The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-19

EeYule-Santa Nara Ia Antigua ne last word. by the way, should be pro- nounced -gah-thOugh the resi- dent Englishman. with their customary pig -headedHess in the Use uf spanish names-l,ersist in ,al.iHg it ''Artgger.
 II is not shaped Iik Itls n".ghbnrlnE islands. being larger and i.swer. with no central ridge nor S"ufri~re. Neither is 1T flat like Earhadncs The edges If ih' island are ranIparted with magnificent cliffs. which gradually slope inward. tn interior being 3 succession of gentle wooded hills. green meadows and G:assv downs" as the English "wners call them. Of irs total area of l22 jto0 acres, fully 100000 are under cultivation. Su- gar cane is ihe principal product. though some tobacco and cotton are grown and grain enough fGr home con 'sumption. Making for E7glish ha' hour, ilnCally spelled with u. after the Eng fish fashion,. you find bay within bay "a semi-circle of wuoded heights and cliffs which almost meet at the narrow entrance, guarded by numerous 0utly- ing rocks and shoals. so that access is both difficult and dangerous. But when once safe inside of it. this harbOr is one of the best in the world, capable of re- ceiving the largest chips of the British navy. The Royal Mail steam packets, which call regularly. make this their station, in preference to St. Johns har- bor on the other side of the island. Both are extinct craters and show what destructive forces have ragged here in ages past. There are many crater harbors in the West Indies, which na- ture has handed over. at least for time, from the dominion Of fire to that of water.
 A picturesque but uncanny hole is English Harbour. The steamr crepps in carefully, through deep crack in the sides of the grey cliffs, whose bases are perforated with dark and fearsome cav erns worn by the waves On the right. a bluff of black lava drops sheer down into still water. many fathnms deen. and you anchor at its foot, in the midst of an irregular group of craters, having passed into one of them through q gap in it's side, torn out by some ancient flow of lava. Part of it's circumference is perfectly round and smooth. walled by ash-beds that gradually slope out ward. On it's broken side, a short, wide creek, or canal, leads little way inland; and along it's banks are ranged quays and warehouses, backed by neat government buildings. The dusty rims of the ancient craters arc clothed with peculiar vegetation, the bright, unhealthy green 0f graveyard growth; and all the cliffs and hillsides are hrist- +,'' bo Agava Americana. aloe. or century plant-its enormous punches of fat, pike-shaped leaves springing out of crevices so arid that even moss could not find foothold. There is splen- did carenage and dock-yard. and an arsenal at the port called Falmouth. The chain of rugged heights that en- close it are covered with Notifications from whose ramparts cannon frowu and the flag of Britain waves, These uplands form a natural fertilization which is regarded as imnregnahle, and the loyal citizens boast that were every other West India island lost to England, she might make stand in Antigua long enough to reconquer the whole But it does not look that way to any body but an Fnglishman. A large force could not possibly hold out long in such 3 little country, so entirely destitute of water. The rusty treeless ridges would look sad and desolate enough during tho dry season-if anything could be sad and desolate under such a glowing sky. with the bluest and brightest of seas leaping around it. Scarcity of fresh waters in the bane of Antigua. and to it
 is attributed the frequency of epidem- ic. diseases. There is but one small stream on the island, and that is often dry The townspeople trust to tanks and cisterns of rain water for their household supplies, which they cool by passing through drip stones Fortunate ly rains are frequent. but during long. dry seasons the tanks give out and wa ter has to be imported at great expense from some other island. The planta- tions have artificial ponds, which are filled by rains and serve for the cattle horses and fowls. With true English sentimentality these home made lakes are called "guts"; and in wet weather they sometimes. overflow their banks so much as to interrupt communication by carriage on the highway, Perhaps you can imagine our surprise on being told, when we wanted to go overland to St. Johns, that it was impossible, because MT Brisbane's gut had overflowed
 Just before slavery was abolished, Gin 1834l, all the ponds and cfsterns in An tigua went dry. and the Importation of water being altogether insufficient, the stock and slaves perished by thousands: and then a malignant fever broke out which rarried off most of the remainder and threatened to depopulate the isl- and. Whenever particularly dry sea son is followed by ccpiOus rains, a very fatal epidemic is sure to cnsue The population of Antigua is now in the neighborhood of forty thousand, a large proportion of whom are negroes. Of course this English island does not af- ford such varieties of color and costume as are found in the French islands: but you see many tall good-looking women. black as coal or the color of New Or leans molasses, walking with erect fig ure and attractive dignity, born of