CLIMATE OP THE WEST INDIES.
TIIE author of this volume is an American invalid, afflicted with dyspepsia, nervous complaints, and an affection of the lungs ; the
last being, in his own opinion, the root of the evil. Having, partly by study, partly by experiment, convinced himself that the places in the United States recommended for invalids to winter at, are in
reality useless,—people dying, or being no better than if they remained at home,—he started on a tour to the West Indies in search of health. The first place he visited was the Danish island of St. Croix, where he got better : he next went to the Spanish island of Cuba, and got better still : returning with the month of March and time before him, he thought he would call at the crack place of the States—Key West, one of several little islands off the coast of Florida. This Yankee Montpelier he found, as he had expected, a spot where incipient complaints might be held in check, but where there was little chance of cure, and less of salvation for ticklish eases. The place, moreover, was confined and dull ; so he took his way to another resort for the sick—St. Augustine, a town of Florida ; and on this he cries out " worse, worse ! " There was a hot sun, (when it shone,) and a bleak wind ; it was cold mornings and nights ; he could not keep himself warm in a room without a fire, despite of a " cloak and thick boots ;" and there were no horses or carriages to let to visitants.
" It is not only absurd," says he, but almost wicked to send a sick man here for his health, when it is just as easy to send hint to a better place. Every one at all sensitive knows how unpleasant it is at the north in the spring and fall, when it is so warm in the middle of the day that no attention is paid to fires at morning and evening, rainy days, &c. to stand or sit about, half-shivering, but still scarcely cold enough to admit of fire without being too warm. Just so it is, OIld must be here much of the time during the winter, for it is only when coldest that tires are made. More than half of the time I remained here it was cold and cloudy, with a severe north-east wind. This wind is nothing like those of the \Vest Indies, which, though often fresh, are warm and bland ; but, on the contrary, is as sour, cold, and piercing as half-frozen vinegar." * * * " Nothing can he worse than to find oneself imprisoned in this little village; kept a u hole week or more with a cold, piercing wind drifting the sand along the streets and, into his eyes, with sometimes a chance at a fire (in the boardingshouse) morning and evening, and sometimes a chance to wrap up in a cloak and shiver without any; and many times ton cold to keep warm by walking in the sunshine; with numbers of miserable patients hovering ahout the fire, telling stories of distress, while others are busily engaged in extolling the climate, it is altogether unendurable to hear it. Why, a man that would not feel too cold here would stand a six years' residence in Greenland, or send an invalid to the Great Dismal Swamp for health. The truth is, a mass in health can judge no better of the fitness of a climate for invalids than a blind man of colours. He has no sense by which to judge of it. His is the feeling of the well man, but not of the sick."
In spite of these evils, the stock of health he had laid in in the West Indies, and a few fine days before his departure from St. Augustine, set hhn up. He returned to New York another man— but we fear with the seeds of a roving disposition.
" Every one who met me expressed their surprise at the change, and pronounced the cure complete. Butt in this they are mistaken. The.tirst wind of winter will drift me South again ; and it would be prmuouptuous to attempt to avoid it.
" In four and a half months, during which time the most that could have been expected at the North would have been the maintenance of a miserable existence by means of heavy clothing and hot fires, with constant confinement, I made six voyages at sea, four by steam-boats, two hundred and thirty miles bv railroads, and eightv in stage-coaches ; which altogether amounted to flirty-six hundred miles -be sea and land, without suffering except from seasickness, and at an espense of only about live hundred dollars for the whole time. By going to one place and there remaining during the winter, the expenses of an invalid need not exceed three hundred dollars: ; a mere trifle compared with the advantages ahnost sure to be gained by those who do not thereby regain their health."
The writer, it nmy be guessed, is a gehuinc Yankee ; and superadds to this character, the close and methodical observation which zeal in a pursuit never fails to impart. Wherever he goes, he has facts to record, and speculations to indulge in founded on facts. The climate, and facilities for comfort and coddling, are the first objects which attract attention; then the walks, rides, and amusements of -the place ; and next the expenses far which all may be achieved. Many other things are dropped in incidentally,—as the appearance of the country, and the crops ; the condition of the slaves, for Abolition had not reached either of the colonies he visited; the state of society, government, and manners ; with the facilities that offer for a permanent settlement to invalids who might eschew the North and its wintry winds altogether were it not for the res angusta (land. These various points, added to the peculiar style of the author, render his book amusing.
Amusement, however, is not its only quality. To Americans, a mongst whom one-fourth of the deaths is caused by diseases of the lungs, the suggestions the volume contains are worth consideration. Locomotive as they are, the distance and the change are by no means so great as to im Englishman ; and the severe cold of their winters, which act so injuriously on the system, is succeeded by a summer generally as hot in tile. day as the heat of the West Indies. But even to Europeans, with a tendency to consumption, a voyage to the West Indies is a matter not to be summarily dismissed in the negative. Several medical writers have suggested it, and there seems no good reason why it should not receive close and practical attention. The climate is generally free from those alternations of heat and cold, or that worse characteristic, a hot sun and a chilly piercing wind, which prevail in many places of Southern France and Italv. The Islands offer more of English habits than can be
procured amongst the dirt and ignorance of Lisbon ; with greater change of scene and facilities for communication than Madeira furnishes, besides the advantage of a warmer winter. The heat, of course, is a subject for consideration—almost for medical consideration on the idiosyncracy of a patient. Our author rarely complained of too much heat, though he sometimes did of cold ; and when he says that " a man in health can judge no better of the fitness of a climate for the invalids than a blind man of colours," he is not far from the truth. There is in patients whose lungs are affected a morbid sensibility to cold, which not only feels it acutely when present, but seems to anticipate its coining. It is also highly probable that places might be found whose climate was sufficiently tempered by the sea-breezes, or by elevation, to remove the objection of tropical heat. The Bermudas would seem to be a most desirable residence for a delicate invalid. Of course, prevention should be in all eases the object. To send away a patient to die, is not only useless, but cruel.
The places.this author resided at were only three,—the island of St. Croix ; the town of Trinidad de Cuba, of which he speaks very highly, the only drawback being the want of accommodation for strangers of the Anglo-Saxon race ; and Havanna, which he rates the lowest in the scale, or rather denounces, as cold, damp, and pestiferous. But other places, as he remarks, no doubt would offer excellent situations for invalids, especially Jamaica. This island, he thinks, has a bad reputation through Kingston its port : all people go there, hear of the yellow fever, and decry the climate. If there are no healthy places on the coast, many spots, he argues, must be found in the mountains, which would give any requisite degree of coolness. Indeed, it has often struck us that the inhalitants of Jamaica have been strangely neglectful of the advantages which their highlands offer to them ; but now, when a line of steam-packets is about to bring that island within an easy trip, we should imagine some attempt will be made to profit by them. It is superfluous to point out the advantages that would flow to the colonists from a " Bath" in the Blue Mountains. We speak not merely. of the money that would be spent there, or of the stimulus that would be given to the material interests of the island, but of the moral advantages that would most probably flow from the stricter and more refined habits of Europeans.
As this volume is published in New York, and may not be easy of access everywhere, we will take a few miscellaneous extracts, as specimens of the invalid.
csErcc INFORMATION FOR VISITANTS AT ST. CROIX.
A family wishing to spend the winter here and live economically, would do well to bring out such articles of furniture as they might want, take apartments, and keep house for themselves. They can then live exactly to suit them, which will not always be the case at a boarding-house. Five to ten dol lars per month will hire a comfortable house, and there are plenty to be Intl. A good living may be procured at small expense. The meats of the island are pretty good ; and the fish are fine beyond comparison, and almost beyond description. Plantains and bananas are at once healthy and palatable, and the sweet potato is far better than any we ever get at the North. The oranges of St. Croix, though not abundant, are unsurpassed in excellence. The abovementioned articles, with plenty of good bread, which can always be had, constitute not only a wholesome but luxurious diet. Let no one be deterred from eating freely of these because the same or similar things have produced injurious effects at the North. The effect is quite different when eaten here. At New York I could only eat hard bread and a little roast or broiled meat, without vegetables or fruit, and of those but a small quantity, without severe indigestion and asthma. 1-Jere I could cat to the extent of my appetite of meats, vegetables, and fruit, with perfect impunity. There are many other things which may be acceptable to others though not to me. The yam and casaba root are used as a substitute for the common potato, but I like the plantain better; the forbidden fruit mid shattuck for oranges ; they resemble the orange in colour, are much larger, but are bitter to the taste, and to me unpalatable. The messiple, or apple of Venus, is liked by many ; the mango by some ; and the belle-apple, when just ripe enough, by almost everybody. Musk-nielons are plenty, and rather better than at the North ; but are not a healthy fruit anywhere. These are a few of the noveltieq, at least in winter, which the Northern invalid has gained by the exchange of climate.
DANISH SLAVERY.
Many of the Blacks are free ; and the slaves, by the protection afforded them by the Danish laws, are about as well satisfied with slavery as they would be with freedom. No slave can be taken from the island without security for kis or bee return ; masters cannot inflict punishment without the intervention of public authority ; no slave can be sold against his or her consent, except with the estate ; and cheap anti easy provisions are made for emancipation. Such is the expectation of a general abolition, that the prices of slaves are only about one-fourth as high as in the United States. In the village of Christianstadt, a large proportion of flue retail trade, and nearly all the mechanical labour, is in the hands of the free Blacks and Mulattoes : and the politeness, intelligence, and allay of some of these would surprise those who think their race by Nature unfit for freedom. Many of them have good countenances, are well behaved, and appear to evince as much discretion and judgment as Whites under similar circumstances. Some of them hold commissions in the militia service ; one has been promoted to the distinguished situation of Governor's Aide-decamp; and instead of considering the race as on a level with brutes, many of the White inhabitants deem them nearly if not quite on a level with themselves. I listened for a whole evening to a very warm discussion of the question, whether a lady would be justified in refusing to dance with a Negro or Mulatto at a ball ; smut the negative was not wanting in supporters.
BURIALS AT CUBA, WITII A PHILOSOPHICAL WIND-UP.
The expenses of a respectable burial are from two to five hundred dollars, and about the same for sending the body out of the country. The keepers of all public-houses are subjected to a penalty of fifty dollars for every neglect to report the death of any stranger in their house, within twenty-four hours. Their manner of disposing the bodies of deceased strangers, whose friends do not furnish the requisite amount of money, is shocking to the feelings of our countrymen. At Havana there is not sufficient room in the strangers' buryingground to allow the bodies a grave apiece, or time to decompose, before being thrown up again in digging new graves. No parade is made over the body unless the regular church ceremony is paid for ; but four Negroes carry it in a coffin to the grave, which is always ready dug in advance, deep enough to admit of several ; turn the coffin over, and empty its contents into the grave ; throw over a little dirt ; and, with the same coffin, go for another ; end, when that is deposited, throw over a little more dirt, and so on as long as any room is left. When the whole ground has been dug over in this manner, the same process is gone through with again; and as there are no coffins in the way, the bones are not much of an impediment to the digging. Dry bones lay seat. tered about the surface, and piles of them are raked up in the corners of this great Potter's Field. In other places there is sufficient room for graves, but the mode of interment in other respects is the same. This lass often been spoken of by Americans as one of the principal objections to a residence it:
Cuba. It would, however, have but little weight with m i e, if n other respeett
I found it of advantage to go there, as comforts during life are, in my estima. tion, of more consequence than ceremonies after death ; and those ceremonies can be had, for the satisfaction of friends, by paying the necessary chargel This is the tootle adopted there to defray the expenses of the church ; eat, however contrary to our feelings, is in reality no worse, if so bad, as a perpetual tax during life for the same purpose.