A CRUISE IN THE CARIBBEES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5519, 20 March 1896, Page 2

A CRUISE IN THE CARIBBEES.

A good many long-cherished illusions have been rudely shattered of late. Norfolk Island, but recently looked upon as a spot where the beauty of the scenery was equalled only by the virtue of the people, has now to be regarded as no better, or worse, than other places. "The Isles of Greece," if we are to believe kn article in the current number of the Nineteenth Century, have become the dumping ground of the tourist and the camera fiend. But in the crash off manifold ideals it is very refreshing to find that there is at least one region which is as beautiful, as peaceful, and as romantic as the popular fancy has pictured it. MrC.A. Stoddard, who has lately spent somenionths in the West Indian Islands, gives the world this assurance in a work called " A Cruise in the Caribbees." These islands, according to Mr Stoddard, are the loveliest group of islands in the world. Starting from his northern home in the snow and sleet of February, within eight days he found himself under the brilliant Bky of the West Indies. He visited all the islands — St Thomas, St Kitts, St Lucia, Guadaloupe, Trinidad, Antigua, St Vincent, Nevis, Santa Cruz, and the rest. Mr Stoddard denies thatthe negroes of the West Indies are as idle as they have been represented. " Taking into consideration the low pay for labour, it seemed to me," he says, " that the negroes were an industrious class of people." One of- the most interesting islands of the group was Nevis. A century ago this place was one of the most fashionable and populous of the group, and Mr Stoddard gives a very good indication of its vanished glories. There are the ruins of an immense stone hotel on the island, and in describing this place he says: — " One can imagine what bevies of dark and languid Creole beauties in diaphanous muslins have passed up those steps, escorted by white-coated planters, or officers from the ships and garrisons in more, brilliant uniforms, or danced and flirted in the lofty ballroom. Only the central portion of the building is roofed, the top story of the .wing having entirely fallen in, and from the walled terrace to which one climbs by a rickety stair there is a magnificent view of the town and the gleaming plain of the sea. It is a gentle ruin, embowered in luxuriant vegetation that has kindly wrapped and softened its decay." It is the abolition of slavery, according to Mr Stoddard, that is responsible for the decline in wealth and population of many of the West Indian islands. But the soil is as- fertile, the climate as balmy and the scenery as beautiful as ever.