The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1881-05-06
A Negro Paradise.


Right out of the sea, $50 miles from
the Florida coast, rises huge rock, %
miles long by miles wide. 1t is the
smallest of the Behama Islands, and is
called New Providence. It is the Sec
ond place where Columbus landed on
his voyage to the Westerly World, and
the only town of note in the Bahamas
marks the spot. Nassau, even at. this
season, nestles in wilderness of flowers,
plants and fruits. There is not tree or
flower that thrives in a warm climate
which does not grow luxuriantly there.
l said it was q rock upon which these
beauties grow and blossom, and over
which a never-ending summer breeze
blows the seeds of health by tempering
the warmth of tropical sun, until it
strikes happy medium where all season
is summer, and mankind basks in an at
mosphere practically invariable twelve
months in the year, ane trees, shrubs
and flowers thrive in chaotic profusion
all the year round. How contrary this
is to what is known of nature in
the noted frost land, and yet how
crudely true of what is seen here every
hour in the year.
The ocean threw up this mighty rock
"when Nature played with hills to show
her curious strength and greatness over
man." It is calcareous rock of coral,
soft and pliable to the mechanics hand,
filed with shells and sand and spit upon
by the ocean until cemented with it's
brine. The surface in places rots, forms
thin soil, and in this, or wherever
crack or crevice is found, the gayest
flowers bloom. There is net bit of
fancy in this. It is the truth homely
told. To describe its inhabitants would
be to parade before you mass of colored
men, women and children, cheaply but
neatly dressed, barefooted and bonnet
less, but happy and polite. Out of a
population of $4,000, more than 10000
are negroes, and unusually intelligent.
Shining out from this darkness is now
and then a native white face, intelligent
and healthy, and at this season numbers
of foreign faces, which look as If in
search of health. The houses are as neat
as the people, and all of them are
smothered with flowers and shrubbery
In almost every yard, as well as growing
wild, are cocoanuts, oranges, guaves So
fadilloes, mangoes, and all sorts of fruit
hang, in all stages-bud, blossom, half
grown and the matured fruit. The drives
over the town and through the island
are superb, smooth as a floor and of solid
rock, lined on either side with tangled,
sweeping vines, stunted trees and flower
ing plants. The oleander towers its
high head among the more pretentious
tropical plants, while our own modest
morning-glory, SO dear to ourchildhood,
peeps out from behind the leaves, the
dew resting upon its purple lips to be be
kissed away by the morning sun. No
nO11o fn11 70 <af fbo I,ao
ties, either of land or sea, which are
everywhere visible. The island makes
beautiful picture as you approach it
from the ocean, rising as it does from the
waters edge by gradual incline to the
height of 200 or 300 feet, every foot of
the way up showing the tropical plants,
flowers and fruits at theif best.
The climate and surroundings are as
near perfection as one ought to expect to
find upon this earth. The surface of
the island is rolling, and what soil there
is, is very rich. The bulk of vegetation
seems to spring from the solid rock, and
does from the cracks and
crevices. Wherever room is found, a
root creeps in, and the lime in the stone
feeds it. This lack of soil and the neces-
sity of removing solid stone to aid vege-
tation, prevents much cultivation of the
soil, and there are very few vegetables
grown in climate especially adapted to
their production. Fruits are the princi-
pal staples, and upon these the natives
live to very great extent. All tropical
varieties grow in abundance, and are re-
rich and nutritious. Every
variety of fish is taken in abundance, and
enters very largely into the domestic
of the natives. The chief in
iustry of the island is sponge-gathering
Il Nassau, N. P, Correspondence Bos-
ton Herald.