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, 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 vessels 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 prospective;" 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.--ANTHONY TROLLOPE, _The West Indies and the
Spanish Main_ pp. 224-225.