Descriptive Essay

            
             Located in the Caribbean Sea, amidst a clutter of small surrounding islands in the Lesser Netherlands Antilles, lays dormant a miniscule remnant of land known as St. Maarten. It is keenly placed only a few sailing days away from Puerto Rico and aquatically borders such better-known islands as St. Barths, St. Kitts, St. Eustacious, and Aruba. The island was legitimately discovered in 1848 by a Spanish navigator named Emilio Conserves. He used it as a point of refuge for his fellow countrymen and fortified the mountainsides facing the ocean to disrupt any further attempts by the British and French to substantiate their territories among the islands. The Spanish maintained control of St. Maarten for only a few decades before being overthrown by the invincible British Navy. In 1892, the island was handed over to both France and The Netherlands as a sign of good faith since the preceding battles. St. Maarten remains divided to this day, and both European countries have maintained peace and have lived in harmony. The endless beauty and sheer elegance of the tropical utopia has demanded attention for centuries, and henceforth, has been economically based on tourism for as long as anyone can remember.
             As you approach the protruding cruise ship dock, which extends from the Dutch half of the island, you see a cluster of small gift shops and mobile stands being worked by the island natives. Tee shirts, hats, canes, pipes, hand crafted statues and many such items are piled high along the length of the dock. Bargaining screams are beckoned from all angles and the overpowering scent of sea salt and freshly carved wood fills your sinuses. You look to your right and are taken momentarily by the weathered, tattered old shipyard that is still used today. You may, perhaps, witness the locals hard at work, loading and unloading the tremendous amount of cargo that is displaced throughout the island.