An Island Bluebeard
These islands were once infested by pirates; in Charlotte Amalie we see Bluebeard’s and Blackbeard’s castles. An English pirate who married a woman from Charlotte Amalie went away on one of his piratical expeditions, entrusting to his wife a small box which he told her not to open unless he did not return in six months. After two months, woman’s curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box. She found therein just seven letters, but they were seven compromising letters written by women of Charlotte Amalie. She did not kill her husband, instead she invited the women to an afternoon tea at her home and poisoned all seven. So, you see it was not, in this case, the man who was the “bluebeard,” but the wife—a sort of bluebearded lady. She was arrested, tried and convicted, and was condemned to be burned at the stake. The eventful day arrived. Fagots were piled high about her, the torch was about to be applied, when the pirate ship appeared in the harbor, the pirate and his crew came ashore, and the wife was rescued. Then she sailed away with her husband, and they “lived happily ever after.”
ENTRANCE OF THE GRAND HOTEL, CHARLOTTE AMALIE
From “The Virgin Islands of the United States of America,” by Luther K. Zabriskie, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Publishers
St. John and St. Croix
The smallest of the inhabited islands is St. John. The few people living there are employed in picking bay leaves. The bay tree thrives on the island, and the oil obtained from its leaf is used in the making of bay rum.
The largest of the islands is St. Croix. It is about twenty-one miles in length and from four to fourteen miles in width. Rich and fertile, its soil produces chiefly sugar, a product capable of still further industrial development. The principal difficulty encountered is in obtaining good water. There is but one stream on the island, and except for the water from this stream the people must depend on rain water stored during the rainy season. One of the first duties that we have before us is the boring of artesian wells, as all the islands are in great need of good water for drinking and commercial purposes.
COVERED WALK