The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-13

homes in the Barbadoes. They looked strong and healthy, but were homesick and tired of systematic labor Besides they had got together a little money. If money was always an evidence of wealth the people of the United States of Colombia should be the Wealthiest people on earth, because most of them have their hands full of money, and some of the merchants carry money in bundles under their arms. l asked the railroad ticket agent at Colombo the price of ticket to Barranquilla, city about seventeen miles distant and re- turn; he told me eighty-five dollars. l gave him one of our United States one dollar bills and he gave me ticket and fifteen dollars in Colombian bills in change.
 "In Barranquilla I asked the mule car conductor how much the fare was from the depot to the hotel, a short distance, and he hold me five dollars. l gave him one of the five dollar bills the ticket agent had given me. l was afraid of the water and beer at the flo- tel, and with two other gentlemen drank six small cups of coffee, each of us two cups. I asked the price of the six cups of coffee and the clerk of the hotel told me one hundred dollars. l | had just learned that three people at | the next table had been charged three hundred dollars for their dinner, and each paid one dollar in our bills, so l gave the clerk one Of our one dollar bills and this paid his one hundred dol- | lar charge, and realized that one cent ' in our bills was equal to one dollar in theirs.
 1 q passed a store where a merchant was counting his money and he had enough before him to fill a waste bas- ket. On the Isthmus of Panama one dollar in our money, either silver or ! bills, was worth two dollars in the money of the Republic of Panama.
 T skirted the whole northern coast of South America from Colon to the Island of Trinidad.
 "On our outward passage to Jamai- ca among our fellow voyagers were | Judge w. K. Townsend and wife, and Mrs. H. Grant Thompson and daughter of this city One night, about mid- night, when in sight of the lighthouse on the Island of San Salvador, one of the Bahama Islands, the first land seen | by Columbus on his voyage in search of the new world and now called Wat lings Island, H. M. Curtis, a passenger from Waterbury, died suddenly, and the following morning was buried at sea- The captain and a clergyman conducted the service, which was very impressive, and the steamer was stopped at the moment of the burial.
 Caracas is six miles over the noun tains as the crow flies, but the railroad makes journey of twenty-eight miles to reach there This railroad is said tc
 be one of the greatest engineering feat of the world. Some of the mountains rise to height of ninety-six hundred feet abruptly from sea and La Gauyra is built on a narrow strip at their bast on the shore of the bay, with some oi the houses looking as though they wert set in niches on the mountain side anC painted blue, yellow, green and all col ors of the rainbow Castro knows tha
 no power will shell this city, as thu
 financial interests here are largely
 English and German, and to shell thu
 mountain side would be simply mur' dering defenseless people. l saw tw
 forts on the mountain side which l wa told could hold a warship eight mile at sea, and that Castro had nunbe'
 of the best modern guns concealed II different advantageous places in thu
 mountains, and general Ancantara, Venezuelan educated at West Point
 had been placed in command and Tn
 structed to fire on any French yesst
 putting in an appearance
 We could see from our ship a pa
 rade of Venezuelan soldiers along tn shore. The opinion of all the people
 came in contact with was that wit D two thousand men in the mountains
 Castro could hold at bay twenty thou | sand foreign soldiers. His position l 2 practically impregnable
 Q q went from La Guayra to Port c e Spain, Island of Trinidad, this bein
 my third trip to this island, once as
 boy in 1869, and in February, 1905, jus
 a year ago This island while only teI
 degrees from the equator, at this tim
 of the year has our temperature o
 July, excepting better than ours i
 July; the nights are cool so we neede
 blankets. I have been to all the Wes
 India Islands some of them severa
 times, and 1t is my opinion, and tn
 opinion of others able to judge, tha i Trinidad is the most interesting islam
 of them all, and although furthe
 south, Is not nearly as hot as Jamaica
 I took some beautiful drives over fin
 roads across mountains and valleys c
 tropical splendor, through miles of co
 coa plantations sugar cane district and cocoanut palms. This island
 celebrated for its Hindoo coolie settle
 ments; these people are brought her - by the English government, and the q live and dress the same as in Caleutt e or Bombay. There are about one hun f dred thousand of them in Trinidad an s nine hundred and eighty more arrive q the week that I was there
 = "The last of February this year
 carnival week in Trinidad, and for day }, | the people in masked costumes oWne . the city, and business was suspende : for two days after monday.
 V "The time to visit the West Indies I in February, and no one should visi f these islands unless in the best physi cal condition; any one needing a res q or change of environment can be ben a efited, but the West Indies is no plac l Al. T,, Nrs, 1 oS n where most of the Venezuela revolu
 tions are matched and fostered, som I | people antagonistic to Castro and hi e government were passing around O
 February 2S a large hand-bill contain