Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-10-10
NAVASSA ISLAND.
CAUSE OF THE UPRISING.

A Land Under the Jurisdiction of
No Nation, but Owned by Ameri-
cans.
the dispatches stating that riot had
occurred on Navassa island, in the Car
ibbean sea, in which a number of
Americans had been killed, has called
the attention of the public to the fact
that there are islands in the West Indies
which are under the jurisdiction of no
particular nation. Our Government
has sent the Galena to the scene of the
disturbances, and as the land is entirely
owned by American citizens it is prob
able that we will be permitted to settle
the trouble. The following facts re-
garding the island will prove interest
ing:
From the head of the bay on which
Port-au- Prince stands there reaches out
on the west the long arm of peninsu %
which is so peculiar feature in the geo
graphy of the island. The arm-bone is
a continuous ridge of mountains rising
to height of 5000 feet and stretching
16O miles. Navassa island is located
Immediately opposite this promontory
III lhblluNiO 10 IT'LL. AZ DCC. holtDy WhiiO
the seventy-fift meridian of longitude
passes right through the island. The
guano deposits, which give to the rocky
outline of the Haytian dominions high
commercial value, cover an area of about
a square mile, and are handled by the
Navassa Phosphate Company, of %
South stree, Baltimore, Nd, and 10
Cliff street, New York. The company,
which claims concession of the entire
island, is one of the wealthiest fertilizer
corporations in the country and does an
immense business in the Eastern States
from Maine to Florida and from Balt-
more and Philadelphia to the Ohio
river.
Navassa island lies directly in the
track of the Pacific Mail steamers on
the Atlantic side of the isthmus, and is
the last land sighted between Point
Maysi, in Cuba, and Aspinwall. The
population numbers about 500, includ-
ing nearly 100 persons employed in and
about the works. The black or Haytian
element predominates, and there is a
considerab accession of malcontents
and transients" from the mainland.
Speaking of the relations of Great
Britain and the United States in regard
to Hayti and the present condition OF
that republic, James A. Froude says in
recent memoir "Hayti has passed
through many revolutions, and is no
nearer than at first to stability. Close
to where our ship brings up, after pass
ing the narrow channel between Gonaive
island and the mainland, we see the
Canada, an English frigate, and about a
quarter of a mile from her an American
frigate of about the same size, with the
Stars and Stripes conspicuously flying.
We the English) have had some differ
ences of late with the Hayti authorities,
and the sat sfaction which was asked for
having been refused or delayed, man.
of-war had been sent to ask redress in
more peremptory terms. The town of
Port au-P Prince lay under her guns the
Presidents ships, which she might per-
haps have seized as n security, had been
taken out of sight into shallow water
where she could not follow them. The
Americans have no particular right in
Hayti, and are as little liked as we are,
but they are feared, and they do not al
low any business of a serious kind to go
on in these waters without knowing
what it is about. Hayti is the most ri
diculous caricature of civilization in the
whole world. Doubtless the whites are
not disinterested witnesses, for they are
treated as they once treated the blacks.
They can own no freehold property, and
exist only on tolerance. They are called
white trash Black dukes and mar
quises drive over them on the street,
and swear at them, and they consider it
an invasion of the natural order Of
things. No one can tell the future fate
of the black republic, but the present
order of things cannot last in an island
so close under the American shores. If
the Americans forbid any other power to
interfere they will have to interfere
themselves. "-lSan Francisco Chroni-
IL