Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1898-06-01
A WEST indian HONEYMOON.

kl HI LO f1fDitllI tkUifk III " UIIs
What sort of place is Santos, cap
tain:' [ asked. partly because I really
wanted 10 know, but partly also because
the cabin of the steamer was stuffy and
cockroachy, and the sea rather rough, and
[ had just been served with a liberal
pIateful of hot plum-pudding with cream
sauce, which in the tropics is dish that
requires reflection.
Santos said the Iong-limbed Yankee
captain, with q humorous side glance at
my untouched plate, which showed he
quite understood the situation. Santos,
sir, is hell upon earth when Yellow Jack
is aboard and not much better when he
isn't"
How 500" asked I. motioning furtiveiy
to the steward to remove my plate, and
shifting my chair little so as to get the
benefit of the trade wind through the open
port. | was on board a little tramp
steamer, making the trip from Barbados
to St. Lucia, ut which latter island I had
a few hours inspection duty to fulfill,
which would have entailed wait Of a
fortnight had l gone by the regular mail
We'll, sir, it's this way. First and
ships put into it. 1t is a hot. dirty, damp.
unhealthy place, with 10000 inha bitants.
And the fools have only built two
WhaGyes to load and unload at: you must
take your turn. Eight months l have
known a bark lie at anchor in the harbor
waiting her chance"
Ny face must have expressed incredull-
ty. for my nautical friend here stopped
his story to remark: L guess you don't
believe me, stranger. Steward, bring the
officer another help of pudding
| assured him that | believed him i'm
pIicitly. and, indeed, | found afterwards
that the information ne had given me
was perfectly correct. | also declined the
pudding. and begged him to continue,
L was there in 1891; we put IN on our
way 70 New York. [ thought there
would be q good chance of picking up a
few passengers while the fever was On,
and so l did; but we paid dear for It.
You see, they had cholera there that year
rs well as yellow jack, and the harbor
was full of ships that couldn't get away,
because they had NO officers left to navi-
gate them and no crews to man them.
Seventy captains and 600 or 100
sailors had died when l got there, and L
calculate many 4 naval action WOuidn
ened myself, but | can tell you l thought
it was time to go when | went ashore
one evening after dark, and the first
thing ! did was to trip over body ~
ing across the street, and fall with my
face right in the waistcoat Of another
gentleman who had just died where he
lay Of yellow jack. The one l tripped
over had died of cholera, as [ could see
WheI my mate brought up the lantern!'
| stared at him in amazement, but the
man was quite serious; he did not seem to
think that he was narrating anything at
ali unusual From what | have since
heard of Santos, | do not suppose he was.
well. sir. my first mate was with me,
and he said he felt sick. and went and got
some rum to keep his courage up. 1t is a
bad ciiing to drink rum in Santos. Next
morning he and six of our passengers
were dead. | wanted to bury them de-
Gently on shore or in the harbor; but the
fools that called themselves the govern
ment wouldn't allow it-as if one dead
body more or less mattered then; so L
made the engineer get up steam, and we
sewed the corpses up in sailcloth, with
plenty of scrap-iron, and dashed them out
over the gunWaleS, and so we went out
to sea. The niggers we passed in the
fishing boats hoWled that we were a
death-ship."
Il should think you werer' said I.
I'VE were afterwards. When we got a
mile or SO from land, | read few pray
ers. the best l could think Of and then a
man went round and cut the laShingS,
and we laid our course for New York
but you bet we had a time of it before
we got there. We took the fever with
u.s. and we had no doctor on board; and
it would not have mattered much if we
had had. The crew went mad one after
the other. 1t began with the fremen;
they dropped down dead with the shovels
in their hands Then one man with the
fever on him jumped overheard to get out
of his misery. After that they all did. l
put some Of them in irons when they
tried it, but they just died raging mad in
4 few hours, so l gave it up. We only
landed one man at New York, out of all
the passengers we took on board at San
tos. and but for fine weather we would
never have reached port at all, we were
SO short-handed. Once we got out of the
tropics we lost no more, though" He
thoughtfully eXpectorated into a spittoon
at his feet. and | found it advisable to go
on deck whittier he soon followed me-
Carlisle bay. with it's shipping, and the
low hills of Barbados were fast disappear
ing behind us as the little tramp, with the
strong trade wind behind her, plunged
ahead through the sparkling waves, blue
tourmaline color in their Gep his. shading
off to the green of an aQuamarne where
their tops grew thin and transparent.
Our bows were pointed straight towards
the setting SUM- and q black cloud of
smoke poured from the funnel, showing
that the engineer was firing up. He had
felt like in the engine room, and how Il
temperature of 100 degrees or so would
agree with that cream sauce
I'VE will be off Castries about O'Clock
tomorrow morning" said the captain. Il
am rot going TO stop there. The harbcr-
master will take you ashore in his boat
but you will not find it easy to pass away
the time till daylight. Your folks are
all UP on the Morne Fortunee, and yon
can't get up there in the dark. There is
a sort of hotel in Castres where you
might be able to knock somebody up, but
l doubt it,
''Oh, never mind" said I II can rough
i. 1t will not be like Santos. anyhow"
You're right there sir. I've seen curl
Gus things happen in these waters, toe. l
dare say, now, you have been on Pelican
island?"