The Republican journal., 1896-04-23

| terminating lhe Wnlle man, and that
every snake died within week or two
though the experiment was many times
repeated. In Saint Lucy's isle, the
freaky creatures thrive so well and re-
main so actively hostile that hundreds of
people are every year killed by them, and
the phrase, ''he died of the serpent is as
common here as she died of fever'' in
no Janelro. 50 universal is the fear of
him that the country people, living in the
suburbs of the city, seldom venture out
of their houses after darIl, and the COY
elnment pays a considerable bonus on
every dead fer-de- lance. He not only
lies along the branches of trees bv rural
roadsides, apparently waiting to spring
upon passers, but invades the colntields
and garden walks, though lie rarely ven
lures into the houses. A man who clear
ed piece of land within mile of Castres
a year OF so ago, says that during the first
week his workmen earned more killing
fer de-lances for the government reward
than he paid them for the whole lob 1t
is no wonder that the natives make house
hold pets of the cribo-another ugly look
ing, but perfectly harmless snake. S or
10 feet long, which is the only living
thing that can attack the iron lance with
impunity. The cribo (known to scien-
lists as colubes veriables) a relative of
our common water snake, is jet black
with more or less bright yellow along the
stomach and tail. You are sure to find
at least one in every house of Santa
Lucia, stretched out on the thatched roof
coiled up in corner, may be peacefully
sleeping on bed, or summing himself in
the doorway, as much at home as the pet
cat in the North; and il a fer de lance
dares to show his triangular shaped head,
the cribo Immediately challenges him to
mortal combat, and always comes off VIC
| torious. But enough of snake stories; and
| | beg your pardon Tor the long digression
When Columbus found this island, near
the end of the 18th century, it was dense
/ ly populated by Caribs, who remained in
! undisputed possession another hundred
! years, until the English attempted its
colonization in 1889 From that time on,
! for more than a century and a half, the
small temitority was so highly valued
+ that it was many times baptized in the
blood of English, French and Spanish
soldiers, merely to decide its possession
for a year on two. Dozens of times it
changed hands, but that the French held
it oftenest and longest is attested by the
fact that every hamlet, mountain, cove
and inlet bears a French name and the
negroes, who comprise the bulk of the
| population, jabber the same French
Guadelaupe. In the year 1903 England
gained it "for good" OF possibly for bad,
and has ever since had things all her
own way Oh the island, barring fer-de-
lances, the deadly climate, and few
other things beyond human control. Dur
ing the long struggle for supremacy,
in which such men as Sir John Moore,
Lord Willoughby, Sir Ralph Abercrombie
Duparquet, and other celebrities of that
age, figured prominently, thousands of
brave soldiers, French, Spanish and Eng
lish, perished miserably in it's dark forests
and noxious swamps-as many by fever
and the terrible serpent as by the ordi-
nary fortunes of war at the hands of the
negro brigands who, melted by Victor
Huguez, the valiant friend of Robespierre,
massacred their late masters, men, women
and children, and then took to the woods
where they lived on the plunder of plan
tations, numbering French and English
alike and in turn being killed whenever
caught. The world wondered at the time
of it why Great Britain considered little
Santa Lucia worth such tremendous ex-
penditure of human life; and the wonder
grew when in the final deal she restored
lovely salubrious and fertile Martinique
to the French, in order to retain this
small island, which is agriculturally of no
account whatever, but merely volcanic
mountain, tossed up out of the Caribbean
Sea in fantastic shapes and covered with
very beautiful but useless vegetation.
However, England generally knows what
she is about, SO far as the acquisition of
territory is concerned and no doubt she
did in this case. Santa Lucia has certain
natural advantages which few of the is
lands not already claimed by Great Brit
ain possess. Lying less than four degrees
, off the South American coast, within easy
reach of the other islands and directly in
the track of all vessels that ply these wa
ters, she is an ideal coaling and refitting
station, and has been made absolutely i'm
pregnable. Enormous sums of money have
been spent in dredging Castres bay and
, building fine stone wharf, beside which
the largest ships can lie and take in coal.
) The high hills that stand in serried ranks
on either side the narrow entrance to the
, little harbor, have been magnifcently
l fortified, and are SO we'll equipped and
r strongly garrisoned that no hostile ship
) could possibly enter. Only a few weeks
| l. ro