The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-08-08
ON A LONELY ISLE.
Visit to an Almost Forgotten
Spot in the West Indies.
STATIAONCE QUITEAPLACE
There Our Flag Was First Saluted in
Foreign Waters-Now 1t Is
Land of Yester-
day.

once found myself in land Of yes
terday, stranded on an island which
the mutations of trade had left on the
verge of the world, so far as modern
progress was concerned. 1t is an ISL
and of the Caribbees, belonging to the
Dutch, and lies about midway between
Saba and Saint Kits. When Christie
pher Columbus sailed this way, in 1893,
he named it Saint Eustatius; but he
did not land here being anxious to re-
visit Hispaniola and the north coast of
Haiti.
One of the earliest accounts I have
seen calls it huge rock rising out of
the waves, in the form of a pyramid,
about Is miles in circumference. 1t
consists, in fact, chiefly of an extinct
volcano and the detritus washed down
from it's cliffs, together with the erup-
tive matter from the crater. There is
no real peak to this isolated noun
ton, but circular crater brim, 1850
feet above the sea- and the sweep of its
pyramid sides makes it one of the
most symmetrical natural objects any
where to be found in the world.
Neither is there any harbor or good
landing place, and the visitor has to
take his chances of oetting safely
through the surf that beats continually
upon its sandy shore Yet, time was
when this surf pounded shore was
strewn with the products of every
cline, and merchandise of incalculable
value lay unprotected on the strand.
About the middle of the last century,
during the general war in Europe, the
Dutch, taking no part in the belige1ent
operations, were the greatest gamers
as they supplied the other powers with
naval and military stores.
And at the beginning of the last quar-
ter of the last century, when that lit
tie dispute occurred between Great Bril-
tain and her American colonies, the
Dutch again, by sending out all kinds
of stores and munitions to her West
Indian colony of st. Eustatius, was of
very material assistance to both France
and America John Bull suspected
something wrong was going on, but
could not prove it until by the cap
ture of an American packet, his eyes
were opened to the true inwardness of
the situation. Then, with a prompt
ness that fairly took the Dutchman's
breath away, he declared all treaties
between his court and Holland abro-
gated and sent out fleet to investi-
gate. in the customary British fashion
by taking everything in sight and
then putting the blame upon the 'other
fellow" In the roadstead of Port
Orange, 'Statia's apology for harbor,
large fleet of East Indiamen was
congregated, laden with cargoes of
immense value, and the beach was pill
ed high with what former ships had
landed there and for which there was
no storage room.
A declaration of war against Holland
and a powerful fleet under Lord Rodney
had been sent out simultaneously, 30
that when the British admiral hove in
sight having on board his ships large
land force, under General Vaughan,
poor 'Statia was thrown into consterna-
ton.
The island was under the rule of
brave old Governor de Graaf,a creole of
Dutch parentage, whose sympathles
were decidedly with the struggling
American colonies, but whose forts and
military force were inadequate to com
bat this immense aggregation and arm
ament under Rodney. So he surrender
ed, of course, and the island, with its
vast riches, all conveniently stored IN
the ships and piled up on shore, fell
into British hands.
With an instructive attraction toward
the place that would afford the greatest
loot, the British had pounced upon this
island, and the plumber far exceeded
their most sanguine expectations. III
was estimated at more than Sl5,000,0Oo,
but while Rodney and Vaughan We're
quarreling over its distribution they let
slip the golden opportunity for crush
ing the rebelious Americans, and in the
end the capture of 'Statia cost John
Bull rather more than it was worth.
In other words, if Rodney had sailed to
the relief of Lord CORVALLIS, then PEN
ned up at Yorktown, instead of tarry-
ing at this little island he might have
changed the history of our revolution.
He tried to make amends afterward,
by the destruction of the French fleet.
under De Grasse; but that was more
in the nature of revenge than a COM
pensation for the loss of the colonies.
And again, it happened that as the
riches thus acquired on this occasion
were in transit to England the ships
containing them were intercepted by
the French and 81 of them taken. The
French. also, later captured the island
and held it for some time; so after all
the British made little out of their
breach of faith with the Dutch. The lat
ter seemed, however, to have come out
of the affair as poorly as their enemies,
for they lost their merchant fleets, and
the island never recovered its prosper
ity.
Like other West Indian islands,
'Statia has changed hands many times.
First it belonged to the Carib Indians.
who were driven out by some French
men who had been expelled from 81.
kits by the Spaniards, in 1880; in 1853
the Dutch appropriated 1t, but We're
afterward elected by the English, they
in turn being put out by the French, to
whom it was coded at the treaty OF
Breda: Notwithstanding which Louis
XIV. restored it to the Dutch, in whose
possession it was at the time OF the
invasion by Rodney, and to Whom tne
british finally relinuuished this poor
squeezed orange. after all the juice had
been sucked out of 1t.
So to-day we find poor 'Statia but a
reminder of former greatness; with
immense warehouses gone to decay,
fine old Dutch mansions in ruins, and
the best part of its population in its
neglected cemetery. where magnificent
marbles display the epitaphs of Dutch
and Hebrew merchants who once rolled