The place belongs to the Danes, who possess also the larger and much more valuable island of Santa Cruz, as they do also the small island of St. Martin. These all lie among the Virgin1 Islands, and are considered as belonging to that thick cluster. As St. Thomas at present exists, it is of considerable importance. It is an emporium, not only for many of the islands, but for many also of the places on the coast of South and Central America. Guiana, Venezuela, and New Granada, deal there largely. It is a dep?t for cigars, light dresses, brandy, boots, and Eau de Cologne. Many men therefore of many nations go thither2 to make money, and they do make it. These are men, generally not of the tenderest class, or who have probably been nursed in much early refinement3. Few men will select St. Thomas as a place of residence from mere4 unbiassed choice and love of the locale. A wine merchant in London, doing a good trade there, would hardly give up that business with the object of personally opening an establishment in this island: nor would a well-to-do milliner leave Paris with the same object. Men who settle at St. Thomas have most probably roughed it elsewhere unsuccessfully.
These St. Thomas tradesmen do make money I believe, and it is certainly due to them that they should do so. Things ought not, if possible, to be all bad with any man; and I cannot imagine what good can accrue5 to a man at St. Thomas if it be not the good of amassing6 money. It is one of the hottest and one of the most unhealthy spots among all these hot and unhealthy regions. I do not know whether I should not be justified7 in saying that of all such spots it is the most hot and the most unhealthy.
I have said in a previous chapter that the people one meets there may be described as an Hispano-Dano-Niggery-Yankee-doodle population. In this I referred not only to the settlers, but to those also who are constantly passing through it. In the shops and stores, and at the hotels, one meets the same mixture. The Spanish element is of course strong, for Venezuela, New Granada, Central America, and Mexico are all Spanish, as also is Cuba. The people of these lands speak Spanish, and hereabouts are called Spaniards. To the Danes the island belongs. The soldiers, officials, and custom-house people are Danes. They do not, however, mix much with their customers. They affect, I believe, to say that the island is overrun and destroyed by these strange comers, and that they would as lief be without such visitors. If they are altogether indifferent to money making, such may be the case. The labouring people are all black—if these blacks can be called a labouring people. They do coal the vessels8 at about a dollar a day each—that is, when they are so circumstanced as to require a dollar. As to the American element, that is by no means the slightest or most retiring. Dollars are going there, and therefore it is of course natural that Americans should be going also. I saw the other day a map, "The United States as they now are, and in prospective9;" and it included all these places—Mexico, Central America, Cuba, St. Domingo, and even poor Jamaica. It may be that the man who made the map understood the destiny of his country; at any rate, he understood the tastes of his countrymen.
All these people are assembled together at St. Thomas, because St. Thomas is the meeting-place and central dep?t of the West Indian steam-packets. That reason can be given easily enough; but why St. Thomas should be the meeting-place of these packets,—I do not know who can give me the reason for that arrangement. Tortola and Virgin Gorda, two of the Virgin islands, both belong to ourselves, and are situated10 equally well for the required purpose as is St. Thomas. I am told also, that at any rate one, probably at both, good harbour accommodation is to be found. It is certain that in other respects they are preferable. They are not unhealthy, as is St. Thomas; and, as I have said above, they belong to ourselves. My own opinion is that Jamaica should be the head-quarters of these packets; but the question is one which will not probably be interesting to the reader of these pages.
"They cannot understand at home why we dislike the inter-colonial work so much," said the captain of one of the steam-ships to me. By inter-colonial work he meant the different branch services from St. Thomas. "They do not comprehend at home what it is for a man to be burying one young officer after another; to have them sent out, and then to see them mown down in that accursed hole of a harbour by yellow fever. Such a work is not a very pleasant one."
Indeed this was true. The life cannot be a very pleasant one. These captains themselves and their senior officers are doubtless acclimated11. The yellow fever may reach them, but their chance of escape is tolerably good; but the young lads who join the service, and who do so at an early age, have at the first commencement of their career to make St. Thomas their residence, as far as they have any residence. They live of course on board their ships; but the peculiarity12 of St. Thomas is this; that the harbour is ten times more fatal than the town. It is that hole, up by the coaling wharves13, which sends so many English lads to the grave. If this be so, this alone, I think, constitutes a strong reason why St. Thomas should not be so favoured. These vessels now form a considerable fleet, and some of them spend nearly a third of their time at this place. The number of Englishmen so collected and endangered is sufficient to warrant us in regarding this as a great drawback on any utility which the island may have—if such utility there be.
But we must give even the devil his due. Seen from the water St. Thomas is very pretty. It is not so much the scenery of the island that pleases as the aspect of the town itself. It stands on three hills or mounts, with higher hills, green to their summit, rising behind them. Each mount is topped by a pleasant, cleanly edifice14, and pretty-looking houses stretch down the sides to the water's edge. The buildings do look pretty and nice, and as though chance had arranged them for a picture. Indeed, as seen from the harbour, the town looks like a panorama15 exquisitely16 painted. The air is thin and transparent17, and every line shows itself clearly. As so seen the town of St. Thomas is certainly attractive. But it is like the Dead Sea fruit; all the charm is gone when it is tasted. Land there, and the beauty vanishes.
The hotel at St. Thomas is quite a thing of itself. There is no fair ground for complaint as regards the accommodation, considering where one is, and that people do not visit St. Thomas for pleasure; but the people that one meets there form as strange a collection as may perhaps be found anywhere. In the first place, all languages seem alike to them. One hears English, French, German, and Spanish spoken all around one, and apparently18 it is indifferent which. The waiters seem to speak them all.
The most of these guests I take it—certainly a large proportion of them—are residents of the place, who board at the inn. I have been there for a week at a time, and it seemed that all then around me were so. There were ladies among them, who always came punctually to their meals, and went through the long course of breakfast and long course of dinner with admirable perseverance19. I never saw eating to equal that eating. When I was there the house was always full; but the landlord told me that he found it very hard to make money, and I can believe it.
A hot climate, it is generally thought, interferes20 with the appetite, affects the gastric21 juices with lassitude, gives to the stomach some of the apathy22 of the body, and lessens23 at any rate the consumption of animal food. That charge cannot be made against the air of St. Thomas. To whatever sudden changes the health may be subject, no lingering disinclination for food affects it. Men eat there as though it were the only solace24 of their life, and women also. Probably it is so.
They never talk at meals. A man and his wife may interchange a word or two as to the dishes; or men coming from the same store may whisper a syllable25 as to their culinary desires; but in an ordinary way there is no talking. I myself generally am not a mute person at my meals; and having dined at sundry26 tables d'h?te, have got over in a great degree that disinclination to speak to my neighbour which is attributed—I believe wrongly—to Englishmen. But at St. Thomas I took it into my head to wait till I was spoken to, and for a week I sat, twice daily, between the same persons without receiving or speaking a single word.
I shall not soon forget the stout27 lady who sat opposite to me, and who was married to a little hooked-nosed Jew, who always accompanied her. Soup, fish, and then meat is the ordinary rule at such banquets; but here the fashion is for the guests, having curried28 favour with the waiters, to get their plates of food brought in and put round before them in little circles; so that a man while taking his soup may contemplate29 his fish and his roast beef, his wing of fowl30, his allotment of salad, his peas and potatoes, his pudding, pie, and custard, and whatever other good things a benevolent31 and well-fee'd waiter may be able to collect for him. This somewhat crowds the table, and occasionally it becomes necessary for the guest to guard his treasures with an eagle's eye;—hers also with an eagle's eye, and sometimes with an eagle's talon32.
This stout lady was great on such occasions. "A bit of that," she would exclaim, with head half turned round, as a man would pass behind her with a dish, while she was in the very act of unloading within her throat a whole knifeful charged to the hilt. The efforts which at first affected33 me as almost ridiculous advanced to the sublime34 as dinner went on. There was no shirking, no half measures, no slackened pace as the breath became short. The work was daily done to the final half-pound of cheese.
Cheese and jelly, guava jelly, were always eaten together. This I found to be the general fashion of St. Thomas. Some men dipped their cheese in jelly; some ate a bit of jelly and then a bit of cheese; some topped up with jelly and some topped up with cheese, all having it on their plates together. But this lady—she must have spent years in acquiring the exercise—had a knack35 of involving her cheese in jelly, covering up by a rapid twirl of her knife a bit about an inch thick, so that no cheesy surface should touch her palate, and then depositing the parcel, oh, ever so far down, without dropping above a globule or two of the covering on her bosom36.
Her lord, the Israelite, used to fight hard too; but the battle was always over with him long before the lady showed even a sign of distress37. He was one of those flashy weedy animals that make good running for a few yards and are then choked off. She was game up to the winning-post. There were many animals running at those races, but she might have given all the others the odds38 of a pound of solid food, and yet have beaten them.
But then, to see her rise from the table! Well; pace and extra weight together will distress the best horse that ever was shod!
Over and above this I found nothing of any general interest at St. Thomas.
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1
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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accrue
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| v.(利息等)增大，增多 | |
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amassing
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| v.积累，积聚( amass的现在分词 ) | |
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7
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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8
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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prospective
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| adj.预期的，未来的，前瞻性的 | |
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10
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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acclimated
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| v.使适应新环境，使服水土服水土，适应( acclimate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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13
wharves
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| n.码头，停泊处( wharf的名词复数 ) | |
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edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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15
panorama
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| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
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16
exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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17
transparent
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| adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的 | |
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18
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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19
perseverance
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| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
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20
interferes
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| vi. 妨碍，冲突，干涉 | |
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21
gastric
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| adj.胃的 | |
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apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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23
lessens
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| 变少( lessen的第三人称单数 )； 减少（某事物） | |
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24
solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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25
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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curried
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| adj.加了咖喱（或咖喱粉的），用咖哩粉调理的 | |
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29
contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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30
fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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31
benevolent
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| adj.仁慈的，乐善好施的 | |
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32
talon
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| n.爪；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物 | |
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33
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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34
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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35
knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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36
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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37
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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38
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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