Evening star., 1934-07-31
ny THOMAS r. HENRY.

Ths last colony of the Confederate
Slater. after 2 determined existence
OF nearly 10 years Is near ~ end.
The mory Of this lost group Of
Confederates. encountered in the Jun
ele Of British Honduras By .archeolo-
gists Of the Carnegie Institution oil
Washington. has been traced In the
United States by old records OF the
reconstruction period.
Further inquiry dkcloSes. according
20 a Carnegfe Institution report, that
IN s6T 100 Southerners landed in
Belize. capital OF Briti8h Honduras.
and we're joined by 200 others about
a year later. The leader appears TO
have been Rev. Lew Pearce, Mis-
sissippi Methodist minister. He and
hts three sons. after examining many
regions In Honduras IN The attempt
20 and suitable agricultural land,
finally chose a district near the
Caribbean coast in the extreme
southeastern part OF che state not
far from the then small Caribbean
village called Punta Gorda. A num-
Der Of Ie0-aore tracts we're purchased
on easy terms from the landowners.
Toledo A. Co
Banana growing was the first ven
ture OF the members Of the young
colony AS their capital was very
tmall. they did their own clearing,
planting and cutting. The road from
their clearing through the forest to
q shipping point on the coast was
only a trail made by mahogany cut
ters which became almost impossible
during the rainy season. Small
schooners running to New Orleans
stopped irregulsrly so that transporta-
tion to market at cutting time could
not he depended upon.
Failing in banana culture, the set
tiers turned TO the growing of cane
and manufacture Of sugar. The first
mills were small and primitive, each
planter grinding his own cane and
boiling the juice In open kettles. Later
small horse mills were replaced by
better and larger mills driven by
steam.
Before this. however, most of the
original settlers had become discour-
aged and left, but their places were
filled by recruits from the States
Twelve plantations survived the
pioneer period. They succeeded to
such an extent that the owners we're
able to educate their children in the
States and even to make occasional
trips 10 their old homes. This con-
dition continued well into the pres
ent century. But for some years past
the small sugar mill of the settle
ment has been unable to compete
with the improved machinery else
where. The government has built a
motor road through to the colony,
but 1t has come too late to be Of
much benefit. The plantations, re-
ports Oliver Ricketson, jr. Carnegie
sroheologist, who discovered the COL
Ony, rapidly are being abandoned and
the plantation houses. built according
10 the old Southern pattern, are fall
ing into decay and giving away to
native huts. The forests. spreading
over the sugar fields, have all but sue
ceeded in exterminating their human
invaders.
y *
Space is almost empty, according to
the calculations of DR.. j. A. Ander-
son. Carnegie Institution astronomer
Within the observable limits of the
universe, he points out, the extent of
space Is approximately 100 ,000, 900, =
600, 900 900 900 100000 cubic light
years, light year being the distance
that light moving at approximately
l62, 900 miles a second will traverse
in one year.
But within this enormous cube
there are lots Of stars. A single gal
axy contains about 10000, 100000 of
them, and there are 100000, 900 gall
axieS, a roughly comparable number.
Yet, DR.. Anderson calculates, If all
these stars were packed together in
one solid mass they would fill only
! per cent of single cubic light year.
All the matter In creation is far less
than a fly speck on the North Ameri-
can continent compared to the total
vastness of the universe.
This does not mean, however. that
the spaces between the stars is entirely
absent. There is good evidence, DR..
Anderson says. that inside our own
galaxy there exists very tenuous gas
containing atoms Of sodium and cal
cium. and it is reasonable to believe
that something similar is to be found
in other parts of space. 1t is, Of
course, far thinner than the nearest
perfect vacuum conceivable on earth,
yet so vast is the extent 1t fills that
probably its total mass is at least
equal TO that of all the stars.
Only the millions of light years
which separate the galaXies from each