312 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



one which is at all conspicuous is St. Thomas, which was 

 formerly t he commercial metropolis of the West Indies, and 

 which still ranks next, among the Lesser Antilles, to 

 Bridgetown, Barbados, and Port of Spain, Trinidad. Its 

 capital, which all the world calls St. Thomas, is officially 

 known as Charlotte Amalia. It has a population of over 

 it'll thousand, and is the seat of government of the Danish 

 West Indian Islands. 



St. Thomas is built on three hills running in a parallel 

 line on the northern or inner extremity of the bay, with 

 still higher hills beyond. The many- colored houses and 

 the vegetation make a very pretty picture, especially when 

 viewed from the sea. Kingsley described the town as " a col- 

 lection of scarlet and purple roofs piled up among orange- 

 trees, at the foot of hills some eight hundred feet high ; a 

 veritable Dutch oven for cooking fever in, with as veritable 

 a dripping-pan for the poison when concocted in the tide- 

 less basin below the town, as ever man invented. The 

 beach of St. Thomas is lined by the usual tropical fringe 

 of cocoanut-trees, though here they look more sad and 

 shabby than elsewhere. Above these, on the cliffs, are 

 tall aloes, gray-blue cerei like huge branching candelabra, 

 and bushes, the foliage of which is utterly unlike anything 

 of the temperate climes, while still higher the bright deep 

 green of patches of guinea-grass and a few fruit-trees may 

 be seen around some island cottage." 



The city is lighted with gas, possesses a theater, two 

 club-houses, and several hotels, as well as a slip on which 

 small vessels can be repaired. The principal street follows 

 the shore-line ; behind it are tiers of houses covering the 

 slopes of the hill which rises from the harbor. The high- 

 est point of the island, behind the city, is 1560 feet, and it 

 affords a beautiful view of the surrounding waters, with 

 their many islands. 



The harbor is a nearly circular basin on the south side, 

 easy of access and sheltered from the trade-winds. It has 

 been visited by terrible hurricanes, especially in 1819, 1837, 



