The Indianapolis journal., 1885-05-03
THE CAVES OF MANATTEE.
Story Of Trip to the Land Ofthe Man
grove and the Cocoa Palm.
A Country Where Every Prospect
Pleases and Only Man Is Vile.
Correspondence of Il India naDolis Journal.

Correspondence of ii Q India napolis Journal.
NEw ORLEANS, April "A year or two ago
a medical officer, sent by the home government
to the colony of British Honduras, bestirred
himself to discover the way thither. From
bureau to bureau he travelled in fruitless inquiry.
Under clerks politely told him that though they
regretted not being able to inform him definitely,
the matter should be referred to the chief. The
chief was as augustly ignorant as the rest
Finally the wretched little disciple of Escu-
lapius betook himself to the postoffice, where he
obtained some clew to the journeyings of the
colonists mail This is a truthful illustration OF
British interest in her far off tropical depend
ency. for I met the little doctor and he
told me so himself.
One goes to British Honduras from New
Orleans by ship Of the Macheca line. Three
days down the broad brown river, and across
the great blue gulf, and you are in the Land OIL
monkeys, and macaws and mahogany trees
the land that for 200 years has been echoing
to British ax-strokes and literally rewarding
them from the wealth of her prodigal forests.
Even American intelligence may not be insulted
by the information that our kinsfolk of Central
Ani erica occupy about 1900 square miles on the
Atlantic slope. The Mexican province of
Yucatan, and the perturbed little republic OF
Guatemala, lie respectively to the north
and south of them. The colony
possesses 160 miles Of seaboard and forty miles
back in direct line rise the Coxcomb mountains,
which run parallel to it. The river system is
extensive. and fortunately, for the roads are few
and poor. The largest and most importantis is the
Belize river at the mouth of which the capital is
built One Wallis, a bold buccaneer of the seven
teenth century, whose exploits in the capture OF
his Catholic Majesty's richly laden merchant
ships upon the Caribbean were leniently regard
ed by English authorities, hostile to everything
Spanish, gave his name TO the place, although
the word is so corrupted as to be almost unrecog
nizable. There the old town has sat in the sun
and looked across her shmmering blue harbor
under her waving umbrella of cocoanut palms
for 200 years! The bay is wide and beautiful,
and dotted with coral islands called Gays but
shallow and difficult Of navigation for large YES
sels 1t was good half hours pull to the Gar
net" which gallant man-ofwar came into port
while your correspondent was in Belize Tho
streets are narrow and unpavcd, the houses
chiefly white frame The hotel is very cool and
comfortable built after the fashion Of interior
architecture in the tropics with numerous
jalousies in the walls, through which the sea-
breezes float refreshingly, and your neighbors'
ablutions somewhat startngly, In the noisy
early dawn of this part of the world There
are thirteen churches a school under
the auspices of each denomination,
a courthouse, lunatc asylum, hospital, jail and
poor house, all Of which are clean looking, cred
liable buildings. attended service in one of
the Episcopalian churches quaint old pile of
time softened red brick one hot Sunday even
ing of my soiourn in Belize The pomps and
vanites, as illustrated by the congregation, i'm
pressed me. fear, more than the sermon did.
Every shade of brown and yellow possible to the
human skin, from vandyke to cadmium, was
represented in force, with an admixture in the
front pews of perhaps twenty white people
Creole negroes, some of them shapey of form
and feature, gave the responses with fervor
and from the hicklpped choir the chants came
ardenty and melodiously The negroes Of Belize
are very Newfoundland very immoral. Above
the heads of the people rose tablet after tablet
commemorative of departed Honduranians
Through one stained glass window the tropical
sunlight slanted softly; another, flung wide to
catch the welcome sea breeze, showed tanele
OF nodding roses, solitary clump Of palms and
long line OF gold along the west
The town is practically cut off from the out
lying country except by waterways, for all
about lies the almost impenetrable mangrove
swamp. DrlVlnS around the circular road,
the Rotten Row of Belize, one sees on either
hand thickets Of mangrove trees, great pools
of still, black water, through which a distur bed
alligator occasionally splashes in clumsy protest
patches OF water lilies of sickly sort, and here
and there tumble down habitation still shelter
ing comfortable looking ''nigs' of all sizes and
the utmost paucity of attire. 1t is an astonish-
ing but iIcon trovertble fact that Belize is the
healthiest town in the tropics The constant
trade WINDS blow away the miasma, and the
ntoip ran CHI oil fha 49,
winds of the interior The climate is modi-
fed by these causes as to make the colony for
nine months of the year, quite a comfortable
place of residence.
out to you the new and old cemeteries,
wherein the dead people are disposed
OF as IN Louisiana, in stone vaults above
ground. Soup tureens," the facetiously- dis
posed of Belize have dubbed these final
receptacles, from 'super terrener--a witt
cism the shape makes pardonable. But it is in
vesting death with a new and culinary horror.
The negroes are shelved row upon row, and have
no means Of identifying themselves to Gabriel
but by their respective numbers which are quite
liable to be washed off.
Then one passes the residence of Governor
Goldsworthy, under whose administration, dat
ing from last July, there has been
marked Improvement in : colonial affairs
and prospects. Beautiful exceedingly for
situation is Government house, where hospital
tiles are gracious and generous. 1t faces the sea
with wide verandas French windows, broad
lawns, magnificent trees and flower gardens.
where the oeanders grow in fragrant rows along
the fences, and the royal, crimson heart of the
pomegranate rejoices among hundred name
less flowers. Standing in graceful groups, or set
out in long avenues upon the grounds 1 saw the
erratic cocoanut, the tall stem of which
absolutely declines to grow straight 1t
bears all the year round, and the
least wind strs the great fronds into a mu-
sical pattering sound that is easily mistaken for
rain. The foliage of the bread fruit tree is par
ticularly beautiful, the leaves being large and of
fruit is used sometimes by the Caribs as food.
but is mealy and tasteess. The product of the
egg fruit and provision tree is of much the same
nature. Mango trees, laden with the fat green
fruit, more the shape of an old-fashioned
pocket book than anything else threw graceful
branches everywhere And I saw Mrs Colds
worthy's pet sheep luxuriously dining upon the
fallen blossoms of long petaled scarlet flower