The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1871-02-28

thousands of feet in hight, with sides
straight and steep as the forest trees
which cloihe them The country looks
as if it had been plowed up by mighty
giants, hill torn from hill, and leaping,
dashing water flung between to divide and
separate them forever.
Standing on the summit Of a mountain
three miles from Santa Barbara, at an
elevation of more than one thousand feet.
| counted the tops of ten lesser mountains
within circumference of nine miles,
Their sides were clothed with the mahog-
any, lignumvite, the cocoa tree, the date
palm, the cotton tree, the banana and the
plaintain. There was the wild orange,
with bark and leaf something like the
holly; the bamboo, the mango, the most
beautiful shade tree in the world, beneath
which even tropical vegetation withcrs.
But the glory of them all was the royal
palm, running straight and bare as
ship-mast to a hight of often one hundred
feet, and then throwing out from its top
its magnificent arms of long, sweeping
boughs, with leaves like so much velvet,
so soft and rich and glossy."ss
There are Catholic and Methodist
church at SANTANA. The Catholic church
is rude structure, much larger than the
inhabitants seem to require, and full of
oldest images, dressed in quaint habili-
mcnts. The Methodist church is build
ing; it has congregation including
about three hundred communicates, most
ly descendants of the colored colony sent
from Philadelphia in 1924.
Fruits are always in season. Those
most abundant are the orange, lemon,
lime, cocoanut, cocoa, banana, pine, ALI
gator-pear, guava, and tamerind. Pine
apples are immensely large and rich,
sometimes well Ching as much as twenty
pounds. All these fruits are found in
practically unlimited quantities, the pro-
duction being checked only by the diff
Guilty Transportation. Apples, peaches,
blackberries, strawberries, and watermel-
ons flourish on the mountains. Indian
corn grows magnifcently. Three crops
are raised on the same land every year !;
two Of these crops are each larger than
an average crop in the States, besides
being of the hest quality. Mountain rice
is abundant. Potatoes, yams, plantains,
cabbages, beets, turnips, cucumbers, let
tuce, tomatoes, egg-plants peas, beans,
&C., are produced in perfection.
OF timber there is also an abundance.
The kinds most used for commercial pur-
poses are mahogany, logwood, lignumvita,
iron-wood and satin-wood, and these are
said by the botansts of the expedition to
be of great abundance and large grow tn.
There are no saw-mills, though the water
power is abundant, and sawn timber is
consequently imported; Sugar and to-
Among the white residents. the Com
mission found an ex-Union soldier, a GER
tain Mr., Burr of Maine, who holds an
estate Of about one hundred acres, which
he cultivates as aprivate proprietor.
With regard to the climate there is
some diversity of opinion. One gentle.
man is convinced that Santo Domingo is
as healthy as any of our Southern States
DR.. Newcomb, one Of the attaches of the
commission, considers that SANTANA is par,
ticularly healthy, and that with care ant
precaution white persons can live in the
tropics and be as healthy as in any Other
portion Of the globe. He states that the
population Of the peninsula is about 5000
and that during the year ending las
month the deaths were seventeen and tn,
births over three hundred. There is no
a doctor or a drug store in SANTANA, ant
the coffin-makcr has sold only four coffin
in a years time. The thermometer, ac
IN the hottest Weather. 80 III the sun 46
heat seems very great, but the shade I
delightful, and the breeze is continuous
The negroes say that violent exercise il
the middle of the day is very unwholc
some but then they have rooted antip
athy to violent exercise at all hours.
Another writes 1.-THE United State
steamer Nantasket, which lay in Saman;
when we arrived, has been on the coas
for the last fifteen months, and had no
lost man. She lay closer to the shor,
than we did, and her sailors were, my
medical friends on board assure me, as
much subject to the malarious influence,
as if they lived on shore. This climate
which we are told is so fatal to tn,
white race, appears to have the best O
effects on the natives. l have never
seen more healthy-looking set of people
in my life than the men and women o.
SANTANA. The dozen whites who reside
there complain of no i'll effects, and | sec
no reason why man may not live there
and be strong and vigorous. The weight
Of testimony is all that way. There is
far more fever and ague in Washington
City every year than there is on the pen.
insula Of Samana."
On the subject of annexation most of
the correspondents find but one opinion,
and that favorable one. One gentle
man, however, who visited the interior,
found people who opposed the scheme.
One ofthese is reported as saying: "Why
the Americans want to annex us is what
puzzles us, for they can't work here, and
we are not going to work for them But
bad as it would probably be for us, it
would be infinitely worse for them, be-
cause the climate will kill them and it
will not affect u.s." But this feeling is
apparently exceptional. The Catholic
clergymen are reported as unanimous for
annexation. The inhabitants are also re-
ported as far from ignorant, and as much
ahead of the Southern negroes in this re-
spect. They would make, it is asserted,
good citizens.
No coal mines exist on the island this
much the Commissioners have ascertained,
The people of SANTANA were addressed
by Mr.. Frederick Douglass and by Gen.
Sigel, and appeared much pleased with
what they heard.
1t appears that on reaching San Do
mingo from SANTANA, the Commissioners
found that the Government Of President
BaeZ had caused TO he nrenared for their