Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-02-24

The Syracuse Standard publishes the follow
ing extract from a private letter from Hon.
Andrew D. White, one of the commissioners;
| u. S. FRIGATE TENNESSEE,
HARBoR OF SANTo DOMINGO,
| FEBRUARY l, 1871.
We spent just one week at SANTANA, and
week most delightfully."-. While the steamer
| was coaling, We pursued our Investigations on
shore and on shipboard, sending off exploring
parties, taking copies of documents and locali-
| ties and taking down, at length, the dispositions
| of multitude of persons, of all sorts, as TO
| points specified in the resolutions Of congress.
We visited MANY plantations, and were IN a
! constant state Of astouishmcnt at the luXuriance
| of the growth of trees plants, fruits, nuts, vines
| everything. Bananas and plantains and
| vans and sugar cane and cocoa nuts were grow
| iug all about us. Ten minutes pull in the
boats, always at our command, brought us to
! shore which few descriptions in novel ever sur
| passed. Mr.. Wade, DIR. Howe, and myself,
| with two or three others, were quite struck, as
we realized our position, while waiting for the
boat, as we returned u the shore from the YES
sci. On the plantation Mr., Wade and myself
were seated on a block Of mahogany cut doubt
less not far off. Sheltering us on one side
| was an orange tree from which hung
| plenty of nice fruit; on the other side were
| Cocoa-nut trees laden with great masses OF the
nuts, from which we obtained plenty OF zen,
| cious milk In the back ground, huts matched
With palm leaves. and sugar mill beside them,
through which the cane was passing, and in
front of us the most beautiful Of bays, and
shore on which lay multitude ofshells--among
them the great conch shell, the object OF my
youthful admiration. All this with naked black
children playing about in n warm atmosphere,
on one of the last days Of January, was Lic-
ture not soon 10 be forgotten. Among the most
interesting parties we met there, were Mr.. Burr,
of Maine, and his wife. Mr. B. came out about
two years since, and built great airy house on
a beautiful spot overlooking the bay He had
an immense crop of bananas and plantalns, TO
say nothing of coffee, cocoa, nc. He had plant
ed great number of cocoa-nut trees, and they
were thriving admirably. Think of one of
these enormous trees arriving at full maturity
in three yearsl All that is done TO
produce one of these groves is 10 lay the cocoa
nuts on the ground, with a very little earth
around them and in three years you have your
reward. Mr.. and Mrs Burr gave us a vast deal
of interesting information. 1t is never so hot
and sultry as during our northern summer, and
there is every day in the year, with very few eX-
ceptons, bracng breeze from the sea during
the day, and from the mountains during the
night. I wandered about under the MONDAY
sun, and never with 1.-THE Of the "gone" feel
ing am accustomed to have at Long Branch,
and other of our seaside places. Sickness of any
sort is rare. There are slight attacks Of bilious
fever, but case OF yellow fever is as rare as at
New York; there has not been one in years, and
all that there have been, have been brought here
from other parts. There are no insect pests to
destroy the fruits, and Mrs. Burr had never seen
any flies. TIere are no yenomous snakes in that
part Of the island, if on any part, and we went
everywhere through matted vegetation and thick
cts, in canvass CATERS and thin socks. On Monday
morning early, the day before yesterday, we set
SAIL and after Thirty tedious hours in the Mona
Passage, along the east coast of Santo Domingo,
we arrived last night before dark in this harbJr,
before this quaint old city, founded by the
brother of Columbus; the first city of the new
world. Much as l have travelled it is hard TO
realize this. As write this sentence L cast my
eyes up from the paper, and there just abreast
the ship are the old blackened walls, and above
them the great tower where Christopher Column
bus lay prisoner in chains. We are waiting,
Mr.. Wade and myself, for our house to be made
ready for us. The president, Baez, had made
ready the government palace and fitted it up
nicely and comfortably for us, but we felt
Obliged to decline the hospitality, and our secre-
Uary has taken beautiful lirtle house for us
with Que or two dwellings adjacent for our at
taches Of various sorts, and the houses are I'M
furnished some delay has been occas oncd.
February 2.
We came ashore this morning.. e., Mr..
Wade and myself, and soon we were close to the
fortress. Nowhere have | seen anything so pic
turesque. DilapidatiOn on all sides, from earth
quakes invasions and civil wars, and yet the old
walls here thereby rendered all the more inter
esting. Everywhere great masses of vegetation
were hanging from them and the sea had eaten
out great caverns beneath tn, If walls, After
sometime we arrived at our house; stone walls
| and tile hoors--a courtyard with massive coli
| umns on one side, supporting heavy aTches-n0
| furniture to speak Of but everything clean and
| neat, and soon it began to look habltable, the
| ship carpenter and cook having come ashore to
\ aid us. Such queer view from our windows
| palm trees everywhere, and mountains in the
| distance on one hand and the sea on the other.