ST. VINCENT

Waipa Post, Volume 52, Issue 3705, 10 January 1936, Page 3

ST. VINCENT

THE BEAUTIFUL WINDWARD ISLAND. (By M.E.W., in Melbourne Age.) One half of the world doesn’t know how the other half lives. So the saying goes. Very little know anything at all of the little Crown colony of St. Vincent, in the British West Indies, which has gradually become news by the outbreak of rioting recently. Other riots have occurred there. One was on the occasion of a proposal for federation with Grenada, the larger member of the Windward Group. During an inter-island cricket match a few years ago the visiting umpires had to be hastily put aboard their steamer. But such disturbances have , generally acted as a safety valve, though the suffering is to be deeply deplored. The present Administrator is really a great favourite. Accompanied by his wife and three daughters, he went to St. Vincent a year or two ago from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, in the Central Pacific. Considering the fact that the West Indies comprise over 1000 islands, even a cursory acquaintance with them individually K almost impossible, though the lively tales of Captain Marryat and of later writers may have encouraged romantic imaginings. In the larger and in the more prosperous islands like Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados, modern conditions and tourists now prevail to a certain extent. But the smaller islands have preserved strongly individual traits; their unimportance had caused them to be neglected by mail steamers. Hotels are scarce, but the hospitality enjoyed there, so pleasant to recall, is of the patriarchal variety that existed before the days of leagues and societies. Although the mountain peaks of a neighbouring island appear on the horizon it may take a week or more to get there. This isolation is conducive to the existence of some queer characters, but that is another story. Even the units of a group like the Windward Islands cannot be described in gross. St. Lucia has a poisonous snake, the fer-de-lance, Mustique breeds sheep and ponies, Mayreau is proud of its crop of Marie Galante cotton, Balliceaux alone has rabbits. St. Vincent grows the best sea island cotton, which was first cultivated in 1903 at the suggestion of Sir Daniel Morris, Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, and which has superseded sugar. There are several points of contact between St. Vincent and Australia, and a description of the island may give some idea of those charming and fairylike regions. It was in St. Vincent that Blight unloaded his 300 bread-fruit trees in 1793 because of the celebrated botanic gardens, which TtaJf'already been in existence for 28 -years. The trees have spread all over the island, and the fruit is in great demand; it is used as a vegetable, and is best when boiled and then roasted. Some of the original trees, very large and venerable specimens, with broad, glossy leaves, stand in the grounds of an old Government building, where on windy nights the green cannon ball fruit can be heard thudding down on roof or paved courtyard. Governor Eyre, the explorer of central Australia, provides another link with St. Vincent, for he administered the Government there just before his fateful appointment to Jamaica. Only a few descendants of the caribs are to be found in the island. A fierce, handsome race, akin to the Indians of the South American continent, they could not adapt themselves to servitude. In the century-long struggle for the possession of the colony between French and English, the discontent of the conquered Caribs was encouraged by the French to its bitter conclusion. The survivors were removed to the neighbouring islet of Balliceaux, and to the distant Ruatan off the coast of Honduras. The warlike Carib chief Chatoyer was killed in single combat by a Scotsman, Alexander leitb. The memory of another, called Duvalle, has been perpetrated in the name of an estate in the so-called Carib descent. A conch shell is used for notice of departure and of safe arrival. It is a beautifully curved shell with vivid pink lips and the sound is produced by blowing down a small hole at the narrow end. The unconditional emancipation of the negro slave population was proclaimed on Ist August, 1838, and the anniversary of the event is observed as a public holiday under the title of “Freedom.” There was the same labour unrest and rioting as in the other islands, but in a milder form. The negro of St. Vincent is capable and good tempered; the men of mixed origin, the so-called coloured people take life less contentedly. Nothing but English is spoken, though in the island of St. Lucia, so near as to be visible, a French patois is in use. The English of the negro has many old fashioned turns of speech, derived from constant Bible reading. The singing of hymns is carried on with ecstatic fera -or, but “obea< i,” the legacy of * Africa, is not uni nown and "jumbies” or bad spirits m y be heard of and have given their name to the local owl. Before the negroes had settled down to the new conditions Portuguese labour had been imported as well as Indian. The Portuguese have become a very important section of the community, some own fine estates and some are prosperous merchants. Certain labourers, bearing mostly

Scottish names, are known as "White Barbadians”; they are descendants of the prisoners condemned to the plantations under the Stuart kings and under Cromwell. They kept themselves apart from the negroes and have become a weakly race from too frequent inter-marriage. Another public holiday is known as Thanksgiving day. Since the dreadful hurricane in September, 1898, in which three-quarters of the population suffered, this festival has been kept early in November, to mark the safe ending of the hurricane season. Any day after Ist July, oppressive heat accompanied by the rapid passage of angry clouds across the sky, may herald the approach of this awful visitation, and news is anxiously awaited from the other islands. On 7th May, 1902, the third recorded eruption of the Souffriere took place, four days after that of Mont Pelee, in Martinique. The earliest of these eruptions of the Souffriere in 1718 was described, as seen from the sea, by no less a person than Daniel Defoe. About 100 years later the mountain burst out again. So violent was the force of the eruption that the sky over Barbados, 85 miles to windward, was darkened by clouds of dust and ashes and the negroes there broke out into lamentations, believing death and judgment to be at hand. Once again a green garment of trees and grass had clothed the slopes of the formidable double crater and the lake at the bottom had grown clear and blue, when the last eruption took place, destroying all the countryside and killing 2000 inhabitants. The summit of the mountain is still bare, but lichens and coarse grasses are creeping over the grey sides of the crater and the water of the lake from muddy yellow has become a vivid emerald. Detailed notes of the progress of the last eruption were made by a planter watching from his verandah until he was forced to fly for his life. After a terrific explosion, a dense black curtain seemed to be spreading towards him, and he hurried out of the house, only just managing to escape the poisonous fumes by pushing out to sea in a boat and rowing with all his might.

The best time for visitors in St. Vincent is the cool dry weather from December to April. Behind the hedges of scarlet hibiscus the gardens are full of roses and the verandahs are festooned with masses of coralita blossoms where perhaps a hummingbird’s tiny nest may be discovered. A noticeable tree is the huge silk-cotton or kapok; its seeds carried by the wind are like a snowstorm. There are many varieties of crimson foliage plants, one known as “bullock’s blood’’ is used as a boundary mark. With the May showers the gorgeous flamboyant tree (aesalpinnia pulcherrima poinsiana) bursts into blossom and the nights are illuminated by “la belle”, fireflies and made, musical withthe tinkling of the bell-frog. The generous sunshine and moisture provide these happy islanders with yams, sweet potatoes and many other vegetables, generally referred to as ground provisions. The sea, too, does its part. From whales to the tiny tri-tri, a sort of whitebait, there are fish of every size, shape and colour. There are turtles and oysters are brought from the picturesque land locked harbour of Carriacou, where they grow on trees at the water’s edge.