Chapter I: Front Matter

[Every attempt has been made to replicate the original as printed. Some typographical errors have been corrected; a list follows the text. Some illustrations have been moved from mid-paragraph for ease of reading. (etext transcriber's note)]

GARDENS OF THE CARIBBEES

VOLUME I

Travel Lovers' Library

_Each in two volumes profusely illustrated_

Florence
By GRANT ALLEN

Romance and Teutonic Switzerland
By W. D. MCCRACKAN

Old World Memories
By EDWARD LOWE TEMPLE

Paris
By GRANT ALLEN

Feudal and Modern Japan
By ARTHUR MAY KNAPP

The Unchanging East
By ROBERT BARR

Venice
By GRANT ALLEN

Gardens of the Caribbees
By IDA M. H. STARR

Belgium: Its Cities
By GRANT ALLEN

L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY
Publishers
200 Summer Street, Boston, Mass.

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST THOMAS.]

GARDENS OF
THE CARIBBEES

Sketches of a Cruise to the West
Indies and the Spanish Main

By
Ida M. H. Starr

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
_ILLUSTRATED_

Boston
L. C. Page & Company
_MDCCCCIV_

_Copyright, 1903_
By L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
(INCORPORATED)

_All rights reserved_

Published July, 1903

Colonial Press
Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co
Boston Mass., U. S. A.

To
My Beloved Children

TO THE READER

These sketches were written during a memorable cruise to the West Indies and the Spanish Main in the winter and spring of 1901. There has been no attempt to write a West Indian guide-book, but rather to give preference to the human side of the picture through glimpses of the people and their ways of life and thought. With this idea it was thought best to give attention only to such of the ports visited as were full of human interest and typical of the life about the Caribbean Sea.

There was a strong feeling that we were sailing in romantic waters, and there has been no desire to eliminate the element of fancy from these pages.

It may be of interest to remember that at no time since--and perhaps never before--could this voyage have been made under the same conditions. Since then man and the greater powers of Nature seem to have conspired to make much of this delightful region forbidding to strangers. Several ports have become dangerous because of fever and plague; proclamations in French and _pronunciamientos_ in Spanish have adorned West Indian street corners; Haïti has reverted to its almost chronic state of riot and revolution; the Dominican republic has again chosen a President whose nomination came from a conquering army; Venezuela has been full of alarms and intrigues; while already the Germans are beginning to show their hand in the Caribbean; Martinique and St. Vincent have been desolated by volcanoes then thought to be practically extinct; and of delicious St. Pierre there remains but a sadly sweet memory.

I. M. H. S.

_10 June, 1903._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE VOYAGE 11

II. PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAÏTI 35

III. SANTO DOMINGO 83

IV. SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 124

V. CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 162

VI. MARTINIQUE 197

VII. MARTINIQUE, "LE PAYS DES REVENANTS" 246

VIII. ISLAND OF TRINIDAD. PORT OF SPAIN 275

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I.

PAGE

WHERE THE POMEGRANATE GROWS, CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS _Frontispiece_

MAP OF THE CRUISE _facing_ 34

THE LANDING-PLACE, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI 39

WAITING FOR CUSTOMERS, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI 43

THE "COACHES," PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI 47

MAIN BUSINESS STREET OF THE CAPITAL OF THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI 51

A PUBLIC FOUNTAIN, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI 59

A WEST INDIAN AFRICA, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI 71

COURTYARD OF THE AMERICAN LEGATION, HAITI 77

A MILL FOR SAWING MAHOGANY, HAITI 81

THE OLD FORT AT THE RIVER ENTRANCE, SANTO DOMINGO 87

A CLOSER VIEW OF THE OLD FORT, SANTO DOMINGO 91

THE CATHEDRAL AND THE STATUE OF COLUMBUS, SANTO DOMINGO 95

RUINS OF CASTLE BUILT BY DIEGO COLON, SANTO DOMINGO 99

WHERE COLUMBUS PLANTED THE CROSS, SANTO DOMINGO 103

ENTRANCE TO THE FORT AND MILITARY SCHOOL, SANTO DOMINGO 109

LOOKING ACROSS THE PLAZA, SANTO DOMINGO 113

ALONG THE OZAMA, SANTO DOMINGO 119

LOOKING TO SEA FROM SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 125

BOAT LANDING AND MARINE BARRACKS, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 135

THE FIRST TROLLEY-CAR IN SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 141

THE MILITARY ROAD ACROSS PUERTO RICO, NEAR SAN JUAN 145

INLAND COMMERCE, PUERTO RICO 151

A RANCH NEAR SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 159

THE HARBOUR, CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 165

HILLSIDE HOMES, CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 171

IN CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 175

CHARLOTTE AMALIE FROM "BLUE BEARD'S CASTLE," ST. THOMAS 183

ON THE TERRACE, CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 187

COALING OUR SHIP, CHARLOTTE AMALIE, ST. THOMAS 191

THE SUGAR MILL NEAR ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 203

COMING TO WELCOME US, ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 207

LOOKING FROM THE DECK OF OUR SHIP, ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 213

THE HARBOUR AND SHIPPING, ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 217

THE LIGHTHOUSE ON THE BEACH. ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 221

THE STREET ALONG THE WATER-FRONT, ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 225

THE CATHEDRAL AND WATER-FRONT. ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 231

THE CITY AND ROADSTEAD, ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 249

NEAR THE LANDING-PLACE, ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 259

THE RIVIÈRE ROXELANE, NEAR ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE 271

THE DRAGON'S MOUTH, ENTRANCE TO GULF OF PARIA, BETWEEN SOUTH AMERICA AND TRINIDAD 277

THE BUSINESS SECTION, PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD 283

A VILLAGE GREETING, SAN FERNANDO, TRINIDAD 289

WHERE THE LEPERS LIVE AND DIE, TRINIDAD 303

Gardens of the Caribbees