The sun., 1894-10-21

and when he had the schooner drifting west
Terl IN this latitude, any map would show hin
set out 70 Intern Simself ss about ToSsgo, and tn
natural thing for him 70 do was TO find some in
| was no hard matter In London; and you will
| md that all the information in the book is pre-
s1cn bars y ,os snp master %ond phpo p,cE UP u
| little over the island
1T was a. highly romantic situation for
tsning while an Intelligent planter native o
noticed points in Robinson Crusoc.'. The hous,
was not large, but it was exceedingly comfort
slow @ but @ safe and suae way, fS caring R little fo
display. There is no inducement for ,extrava
ssn OF Ss Il hs and Gs
tates, never doing any work themselves. bu
always busy keeping their men at work. MS
| new friend proposed To take me out to see som,
Of the better-known localities before | had al
opportunity to ask him to do t..
climbed IsS hi, and from lts summit say, saw
land OF 70 the south and west, which he after
We viii climb that bin i' ourselves iT il You ike
and Jet y9n have that same view OF Trinidad
Sot neSs, ToRo RoSs,"1 / pG S
when was Within sght Of It. Roads are few
and and The bride paths not pleasant for straneers
made ON foot. a climb OF about an hour and q
half took us 70 the top of the hill, and there lay
trinidad IN the distance "a plain as any one
.. You see Defoe had positive, information
ssny shi thu ssnS Is isa ksT @
+ only 200 feet, and those higher hills are all
command good % view Sf of Trinidad Now look
detached rocks well out from shore, and the two
little islands IN the distancc2 They 10 to show
makes Crusoe say, you will remember. Il saw
that was In an island envroned every way by
SsS the no land to be see ST,sp soe rocks
less than this. which lay about three leagues to
1he west That was before he had discovered
- Now about that cave he continued The
cave is what always interests the young folks
csSss 'o the sanG we RaSe no aSf o
caves, and, OF course, not one OF them would be
that pefoe knew 'Se We had suen tbps sSw tSs
soft limestone rock 1t Is an easy matter to en-
large cave with pickaxc. for rock that has
chalk. II would be foolish to select any one ss
the Identical cave, because old ones crulnble and
with the occasional assistance OF slight earth
scended the hill, and pIneking a tall plant that
had familiar look. Your knowl ledge Of plants
will tell you that this is wild tobacco. Crusoe,
you know. found tobacco growing here, and 1t
still grows without any cultivation. 1t was
this wild tobacco that gave Tobago its name.
other islands: Tobago is tho only one.
You have read In the book he continued,
unexpectedly raised a crop OF corn from Il that
was OF great use to him. That might look like
III, sp to an AtmIsrcsn because @ It well known
1t is not. The English call all grains corn. and
your American corn we call maize The corn" "
here. Any Englishman would cali that corn
,s s"surSl' Defoe never % had 4. = greater, admirer
were seated ON the piazza again lie began about
the seasons To show that Defoe knew all about
would not do he said. BECAUSE our seasons are
a little different from the seasons anywhere else.
We ore out OF the true hurricane track here, al
though Barbodoes. only n few miles away. Is in
1t. We havs two dry and two rainy seasons ev-
cry year, exactly as he describes it-rainy from
middle Of August. raining again till the middle
Of OetGiesr ;h and dry il February and that
"'Thsn look at the grapes he continued
.Iss Efnsoe found so many growing wild that he
We call the sea grapes, and am sure you have
seen hundreds OF the vines growing wild on the
island. We have them yet. though we, do not
Crusoe went TO the west side OF the ISLAND
and saw hundreds of turtles, though on the east
il the same thing to this day. our people take
large numbers OF green turtles on the west
seen. The warm current flowing out Of the Ori-
noco has something to do with this for that af-
i" 1t would take volume to repeat all the pas
sages the planter auoted from Robinson Crusoe'
TO show how weil Defoe knew the place; and
with every one of them he had some locality or
some product 10 show, to prove their accuracy.
How do The people OF the island regard the
terested in it because the scene Is laid in their
We'll he laughed the people of the island
very great extenl-ihst Is the mass of the peo-
pie. They are all familiar with the name OF
Crusoe's Valley, aud several Crusue's caves Hut
IL Is only the more intelligent of the negroes who
ask au average held hand what lie Knew about
hobinson CrnsDe. think he would be likely to
here many years ago, and lived in cave. The
white men, OF course, all read the story, and are
familiar with IL. Our children delight in il, be-
cause II describes scenes that they know we'll
1t seemed TO me, in going about the island
I hat the conditions have not changed much
and the Inhabitants have little more
with the world, some OF the
and almost as complete seclusion Us crusas
did. l found many cabins whose occupants
lived entirely upon their own resources, pound
ing their own corn between stones, burning
tocoanut oil and handling no money from years |
end TO years end; Anysod who has banker |
him still on .Crusoe's very island. He can 20 |
out into the forest there, where no one will in
into the soft rock. and dry his raisins and raise !
soats, keep his calendar by notching "A stick, |
pure streams There IS nothing % ia IL. %as World To
prevent IL but such an adyenturer will do well |
skin pocket.
"Tobago is the last one of the Windward ISL
lnds. There Il no land IN the eighteen miles
'etwesn it aud Trinidad, and Trinidad Is not
considered a part OF The West Indies; il belongs
nors properly TO South America. The little ISL
md ~ Tohago is in a prosperous condition not
Iecause u produces So much, but because, as |
AVE said. its people are show and sure, content
q live within their incomes. mean the plant
RS. of course, for the negroes generally have no
Incomes to speak OF None Of the GovernmenL
Ulcers receive high salaries, and public expen-
Iitures are small, Politically the island is at
ached to Trinidad and the supreme Court of
hat island Is compelled to 20 10 TObagO at least
nee year To hold court The highest resident
nicer Is the commissioner a sort Of LisuteIl-
whose salary Is $4,000 year.
" IL Is lpOn sugar, rum, and mOlasses that To-
ago chiefly lives, though 10 is hardly necessary
0 mention the latter two, because wherever SUI
ar Is raised there rum and molasses are made.
he sugar processes Ia TObagO are generally old
ashioned, but the caneiields Yield wsll-better
llau one would imagine in . country where
here Is more soft rock than soil. But the rock
self contains much nutriment for plants. and
nth the vigorous use OF heavy hammers aud
ickS "A neld Of choice rocks eau be pounded
own into tillable and fertile soil. OF late years
be planters have given some attention TO cocoa