The Republican journal., 1902-06-19

anu the result was always the same.
Yet in Santa Lucia they thrive so we'll
and are so actively hostile to man that
hundreds are killed by them every year
and the phrase, The died of the ser
pent' is as commonly heard as ''he died
of fever An Englishman who recent
ly cleared piece of land near Castries
says that his workman killed upwards
of forty rat tails during the first
week
Santa Lucia is evidently of volcanic
origin, the whole island having a
ragged and mountainous surface and
several of the fantastic heights show
ing craters that have been active at
comparatively recent period From
one of them, the Soutfriere) sulphur
Gus vapors are constantly rising, and it
contains sulphur enough. ready made.
to keep the world in gunpowder for
generations to come. Some thirteen
years ago two Englishmen came over
from Antigua island and set up sui phur
works in Santa Lucia's Soutfriere.
They exported 800 tons the first year:
and then the island sugar planters took
alarm, fearing that the new industry
would divert labor from their estates.
They induced the Legislative Coun-
ell of the British islands to levy a tax
of sixteen shillings sterling on every
ton of purified sulphur: and the con
sequence was ruin to the sulphur
miners. who had 10 abandon their
works and machinery.
The greater part of the island,
mountains and all is covered with
dense and gloomy forests: but the
valleys and lower heights are remarka-
bly, productive and well cultivated
The population OF the island approxi-
mates forty thousand, mostly French
and negroes. just why Santa Lucia
should be so trighttully unsalubrious.
amid all this beauty of hill and dale.
with charming climate of eternal
June, cooled by ocean breezes, is not
apparent to the casual observer 1t is
probably traceable 70 the extreme rank
ness and rapid decay OF vegetation.
All the forests are set deep in noxious
sWampS, where nature, though incon-
celvably beautiful. is dark. damp and
| threatening. and where every winged
and creeping thing is blood-thirsty In
any direction. within a few rods of the
cultivated spaces, you may plunge into
prlmeyal wilderness, where a sunbeam.
or the glimmer of star never pene-
trates: and the silence. unbroken by
bird or beast, is mourntully oppressive.
1t is like sepulchre. in which one is
buried away from his kind-and the in
tense beauty of the living tomb makes
II more uncanny 1t was in these
sombre forests that Sir Sohn Moore.
Abercromis, and the rest of them, lost
so many thousands OF men in the long
war between French and English for
possession OF the worthless little island
Every step was deadly danger. Chamber
ing over fallen logs that We're alive
with poisonous creatures and sinking
deep into Shiny pools where snakes
aboundtd. Besides tile fever and the
1er-de-lance, there was the ''Armee
Francise dams les bois. as the negro
| brgands We're called. They were des
perate and relentless blacks. who had
been liberated by the revolution OF 1872
and again enslaved by the English.
Having massacred their masters. men,
women and children, they took to the
woods, where they lived on wild cush-
cush roots and the plumber of plant "a
/ ti0ns numbering French and English
alike: and in turn beng killed When-
ever caught. After long years of It.
when England at last realized that she
was paying hundred lives for one. She
offered the negroes their freedom on
condition that they give up the fight.
Then the brigands laid down their
rusty muSkets and came out of the
bush; and were soon afterWard formed
Into crack British regiment and sent
to fight the battles of the diplomatic
Victoria on the coast of Africa which
soon made glorious end OF them.
FANNIE B. WARD