Evening star., 1898-07-16

plantains, bananas and palms. The hills
rise steeply on every side. but their regular
slopes are cultivated to their tops. AS the
train winds in and out the valleys and con-
Meeting cuts the constantly changing views
reveal some new phase of tropical plant
life, until the acme of the picturesque is
reached at a little village called Los Bacas,
or, the Two Mouths; but Bonita and Cristo
are equally charming. The scenes of beauty
succeed each other with rapidity. each
seemingly fair as anything out of para
ments of palm, flower, sloping hillside, &C.,
yet each so varied that the eye took It in
with sense of novelty unrepeated
A COcOanut Grove.
Then there were the cocoanut groves
across the bay, to reach which you hire
a boat and boatmen, and after a two
mile row, finally up winding creek, walk
through mangrove thicket 20 the planta-
tions. On the way you may be shown the
rotting timbers of a hulk, far beneath the
surface of the water. which is said to be
one of the famed armada's galleons of
three hundred years ago.
The trail to the grove is skirted with
hearts of crimson and gold. Birds sing in
the trees, dragon-like iguanas dart through
the underbrush, golden chameeons bask
in the sun and thousands of land crabs
great blue monsters nearly a foot across
waltz along the path, menacingly bran
dishing their dexter claws. and finally
dropping into their holes in the mud
The proprietor of the grove will be clad
In simple shirt and drawers of native cot
ton, and probably surrounded by a dozen
children without any clothing at all, naive
and hospitable, all unconscious of the odd
ity of their nudity. Ask for some water
half negro and half Indian, a muscular
but good-natured semisavage, will rapidly
walk up cocoa tree. dragging a long line
behind him. He wears a ragged pair Of
fha halt II,
waist, into which is stuck a cutlass-in fact
the veritable 'machete,'' with which we
are now SO familiar. With this he hacks
on bunch of cocoanuts attaches it to the
end OF the line and lowers it to the ground
ana thus proceeds with bunch after bunch
until the tree is pretty well depleted. Then
he Will cast off the line and come down
hand over hand, and II you wish will halt
half way down for you to get q photo
graph.
Drink for the Gods.
When arrived at terra firma he will take
out the machete again and attack the CO.
eoanuts for your benefit. They are not, re-
member. the dry. brown and shaggy things
found In northern markets, but are green
and smooth and glistening, as though new
y made and vanished. Tearing one out
OF the cluster, the guide will clip the thick
musk to point, and then with a single
dextrous stroke cut off the end and leave
hole in the shell about an inch across
You need not be told what to do with 1t
now, for there is pint of clear cool, sweet
water In that ivory chamber, and If you
are thirsty-as you ought to be in Santiago
curing summer time-you will simply tip
pack your head. elevate the cocoa-and let
nature do the rest.
Then perhaps the guide will take YOU to
MS lowly hut and introduce you to his
pretty colored wife and the rest of the
family; show You his "trapiche" or primi-
1--WE one-ox sugar mill. and his garden.
Wnere all sorts of fruits and vepet q hlac
grow and flourish. This is but one of the
many side trips that may be made around
Santiago-after the Spaniards have left
II. summer time. F. A. OBER