A CRUISE IN THE WEST INDIES. 
By CAPT. E. O. MATTHEWS, U. S. N.* 
As a penalty for having presented a jar of nutmegs from Trini¬ 
dad to the Society, I have been asked to say something about the 
islands I visited during my late cruise. The nutmegs in the jar 
before you grew on trees very much resembling our peach though 
much more shapely. The fruit looked like large, handsome nec¬ 
tarines. Within the outer hull comes the mace laid closely around 
the shell containing the nutmeg proper. These have been pre¬ 
served in brine for several years. 
In the spring of 1882 I was directed to visit certain of the West 
India Islands with my ship, and, as these are out of the ordinary 
lines of travel, I will endeavor to give a hurried sketch of the 
islands and places as I saw them. The City of San Juan de 
Porto Rico has a fine secure harbor, the entrance to which was 
strongly fortified by Ponce de Leon. It is connected by several 
lines of very poor steamers with the rest of the world, and by a 
tramway with Rio Pedras, from whence fine carriage roads lead 
to all parts of this beautiful island. Porto Rico is generally high 
and healthy, and with a good government could be very produc¬ 
tive. It is now under Spanish misrule, when every industry is 
taxed to the utmost. It is the old story of the goose and the 
golden egg. There are many large and very valuable sugar es¬ 
tates, some of which I visited and found many of the modern 
improvements had been introduced. A very good quality of 
tobacco is grown there. 
We made a short visit to Samana Bay, where it may be recol¬ 
lected that a few years ago this country came very near becoming 
involved in a gigantic fraud through the influence of some'inter¬ 
ested parties. But it rained about all the time we were there so 
that, aside from the official visits, I had but little opportunity for 
sight-seeing. The whole of this end of San Domingo is exceed¬ 
ingly fertile, but for want of a government there is but little done 
^Delivered before the Society March 6th, 1SS5. 
