El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-09-09

found Antonio the Cuban wOrkin
among the crew as Justify and as &C
lively as any man on board. Westol
now offered him remuneration for tn
time that he had been with us. witt
a hint that he might find a berth else
where; but our castaway evinced tn,
greatest reluctance to leave the brig
and begged that he might be permit
ted to remain on board, as three O
our best hands had been sent ashore
sick, to the hospital.
So short-s1ghted is man that Cap.
tain Weston, despite the dislike OF the
crew and the advice of Marc Hislop
ordered that the name Of Antonio be
entered on the ships books as fore
mast man.
Three week after our arrival the
brig vas careened to starboard, when
clear Of all the cargo, and had her
copper scraped and cleaned. an op-
Grafton which the constant rains of the
season greatly retarded.
There was much in Cuba to feed
an imaginative mind, and mine was
full Of the voyages, the daring adven-
lures n the vast discoveries OF Co
lumbus. with the exploits of the buc-
cancers, whose haunts were amid these
wild and, in those days, savage
shores.
I thought Of the gaily plumed and
b~arbarously armed caciques whom Co.
lumbus had met in their fleet pirogues.
or had encountered in the dense for
ests which clothe the Cuban noun
tains-forests, old, perhaps, as the
days of the deluge-of the yellow
skinned ome with their long. flow
ing black hair and with plates of pol
ished gold hanging in their ears and
noses; Of the fierce warriors streaked
with sable war paint and armed with
cane arrows shod with teeth or poi
soned fish bones, that fell harmless
from the Spanish coats OF mail; of the
wild Caribs, who devoured their pris-
oners-with whom a battle was but a
precursor Of a feast; and of the ia
nous fighting women-the terrible
Amazons of Guadalupe.
1 thought of the story of Columbus
writing the narrative Of his wonderful
discoveries, his perils and adventures,
On a roll OF parchment, which he
wrapped in oilcloth covered over with
wax. inclosed in a little cask, and then
cast into the sea-, with a prayer, and
the hope that if he and his crew per-
ished this record of their achieve
ments might be cast by the ocean on
the shore Of some Christian land.
AS I sat by the sounding sea that
rolled into the bay of Matanzas, what
I not have given to have seen
he waves cast that old cask, covered
With weeds n barnacles, at my /,
eeti
he rusty merchant trader %ploughed
he waters of the bay instead of the
.ilded Spanish ~caravelS, or the long
var piroguss OF the Indian warriors;
where they fought their bloodiest
on the wooded shore, or in the
savanna, where the painted ca
and the mailed Castilian met
hand to hand in mortal strife, the
of the steam mill, grinding cof-
zee or boiling sugar, darkened the sky,
the songs of the negroes were
as they hoed in the plantations.
or in gangs of forty trucked mahogany
.ogs, each drawn by eight sturdy oxen,
the sea.
And so, in a creek of the bay-the
place where the Dutch Admiral
Heyn sank the Spanish plate fleet
was wont to sit dreamily for hours,
the murmur Of the waves in my
ears, with the buzz of insects and the
voice of the mock1ng-b1rdS among the
while watching the sails
hat glided past the headlandS of the
bay on their way to the Bahama Chan
nel or the great Gulf OF Florida.
This was my favorite resort. A wood
Of cocoanut and other trees shaded the
place and made it so dark hat 1 have
the fre-fies glance about at noon.
The cocoas are o the height of
Dutch poplars, and are covered with
leaves, which, when young, are
Of a pale red. As spring drew On, the
branches became covered with scarlet
and yellow flowers.
i've these the vast corral tree
spread its protecting foliage, Whence
the Spaniards, in their beautiful Ian
guage, name it La Madre del Cocoa, the
of which has al times a thou
lovely scarlet blossoms.
CHAPTER XVII.