The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1905-10-14
CREOLE DAYS IN HONDURAS
Colony of Louisiana Natives Trans-
plant Customs of olden Time
to Adopted Country.

mo more remarkable colony a
American exiles can be found any
where than Toledo settlement, in Brit
ish Honduras" said r. F. Jackson,
Of New Orleans, to a Washington Star
reporter day or two ago. 1T is a
bit OF Louisiana In tropic settlement
preserved to show us what the good
old creole days were like.
There the stately and punictilious
life OF the vanquished southern aris-
tocracy is still found with its cere-
monious hospitality, its fne-spun
sticking for the point of honor, its
pride Of ancestry and its patriarchal
relations between master and servant
For more than 40 years time has stood
still, leaving the exiles untouched by
modern progressive ideas and making
their home to-day the truest picture
to be found anywhere of life and man
ners ia the old south 'befo' the wah,
"The close of the civil war found
many of the planters of the cotton
states in sore straits. Their slaves
had been set free, their crops and
live stock seized by friend or foe,
their homes burned or despoiled, and
their plantations turned into a battle
ground for contending armies. AS a
result a considerable number of the
most prominent families of the south
gathered together such of their port
able property as had yet escaped the
general wreck and emigrated.
'Some of these went to Argentina,
settling near Buenos Ayres, where
the survivors and their descendants
are to-day objects Of charity. Mis-
fortune followed them to their new
home, and they are now poorer than
the poorest of the despised white
trash Of the states they abandoned.
Others went to Canada, a considerable
number to Cuba, and others to the
West Indies, few to Mexico and Bra
I'll, and IA families to British Hon
duras.
"Of these IA families all were from
the neighborhood of New Orleans. All
belonged to the old creole. aristocracy
1.-The proudest and most exclusive in
the land-dating their titles to their
estates back to the early days OF
French and Spanish occupation and
boasting that they had kept their
blood pure through all changes, of
government and ali vicissitudes Of
fortune. Each family took along such
Of its former slaves as preferred to-
follow the fortunes of their old mas
ters rather than accept their freedom
and try the uncertain and hazardous
experiment Of making their own way
In the world.
'The immigrants arrived in Belize
in the summer Of 1866, and were cor
daily welcomed by the colonial au-
thorities. They we're given 500 acres
each Of crown lands and were exempt
ed from taxation for ten years. The
new settlement was called Toledo.
The example of the aristocratic
southerners in carving out for them
selves new homes in the tropic jungle
has rarely been emulated. They had
been reared in the lap of luxury. Al
host Of slaves had always been ready
to obey or anticipate their slightest
wish. Yet they set to work with ak
and machete, toiling in the woods
alongside their former chattels, to
provide temporary shelters from the
elements and to plant crops for their
future necessities, and ere long a
miniature Louisiana arose where the
lordly palm had held undisputed sway.
Most of the houses are patterned
after the old colonial mansions OF the
south. The blacks are free. Of course.
but the relations between master and
servant are practically he same as
those that existed in the cotton states
half century ago. The old black
nanny is still the household tyrant
and the children's defender. just as
she was in the days Of Uncle Tom.
The same open-handed hospitality
that has always characterized the
sunny south rules in Toledo to-day,
and the tourist or trader who is drawn
thither on pleasure or business win
never regret the chance. One topic
Of conversation, however, is strictly
tabooed. That Is the civil war. The
lost cause is still regarded as holy
and the unregenerated republic is
looked upon as an alien and a foreign