The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1898-11-04

not deal with these nests of pirates
England and Denmark set about doing
it for her-and, driving out the pi-
rates, hoisted their respective flags
and took possession. Tortola proved a
rich acquisition for England, being a
first-class sugar island in those days
of high prices and slave labor, and it
soon became a fourishing colony,
whilst its neighbor, ST. Thomas, with
its matchiess harbor, although eco
nomically worthless, became the en-
trepot of the Lesser Antilles and a
rival of Port Royal.
The subsequent history of these is
lands is that of the West Indies. Only,
perhaps, that their decadence and
ruin has been both more precipitate
and more complete. If to-day St.
Thomas is but the shadow of its for
mer self, Tortola has not even the
shadow wherewith to console it's spir-
it. Of all the once fair and fourisEing
plantations that made the little island
one continuous garden of economical
vegetation from the center all round
to the sea-" not one remains. The
hand of decay has been LAID heavily on
the land, and the shadow of desolat ion
covers it as cloud. The fields are
covered by forests at least a quarter
of century old; the jungle has in
vaded formerly populous villages; and
even in the capital, Road Town, the
halls of the once opulent colcnists are
crumbling ruins and eloquent wit
nesses to the speedy triumph of nature
over the works of man in the tropics.
From 10000 the population has dwin-
died to scarce as many hundreds.
This utter ruin is partly due to
economic causes, but more immediate
ly so to the terrific seismic visitation
of 1867 above mentioned incidentally
That, to great extent, changed the
very face of the islands, leaving great
trails behind that can be seen to this
day-the earth coverings of mountains
swept into the sea here, leaving the
gaunt rugged rock bare, and the very
bowels of others collapsing there, leav-
ing vast and repulsive crater-like
chasms where even tropical vegetation
refuses to grow. And the springs were
all dried up, so that aridness has sue.
ceeded fertility.
But the Virgin islands are yet YER
liable fairyland of scenic beauty. This
perhaps goes without saying. when one
gives thought to the panoramic posi-
bilities of those varying combinations
of sea and landscapes that must ap-
pertain to such group. Tortola and
Virgin Gorda, as the loftiest, present
the finest and most extensive pros
poets; and possibly nowhere else can
be found quite so magnificent a. piano.
rama of land and sea as that seen from
the heights behind Road harbor at sun
rise. looking through the mouth of the
harbor to the island chain beyond.
Here, during the phenomenon of sun
rise, literally all the possible lights and
shades of nature are seen marching in
gorgeous procession over land and sea,
to which superb display both elements
lend themselves in a perfect gamut of
perspective gradations-if may so de-
scribe it. Three to five hundred feet
higher and the spectator has the en-
tire panorama of the Virgins spread
out before. behind and on either hand.
Another interesting, and far more
important, feature of the Virgin is
lands that must be here noticed, but
which it would require an exclusive
letter land more) to deal with exhaust