The New York herald., 1871-02-21
Letters from Oar Special Corrcsporde nts--
A Very Intcrcsting Budget.

correspondents accompanying the United
States exploring expedition to, and In the island
Of ST. Domingo. After all the doubts and
anxeties concerning the safety Of the good
ship Tennessee these letters will be read with
unusual interest and satisfaction, although,
considering the grand object of the expedi-
tion, they would under any circumstances
challenge the general attention of our people.
They will be found pleasing diversion from
Bordeaux, in Withdrawing the mind from tho
misfortunes and humilations Of poor France
| TO the expanding grandeur, power, glory and
manifest destiny" Of these United States.
There is peculiar fascination III .a:eso 81.
Domingo letters which recalls our first
reports of Fremonts discoveries of the natu-
raj wonders in and beyond the Rocky Noun
tains; the reports of Speke and Grants and
of Bakers discoveries of the great equatorial
lake fountains Of the mighty Nile; the letters
of our special correspondent accompanying
Napier,s famous and romantic Abyssinian
expedition, descriptive Of that strange people,
those wild and lofty tablelands of Central
Africa, their awful abysses and their Alpine
passes; the letters from our appointed travel
Ter among the localities of ancient Babylon and
Nneveh, the Tower of Babel and the Garden
OF Eden, and the fascinating reports from the
recently discovered diamond mines of South
Africa. We say that all these things are
recalled to our mind in reading these letters
from St. Domingo, because they, too, are full
Of their peculiar charms of novelty and
romance. 1t is, indeed, most wonderful that
this tropical island, which, within the memory
Of some of its living inhabitants, poured into
the treasures of France and Spain from the
products of its prolific and exhaustess soil,
the wealth of great empire, should now,
from its industrial decay and in It's archi-
tectural ruins, remind one of those mighty
nations whose glories faded away thousands
of years ago.
But what is the prospect for annexation?
1t Is too soon yet to tell in behalf Of this
exploring expedition. The Commission lost
no time after reaching the island, but pro-
ceeded at once to business. Under Senator
Morton's resolution of inquiry, however, they
have much to do. From the first landing of
Christopher Columbus, on that ''holy Sun
day" Santo Domingo, from which the island
takes its name, down to this day, they have to
look up the political history of the two repub-
lies, the present external and internal politi-
cal and financial relations and condition of
Dominica, its religious and social condition,
ito nd o1i
quakes, its population and their imports and
exports, the geology of the country, its mines
and minerals, its trees, fruits, roots and
flowers, its beasts of the field, its fowls of the
air and its fishes Of the sea, and 80 on and
then, from all this mass of testimony, honest
''Old Ben Wade" will make up his report
to the President on annexation-yea or
nay-for submission to the consideration of
Congress. 1t is supposed that all these inqui-
ries charged upon the Commission can be suffi-
ciently covered in four weeks, so that in about
six weeks we may begin to look for the return
of our high Commissioners
All hands from the Tennessee are in rap
lures with the tropical beauties and prodigal
natural riches of the island. The transition
from the bleak, wintry landscapes, snow
storms and freezing winds of the North to the
surrounding forests of palm trees and the per-
petual summer Of Samana Bay was too de-
lightful to be resisted. Aud that glorious bay
of itself-beautifully sheltered, deep and
capacious-is, we should say, from the testi-
mony Of our correspondents worth to the
United States ten times over all the estimated
expenses Of the annexation Of the whole
island-Dominica, Hayti and all. Next 50
far as the plf6iscite has progressed, the people
Of Dominica are for annexation and the stable
government they expect from it. But the
scheme has its drawbacks already discovered.
The people-yellow, copper-hued, mahogany
colored and black-are all right on the dogma
Of equality. President Baez light mulatto,
was in this view perfectly charmed with the
equality of our mixed Commission, furnishing
in It's white and colored members conclusive
evidence that, as there are no distinctions of
color in Dominica, so there are none in the
United States. Fred Douglass and his son,
arm in arm with the veteran Ben Wade and
Professor White, have completely satisfied the
mixed Dominicans on this question of ''liberty,
equality and fraternity"
What, then, are these drawbacks to this con-
templated annexation? First, it is suggested
that these Dominicans are Spanish in language
and custom, and therefore strange element,
difficult to assimilate with our people. This
is mistake; for General Kearny, with his
conquest Of New Mexico, in 1s47, declared it
annexed; and from some housetop he swore in
those Spanish-Mexican people Of all colors as
citizens of the United States, townful at a
time, and they have been good citizens ever
since. So it will be with the Dominicans.
Next 1t appears that our High Commissioners