The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-28
BASSE TERRE.
TA.LLEST, OE THE. GTADELOUPE
 TWINS.
Life in the Average West ludia Town
 Travel fin the Tropics.

and Courier)
 | Among the Leeward Carbbees, May 23 To visit Guadeloupe's capital-which was chrstened Bourg St. Francois, but 1 is commonly called Basse-Terre, from
 the name of the peninsula on whose tip
 it is situated--you take the little coast
 CT that leaves Pointe-a-P Pitre every
 evening on it's round trip. It is an all-
 night journey, and an exceedingly un- i comfortable one. The passengers are
 mostly negroes and the black-hole of a
 cabin has about as much fresh air in it 1 as Noah must have enjoyed in the low
 CT story of his ark from the one window
 in the roof. Not caring to turn in
 under such circumstances, you decide to
 spend the night on deck; and presently discover that the majority of your fel- l low passengers came to the same decl- sions and are already slumbering peace fully all over the floor and benches
 Stepping over and around the perspir- ing, odoriferous sleepers you pitch
 camp stool in some sheltered nook, and with your back against the rigging and
 a rug tucked around your knees-tor
 even in this latitude the nights are chill ly), prepare to endure the slow hours
 till morning. But to your surprise, you
 find ample compensation for all dis
 comforts in the glory of the troplc night
 and promise yourself to make no more
 day trips in West Indian waters when
 ever it is possible to travel in the so-
 called ''hours of darkness" There Is no
 such thing as darkness here; at mid
 night you can see to read as easily as
 by day, and objects at distance are as
 clearly visible. Perhaps for the first
 time you fully appreciate the phrase,
 Blessed by the hallowed benedction
 of the moon" The black Armament is
 fairly ablaze with stars and the pros phorescence of the magic mirror below
 reflects the splendor of the sky with indescribable brilliancy,-the crest of each wave, with it's scintillations of light and ripples of liquid fire, forming a flaming cascade--a phenomenon one never tires of watching What is it that thus illumines this enchanted sea? "Phosphorescence," you say-but what is that? Is it the combination of mil lions of animalculae, intinitessimal torch- bearers of tropic waters, like fire flies upon land? Listen intently in the dead of night and you seem to hear an eager whispering among the waves that tap consistently at the port-holes, as if they were in confidential mood and de- sired to disclose to you the secrete of the deep Famed by sleepy trade winds, you watch the Southern Cross mounting slowly from the horizon to the zenith, where it marks the hour of midnight, and think of Paul and Vir- gina, those immortal lovers whom 1t served as a beacon. Toward morning the moon disappears, the wind blows damp, and ghostly fogs with trailing robes of grey come dropping out of the darkness, recalling a thousand super stitons that prevail in the forecastle. Those weird shadows that come and go in the half light may be phantom ships, or drowned sailors with sea-weed in their hair or the time honored spook whom Coleridge addressed in his i'm mortal "Rime:"
 God save the, ancient mariner, From the friends that plague thee so! Why look'st thou thus?" With my |
 crossbow shot the albetros.'
 At any rate, these waters are haunt ad by longer fine of historical ghosts | than obtain in any other spot on this side of the globe; with the romance and | tragedy of discovery and subjugaton- 0f greedy conquistadores and cowled | monks and bloody buccaneers and the oravest soldiers of France and Eng and; of treasure-laden galleons and | he pirate craft that pursued them and he warships that followed hard after. Only a little more than four centuries ago Columbus, with his fifteen hun fred men and fleet of eighteen cara yals was coasting these same narrow channels of the Caribbees, between loosely crowding islands In Irving's natchess description of those memora- ,le days you read, During the first lay that he entered this archipelago Columbus saw no less than six islands f different magnitude. After seeking n vain for good anchorage at Domini- a he stood for another of the group to which he gave the name of his flag hip-"Marie Galante."
 True as you live the modern coaster l n which you are passenger, is mak- ng straight for the little island which 'olumbus named after his own caraval, nd you are literally following in the Jake of the great admiral If you are he sophisticated globe-trotter that I ( ake you to be, you have brought along i our Irving, at least that part of it per l aiming to Columbus experiences in ( lese waters,-as indispensable an ad- met to intelligent travel in the West { ldies as the light woolen rug, without l hich you would be a nightly sufferer, { nd the folding-chair that can be con- ( erted into bed on the frequent occa- ons when no better bed is obtainable. I At Marie Galante, which lies seven | zen miles southeast of Guadaloupe, | ' olumbus went ashore with all his men, il splayed the royal banner for the first t me on this side of the Atlantic, and V ok formal possession of the arChipela- t in the name of Ferdinand and Isa- t 4lla. The island contains only about xty square miles and the shores are F eep and rocky. It is still covered fl ith dense woods, but is no longer un- e habited as when the first white men fl me. The population of to-day-thir- IT en thousand or so-is decidedly dark b
 of complexion than the Obariginal r, ,ribs There is one town, called Mar sl ot or Grande BOurg, on the south | a