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

Curacao, Dutch w. l., April 3, 1902,
 This puaintest little island in the
 world lies only about fifty miles from
 the Venezuelan coast, on the edge of
 the great gulf which receives the wa
 ters of Lake Maracaibo. Its distance
 from New York is in the neighborhood
 of eighteen hundred miles, and from
 Key West not much more than a thou
 sand. About the size of the District of Columbia, it contains flourishing
 Dutch colony, forty thousand strong, | and half as many more people of 'di- verse nationalties, having been, since | time out of mind, a favorite asylum for | absconding defaulters, forgers and oth-
 CT criminals, as well as for political re- l fugees from North, South and Central I America, and all the islands on this | side of the globe. Many of the recolu- | tions that have racked and ruined the | so-called republics of Spanish America I NCIG iiltileu III Cul dCdO- ulu6l outlltl
 of the pretentious (but nowadays per- | fectly harmless) fort that guards this
 port. Bolivar, Blanco, Santa Ana, Ter do, Barrios and lang line of later die tators and would-be presidents" found security for time in this bare little island, Bolivar, the founder of five re- publics, lived here in banshment seve-
 ral years, waiting for the rescue that never came and the justice that was
 not accorded till after his death.
 In reality Curacoa island is nothing
 bua q great volcanic Assure, between
 thirty and forty miles long by from
 three to seven wide-two wild, bare,
 abrupt ridges of greensboro connected
 by a limestone dyke more than mile
 thick. Coasting around its edges, you
 see many deep fluctuations, which look
 as if they might be excellent harbors,
 each a circular basin enclosed within
 high rims of greenish rock; but the
 steamer stops at none of them, until the southwest corner of the island is reached, where is Willemstadt the chief town of Curacoa, commonly called by the same name as the island. The entrance to it's bay is a narrow, mile long passage, which reminds you of the approach to Santiago de Cuba-eXcept 1 that this is straighter and deeper than the historic Cuban inlet. The Dutch 1 possessors have dubbed the passage Skattegat, and lined it on both sides ! with frowning forts that fairly bristle | with antique guns. So narrow is the | waterway to Santa Ana bay that sem tinels on opposite forts crack jokes with i one another and might easily jump off | their walls to the deck of your vessel. | The bay into which it leads is a natu- | ral lagoon. deep and wide enough to [ float more of navy than Holland will | ever own. On its farther edge is the | harbor proper, defended from the world | by an absurd little pontoon bridge across it's entrance. On all sides are forts towers, batteries, rus ty cannon and garrisons of dumpy Dutch soldiers-an amazing bluff of Hollands power in the western world, | which strikes you as extremely funny, You do not observe the pontoon bridge until almost upon it. The steamer halts, and presently the deep bass of her whistle is answered by the shrill treble of a tiny launch. Then one end of the bridge of boats is seen to be slow ly moving toward the opposite shore, Little by little the strip of blue water until at last the pontoon lies parallel to the shore and a series of splitting toots from the fussy little tender announces that the deed is done and the stranger-vessel is at liberty to enter Hollands domain. Before your steamer reaches her dock in front of Curacoa's capital the launch has tugged the pontoon back into place, and traffic upon it is resumed
 So eminently, sleepily and clumsily Dutch is the scene that you can hardly compel yourself to believe that you are still in the western hemisphere, actual
 y under the lee of the two Americans, and not in the Zuyder Zee. The town If WilIemstadt is scattered all around he lagoon, it's houses built exactly like hose of Holland, the streets so marrow hat the burghers can shake hands with 1ne another through opposite windows, So solid is the architecture that each residence might withstand a siege, it's walls of stone and mortar veritable 'ort. There are no others like them on
 his side of the world, unless it be ar Surinam-the other Dutch paradise in Guiana, a little further down the coast , if South America. Huge stone build- ; ngs two or three stories high, have the lddest of gables and dormer windows, md pillared balconies let in on the sec i md floors, with places of business be- { ow. Even the governors spacious res i dence has a government store-house on ' he ground floor. They are really spanish "casas" with Dutch modifica { ions-a happy combination to fit the s limate, with their bricked courts and l fled roofs and breezy corridors shaded ( " jalousies. The walls are painted l 'elIow, pink, purple or blue, after the i ashion of Spanish America, the roof ( iles are dark red and the jalousies are I IS bright a green as paint can make I hem Dominating all are the forts and I ast1es-Fort Amsterdam Fort Riff I Nassau Castle Bolivar tower and oth- t rs whose names l have not learned. | AIl your precious experiences of travel | n strange places seem to be upset in |