not only creditabte to the Steamship
Company, but peculiarly so to the noble sea
man who brought Us so securely to our des-
tination
We reached st. Thomas in seven days.
The sight Of land to the Yoyager is always
peculiarly gratifying not less so to Us, in
this instance, as. 1t was our first glimpse of
the tropical world to which we were hasten
ing St Thomas, a Danish island of the
West India groap, although insignificant IN
is the great commercial center
If r. islands Of this Archipelago, some
v,aive steo ,-"ship lines touching at this point,
!, it.,s3.;t,5 -Eaen Europe, the United
- y ~ '',aSt5I 5 aa DeSm an, South America The
attraction is Iess tne locaI Vqlue
If its market than the fact thu II = &c com iI
Daratiyely q free port, without an VI ~ tio
fexatious restrictions usually atteh1mg 'He
Spanish ports of these Islands, and pass en-
gers and freight, ship and reship at this con-.
Meeting link of the great lines that radiate
rs it were to the coasts of three continents.
The island eleven miles in length, shoots
up from the sea base into mountain peaks,
as do all of this chain of islands, demons
trating the theory that they are but the ele
Fated SUBMITS of a vast chain whose base
IS in the bed of the ocean, and whose Hottest
nights emerge above the water level, and are
1athed in the clouds of Heaven This the
Dry is further demonstrated by the remark
lble fact that nearly the whole of the Nest
India group runs in a connected line in close
and most all in sight of each
other, from the South American coast at the I
mouth of the Orinoco northward, constitut-
ng the eastern bounds of the Caribbean 4
Sea, until the chain Of islands turns abrupt
y westward, till a consecutive chain, form
ng the northern limit to the same great sea, 4
and terminating almost within sight Of the
Florida coast
These islands are clothed in. perennial /
rerdure and are the gardens Of the Northern
tropics but with all their luxuriance, un-
Ter the cultivation Of the centuries since
heir discovery, they are rapidly relapsing
INTO their original and primeval wildness OF
There before US lay the island /
lf St Thomas, illustrative Of the sad de-
cline of all save Cuba. Her hills once
covered with prosperous plantations, yield
ing the rich productions that have contrib I
lted to the comfort and luxury Of man. now
Overgrown with forest and not one mark, /
he 4EoE
even habitable The astonished tourist who
has read Of the luxuriance of these islands
and is familiar with their statistical produce
-ions IN the past, contributing so largely to
the commerce of the world, upon inquiry
viii be informed, as we are, that here the
Danish Government, following the suicidal
policy of the designing Briton, in lS49 sent
out a decree Of emancipation that was de-
signed to be gradual as to adults in ten years
md absolute with all born after that date.
The negroes, who were by thousands
scattered over the plantations of the island,
upon learning the fact, rushed to the sea-
port, surrounded the Governor, who fed for
to the fort, and demanded instan-
taneous emancipation, claiming that he was
their rights. Terror stricken
at their threatening attitude, without confer
ring with his Government he issued the
decree, and the results them as visible to
my eyes, were the same as IN each of the
West India Islands where this policy has
prevailed, the farms are abandoned, and
Overgrown with forests, cities and towns
with the idle vagabond negroes the
women living, by prostitution, and the men,
Gas described by the Londen Times IN des-
canting on this theme six years ago. . re-
fusing to work, content with their yam and
banana, and staggering at bUekra. As ev-
idence Of the dissOluteness Of the population,
an informant remarked that there was
but one virgin on the island, and that was
the Virgin Mary"
History Is philosophy teaching by ex-
amples,' IS an axiom which loses mono Of its
by reference to the policy which
has made deserts Of these gardens Of the
sea. j policy which threatens, IN its insat-
liable demands Of universal negro emancipa-
ton and equality, to convert the fairest por
tions Of the Western Hemisphere into one
vast " Lazar house Of He'll "A mongrel
race of idle vagabOnds, whose presence
blights where their intelligently directed
labor once blessed the soil, which now
scarce yields them their miserable subsist-
ence.
/" History Is philosophy teaching by ex-
ample" God grant it may not repeat itself
in a meriea