Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-02-28

respondents and others in attendance on
the San Domingo Commission, we gather
some facts not heretofore given.
All the correspondents agree in repre-
sentlng the voyage out as uneventful and
unexciting that the Tennessee is very
slow sailer that her officers were pinks of
courtesy, and that the passengers fratern-
lied in manner indicative of the near
approach to the millenium The Tennes-
see went first to Samana bay. The Com
mission and suit were landed at Santa
Barbara on the oath. Here several days
were spent while the steamer was coaling.
Then the voyage was made to San Do
mingo City, which was reached, after
experiencing deal of rough weather,
on the lst of February.
Most OF the correspondents speak in
terms of admiration of the natural features
OF Samana, and of its advantages as har-
Dor. The town itself numbers in all about
| seventy-five roofs, more or less of thatch.
and 1t contains, upon an approximate esti-
mate, about two hundred and seventy in
habitants. OF these some sixty-five are
colored persons of America origin, the de-
scendants OF one of the colonies brought out
by Boyer in 1924 from Baltimore and Phil
adelphia. The children under eight years
of age are left naked. One veracious
chronicler says: " 1t seems to be one of
the unwritten laws of fashion that the
| young shall never wear more than one
garment at time. lfa mother has given
her child shirt, that is enough if coat
is more handy, let u coat suffice and, in
deed, it Is not uncommon for all the pur-
poses OF convenience and adornment to
be answered by hat or a pair of shoes.
Another writer, remarking on the lux
unance of the primitive growth, says:
Two minutes walk from the centre OF
SANTANA, and You are in the dense foliage
and underground OF the woods, apparent
ly never before profaned by human foot
steps. The very soil is invisible with
thousand varieties of plant and shrub and
| flower, while the sunlight is almost shut
out by the thick tree shade extending for
miles and miles, and scarcely ever per-
| mitting the entrance of solitary sun
CLINT. The scenery u few miles behind
SANTANA surpasses description. This por-
ton, and indeed every other portion of
the island consists of hill and valley. roll
ing on and on in seemingly endless sue
cession. The hills sometimes grow to be
mountains, thousands of feet in hight.
with sides straight and steep as the forest
trees which clothe 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 ele-
walton of more than one thousand feet
counted the tops of ten lesser mountains
within a circumference of nine miles.
Their sides were clothed with the mahog-
any, ignumvite, the cocoa tree, the date
palm, the cotton tree, the banana and the
plantain. 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 withers.
But the glory of them all was the royal
palm, running straight and bare as a ship
mast to 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
There are Catholic and Methodist
church at Samana. The Catholic church
is a rude structure, much larger than the
inhabitants seem to require and full of
the oldest images, dressed in quaint, not
to say grotesque, habiliments. The Meth
odist church is building it has al congre-
CATION including about three hundred
communicates, mostly descendants of the
| colored colony sent from Philadelphia in
1924.
Fruits are always it season Those
most abundant are the orange, lemon,
lime, coconut, cacao, banana, pine, alliga-
tor-bear, guava, and tamarnd. Pine
apples are immensely large and rich,
sometimes weighing as much as twenty
pounds. All these fruits are found in
practically unlimited quantities, the pro-
duction being checked only by the diff
Guilty OF transportation. Apples, peaches,
blackberries, Strawberries and watermel-
ons flourish on the mountains. Indian
corn grows magniticently. These crops
are raised on the same land every wear
two OF these crops are each larger than
an average crop in the States, besides
being of the best 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, lignumvi
t1, norwood and satin-wood, and these
are said by the botanists Of the expedi-
/ ton to be of great abundance and large
growth. Those are no saw-mills, though
the water-power is abundant, and sawn
timber Is consequently imported Sugar
and tobacco are also produced
Among the white residents, the Com
mission found an ex-Union soldier, GER
tain Mr.. Burr of Maine, who holds an cs
tate OF about one hundred acres, which he
cultiyates as private proprietor.
With regard to the climate there is some
diversity of opinion. One gentleman is
convinced that Santo Domingo is as
healthy as any of our Southers States. Dir.
Newcomb, one of the-attaches of the COM
mission, considers that SANTANA is perfect
ly healthy, and that with care and precau-
ton white persons can live in the tropics
and be as healthy as in any other portion
of the globe. He states that the popula-
tion of the peninsula is about 5000, and
that during the year ending last month
the deaths were seventeen and the births
over three hundred There il not n joo