, 1891-10-07

NcAhO N@O OAAOAO "a ~o~
the slaves were all paid for, the planters could
not pay running expenses, hiring the lazy
freedmen, and gradually all the estates were
turned into pasture or abandoned. The freed
men preferred to strike out forthemselves andbe.
indeno nde ut, 80 they squatted here and there
and have lived a lazy, hand-to-mouth exist
ence such as their forefatherS enjoyed in Afri-
"a ovor since. The paternal government only
;ntarfares with this for the first few years Of
their lives obliging them to acquire a good
common school education. These few years
of enforced labor, I presume, are sufficient to
reconcile the colored man to a prolonged rest
during the balance of his life.
The Boston Fruit Company have acquire
some 10000 acres of these old sugar estate
and are gradually retaining them for banana
and cocoanuts. They run steamers three or
four times a week to Boston, making the, run
in five to seven days and have never failed to
carry their vegetables in better order than our
railroads usually do. This year, for the first
time, thew secured the services of a market
gardener from the north, and he has been ex-
perimenting with ten acres in vegetables as a
trial His tomatoes yielded almost as they
would at the north, when they were not dried
or drowned out and his cucumbers seemed to
be quite free from insect enemies and yielded
much better than with us. Mango trees line
the roads and are as abundant in the woods
and fields as native forest trees, while coffee
and cocoa trees form the underbrush every
where in the abandoned estates and here and
there an enterprising colored family squat and
make their living gathering and selling the
fruit of these wild trees, which, however, they
nevercultivate. The allsplce, P'tnenta ~otFcsnG-
lis, is O native forest tree and the logwood, a
leguminous tree, is the regular second growth
timber, which, in time, with Hqnumvtt@ and
cactus. takes possession OF old helds. A tar
quality of tobacco is raised in the valleys by
Cubans Liberian coffee, a harder, more proll-
fc and superior variety, is beng introduced
also the colanut of India, which is used on &C
count Of its large amount of caheln to give
strength to chocolate. Nutmegs and cinnamon
are being tried also, but the great crop is bana-
mas. From 10000 to $4,000 punches per day
leave Jamaica for the States, three-fourths OF
which either are carried or supplied by tho
Boston Fruit Company through the banana
king, Capt. Baker.
The scenery is grand. A midrib of voloa-
mic mountains serves as a background for the
views inland, on the east end of the islandtower
ing to upwards of 1000 feet. Innumerable ranges
of foot hills, wooded to their SUBMITS, are IN
tersected by crystal streams, cuttingdeepgorgeS
in their rocky sides, all draped with luxurlant tro
pical foliage. Tall tree ferns wave on shaded
slopes while graceful cocoanut and royal palms
raisetheir majestic heads proudly against the sky
on mountain tops thousands of feet above the
sea, which rolls deeply, darkly, beautifully
blue at their feet. Tufts of feathery bamboo,
like punches of ostrich plumes, wave on every
slope and plain, tall as the forest trees and
indescribably soft and graceful; while large
silk cotton trees with their ponderous, root
buttressed trunks and great struggling limbs
seem to writhe and stagger beneath their bur
den of throttling vines and parasitic orchids.
Aroids, climbing plants with the leaves at a
caladium and stem Of a sugar cane, climb to
their SUBMITS and envelope the tree with long,
white, rope-like roots, half an inch in diameter,
which spring from every joint of the stem.
when you add to those orchids, with leaves like
bananas, the efforts Of the tree at foliage seem
very insignificant and secondary.
Coolies and Chinese are found occasionally,
and each one does the work of three negroes,
though not nearly as large and muscular.
Some of the o~ctoroons and quadroons make
good foremen and under-bosses, as we'll as
clerks and bookkeepers.
The government levies an apparently lndls-
criminate duty upon all imports, a tariff for
revenue only, SO far as could learn; taxing
-four 50 per barrel, though they can raise no
wheat, but strange to say, entering potatoes
free. With the revenue thus collected splen-
did macadamized roads are kept up, abundance