The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1904-07-01
THE NEW REPUBLIC
Interesting Letter from II For
mer Prominent Citizen of
Crescent City.
BOCAs DEL TORO,
Republic Of Panama,

BOCAs DEL TORO,
Republic OF Panama,
June II, 1901
MR.. w A. RUSSELL,
Dear Sir
Your letter of March 18th reached
me III due time aud it is needless to
say that was very glad to hear
from you and to hear that prospects
ut Crescent City are 50 good.
1t is II strange thing, but | have
not Received but three copies of the
4News' since | came here in March.
Ihe mails are rather irregular from
the states to this place but most let
ters and papers get here finally
Nearly all the mail for here comes
via. Mobile, and it is the belief of
Americans here that the trouble
lies in the Mobile P. o. Mail via
New Orleans to Costa Rica | found
to be quite regular while | was there
last winter.
AS you may know BOcas Del Toro,
Mouths Of the Bull III English is
situated very near the northern
limit Of the Republic of Panama on
II very fine harbor called Bahia de
AlmIratete' on Admiralty Bay.
Adjoining this bay but separated
from it by islands between which
naptha launches can run, is Chiriqui
Lagoon which is still larger bay,
being about thirteen miles wide by
dirty long. Ships of the largest
size can come in at any time and
last winter during the Panama
columbian episode Uncle Sam had
several ships and colliers here all the
time. In view from the harbor are
very high mountain ranges, some of
the peaks reaching an altitude of H.
900 it. These mountains are not on
~ beautiful and grand i'll appearance
but materially affect the tempera-
ture, making it cooler than it would
be without them.
The climate is quite pleasant for a
warm country and the temperature
nearly the same the whole year
through. In the West Indies the
the winter months are decidedly
cooler than the summer, especially
in Cuba, whereas the summer months
there are a little warmer than here.
We are in latitude 90 which as you
will see by the map puts us south OF
the northern coast of South America.
For this reason we do not get the
strong trade winds. which prevail in
the ". . and which prevail i'll Hon
Iuras aud Nicaragua. 1t is hard fol
me to realize it, but Colon IS seventy
mile east Of here. 1t seems as
enough it must be south.
The native population Of tins re-
| ZION are mostly a mixture OF spanish
| Indians, and negro. Some OF course
pre of pure Castellian ancestory and
mmiXed. There Is also native
population here of negroes who are
tralled "CreOles. They speak En-
glisb and are the drcemdaits Of ne
gro slaves from Jamaica who were
| Drought by their owners to the is
| lands of the coast in the early part
Of the last century. When the
| British government freed her slaves
in 1856 1t of course also applied to
these people, and they remained
here, taking up their little farms.
| Up to now all lands here that are
unuCcupied belong to the govern
ment and any one could occupy and
cultivate or transfer by sale to others
In case the lands are abandoned they
revert 10 the government and again
can be taken up by anybody whC
| chooses to do so.
Most of the merchants are Amerl
can and German while the small
shop keepers are Chinamen. The
new law will prevent the Cinnamon
from coming anymore, but most Of
those who are here can remain.
With kind regards,
| Yours very truly
GOLDSMITH IA. WILLIAMS.