The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-16
IN THE SUMMER SEAS
DIR. FLETCHER AND OTTO VOGT
AMONG THE LEEWARD ISLANDS.
Picturesque Cities Nestled Among
the HilIs-AnxiOus to Be a Part
of the United States.

WHO are lOSStn6f making q tour OF the Lee
ward islands and Caribbean sea, have writ
ten a number of very interesting letters
home. They left New York in the midst OF
a binding blizzard and on the fourth day
out had an exciting time in approaching
what they supposed to be a fresh shipwreck
but later discovered to be a floating dere-
lict On the fifth day out they struck the
gulf stream and were in the midst of sum-
mer heat at once, so that a hammock on
deck gave much better nights rest than
the stateroom. Their first stop was at the
island of st. Thomas, and DR.. Fletcher
gives a very interesting description OF the
picturesque little city of Charlotta~Amelia,
that lies nestled between the high noun
tains of the island.
They found the inhabitants anxious TO
know whether or not the United States had
bought the islands and expressed the hope
that the purchase had been made-In his
next letter, written from the island of
Dominica, one of the Leeward islands, Dr.
Fletcher says:
THE next morning after leaving St.
Thomas we cited at daybreak our next stop
ping place, the island of Santa Cruz or St.
Croix, also the property of Denmark. The
introduction to the tropics of the day be-
fore had excited our sixty-five passengers
interest, so, after an early breakfast, we
on shore in any way we wished My cousin
and | first walked for about a mile along
the beach, picking up curiosities washed
up by the waves. Then turning off to the
interior we visited two or three sugar mills,
where work was going on. The people, dur
ing the grinding season, work from a. m.
TO D. ms, with an hour for breakfast at
IL a. m. For this labor they receive, ac-
cording to the class to which they belong,
respectively, 20, u and cents day. The
natives generally live in little huts or how
els adjoining the mill a plantation. and
their AFFECT poverty will hardly be appreci-
photographs which have taken. In fact,
have already taken over three hundred pic
lures, and when we return home L will be
able to give you complete pictorial ac-
count of our whole trip. Leaving these
sugar mills we took road leading between
fields of sugar cane up into the mountains.
The cane waved in the breeze twelve to fif-
teen feet above us, and cocoanut and other
palms looked gracefully down on us, some
of them from a height of more than one
hundred feet. AS we assembled, the wildness
and strange vegetation became more inter-
esting and marked. To describe the fruits
and flowers would be hard so can simply
say that we climbed on and on, enjoying
every foot of the way Near the top of the
mountain we stopped in the shade close to
romantic house, walled on to the side of a
steep place. Soon q gentleman came out,
and insisted that we step in and accept his
hospitality. We dill so and had a most en-
Mr.. Fries, a Dane, and his wife is Scotch.
They own several extensive estates away
their children, live on in peaceful quietude,
and but seldom see those from the outside
world. After dining with them we all walked
together to the top OF Mount victory, from
whence we had an extended and beautiful
view of the fertile slopes and fields of the
island stretching Tor miles IN di t oil
grazing near us, and at many prominent
points We're old ruined .windmills, built Of
stone and now turned into cisterns to
catch water during the rainy season. Here
and there were groves of waving palms ana
patches of forest, further off the sun was
turning canefields into Klondike gold, and
below ALL the sea, a sheet of flashing sill
yer, was dashing against many headla2d,
and resting quietly In peaceful bays. BY or
der of Mr. Fries, two little Santa Cruz
horses, hitched to strong, wide-seated We
hice awaited our return to the house, and,
with our host as a skillful coachman, we
were whirled down the mountains at a
terrific speed in order TO catch our
steamer as the time for leaving was grow
ing short. Had been in my office near by
could have scented business in the air as
that old phaeton flew down the steep
road. now close to the edge of a precipice
with sheer six or eight hundred feet
yaWning below, now wheel striking a
bowlder and throwing us over in corner
like Mark Twain's dictionary in the stage
coach, and then plungfng into mountain
stream dashed into white foam as 1t rushed
over the rocks on its way to the sea. But
as an interested passenger and victim
held my breath. Another nights sail on the
violet blue sea brought us to the picturesque
island OF st. christopher, OF SL. hlLS, as
the English call it. OF course we went to
the market where we saw and heard some
things for the first time in our lives, then
the beautiful public park of Basse Terre
was not left before taking several pictures
of its palms. fountains, banyan tree, twenty
feet through, and its travellers tree, with
groups of natives. "A visit to cane mills
and plantations and then ride TO Monkey
HILL and on along the ocean. 10 the old
fort where almost millions in the past have
been spent in building up Notifications
which are now given over TO the fauna
and flora of the island. Plants have found
a slight foothold in some creVice in a wall
and by growing have overthrown with
seeming ease that which man had thought
to make impregnable. Vines have entwined
themselves among graceful trees, slowly
but surely choking them to DEATH while
every form of orchid and plant parasite
clings to limb, branch and body until the
whole is formed into an intricate and beau
tiful wilderness of bloom and color where
quiet reigns supreme, only broken by the
thunder of the waves against the base of
the rocks and the songs of birds, and hum
of insects. Thousands of feet above us the
cloud crowned heads OF the sleeping VOL
cano Mount Misery looked down upon US.
Her slumbering state WAS so suggestive to
us that night as our steamer left the harbor
in the beautiful soft moonlight that we
stretched our weary bodies in our ham,
mocks and fell under the spell of the
sleeping mountain. Awakening we were
fast approaching the mountain-crested isl-
and of Antigua. As the bay Is shallow we
anchored far out, and small steamer
came along side and took US all ashore.