The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-23
60LLA 7 S.

color among the girls, where military
boys pass to and fro, in time to soft
music, with only the moonlight falling
upon them, are the times to study Mi
MORGAN beauty.
Most travellers have spoken kindly of
the MinOrcanS in St Augustine from La
of the fisherman's cottages, festooned
with nets and roses, shaded by orange
trees, and hung round with cages of
nonpareil and hooking birds. to William
Cullen Bryant, in 1913, who described them
as a mild harmless race, of civil man.
ners and abstemious habits"
Five years later the Rev. r. K. Sewall,
then the rector of Trinity church, pub
lished his Sketches of St. Augustine"
Should you ever come upon copy of this
book, it will almost certainly be found
that pages 80 and 40 are wanting; and
inspection will show that the leaf has
been cut out. The missing pages contain
ed this reference to the Mmorcans:
The present race was of servile extrac-
ton. BY the duplicity of one Turnbuh
they were Seduced from their homes in
the Mediterranean and located at Smyr>
ma, and forced to till the lands of the
proprietors who had brought them into
Florida for that purpose. After enduring
great privatiOn toll, and suffering, under
the most trying circumstances of a SER
vile state, they revolted in body, regain
ed their rights, and maintained them. The
women are distinguished for their taste,
neatness, and industry, a peculiar light
olive shade complexion, and dark full
eye. The males are less favored by ma
ture and habit. They lack enterprise.
Most of them are without education. Their
canoes, fishing lines, and guns are their
main source OF subsistence. The rising gen.
Grafton is, however, in a rapid state of
transition" However big or little may
have been the grains of truth in this de-
scripuon, the Minorcans had at least ed
ucation enough to understand and COM
prehnd the uncOmpHmentary tone of Mir.
SeWalIs allusiOn to them; and when the
edition of sketches came to hand they
showed their enterprise by mobbing the
store where the books We're, bent on the
only restrained by a pledge, faithfully
kept that the obnoxious pages should be
torn from every book.
Among the customs of the native land
rtained to a recent period by the Minor
cans, was the singing of a hymn in honor
of the Virgin by group OF young men,
who went about the streets serenadine
their friends on the evening before Easter
This hymn, called the ';F'romajardis,"
was in the Mahonese dialect. 1t was hand
ed down orally from one generation to
another, and with what fidelity to the
original may be inferred from this Incl
dent of DR.. Anderson'S visit to Minorca.
III the summer OF 1888, as related in a let
ter;
AT shutdown we stopped at a small viii
lage, which was as clean as new PIN
every house Wnitened to the last degree
and had lunch of bread. cheese, oranges
cherries, and native Wine-all the house
AFFORDED. AS we rode along through the
hills by the light of the pale new moon
l sang to the driver the ''Fromajardis.' y
as sung in st. Augustine. He seemed Meas
ed ana surprised, and said that he did not
know that any foreign gentleman knew
that song. told the Interpreter to tell him
that over hundred years ago that song
was carried over the ocean. and now /
brought 1t back among its native hills. He
said that it was not sung as much now as
II was twenty years ago. Thus the old Gus
toms are dying"
Only by the older and more devout in St
Augustine is it now remembered at all
Blood will tell, and from the evidences
we Judge that the Minorcan population of
St. Augustine is descended from the gent
lest of all the gentle races of the LeVant
the handsome poetic "bloods" of the Bale
aric Isles.