The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-16

HdTDOI, It 1ldS d Ilctl DOI -illdSltIt W Nlio draws a respectable salary as captain of the port-down In the depths of the volcano He also acts in other capaci- lties, one of which is to entertain strang- CTS, in lieu of a hotel, and incidentally l to keep a sharp eye upon them pending l the issuing of passport to them from Ithe proper government official; after which cermony you are given the free
 dom of the place for the moderate con sideration of two guilders.
 The Dutch islanders are simple, in- dustrious, frugal folk. numbering per
 haps two thousand and another thou
 sand are negroes who were once their
 slaves, at least in law. It is said, how
 ever that the negroes were always the
 masters. They went off Whither and
 when they liked, without asking per-
 mission, earned money among the other
 islands as they could, spent it as they pleased; and then went back to their alleged masters to be supported when
 out of food or work. Happily the island
 was never fertile enough for sugar
 growing, so the Dutchmen were never tempted to increase the number of their
 slaves, but regarded the few whom cir
 cumstances had thrust upon them as friends and children. So when the mother-country decreed emancipation, no great change ensued in the semi | feudal relations between blacks and
 whites. These good Hollanders, living peacefully aloft in their volcano, grow garden crops, including several pro- ducts of the temperate zone; for the air is pleasant cool away up here, | though in the neighborhood of the equator. Or rather the women grow the crops and sell them in the neighboring | islands; the men are all sailors, or ship builders, having never lost the sea- faring instincts of their fathers. They build boats on the wooden decl1vlties and slide them down the cliffs ito the sea- the very best boats in the West Indies, which always find ready sale, as the men are eagerly sought as sailors,
 being considered, like their boats, thor oughly trustworthy and reliable. These shrewd, honest, virtuous and healthy folk speak English and in spite of tropical sun and rough sea-zreeze, they retain the same pink-andw white com plexion that their ancestors brought over from Holland, two hundred years ago. Nearly all the children have tow colored hair, freckled faces, wide mouths, large, strong teeth and delf- blue eyes. Though the population is professedly Lutheran in religious be- lief evrybody rejoices when the good Bishop of Antigua, (English Episcopal, pays periodical visit to Saba, dispens- ing spiritual refreshment.
 The city of Saba-locally known as Bottom" because it occupies the floor of thee rater-must be about the oldest town the sun shines on in all his course. It might as appropriately have been named the Top" being so hard to reach, at it's height of 960 feet above the sea. Though surrounded on all sides by steep hills with breaks in the waters rim only on the east and west through which the landing places are reached-yet the bottom of the rater is broad and level. That the volcano once vomited forth millions of tons of rock and scattered them broadcast Is evil dent, for stones are evryWhere piled In heaps higher than a mans head. Before the people could find any soil in which to plant their gardens they had to pick up the stones and boulders, to the depth of several feet. Although the natives dwell here in perfect security, the stranger cannot quite rid himself of an uneasy feeling, remebering Vesuvius, which suddenly leaped from crater whose fires had been so long dead that forests clothed it's sides, to the destruc- tion of nation. Each tiny garden in Saba's crater is enclosed in walls of stones, piled up so high that the one tr I,xy {ba 4o h tween artificial cliffs, over which hang vines and cacti, the haunt of humming- birds and troupials. The street and lanes wind in and out, hap-hazard-but never by any hazard sticking to a straight line, so that the stranger is perpetually losing himself, as in a labyrinth Even in the outlying coun- try, up on the sides of the volcano, the fertile washings from the peak are en- closed within small pockets and planted I as carefully as the soil in conserva- tory. The upper valleys are apportion- ed among the inhabitants, every avail | able inch of earth being utilized and | economized to the utmost. Neatness and 1 thrift go hand in hand with the sturdy Hollanders; their pretty houses are all f painted white, with red-tiled roofs, and | the interiors are as clean as constant | scrubbing can makx them. The highest point in the island occupied by a dwell- ing is little more than fifteen hundred feet; but as no horses or other beasts of burden can climb the steep paths that lead thereto, evrything is carried up from the landing place on the heads of men and women. The cargo of every ,oasting vessel that arrives with freight from the hamlet is first unladen under the cliffs and then carried up on the backs of the people-one hundred pounds to a man. Thus barrel of flour is divided, half being put into sack and two men "tote' it up, each with his load balanced airily on his head as if 1t were but feather weight. So trunks and heavy articles of furniture go up the Ladder" over steps so nearly per- pendicular that, as Ober says, "Even a goat would think twice before taking his life in his hands, as it were, and at- tempting that terrible trail.'
 Saba's greatest wealth is in sulphur, III exhaustless deposit of it, which is said to be the only mine of pure crude sulphur in the world, outside of Sicily Descending the greatest cliffs, about