Chapter I: Front Matter

ROAMING THROUGH THE WEST INDIES

BY

HARRY A. FRANCK

Author of “A Vagabond Journey Around the World,” “Zone Policeman 88,”
“Vagabonding Down the Andes,” etc., etc.

ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
BY THE AUTHOR

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1920

Copyright, 1920, by
THE CENTURY CO.

TO
MY WIFE, RACHEL,
WITH WHOM THIS WAS THE BEGINNING
OF A FAR LONGER JOURNEY, AND
TO
MY SON, HARRY,
WHO JOINED US ON THE WAY

FOREWARNING

Some years ago I made a tramping trip around the world for my own pleasure. Friends coaxed me to set it down on paper and new friends were kind enough to read it. Since then they have demanded more—at least so the publishers say—but always specifying that it shall be on foot. Now, I refuse to be dictated to as to how I shall travel; I will not be bullied into tramping when I wish to ride. The journey herewith set forth is, therefore, among other things, a physical protest against that attempted coercion, a proof that I do not need to walk unless I choose to do so. To make broken resolutions impossible, I picked out a trip that could not be done on foot. It would be difficult indeed to _walk_ through the West Indies. Then, to make doubly sure, I took with me a newly acquired wife—and we brought back a newly acquired son, though that has nothing to do with the present story.

I will not go so far as to say that I abjured footing it entirely. As a further proof of personal liberty I walked when and where the spirit moved me—and the element underfoot was willing. But I wish it distinctly understood from the outset that this is no “walking trip.” Once having broken the friends who flatter me with their attention of expecting me to confine myself to the prehistoric form of locomotion—I shall probably take to the road again to relieve a chronic foot-itch.

The following pages do not pretend to “cover” the West Indies. They are made up of the random pickings of an eight-months’ tour of the Antilles, during which every island of importance was visited, but they are put together rather for the entertainment of the armchair traveler than for the information of the traveler in the flesh. While the latter may find in them some points to jot down in his itinerary, he should depend rather on the several thorough and orderly books that have been written for his special benefit.

HARRY A. FRANCK.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I OVERLAND TO THE WEST INDIES 3

THE AMERICAN WEST INDIES

II RANDOM SKETCHES OF HAVANA 25

III CUBA FROM WEST TO EAST 50

IV THE WORLD’S SUGAR-BOWL 76

V UNDER THE PALM-TREE OF HAITI 106

VI THE DEATH OF CHARLEMAGNE 128

VII HITHER AND YON IN THE HAITIAN BUSH 149

VIII THE LAND OF BULLET-HOLES 189

IX TRAVELS IN THE CIBAO 207

X SANTO DOMINGO UNDER AMERICAN RULE 229

XI OUR PORTO RICO 256

XII WANDERING ABOUT BORINQUEN 280

XIII IN AND ABOUT OUR VIRGIN ISLANDS 304

THE BRITISH WEST INDIES

XIV THE CARIBBEE ISLANDS 339

XV “LITTLE ENGLAND” 360

XVI TRINIDAD, THE LAND OF ASPHALT 381

XVII AFRICAN JAMAICA 403

THE FRENCH WEST INDIES AND THE OTHERS

XVIII GUADELOUPE AND DEPENDENCIES 439

XIX RAMBLES IN MARTINIQUE 449

XX ODDS AND ENDS IN THE CARIBBEAN 475

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Shade-grown tobacco in Porto Rico _Frontispiece_

FACING PAGE

St. Augustine, Florida, from the old Spanish fortress 16

A policeman of Havana 16

Cuba’s new presidential palace 17

Venders of lottery tickets in rural Cuba 32

The winning numbers of the lottery 32

Pigeons are kept to clear the tobacco fields of insects 33

Ploughing for tobacco in the famous Vuelta Abajo
district. The large building is a tobacco barn, the
small ones are residences of the planters 33

A Cuban shoemaker 56

Cuban soldiers 56

Matanzas, with drying sisal fiber in the foreground 57

The Central Plaza of Cienfuegos 57

A principal street of Santa Clara 64

The Central Plaza of Santa Clara 64

A dairyman, Santa Clara district 65

Cuban town scenery 65

A Cuban residence in a new clearing 114

Planting sugar-cane on newly cleared land 114

Hauling cane to a Cuban sugar-mill 115

A station of a Cuban pack train 115

Cuban travelers 80

A Cuban milkman 80

A street of Santiago de Cuba 81

Not all Chinamen succeed in Cuba 81

The entire enlisted personnel of the Haitian Navy 112

A school in Port au Prince 112

The central square and Cathedral of Port au Prince on
market day 113

Looking down upon the market from the cathedral platform 113

A Haitian gendarme 128

The president of Haiti 128

A street in Port au Prince 129

The unfinished presidential palace of Haiti, on New
Year’s Day, 1920 129

A Haitian country home 144

A small portion of one collection of captured _caco_ war
material 144

The _caco_ in the foreground killed an American Marine 145

Captain Hanneken and “General Jean” Conzé at
Christophe’s Citadel 145

Ruins of the old French estates are to be found all over
Haiti 160

A Haitian wayside store 160

The market women of Haiti sell everything under the
sun—A “General” in a Haitian market 161

There are still more primitive sugar-mills than these in
Haiti 161

A corner of Christophe’s Citadel. Its situation is such
that it could only be well photographed from an
airplane 176

The ruins of Christophe’s palace of San Souci 176

The mayor, the judge, and the richest man of a Haitian
town in the bush 177

Cockfighting is a favorite Haitian sport 177

The plaza and clock tower of Monte Cristo, showing its
American bullet hole 192

Railroading in Santo Domingo 192

The tri-weekly train arrives at Santiago 193

Dominican _guardias_ 193

Gen. Deciderio Arias, now a cigar maker, whose
revolution finally caused American intervention in
Santo Domingo 208

A bread seller of Santo Domingo 208

The church within a church of Moca 209

The “holy place” of Santo Domingo on top of the Santo
Cerro where Columbus planted a cross 209

A Dominican switch engine 224

A Dominican hearse 224

American Marines on the march 225

A riding horse of Samaná 225

Advertising a typical Dominican theatrical performance 240

A tree to which Columbus tied one of his ships, now on
the wharf of Santo Domingo City 240

The tomb of Columbus in the cathedral of Santo Domingo
City 241

Ponce de Leon’s palace now flies the Stars and Stripes 256

Thousands of women work in the fields in Porto Rico 256

Air-plants grow even on the telegraph wires in Ponce 257

A hat seller of Cabo Rojo 257

There is school accommodation for only half the children
of our Porto Rico 272

The home of a lace-maker in Aguadilla 273

The Porto Rican method of making lace 273

The place of pilgrimage for pious Porto Ricans 288

Porto Rican children of the coast lands 288

The old sugar-kettles scattered through the West Indies
have many uses 289

A corner in Aguadilla 289

The priest in charge of Porto Rico’s place of pilgrimage 296

One reason why cane-cutters cannot all be paid the same
wages 296

A procession of strikers in honor of representatives of
the A. F. of L. 297

“How many of you are on strike?” asked Senator Iglesias 297

The new church of Guayama, Porto Rico 304

A Porto Rican ex-soldier working as road peon. He
gathers the grass with a wooden hook and cuts it with
a small sickle 304

Porto Rican tobacco fields 305

Charlotte Amalie, capital of our Virgin Islands 305

A corner of Charlotte Amalie 320

Picking sea-island cotton, the second of St. Croix
products 320

A familiar sight in St. Croix, the ruins of an old sugar
mill and the stone tower of its cane-grinding
windmill 321

A cistern in which rain water is stored for drinking
purposes 321

Roseau, capital of beautiful Dominica 352

A woman of Dominica bringing a load of limes down from
the mountain 352

Kingstown, capital of St. Vincent 353

Trafalgar Square, Bridgetown, Barbados, with its statue
of Nelson 353

The Prince of Wales lands in Barbados 368

The principal street of Bridgetown, decorated in honor
of its royal visitor 368

Barbadian porters loading hogsheads of sugar always take
turns riding back to the warehouse 369

There is an Anglican Church of this style in each of the
eleven parishes of Barbados 369

The turn-out of most Barbadians 384

A Barbadian windmill 385

Two Hindus of Trinidad 385

Trinidad has many Hindu temples 400

Very much of a lodge 400

At the “Asphalt Lake” 401

There is water, too, in the crevices of the asphalt
field 401

As I passed this group on a Jamaican highway, the woman
reading the Bible was saying “So I ax de Lard what I
shall do” 416

“Draw me portrait please, sir!” The load consists of
school books and a pair of hobnail shoes 416

A very frequent sight along the roads of Jamaica 417

Our baggage following us ashore in one of the French
islands 417

Private graveyards are to be found all over Jamaica 432

A street of Basse Terre, capital of Guadeloupe 432

A woman of Guadeloupe 433

The town criers of Pointe à Pitre 433

In the outskirts of Guadeloupe’s commercial capital 448

Fort de France, capital of Martinique 448

The _savane_ of Fort de France, with the Statue of
Josephine, once Empress of the French 449

Women of Martinique 464

A principal street of Fort de France with its cathedral 464

The shops of Martinique are sometimes as gaily garbed as
the women 465

Empress Josephine was born where this house stands 465

The St. Pierre of to-day with Pélée in the background 472

The cathedral of St. Pierre 473

The present residents of St. Pierre tuck their houses
into the corners of old stone ruins 473

The harbor of Curaçao 480

A woman of Curaçao 480

The principal Dutch island is not noted for its verdure 481

A Curaçao landscape 481

MAP

The itinerary of the author 48

ROAMING THROUGH THE WEST INDIES