THE WEST INDIES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/westindieshistor00fisk_0 GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CHARLOTTE AMALIA, SAINT THOMAS. THE STORY OF THE NATIONS THE WEST INDIES A HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS OF THE WEST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO, TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS NATURAL RESOURCES, AND PRESENT CONDITION AMOS KIDDER FISKE, A.M. AUTHOR OF “THE JEWISH SCRIPTURES,” “ THE MYTHS OF ISRAEL,” ETC, NEW YORK G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN 1899 Copyright, 1899 BY AMOS KIDDER FISKE Ube frntcfcerbocfcer press. View :;orfc PREFACE HE events of the past year have begotten, at 1 least in the United States, a new and keener interest, not only in Cuba and Puerto Rico, but in all of that great group of American islands which still re- main so largely under European control. They are looked upon and thought about from a new point of view, in consequence of the sudden facing of the nation in a new direction ; and, in order to satisfy the freshly awakened interest, information about them needs to be presented with an arrangement and perspective, and in a proportion as to detail, adapted to a changed situation. Apart from this consideration of a novel require- ment, in all the literature about the West Indies that has appeared in the past it is hard to find a system- atic account, good even for its time, of all the islands regarded as a whole and in their relation to each other. It is not too much to say that such an ac- count, at once full and compact, authoritative and popular, and calculated to give a satisfactory view of the whole subject, does not exist. The older his- tories, like Coke’s, Southey’s, and Edwards’s, are not only out of date, but were written from an English iii IV PREFACE point of view, giving prominence to British colonial interests, and containing details of little moment now. Some later works, like Eden’s West Indies , have a similar fault of disproportion with meagre- ness of detail in everything not English. The later Spanish works relate wholly to the Spanish colonies, “ now no more.” There are many books relating to one island or group of islands, or to some special interest or phase of life in the archipelago, and many that are mere sketches of the observations, often very’- interesting, of travellers seeking novelty and adventure. Books on Cuba are numerous, but most of those of recent date treat it with special reference to the struggle for independence, and furnish little systematic in- formation about its history, physical aspects, and permanent conditions. This, however, cannot be said of the useful little volume, The Island of Cuba , by Rowan and Ramsay, though it gives little attention to any but recent history. The earlier books, like Hazard’s Cuba with Pen and Pe?icily and Gallenga’s Pearl of the Antilles , which aim to furnish more or less systematic information, though not very’’ old, seem now rather remote; and the sketches of Dana, Ballou, Carleton, and others are mainly nar- ratives of personal observation. Jamaica is treated in a full and, for their day, an interesting manner in Martin’s History of the British Colonies , Bryan Edwards’s British Colonies in the West Indies , and Sir S. D. Scott’s To Jamaica and Back , to say nothing of Michael Scott’s fascinating pictures in Tom Cringle' s Log ; but there is more of PREFACE V Jamaica in these special works than is wanted in a general view of the West Indies, and none of them presents the real latter-day aspect of the subject. Santo Domingo and Haiti have received much atten- tion in the past on account of the interesting phases of life and political experience there, and Hazard’s Santo Domingo Past and Present and Keim’s Life in Santo Domingo are calculated to gratify the larger curiosity on that subject, while Sir Spenser St. John furnishes a graphic, if rather dark, picture in his Hayti , or The Black Republic , the fruit of a long resi- dence amid the scenes described. If a people which has no history or whose annals are brief is necessarily happy, our newly acquired subjects in Puerto Rico ought to be cheerful and contented. Probably more has been written in English about that island in the last eight months than in a century before, and yet only meagre information is to be gleaned from the mass. Puerto Rico is yet to be “ developed in a literary as well as a material sense. Its history is really scanty, and its present condition and future possibilities are yet to be studied with care. The Bahamas and the Caribbees have a peculiar charm for the vacation voyager, and the delight one has in going from a northern winter into the genial glow of the tropics at their best, has led many writers to describe the scenery and the life of this long and fascinating range of islands. Drysdale’s In Sunny Lands and Ives’s Isles of Summer give especially cheerful pictures of the Bahamas, while McKinnen’s Description of the Bahama Islands pre- sents a more sedate view. No one can think of the VI PREFA CE “ Lesser Antilles ” without having scenes from Charles Kingsley’s At Last come vividly to his mind, but Kingsley only caught glimpses of the charm from St. Thomas to Grenada, and spent his real Christmas vacation in Trinidad, which he makes others see even as he saw it. Froude’s observations were confined mainly to Barbados, Trinidad, and Jamaica; and though in his English in the West Indies he was chiefly concerned with the problem of government in the British colonies, he gives some lively views of places and people. Of those whose chief purpose has been to describe what they saw on vacation trips are W. A. Paton in his Down the Islands and C. A. Stoddard in Cruising among the Caribbees. Lafcadio Hearn’s Tzvo Years in the French West Indies , as the title implies, is more than the narrative of a hasty trip, and has graphic delinea- tions of life and character, mostly in Martinique. F. A. Ober’s Camps in the Caribbees has the attrac- tion of scientific observation and study combined with that of narratives of adventure and descriptions of novel scenes. Regarding the historical aspects of the subject, the same writer’s In the Wake of Colum- bus is not to be forgotten, for it presents many de- tails of the era of discovery in a new and interesting light, as the result of personally tracing the course of the discoverer in his voyaging and his landings. The present writer can hardly acknowledge his indebtedness to any one authority, except to state that with reference to the physical characteristics of the islands and the surrounding waters and circum- ambient air, he has relied largely upon the chapters PREFA CE Vll relating to the West Indies in Elis6e Reclus’s mon- umental work, The Earth and its Inhabitants , and his Physical Geography. For historical information he has gathered from a great variety of sources ; for general description he has accepted aid from the ob- servation of many trustworthy witnesses, and for facts and statistics he has sought the latest and most authentic statements, endeavouring to balance them when they differed by the exercise of what he may modestly consider a trained judgment. His purpose has been to compress within the compass of one moderate volume, and yet to present with adequate form and colour and in a popular style, the information about the West Indies — their his- tory and physical aspects, their natural resources and material condition, their political relations and apparent destiny — which would meet the needs of that numerous but undefinable person, the “ general reader.” He is cognisant of many omissions and conscious of manifold defects, and he may have fallen into errors and inaccuracies; but the results of his conscientious effort are submitted in the hope that they will prove enlightening as well as inter- esting, and will at least not be misleading. New York, January, 1899. A. K. F. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE ARCHIPELAGO OF COLUMBUS . . I II. ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS . 13 III. BEFORE THE “ DISCOVERY ” ... 24 IV. THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY • • • 35 V. SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT . . 5 1 VI. ROVING TRADERS, PRIVATEERS, AND PIRATES 63 VII. ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH COLONISERS 7 1 VIII. BUCCANEERS, FREEBOOTERS, AND MAROONS 8 1 IX. FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION .... 92 X. WEST INDIAN SLAVERY .... 103 XI. THE BAHAMAS OR LUCAYAN ISLANDS . . 115 XII. THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA . I 28 XIII. HISTORY AND SPANISH GOVERNMENT OF CUBA ....... 141 XIV. PROVINCES, CITIES, AND TOWNS OF CUBA . 151 XV. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN CUBA 1 63 XVI. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA . 1 72 XVII. THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPEND- ENCE 182 XVIII. NATURAL ASPECTS AND RESOURCES OF JAMAICA V . . . . . . 199 XIX. HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF JA- MAICA y ..... 209 XX. THE ISLAND OF HAITI .... 225 IX X CON TEN 7' S CHAPTER XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII. XXXIX. XL. THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PUERTO RICO PUERTO RICO IN SPANISH HANDS . PORTS AND TOWNS OF PUERTO RICO GENERAL CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO . PUERTO RICO IN AMERICAN HANDS LESSER ANTILLES, CARIBBEES, WIND- WARD, LEEWARD . . . . THE VIRGINS AND THE DANISH ISLANDS . ANGUILLA, ST. MARTIN, ST. BARTHOLO- MEW, BARBUDA, ANTIGUA SABA, ST. EUSTATIUS, ST. CHRISTOPHER, NEVIS, MONTSERRAT GUADELOUPE ..... DOMINICA ...... MARTINIQUE . . . . . ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT . THE GRENADINES AND GRENADA . BARBADOS^ ...... TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD OFF THE VENEZUELA COAST . THE WEST INDIAN ENIGMA PAGE 243 251 259 266 273 278 284 287 293 302 3IQ 318 325 33° 338 348 355 367 383 389 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CHARLOTTE AMALIA, SAINT thomas ...... Frontispiece COLUMBUS DISCOVERING THE VARIATION OF THE COMPASS ........ 36 From De Lorgue's “ Columbus .” DISCOVERY OF HISPANIOLA ..... 42 From Herrera' s ‘ ‘History of the West Indies." PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS 52 From the painting by Sir A ntonio Moro. MAP OF CUBA . . . . . . .128 THE BUCCANEERS’ FORT AT THE MOUTH OF THE ALMENDARES RIVER, CUBA . . . 1 42 HAVANA, CUBA, FROM ACROSS THE BAY . 152 THE PRADO AND INDIAN STATUE, HAVANA, CUBA 154 OLD ARCH OF THE JUSUIT COLLEGE, HAVANA, CUBA 156 THE PLAZA, CIENFUEGOS, CUBA .... 158 MORRO CASTLE, SANTIAGO DE CUBA . . . 160 COURTYARD OF CUBAN HOUSE .... 164 NATIVE CANDY SELLER, HAVANA, CUBA . . 170 ON THE ROAD TO CASTLETON, JAMAICA . . 204 AT THE FOUNTAIN, JAMAICA . . . .210 KINGSTON AND HARBOR, JAMAICA . . . 220 THE OLD ASSEMBLY ROOMS, SPANISH TOWN, JAMAICA 222 ISLAND OF HAITI (SOUTH SIDE) . . . .228 xi Xll ILL USTRA TIONS ISLAND OF HAITI (NORTH SIDE) .... 228 PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI 248 MAP OF JAMAICA, HAITI, AND PUERTO RICO AND THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS ..... 258 SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO ..... 274 OLD GATEWAY, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO . . 276 CHARLOTTE AMALIA, SAINT THOMAS, FROM BLACK- beard’s castle ...... 294 BASSE TERRE, SAINT CHRISTOPHER . . . 314 NEVIS ISLAND 316 BASSE-TERRE, GAUDELOUPE 322 FORT-DE-FRANCE, MARTINIQUE .... 330 STATUE OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, FORT-DE- FRANCE, MARTINIQUE 334 HOUSE IN WHICH THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE WAS BORN, MARTINIQUE 336 THE PITONS, SAINT LUCIA 338 KINGSTOWN, SAINT VINCENT .... 346 saint George’s and bay, Grenada . . . 354 TRAFALGAR SQUARE, BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS . 364 PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD 382 MAP OF THE WEST INDIES 396 THE WEST INDIES 2 THE WEST INDIES It was to reach that region for gathering worldly wealth and disseminating the “ true faith,” by a shorter route than the old one around the African cape, that Columbus sailed westward ; and when he came to land he supposed that he had attained his goal. Hence he called the native people ‘ ‘ Indians, ’ ' and the lands which he visited he spoke of as ” the Indies.” Cuba, whose southern coast he skirted for hundreds of miles without coming to the western limit, he believed to be part of that Cipango whose Grand Khan he had determined to convert to Christ- ianity. The Great Navigator died in his errors, and when, among later discoveries, the truth was found, his ” Indies ” were called the “ West Indies ” to distinguish them from those of the East, instead of being called the Archipelago of Columbus as they might have been. So it happened that the word ” Indian ” was imposed not only upon the natives of the islands but upon the aborigines of the two American continents as well. This great archipelago is the barrier which divides from the Atlantic Ocean the two deep basins that constitute the American Mediterranean. But for this, the larger and deeper of these, the Caribbean Sea, would not exist as a separate expanse, and the Gulf of Mexico alone, inclosed by the peninsulas of Florida and Yucatan, would be divided from the ocean. This vast island barrier sweeps in a double curve from the north-west, from about 30° north lati- tude, off the southern part of Florida, for 1800 miles, to the very coast of South America, at lati- tude io° north. THE ARCHIPELAGO OF COLUMBUS 3 It will be well, as a preliminary to our study of this vast domain of islands, to have in mind an out- line map of its extent and of its main features as they exist to-day. Starting at the north, we have the great group of the Bahamas, beginning scarcely a hundred miles off Jupiter Inlet on the Florida coast, and running in a band approximately one hundred and fifty miles wide, to the south-east for about seven hundred and eighty miles. Their num- ber has been variously estimated, and if we include all the rocks and reefs that appear and disappear on the surface of the water, as the work of the coral builders grows and crumbles away, it is not always the same. Including every bit of land or of rock at any time visible, there are more than 2000, and of those which can fairly be called islands or islets there are nearly seven hundred, but only thirty-one are inhabited. The total area of the group is gen- erally stated at 5450 square miles, and the latest sta- tistics give the aggregate population as about 50,000. The northernmost island nearest the Florida coast is the Great Bahama, and to the east of that are the Little and Great Abaco. Next on the outer or north-eastern line is the narrow, crescent-shaped Eleuthera, and on the inner or south-western verge the triple island of Andros, the largest of the whole group, containing, indeed, nearly one third of all its dry land. Between these is the small but populous and important island of New Providence, containing Nassau, the capital of the British colony of the Bahamas. Proceeding again on the outer edge we have Cat and Watling, and on the other side, to the 4 THE WEST INDIES south-west, Great Exuma and Long, with Rum Cay in the middle. The larger islands then fall into a single line, with numerous “ Cays,” or “ Keys,” on either side, and the principal ones in order are Crooked, Acklin, Mariguana, the Caicos, and the Turks, with Great and Little Inagua far off the line to the south toward the eastern end of Cuba. The water among these islands is relatively shallow, ex- cept where a deep chasm, called the ” Tongue of the Ocean,” runs in on the eastern side of Andros to- ward New Providence, but it deepens to 1000 fath- oms between the great submarine plateau on which they stand and the northern coast of Cuba. Before Columbus’s time there were legends of a land far out in the Atlantic, called Antilla, or An- tiglia. Sometimes it was represented as one large island, sometimes as an archipelago, and its place was a shifting one on the ancient charts. The very year that Columbus reported his first discoveries in Spain (1493), Peter Martyr d’Anghiera spoke of these islands as the Antilles, and the name has been applied to a part of them ever since. As the Span- iards made no use of the Bahamas, except to kidnap their inhabitants for slaves, the name did not attach to them. The four great islands, stretching from the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico eastward for more than 1300 miles, far beyond the last bank and shoal of the Bahamas, and forming the northern side of the Caribbean Sea, were called the Greater Antilles, while the lower curve of the archipelago, which forms the eastern barrier of that great basin, was called the Lesser Antilles. THE ARCHIPELAGO OF COLUMBUS 5 The western end of Cuba, separated by a deep channel from the peninsula of Yucatan, half closes the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico, and the island stretches eastward more than seven hundred miles, measured straight across the meridians, and nearly nine hundred following the curve of its axis. It has an area of about 48,000 square miles, which is substantially one half that of the whole archipelago, its mean width being about sixty miles. Before the ravages of the last insurrection its population was reckoned at 1,650,000. South of the eastern end of Cuba and about one hundred miles away is Ja- maica, third in size of the islands. Its length is one hundred and forty miles, and its maximum width fortynine. Its area is 4218 square miles, and its population 635,000, according to the latest statistics. The Cayman Islands, to the south of Cuba and west of Jamaica, belong geographically to the former and politically to the latter. The second in extent of all the islands is Haiti, or Santo Domingo, to the east of Cuba and separated from it by the Windward Pas- sage. It is four hundred and seven miles long, and has a maximum width of one hundred and sixty miles. Its area is 28,249 square miles, and its in- habitants number 1,610,000. Eastward, across the Mona Passage from Santo Domingo, is the island of Puerto Rico, last and smallest of the Greater Antil- les. It is about one hundred and eight miles long, and thirty-seven wide, contains an area of 3550 square miles, and has over 806,000 inhabitants. The Bahamas and the Greater Antilles together, starting on either side of the lower end of Florida 6 THE WEST INDIES with a breadth of six hundred miles, converge to a point like a wedge at the eastern end of Puerto Rico. Just beyond that point are the two small islands of Vieques (Crab) and Culebra (Snake), belonging to Puerto Rico, and then a group called the Vir- gins, which belongs geologically to the same system by submarine connection though classed with the Lesser Antilles. With a distinct and comparatively deep-water separation from the Virgins begins a double chain of islands, varying in size and form but tending to an oval, with the longer axis in line with the chain, which stretches in a graceful curve like a string of jewels in the glittering sea three hundred and seventy miles to Grenada. Then there is another deep and distinct separation from Barbados on the east and from Tobago and Trinidad on the south, which are also classed with the Lesser Antilles, though not belonging geographically to the same system. Barbados is strictly isolated, and Tobago and Trinidad belong by submarine connection to the South American continent. This long group or chain of islands forming the barrier between the Caribbean Sea and the open ocean was called by the Spaniards the Windward Islands, because they stood against the prevailing north-east trade-winds ; and in contradistinction, the group strung along the Venezuela coast, which in- cludes three now called “ Dutch West Indies,” was called the Leeward Islands. These latter, like To- bago and Trinidad, are projections of the submarine extension of South America. The English in their colonial system have misused the terms “ Wind- THE ARCHIPELAGO OF COLUMBUS 7 ward ** and “ Leeward/’ applying the latter to the islands belonging to their sovereignty in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, and the former to those in the southern part. The whole chain is some- times, and most appropriately, called the Caribbees, from the aboriginal inhabitants. Let us run rapidly down this long line, noting the principal islands on the way, to complete our mental map of the great American archipelago. It may be well to observe, in passing, the political connection of each island that comes under notice ; and to make that view complete we will recall that the Bahamas and Jamaica belong to Great Britain, that until the war of 1898 Cuba and Puerto Rico were colonies of Spain, and that the island of Haiti, or Santo Do- mingo, consists of the two independent republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo, the former occupying the western end of the island with an area of 10,204 square miles and a population of about 1, 000, 000, and the latter comprising the central and eastern parts, with an area of 18,045 square miles and 610,- 000 inhabitants. Coming back to the east of Puerto Rico, we regain the group of islands which Columbus called “ The Virgins ” because, it is said, they were first observed on St. Ursula’s day, reminding him of the proces- sion of 11,000 maidens who shared the fate of the Virgin martyr, according to the legend. Santa Cruz is included with this group, though it lies off by itself toward the south, and by its submarine connection is rather an outpost of the great Carib- bean range. It has an area of seventy-four square 8 THE WEST INDIES miles and a population of 18,400, and belongs to Denmark, as do the two islands of St. Thomas and St. John, within the group. St. Thomas is commer- cially the most important, and has an area of twenty- three square miles and a population of 14,400. St. John, with an area of twenty-one square miles, has less than 1000 inhabitants. The other three Virgins which are more than rocks and reefs are Tortola, Virgin Gorda, and Anegada, and belong to Great Britain, being included in the colony of the Leeward Islands.” Their combined area is fifty- eight square miles and their population about 5000. It is two hundred and fifty miles from the Virgin group to the nearest island of the chain which con- stitutes the Caribbees, or the Lesser Antilles proper, and the intervening passage attains a depth of 1000 fathoms, making the physical severance com- plete. At the beginning of the long chain are the barren rocks, one called Sombrero, from its resem- blance to a conical grey hat floating on the water, and the others “ Dogs,” from an appearance like a pack of hounds in full cry. These outlying rocks are appurtenant to the British island Anguilla, which has the considerable population of 12,000, with an area of thirty-five square miles. Next to it, on the south, is St. Martin, which is politically divided be- tween France and Holland in the proportion of twenty-one square miles of territory and 3500 inhabi- tants to the former and seventeen square miles and 4500 people to the latter. To the south-east of this is the French island of St. Bartholomew, or St. Bart, as it is sometimes called, a crescent six miles long, THE ARCHIPELAGO OF COLUMBUS 9 having an area of only eight square miles, and a population stated as over 2600. From this point the double character of the chain of islands becomes distinctly marked, and we have Barbuda on the easterly line, which is connected politically with Antigua directly south of it. They are British property, and Antigua is an island of some consequence in the Leeward colony, having a population of 35,000 within its area of one hundred and eight square miles. Barbuda, however, with an area more than half as great, has less than 1000 in- habitants. West of these, in the other strand of the chain, are the Dutch islands of Saba and St. Eusta- tius. To the south-east of these in the same line are St. Christopher, or St. Kitt’s, and Nevis, and then Montserrat, all belonging to Great Britain. St. Kitt’s has an area of sixty-five square miles and a population of 45,000, Nevis fifty square miles of ter- ritory and 12,000 inhabitants, and Montserrat thirty- two square miles and 10,000 people. This brings us to the French island of Guadeloupe, the largest in area of the Lesser Antilles, if we leave out the really South American island of Trinidad. It is in effect two islands separated by a narrow passage, and in it the strands of the chain come to- gether as in a double clasp. It has an area of six hundred square miles and a population of 135,600, and belonging with it politically and physically are the outlying islands of Desirade on the east, Marie Galante to the south-east, and the Saintes directly south of its western half. Desirade has but ten square miles of land and 1400 inhabitants, but Marie IO THE WEST INDIES Galante possesses an area of sixty-five square miles and a population of nearly 14,000. The little cluster of “ Saintes,” with its six square miles of surface, has 1900 people, consisting partly of the occupants of a military and naval station. Between Guadeloupe and the other important French island of Martinique, which lies a little east of south, nearly one hundred and fifty miles away, is Dominica, the largest of the British possessions in the Lesser Antilles, if again we omit Trinidad. With all those to the north of it belonging to Great Britain, it is a member of the Leeward colony. It has an area of two hundred and fifty square miles and a population of 30,003. The area of Martinique is four hundred square miles and its population over 177,000, making it the most populous and important of the French West Indies, though not so large as Guadeloupe. The remaining islands of the Lesser Antilles be- long to Great Britain, and except Barbados and Trinidad, which have colonial governments of their own, constitute the colony of the “ Windward Islands." Nearest to Martinique and directly south of it is St. Lucia, with an area of two hundred and forty-five square miles and a population of 45,000, and farther south and slightly westward from the direct line is St. Vincent, with one hundred and twenty-two square miles of surface and 48,000 peo- ple. Barbados lies by itself, one hundred miles to the east, and is surrounded by deep water. It is, in fact, an oceanic island, having no direct submarine connection with the chain of the Caribbees or with THE ARCHIPELAGO OF COLUMBUS II the southern continent except the deep bed of the Atlantic. Its area is one hundred and sixty-six square miles, and it has over 180,000 inhabitants. Grenada, a little to the west of south from St. Vin- cent and eighty miles away, with the long cluster of the Grenadines strung in the interval, properly terminates the Caribbean chain. Grenada and the Grenadines together have an area of one hundred and twenty square miles and 50,000 inhabitants. There is a stretch of deep water nearly a hundred miles wide between Grenada and Trinidad, of which Tobago is an outlying spur, coming to the surface like a gigantic spear-head off its north-eastern angle. As has already been said, these two islands have their submarine attachment with the terra firma of South America, close to which the larger one lies, but in the geographies they are part of the British West Indies. Tobago, which is politically attached to the Windward colony, has an area of one hundred and fourteen square miles and a population of 18,- 400. Trinidad is a colony by itself, and in size comes next to Puerto Rico. Its area is 1754 square miles, and its population something over 200,000. We are compelled to take notice of the Dutch West Indies which lie off the coast of Venezuela, though they pertain to the South American system as completely as the other members of the old Span- ish Leeward group, which now belong to Venezuela because nobody had succeeded in wresting them from Spain before her South American colonies gained their independence. She had, however, lost these three islands to the Dutch, and they are now 12 THE WEST INDIES reckoned with the West Indies: Buen Aire, or Bo- naire, Curagao, and Aruba. Curagao is the largest and by far the most populous. Its area is two hun- dred and twenty square miles and its population 26.000. Buen Aire, to the east of it, has two hun- dred and fourteen square miles of land and only about 5000 inhabitants, while Aruba, to the west, has nearly 8000 people within its area of sixty-six square miles. The statistics given above, drawn from the latest authentic sources, are probably not exact, for author- ities do not agree, and in no one authority do the details and the aggregates precisely correspond. But it is close to the truth to say that the entire land area of the West Indies is 95,000 square miles, of which nearly 85,000 is in the Greater Antilles, and of that about 48,000 in the island of Cuba alone. Of the rest more than half is contained in the Baha- mas, and the total area of the Lesser Antilles, in- cluding the Virgins and Trinidad and Tobago, and even the three Dutch islands of the Venezuelan coast, is a trifle less than 5000 square miles. The aggregate population of the archipelago is about 5.750.000, of which more than 4,500,000 is contained in the Greater Antilles. The Bahamas are sparsely peopled with a little over 50,000 souls, while the Lesser Antilles, including the outlying islands at either end of the long chain, contain about 1,200,000 inhabitants. CHAPTER II ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS IT is a familiar scientific fact that far back in the geological ages the crust of the earth was subject to upheaval and subsidence under the cooling pro- cess, which resulted in enormous changes of level in the surface remaining above water. The changes were greatest and lasted longest in the equatorial regions, where the globe’s diameter transverse to its axis was greatest, and where the radiation of inter- nal heat was slowest. It is the latest scientific opinion that in those ages of “ the dark backward and abysm of time,” there was a great upheaval of land where this archipelago now is, which made it substantially, if not absolutely, a continuation of the continents, with broad plains upon the west, occupying most of the two basins of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. There was an ocean connection with this land from the Pa- cific, over one or more of the depressions where now are the isthmuses of Tehuantepec, Nicaragua, and Panama, for the level of the western verge of the con- tinent was lower than it is at present. In later ages 13 14 THE WEST INDIES there was a tilting of this broad tract of the earth’s crust, which lifted the side now occupied by the Cordilleras and sank the region of the Antilles to a level even lower than that of the present time. Then the plains, which may have had lakes in their central depressions, were converted into the basins of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the plateaus became the higher levels of the ocean floor, while the valleys between them, and the cafions and ravines by which they were cleft, were chasms in the great deep, and only the mountain ridges and peaks were left above the expanse of waters as islands of varying form and extent. There is geo- logical evidence that after the great subsidence there was a gradual lifting, at least of a part of this tract, toward the older level. The plateau upon whose elevations and projections the Bahamas are built is a continuation of the North American continent, and stretches from Florida east- ward about three hundred miles, with a level no- where more than 3500 feet below the water surface until it reaches the outer edge, where a steep escarp- ment dips abruptly to the ocean depths of 12,000 feet and more. Upon this are banks and ridges and mounds, some of which come to the surface as islands, or near enough for the polyps to build their coral structures to the sunlight and make isles and reefs and calcareous rocks ; and here and there the plateau is seamed with valleys, some of which are old extensions of river beds of the continent, and is cut by deep fiords which were formed when the whole region was above the water-level, The high- ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 5 est culmination now is about three hundred and eighty feet on Cat Island. The plateau of the Bahamas slopes off to the south into the Old Bahama Channel near the eastern end of Cuba to a depth of 6000 feet, and to more than 5000 north of the western part of the great island. The Florida Straits have scarcely a third of this depth, but they deepen and widen into the Gulf of Mexico, whose basin is some 12,000 feet in depth near the middle. The Yucatan Channel is about 6000 feet deep off the western end of Cuba, but rises to higher levels toward the opposite peninsula, while the western section of the Caribbean Sea, sometimes called the Sea of Honduras, sinks to vast depths. There is a submarine ridge extending west from Cape Cruz on the south coast of Cuba which comes to the surface in the Cayman Islands. South of this is a pit in the bottom of the sea, 20,000 feet deep, measured from the surface of the water. Another broad ridge extends from Cape Tiburon, Haiti, through Jamaica and on toward Cape Gracias k Dios at the angle of Central America, where Honduras and Nicaragua meet, and from that ridge the bottom slopes gradually to the south-east into the Caribbean depths of 15,000 feet. The deepest place in all these waters, one of the deepest in all the vast ocean, is directly north of Puerto Rico, where soundings have gone down more than 27,000 feet. When this region was at its highest elevation the Bahama plateau connected with the North Ameri- can continent and the Greater Antilles, and the ex- panse of land continued to Mexico and Central 1 6 THE WEST INDIES America, with deep intervening plains and a general south-westward slope. When the great subsidence came, it left the long range of the Greater Antilles, with their mountains and valleys and their outlying protuberances, above the surface of the submerging waters; and the tireless coral builders joined the forces of erosion and deposit to modify their outlines. The channels which cut the Greater Antilles apart, the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti and the Mona Passage between Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico, are from 2000 to 3000 feet deep, but the chasm which separates the Virgin group from the great chain of the Caribbees is 1000 fathoms deep. Even the bottom of this is believed to have been high above the surface in that remote era be- fore the submergence. The graceful curve of the Lesser Antilles, from the broad, deep passage just mentioned to that which divides it from Tobago and Trinidad, that is to say, the range from Sombrero and the Dogs to Grenada and the Grenadines, is really a double ridge of mountains on a submarine plateau, with peaks of varied form and size rising above the water. It forms the eastern barrier of the Caribbean Sea, the plateau sloping west into its deep basin and extending east a few miles and falling abruptly into the depths of the Atlantic. The peaks rise from a continuous bench some 3000 feet below the surface and are separated by valleys and chasms of varying width and depth, the deepest and widest cutting the range near the middle, just north of Martinique. The inner and most continuous line is of igneous origin, showing ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS I? more and more evidences of recent volcanic action as we advance toward the equator, until craters are found that still rage and have broken out in a tremendous fury within the present century. The outer and less consecutive ridge is of calcareous formation, and much of it has been built up or enlarged through ages by the multitudinous and unceasing polyp, which does not really work but evermore grows and propagates, accumulating gen- erations of coral skeletons into masses of porous rock. There is a breaking of the ocean currents by this rocky barrier, which interferes with the regularity of the tides and produces effects peculiar to the region. The great equatorial current is produced by rapid evaporation under the tropic sun, which draws the cooler and denser water from north and south toward the equator. The greater velocity of the earth’s surface in its rotation toward the east, as the diam- eter perpendicular to its axis increases, draws these two currents from north and south into a single broad stream tending west upon the central belt of the globe. As this strikes the South American coast it is deflected to the north-west and thrown upon the barrier of the Antilles. Far the greater part of its volume is again deflected north to be spread over the Atlantic ; but vast quantities of the water make their way among the huge pillars and over the vast sills of the Caribbean barrier and rush on to be forced into the Gulf of Mexico by the swelling mass behind. As the movement is contin- uous, the invading force of equatorial water is turned i8 THE WEST INDIES back by the resisting shores of the gulf and by the volume of cooler water that drains down from the Mississippi River, and is driven out again through the Florida Straits to form the Gulf Stream. This great river of the ocean is in a sense the product of the West Indian archipelago. Where the dark blue waters meet the muddy outflow of the Mississippi, which is cooler and denser, the line of demarcation is as clear and constant as if the differ- ent-coloured barrier were solid ; and in their flow through the straits they are concentrated into a stream of which the colder and heavier water of the ocean forms the bed and banks. Here it is thirty- seven miles wide and 1200 feet deep, and its volume is 2000 times as great as that which the Mississippi empties into the gulf as the drainage of a continent, while it moves with a more rapid flow than the greatest rivers of the earth. As it is joined through the passages north of Cuba by other parts of the equatorial current, and finds room to expand farther on, its volume is increased and its speed lessened, until the lowered temperature enables it to mingle with the waters of the North Atlantic. Its whole- some contribution of West Indian temperature to the climate of Northern Europe has had incalculable effects upon civilisation. The currents of the watery ocean and the disturb- ances to which they are subject are on or near the surface, for their causes, in variations of temperature and of consequent density and pressure, come from above. The currents of the atmospheric ocean and their disturbances are at or near its bottom, where ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 1 9 it comes in contact with the land and water of the earth’s surface, and they are liable to greater, more sudden, and more violent changes, as the fluid air is more susceptible to variations of temperature and of density than the liquid water and moves with abso- lute freedom under the force of pressure or ex- pansion in any direction. With this condition of complete mobility, the bottom of the ocean of air is always under the enormous pressure of a superin- cumbent mass miles in depth, which is subject to all the “ skyey influences ” of attraction and of heat. The meteorology of the West Indies is particularly affected by two results of the uncontrollable action of atmospheric currents, — the steady and beneficent trade-winds of the north-east, and sudden spasms of storm which sometimes develop into the furious and destructive hurricane. The heat of the equatorial zone causes the air to expand and rise, and this pro- duces a pressure from north and south which draws currents along the surface of the globe from the direction of the poles. The rotation of the earth toward the east, increasing in surface speed with increase of diameter in its latitude, tends to draw these currents into one equatorial stream, but the freedom of expansion and movement characteristic of air causes it to join the rising mass where the currents meet in the equatorial belt, and to flow back in counter currents to the north and south. In the northern hemisphere the surface currents, drawn from the direction of the Arctic zone and de- flected to the south-west by the revolution of the earth, constitute the north-east trade-winds. Sweep- 20 THE WEST INDIES ing over a wide expanse of ocean without interrup- tion, they become within a certain zone remarkably uniform and steady, though affected more or less by changes of season and external atmospheric dis- turbances. These steady winds were a mystery to the early navigators, and sometimes filled them with alarm lest they should be carried to regions from whose bourn there would be no return. The outer verge of the Antilles is in the direct track of the trade-winds, which have a perceptible effect in tem- pering and equalising their climatic conditions. In- cidentally they give more rain to the northern and eastern coasts than to those bordering on the Carib- bean Sea, and bring the rainy season, after the first tropical heat of the year, by condensing the moisture that rises from the ocean. An explanation of the causes of storms and cyclones is not relevant here, but the “ hurricane ” is peculiar to the West Indies, and its birth is an in- teresting phenomenon. The very word comes from the Carib “ hurakan,” a contraction of “ huiravu- can.” The vast mass of heated air, rising from the burning deserts of Asia and Africa, spreads in the upper regions, and a part of it flows west over the Atlantic, slowly descending. Something similar goes on, but with less intensity, over the tropical areas of South America. The heated masses from the east encounter in the upper air of the tropics the returning currents of the trade-winds speeding to the east of north, and generate vast eddies which descend obliquely toward the earth in a north-west- erly direction until they strike the lower currents ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 21 rushing to fill the equatorial vacuum. Sometimes there is a concurrence of differences in temperature and pressure and in electrical conditions, which begets a terrific commotion along the earth. Out of the conditions thus briefly indicated springs from time to time the West Indian variety of cyclone which is called a hurricane. Its path is narrow, but it is apt to take its course to the west of north across the lower part of the Lesser Antilles and over one or more of the larger islands, carrying destruction upon its way on land and sea. Its huge spirals always circle from left to right, and the velocity of the wind is greatest on its western verge, where its movement is with the general direction of the storm. Varied conditions of moisture and electricity cause darkness and lurid lights and colours, which add their appalling effect to the fury of the air ; lightened pressure within the vast spirals of the wind lifts the surface of the sea and sometimes causes great tidal waves, and occasionally masses of water are whirled up from the ocean to be precipitated in drenching torrents upon some hapless shore. Partly as the result of the currents of the ocean and the air, the temperature of the islands, extend- ing over nearly twenty degrees of latitude, does not differ much between Great Bahama and Trinidad, and variations of climate are not great except as affected by altitude and here and there by local con- ditions. The rainy and less healthful season comes on in late June, two months later, it is said, than in the early times, and lasts till the end of September, with great variation in the rainfall. Then comes 22 THE WEST INDIES the cooler and drier season, followed by the hotter and drier in the spring, but the temperature is rarely above 90° Fahrenheit, and 98° is an unusual extreme. Speaking of the islands as a whole, we may say that there is in their vegetation and their animal life a great deal of variety within a general tropical uniformity. There are strange resemblances in flora and fauna mingled with curious contrasts. In local- ities far apart, in formations of the remote miocene period, remains have been found of great quad- rupeds— mastodons, elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotamuses — akin to those whose fossils are dug from similar formations in the United States. In historical times there have been no indigenous mammals larger than a raccoon. Most of those sur- viving are the smaller rodents. Existing species of animals and even of birds indicate that the period of migration from the continents and between the islands by land is remote, the later species being peculiar to certain islands. Birds of brilliant plum- age, like those of South America, are not common, but there are fifteen species of humming-birds, five of which are found nowhere else. The reptiles have affinities with those of Mexico and Central America, but there is an ant-eater in Cuba whose congener is found in Madagascar. The deep-sea fauna on the Caribbean side are akin to those of the Pacific Ocean rather than the Atlantic. Everywhere in the tepid waters is an abundance of molluscs and of fish, and sharks lurk about the reefs. The coral-building polyp is found on all the banks and along most of the shores, raising its fan- 1 ORIGIN AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS 23 tastic columns, making fringes to the islands, and obstructing channels with its persistent structures. Tangled with the foundations of these are varied algae and other marine flora, and drifting on the surface, especially to the eastward, are acres of sargasso, like verdant prairies of the sea. CHAPTER III BEFORE THE “ DISCOVERY” WHEN Columbus was preparing for his adven- turous voyages, they were not intended so much for the discovery of new lands as for the open- ing of a new way to the old lands of the East. He was to seize on the way anything that might belong to the ” heathen,” as a preliminary to their conver- sion, simply because the heathen were assumed to have no rights of possession, and not because the previous existence of the property was unknown. The so-called ” right of discovery,” as superior to the right of possession, was a peculiar conception of fifteenth-century Christianity. It was really the right to take by force whatever did not already be- long to Christian nations. At that time the great American archipelago was occupied by the people to whom it naturally be- longed, and they were probably about as numerous as the present peculiarly mixed assortment of in- habitants. For the most part they were not the aborigines of the land, but immigrants from the 24 BEFORE THE “ DISCOVERY " 25 coast of South America. There were some remnants of savage tribes, like the Guanahatabibes of Western Cuba, whose ancestors are supposed to have come from the North American continent; and traces have been found in caves or in the earth of primeval inhabitants who may have been the real autoch- thones. In the mountains of Haiti there are linger- ing vestiges of myths and legends and of rites and superstitions which are believed by some to have come down from prehistoric ages and become mingled with others of African origin. But before the arrival of the great European navi- gator, the people consisted almost wholly of two races, or branches of the same race, which had made their way northward from the valleys of the Esse- quibo and the Orinoco — the Arawaks and the Caribs. They seem to have been hereditary ene- mies, and one was apparently driven before the other. The Arawaks were a mild and peaceable race, and had occupied the Bahamas and Greater Antilles long enough to develop tribal differences and variations of language, while the Caribs were a fierce and aggressive people which held full possession of the Lesser Antilles, including the Virgin group to the east of Puerto Rico. They are supposed to have driven the Arawaks from these islands, and they sometimes made hostile incursions upon the shores of the great islands to the west and were even dreaded among the Bahamas. In these marauding expeditions they not only plundered the villages of the peaceful Arawaks, but captured their young men for slaves, or, as some maintain, for sup- 26 THE WEST INDIES plies of fresh meat, and their women for wives and bondservants. The Bahamas were somewhat sparsely peopled, as they are at present, and the inhabitants called them- selves Yucayos, which became corrupted to Lucayos when the Spanish adopted for these scattered islands the designation Los Cayos, or “ The Keys.” They were a simple people, and in the genial climate, where they passed much of their time in the tepid waters, they were wont to be “ naked and not ashamed.” They were short of stature, sturdy of form, and of a rich reddish-brown, or copper, colour, and had a practice of flattening the head in infancy, which gave it a regular backward slope from the brows. This they seem to have regarded as an im- provement upon nature, but they were not otherwise addicted to personal adornment. There was not much tillable soil over the calcareous skeleton of their islands, and they lived mainly on fish, mol- luscs, eggs of sea-birds and turtles, the flesh of the turtle and the iguana, bread made from the wild cassava plant, and pineapples and such other fruit as was to be had without cultivation. They were wonderful swimmers and divers, and were accus- tomed to go down into the clear water among the coral reefs for part of their food supplies. Their shelter, when they needed any, was a hut of reeds and palm leaves, and their dress was little else than their native innocence. They used bows and arrows and a slender lance tipped with fish bone, and pad- died about in broad-bottomed canoes, some of which would carry forty persons or more. They wrought BEFORE THE ‘ ‘ DISCO VER V ” 27 cotton and other fibres into rude nets and the ham- acas (hammocks) which were their beds. Skulls of these people and some rude stone implements have been found in caves on Long Island and the Caicos and Turks. There is a hatchet made of a smooth green stone, of a kind not found on the islands, presumably indicating an occasional interchange of goods with the other islands or the mainland. A curious seat carved from lignum-vitae is presumed to have been the humble throne of a chief. The Yu- cayos were leading a tranquil and harmless life when rudely disturbed by the discoverers. The people of Cuba were of the same race, for they spoke substantially the same language and had similar physical characteristics, but they had de- veloped peculiarities of their own. There may have been some mingling of blood with the Mayas across the channel in Yucatan, for there is a similarity in the relics found on the two shores, though those of the mainland indicate greater advancement. Hatch- ets of polished serpentine or diorite found near Bayamo, other relics discovered in caves near Cape Maisi, and those deposits of human remains called caneys, are believed to indicate considerable an- tiquity. The principal tribe of Cuba at the time of the “ discovery ” was the Ciboneys, or Cebuneys, who had the wide skulls, flattened foreheads, straight black hair, and coppery complexion of the Yucayos. They had the same gentle and peaceable character- istics ; but, their land having a variety of fertile soil, they were largely occupied in agricultural pursuits. They raised large fields of maize and manioc ; they 28 THE WEST INDIES gathered fruits and knew the charm of smoking to- bacco; they spun and wove the fibre of cotton into simple fabrics, made crude pottery, and carved im- plements and utensils of wood and stone. Relics of rude images and carvings of pictorial inscriptions upon rocks have been found, which show the awak- ening of the artistic and literary instincts. Their dwellings were generally extensive huts formed of branches, reeds, and large leaves of palm and plan- tain, and contained many families, sometimes a com- munity of a hundred persons and more. They, too, had broad-beamed craft with which they navigated the inlets and bays of their land and sometimes ventured forth to sea. Cuba was not so devoid of quadrupeds as the Bahamas, having the peccary, a “ dumb dog,” — probably the raccoon, — “ rats and mice, and such small deer,” but the people did not eat flesh. Arawak is said to mean meal-eater, and the diet of the race may account for its gentle and peaceable disposition and amiable qualities, which excited the admiration of the discoverers, but did not protect the harmless people from their cruelty. Jamaica — Xaymaca, “ the land of fountains ” — was also populous. Its pimento groves swarmed with a tribe described as somewhat smaller and darker than those of Cuba, but their characteristics and habits were much the same. They lived chiefly upon the products of the soil, which they cultivated as much as they found necessary ; they smoked to- bacco, and were abstemious in eating and drinking, and were neither warlike nor addicted to the slaugh- ter of living things. More relics of native handi- BEFORE THE “DISCOVERY 29 work have been found here, and early descriptions indicate a greater fondness for ornamentation. The great cacique is said to have had a showy canoe that would carry a hundred men, to have worn a band of coloured stones around his head and a mantle of variegated feathers, and otherwise to have been decorated with gold and beads and stones more or less precious. Old records declare that Haiti had more than 1,- 000,000 inhabitants when it was discovered, and some chroniclers put the number much higher, but nobody knows. It simply gave the impression of swarming with people, who were first described as small of stature and of dark complexion, with all the amiable characteristics of their fellow Arawaks. The island was divided into five kingdoms, each with its own cacique, — the Arawak title for ruler, — but, in the mountains of the interior, the realm of Cibao, which was reported to be a realm of gold, had for its po- tentate a Carib invader with warriors at his com- mand. All along the coasts, however, the people raised their fields of maize and manioc, and of tobacco and cotton ; they constructed their canoes of cottonwood and cedar, made simple fabrics of cotton and feathers, wrought implements of wood and stone, and essayed their rude works of art in pottery and graven images. In some of the lime- stone caves with which the island abounds rude carvings have been found of crocodiles, turtles, frogs, scorpions, and other animal forms, incrusted with the calcareous deposits of ages. The people seem to have led a peaceful life, save when disturbed by 30 THE WEST INDIES the occasional forays by water of the fierce Caribs of the south, or by the wild hurricane. The old chroniclers declare that Puerto Rico when “ discovered " had 1,000,000 people under one ca- cique. They were of the same race as those of Haiti, and their ways and habits were not materially differ- ent. It is apparently here, however, that the Ara- waks had been longest established and had reached the highest development. The relics of “ celts," stone implements and weapons, ornaments, masks, and collars, though the discovery of such is scanty yet, show a somewhat greater variety, a higher finish, and more perceptible significance. One pecul- iar to the island is the polished collar of stone, shaped like a horse-collar and nearly as large, some- times weighing sixty-five pounds or more. It is believed to have been somehow connected with the simple religious faith of the people. One tradition is that it was carefully wrought in the owner’s life- time to be placed over his head in his final resting- place, to prevent the evil one from snatching him away. There are many evidences in relics and in the early records that the religious perceptions of the Arawaks were much like those of other primitive people. They deified the forces of nature and had a dread of unseen beings. Some of their rude images repre- sented household or tribal gods, — their lares and penates or teraphim, — and they had a vague con- ception of one mighty Deity whose voice was in the thunder and whose presence gave power to the storm, and of a continuation of life beyond the grave. BEFORE THE “ DISCOVERY ” 31 This crude form of faith, radical in the human race, characterised most of the scattered tribes of the Western world before the light of the East reached its shores. The island of Borinquen, as the native people called what is now Puerto Rico, had stayed the tide of Carib invasion and conquest, though it had not prevented repeated attacks which reached to Haiti and even spread terror among the Bahamas. But the Caribs had taken full possession of the long chain of the Lesser Antilles and established themselves among the Virgins. They were a different breed from the gentle and unresisting Arawaks — fierce, aggressive, unyielding, pitiless to their enemies and their victims, but hospitable and generous to kins- men and friends. They were taller and of a lighter complexion, — sometimes described as olive, or as yellow, to distinguish it from the coppery red, — had finer hair, of a gleaming black, and were accustomed to paint their bodies and make their faces hideous with rings around the eyes and streaks upon the cheeks. Their apparel consisted chiefly of necklaces of bone and teeth, and girdles of shells and coloured stones, variegated with feathers. When the Spaniards first encountered the Carib warriors, they were horrified by evidences of canni- balism. They found bones about the huts and camps, and skulls apparently used for drinking vessels or domestic utensils, and they even reported seeing human limbs hanging up as butchers’ sup- plies. Some have doubted whether these gruesome scenes meant more than the sacrifice of the captives 32 THE WEST INDIES of war as part of some horrible religious ceremony, or of hideous feasts commemorating triumphs over enemies. But this would hardly better the case for the Caribs, and apparently they were occasionally, if not regularly, eaters of human flesh. It may be that their progenitors in the mountains and valleys of South America had been nourished for genera- tions upon animal food, and that when they came into possession of the islands where beasts whose life was in the blood were scarcely known, the crav- ing became irresistible, like that of starving men at sea or in the Arctic ice. Being naturally meat- eaters, they may have begun to devour the meal- eating Arawaks who fell victims to their warlike prowess, and doubtless the appetite grew by what it fed on. The fierce and enterprising spirit of the Carib may have been due to the fact that he was an eater of flesh, and it may have demanded the diet of flesh to maintain itself; and human flesh affording the only available supply, he was impelled to de- vour his enemies and to restrain himself in the com- pany of strangers. There is a remnant of the old Carib stock in the island of Dominica and another in St. Vincent, but in them there is no vestige of the old warlike spirit. The people till the soil and live upon the fruits of the ground. Spanish writers used to say that Carib meant man- eater, and was synonymous with cannibal; but it meant nothing of the kind, and it was they who derived “ cannibal ” from it by an ingenious varia- tion from caribal or calibal, injecting into it a sug- gestion of canine origin. The name had its source 1 BEFORE THE “ DISCOVERY ” 33 in South America, in the region of the Calibe Moun- tains, and seems to have merely meant “ people,” being adopted by a race assuming to be the people par excellence, as a certain ancient race took the name of ” Shem,” signifying “ name,” or pre-eminence. The Caribs compressed the skulls of infants, but not after the manner of the Arawaks. They made the forehead high and square, instead of flat and sloping backward. Their language was different from that of the weaker race, but a modification of the latter prevailed among their women, because these women were mostly captives from the Arawaks or descendants of such. The boys as they grew up followed the speech of their fathers and the girls that of the mothers, thus keeping up the distinction, which was less difficult with the simple tongue of a savage tribe than it would be with the complex language of a civilised people. The chiefs and war- riors are even said to have had a special ” lingo,” in which they discussed affairs of state without the need of secret sessions. The Caribs left relics of their better days, which, with the not very accurate records of old Spanish chroniclers, show that they made ornaments of metal as well as of stone and shell ; that they fabricated baskets and wove cotton cloth as well as constructed canoes, and shaped weapons and implements of peace from wood and bone and stone. There are rock inscriptions and carvings on some of the islands which may or may not antedate the ” discovery.” They kindled fires by rubbing two sticks together, and they had rude altars upon which offerings were made to the mys- 3 34 THE WEST INDIES terious power to which they did reverence. Their religious conceptions, like their mental activity, seem to have been somewhat higher than those of the more virtuous Arawaks, and they believed in one God, and a future life for the brave and worthy. They had a kind of family life and lived in small huts, made of poles stuck in the ground, bound to- gether at the top, and covered with branches, bark, and leaves. How many of these people there were on all the islands no one ever knew, and the first con- jectures were very wild. They were not wholly ad- dicted to war and the securing of animal food ; but they, too, raised crops after a fashion, and did not wholly disdain the products of the soil. Neither the mild Arawak nor the fierce Carib seems to have been given to sensuality, and in that respect they com- pared favourably with the Spanish “ Christians,” who proceeded to exterminate the gentler race and to enslave, so far as they could, the more vigorous. Incidentally the lack of animals and of quadrupeds in the archipelago has been noted, and as a result there was practically no such thing as beasts of burden or domestic animals, little use of skins, and no occupation in hunting; and the simple industries of the people were carried on by hand with the rudest devices. But the lavish gifts of nature, gathered with little effort, were sufficient for the wants of man ; the forests flourished unchecked from generation to generation ; vegetation waxed and waned with the changing seasons, and the teeming life of bird and reptile and insect went on beneath the tropic sun and through the whirlwind and the storm. CHAPTER IV THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY IT is not our business to follow the trials and triumphs of Don Cristobal Colon, known to readers of English as Christopher Columbus, and christened in his native Italy as Cristoforo Colombo, for they have been made familiar by many writers ; but we must trace briefly the process of his dis- covery of the West Indies. It was Friday, August 3, 1492, when he left the small port of Palos with his three little vessels, and on September 6th, after a call at the Canary Islands, he left all known land behind him, and ventured upon the unexplored waters to the west. The Santa Maria was a decked vessel, ninety feet long, with four masts, two of which were square - rigged and the other two equipped with lateen sails. A poop above the deck astern covered an armament of guns capable of hurling the grape and shrapnel of that day, and officers and crew numbered sixty-six men. The Pint a and Nina were little caravels, or undecked vessels, turned up fore and aft like a floating cradle. 35 36 THE WEST INDIES The former, commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, had a crew of thirty men, and the latter, under his brother, Vicente Yafiez Pinzon, had one of twenty- four men. Both were rigged with lateen sails only. There were one hundred and twenty men in the whole expedition. The distance traversed in the ten weeks’ voyage was scarcely one fourth of the way to the far-off Indies which Columbus expected to reach by this western route. Across his track lay the two great continents, then unknown to Europe, and the archi- pelago stretching between them which was to be the limit of his explorations, save for some brief and dubious lingerings upon the southern and western shores of the Caribbean Sea. This was not exactly a “ new world.” For ages the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, and the Amazon had drained their great valleys ; the Rocky Mountains, the Cordilleras, and the Andes had stretched their long barrier from north to south between the oceans ; the dusky tribes had roamed the forests and built up the rude splen- dours of Mexico and Peru, and the tropical islands had inclosed the great basins of the double sea. But of this the adventurous navigator knew nothing when he set forth upon the limitless ” waste of waters. * ’ He was disturbed by variations of the magnetic needle never before observed ; he was astonished by the vast and floating fields of marine verdure in the “ Sargasso Sea”; he was mystified by the steady pull of the trade-winds; and finally he was delighted by the sight of land, which he had no doubt was a COLUMBUS DISCOVERING THE VARIATION OF THE COMPASS. From De Lorgue’s Columbus. THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 37 newly discovered outpost of the Indies. He was steering straight for the northern entrance to the Gulf of Mexico through the Bahamas when he came upon the island called Guanahani by the natives, and by him named with pious gratitude San Salva- dor, or Holy Saviour. We may as well ignore the long-time controversy, and conclude at once that this was what is now called Watling Island. It may seem strange that there should have been a contro- versy, but the Spanish made no settlement in the Bahamas, and within twenty years they had carried the harmless natives into slavery in the Antilles; and the islands were left desolate and deserted for a century after. Then San Salvador and the others named by Columbus were lost sight of, and after the English had given them new names it be- came difficult to identify them from the old de- scriptions. But the place where Columbus fell on his knees and kissed the earth, giving thanks to God and taking possession in the name of their Catholic Majesties, was undoubtedly the north-east coast of Watling Island. He said that there were “ no better people on earth ” than those he found there. He did not linger long, but skirted down the island's western coast, and next reached what is now Rum Cay, to which he gave the more attractive name of Santa Maria de la Concepcion. After that he touched Long Island, which he called Fernandina in honour of the King, and Crooked (including the spur now called Fortune), which he named Isabella, for the Queen. He left the Bahama group, after a 38 THE WEST INDIES stay of two weeks in all, at the flat and sandy islets now called “ Ragged/' to which he gave the more graceful, if not more appropriate, name of Las Islas de Arenas (The Islands of Sand). Having seven Lucayan natives with him, he sailed south for two days, and on October 28th reached the coast of Cuba at what is now the port of Gibara. He called the country Juana, in honour of Juan, son of Fer- dinand and Isabella. He thought surely he had come to the realm of the Grand Khan, and he under- took to send an embassy to that potentate, but neither he nor the splendid capital described by Marco Polo was to be found. Neither was there evidence of great riches in these parts, and the mis- sion of converting the heathen must await the dis- covery of earthly treasures. The disappointed navigator coasted eastward until he reached the cape which he called Maisi, and which still bears the name. The natives, with disinterested zeal, assured him that the land of gold was “ Bohio," over the water to the east. Martin Pinzon seems to have wearied of the search, or determined to make it on his own account, for he had deserted his com- mander and put off to the eastward alone with the Pinta. So, when Columbus arrived off the western end of Haiti, on the 6th of December, he had only the Santa Maria and the little Niiia left, with con- siderably less than a hundred men. The point of land before him he called Cape San Nicolas, from the saint on whose day he first beheld it. It is where the termination of a mountain ridge stands like a huge breakwater, and is still called Mole St. Nicho- THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 39 las. This western end of the island was called by the natives Bohio, the “ great country,” and the other end was Quisqueya, “ mother of the earth,” and the whole island was Haiti, the “ land of moun- tains.” Columbus called it Espafiola, or Little Spain, and the Latinised form, Hispaniola, came into com- mon use. Access to the land of gold was still far to the east, and the two lone vessels, the Niiia in the van, made their way along the northern coast, the sce- nery of which charmed the adventurous Admiral, as his journal testifies. They reached the spacious bay of Acul, and heard of the great king, Guacanagari, and also of the interior region of Cibao, which was the very heart of the land of gold. Cibao must, in- deed, be that Cipango which was the chief object of their quest. Before they reached the realm of the coast mon- arch with the long name, the Santa Maria was run aground by a sleepy boy in whose charge the rudder was left, and became a wreck. The Indian village of Guarico was still some miles away, but the good cacique lent timely aid, and the wreckage of the ship and the whole company were got to that spot on Christmas morning. In honour of that event, Columbus called the fort which he built of the tim- bers of the Santa Maria and armed with her guns, La Natividad, or Navidad. He was treated with generous hospitality by Guacanagari, who made an imprudent display of gold ornaments ; and in grate- ful recognition the explorer took possession of the land in the name of their Majesties of Castile and Leon, and planned an expedition of plunder to 40 THE WEST INDIES Cibao. The reef on which the Santa Maria was wrecked is off Cape Haitien, and the site of the vil- lage of Guarico, where the fortress of La Navidad was built, is now occupied by a little fishing hamlet called “ Petit Anse. ” Leaving forty-three men here as a garrison, Columbus set out for Spain to report his discovery and bring out a larger expedition. On his way along the coast he anchored near a picturesque mountain which he called Monte Cristi, where he encountered the deserter, Martin Pinzon, and the Puita. He entered the mouth of a river farther on, and named it Rio del Oro, River of Gold, because he found glittering particles of the precious dust in its sands, and assumed that it came down from the realm of fabulous wealth. He told of seeing some unattractive mermaids here, which were probably specimens of the manatee. At the eastern end of the island he found a deep bay, where he landed. He was at first inhospitably greeted by the natives with a thick flight of arrows, which led him to call the bay the Golfo de las Flechas, or Gulf of Arrows, but he soon made friends with the cacique of the Samana tribe, whose name the bay still retains, and spent several days on shore. He heard of Madanino, the island of the Amazons, and was eager to find it. Taking several of the natives to show him the way, he sailed on, but failing to discover the fascinating Amazons he proceeded to Spain. He arrived at Palos, March 15, 1493, having got separated from Pinzon and the Pinta in a storm. As the result of his reports, he was THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 41 treated with great distinction, and a new expedition was fitted out with much liberality. There were three carracks, fourteen caravels, and 1500 men. Horses and cattle and other equipment for a colony were taken along, and withal twelve missionaries to attend to the saving of the souls of the heathen whose virtues Columbus so highly extolled. On this second voyage a more southerly course was taken, and the longed-for land first sighted was called Deseada, “ the Desired,” now Desirade. Another small island was named Marigalante, for the vessel which the Admiral commanded, and a cluster encountered on “ All Saints’ Day ” was called Los Santos, “The Saints,” now the French islands “ Les Saintes. ” A larger island to the south attracted the navigator, and he called it Dominica, because first seen on Sunday (November 3, 1493), but find- ing its coast difficult of access he turned back and made his first landing on the alluring shores of a still larger island to the north. He called this Guadalupe, for Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Estra- madura. Here he made his first acquaintance with the fierce Caribs, some of whom he took along with him, together with some women captives who had been brought from Borinquen (Puerto Rico). As he continued north he named Montserrat from a mountain near Barcelona upon which there was a famous monastery, and Antigua from Santa Maria la Antigua, whose great sanctuary was in Valladolid. The next that came in view gave such delight to the explorer by its charming aspect that he called it St. Christopher, some say in honour of his own patron 42 THE WEST INDIES saint, and some from a fancied resemblance of its great mountain to a gigantic person bearing a smaller one upon his back after the manner of the self-sacrificing person in the legend. The island is now commonly known as St. Kitt’s. San Martin was also one of the discoveries of this trip, and Santa Cruz and the whole procession of Virgins, which re- minded the Admiral of St. Ursula and the unfortu- nate 11,000 maidens of the story. Skirting along the southern coast of Puerto Rico he made a landing at the western end of the island, to which he gave the name San Juan Bautista. There were gushing springs where he went ashore, and he named the spot Aguadilla, and behold it is so called unto this day. He did not leave the women whom he had rescued, but took them over to Hispaniola with him. There is a romantic story to the effect that the friendly chief Guacanagari was enamoured of one of these, by the name of Catalina, and induced her and her companions to disappear with him into the forest, whereupon he was re- garded as a renegade and an enemy, and was subse- quently treated accordingly. When at last La Navidad was regained near the end of 1493, it was a scene of desolation. The fort was dismantled, the garrison was dead, and the In- dian village of Guarico had been burned. Some of the Spaniards had ventured into the mountains in search of gold, but the cacique of the region was the Carib invader Coanabo, who ruled in the heart of the land of gold. He had not only welcomed the intruders ‘ ‘ with bloody hands to hospitable graves, DISCOVERY OF HISPANIOLA. From Herrera’s History of the West Indies. THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 43 but had sallied forth from his stronghold in the mountains with warriors and had slaughtered those in the fort and wiped out the village of the mild Arawak chieftain who had encouraged the despoilers of the land. This was discouraging, and the site for a colony was abandoned and a new one sought farther east. Columbus bethought him of Monte Cristi and the River of Gold, some forty miles east of Cape Hai- tien, and in a spacious bay beyond the river’s mouth he decided to plant his colony. It was in January, 1494, and he built a fort and a church, and in a couple of months had founded the first real settle- ment in the New World, which he called the City of Isabella. It was a starting-place for the search for gold, and a roadway was constructed through the mountain gorges to the valley on the other side down which flowed the Rio del Oro (the Yaqui). Columbus himself headed a force of four hundred of his men, some of them mounted on horses, and with flags flying, drums beating, and helmets gleam- ing in the sun, the cavalcade forced its way toward the golden realm of Cibao through what came to be known as the Pass of the Hidalgos. He established a fort, or mining station, which he called Santo Tomas de Yanico, visited the Indian villages, and gathered gold, insomuch that in February a vessel was sent to Spain to bear it to the King as earnest of what was to be expected. Leaving a garrison of fifty-six men at the fort, under command of Pedro Margarita, the Admiral returned to Isabella, but word soon came of a 44 THE WEST INDIES hostile disposition on the part of the Indians in the valley, and a reinforcement of fifty men was dis- patched. The Spaniards dealt in a grasping and cruel manner with the subjects of Coanabo, and when a force of five hundred men, under Marga- rita, was sent exploring about the Cibao region, Don Alonso de Ojeda taking command of the fort, a dangerous spirit was aroused among the subjects of the implacable Carib of the mountains. Columbus, having got his colony started upon its career of gathering gold, deemed all safe, and putting a council presided over by his brother in charge, took to the water again. He explored along the southern coast of Cuba to the westward for some distance, and then turned south and discovered Jamaica. He called it Santiago, but the native name Xaymaca, “ land of the fountains,” has pre- vailed, just as the original designation for the cen- tral part of Cuba has displaced Juana and several other appellations for that island. The navigator turned back to the Cuban coast and continued to trace it westward until he positively declared that it was part of the mainland of Cathay. In fact, he had an instrument drawn up to that effect and at- tested before a notary, which did not prevent Cuba from terminating in a cape to the west. The small islands among which he passed on a part of his course he called the Garden of the Queen. Having decided that there was no end to Cuba, he turned east again, skirted the whole southern coast of Haiti, and landed on the island of Mona, which received its name from him. It was now that he is said to THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 45 have “ fallen into a lethargy,” and was taken to Isabella in September, 1494, where he lay sick for several months. The colony did not flourish. It was surrounded by swamps and proved to be unhealthy, and the greedy quest for gold and the reckless treatment of the natives had bred serious trouble. As soon as the great Columbus was on his feet again, he and his brother Bartholomew took energetic measures to put down the troublesome natives who objected to being plundered. Ojeda, who had been left in com- mand of the fort, had succeeded in capturing the intractable Carib cacique in the Cibao Mountains, and now an army with horses and guns and blood- hounds marched up the valley, and spread slaughter and devastation among the villages of the terrified natives. There was no more resistance in that quarter, and Guarionex, the cacique of Samana, was forced to pay tribute in nuggets of gold. Five shiploads of the subjugated natives were sent to Seville to be sold as slaves, of which Queen Isabella, greatly to her credit, did not approve. Columbus was losing ground in the royal favour during his prolonged absence, and one Juan Aguado was sent out to inquire into his doings. This the bold discoverer did not like; and after some high words with the envoy, he left his brother Bartholo- mew in command as Adelantado, and set out for Spain with the Nina, March 10, 1496. He arrived at Cadiz in bad spirits, but his reception cheered him up, and he undertook to get up another expedition for the “ Indies.” It was May 31, 1498, when he got away 4 6 THE WEST INDIES from San Lucar, with six vessels, for his third voy- age. He took a still more southerly route this time, and stopped at Cape V erde. Leaving there J uly 4th, he had a hard voyage, and was in distress for water when on the last day of the month three peaks that seemed to blend in one were descried in the dis- tance. In devout thankfulness he made for this new land, and named it La Trinidad, “ The Trin- ity/’ He entered the Gulf of Paria by the southern channel, lingered long enough to supply his imme- diate wants, and passed out to the north. The capes and headlands of the South American coast he took to be islands, and gave them little heed. On his way northward, hastening back to his colony on Espafiola, he discovered the islands of Margarita, Grenada, which he called Ascension, and St. Vin- cent. By the end of August Columbus was again at Isa- bella. The colonists had reduced all that part of the island to subjection, and had founded the city of Santo Domingo on the southern coast, but they had been quarrelling among themselves, one Roldan having headed a revolt against Bartolomeo Colon, the Admiral’s brother. The matter was composed by giving Roldan an office and dividing land and labourers, practically slaves, among his followers. Some, however, went home to Spain, taking two shiploads of slaves along, which so incensed the Queen that they were all set free. But the ex- colonists fomented trouble for Columbus, and as the colony had proved a disappointment, the promised streams of gold failing to reach the treasury, Fran- THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 47 cisco de Bobadilla was sent out to investigate, and was made governor in place of the discoverer. He took a letter directing all forts and arms to be turned over to him, and arrived in Hispaniola, October, 1500. Ojeda had been making trouble by trying to seize authority, but had been suppressed ; the natives had been gathered about the military stations to be Christianised, and gold-hunting was active ; but Bobadilla proceeded to give things a new turn. He sent Columbus home in chains, but his harsh and high-handed methods produced a reaction, and Nic- olas de Ovando was sent out to supersede him, arriv- ing in the spring of 1502 with thirty ships. The vessel in which Bobadilla was sent back to Spain, with considerable treasure, was lost in a storm. By this time Isabella had been abandoned, and the capi- tal of the colony was established at Santo Domingo, which had been founded by Bartolomeo Colon in 1496 while his brother was absent between his second and third voyages. The city was named for their father Dominico, the worthy weaver of Genoa, or rather for his patron saint. A soldier named Diaz had fled over the mountains from Isabella to escape punishment for some offence, and got into the good graces of a native woman near the southern side of the island, on the river Ozama, where he found much gold. With this as a propitiatory offer- ing he returned to headquarters and was pardoned. Bartolomeo Colon thereupon proceeded by water to the southern coast and established a fort at the mouth of the river in which Diaz had made his dis- 48 THE WEST INDIES covery, and there the city of Santo Domingo was started. In the spring of 1502, after Ovando had been sent out as governor of the colony at Santo Domingo, the indefatigable Christopher succeeded once more in getting up an expedition for new discoveries. It consisted of four caravels with one hundred and fifty men, and he set out from Cadiz on the 9th of May. He was instructed to keep clear of the colony on the island of Hispaniola and attend strictly to the busi- ness of making new discoveries, but after passing through the Caribbees between the islands of Mar- tinique and St. Lucia, which he was the first to dis- cover, he encountered a storm which disabled the largest of his vessels. It was the same storm that sent his old oppressor Bobadilla and his treasures to the bottom of the sea. He ventured into Santo Domingo and called upon Ovando for relief, but failed to get it. Patching up his shattered vessels as best he could, he made his way through the “ Garden of the Queen ” once more to Yucatan, and groped down the coast of Honduras, hearing perhaps of the region of Veragua which was to furnish a lordly title to his descendants. He got as far south as Darien, vainly seeking for some opening which would enable him to go on his westward way in search of the elusive realm of the Grand Khan. After cruising about for some months, and contemplating the establishment of a permanent colony on the mainland, he wandered back toward Cuba in search of supplies. Off the north coast of Jamaica he was caught in a storm again and took THE PROCESS OF DISCOVERY 49 refuge in a bay, which he called Santa Gloria, in thankfulness for his escape, but which is now called St. Ann’s Bay. The refuge in which his wrecked vessels are said to have finally gone ashore is still called Don Christopher’s Cove. Weary and worn with his bufferings, racked with painful disease, and tormented with the mutiny of his crews, he lay here for months waiting for relief. Even the rude natives refused to supply his wants. It was then that, hav- ing calculated the time of an eclipse of the moon, he threatened to deprive them of the light of that lu- minary if they did not obey him. When, true to the threat, the light of the moon went out, they came in great alarm and implored him to restore it, promising humble obedience in future. The wily old Italian retired from view to work his wonders, and when it was time for the shadow to pass off the moon’s face he returned and graciously announced to the trembling pagans that their prayer would be heeded. He had no further trouble with them. He had got word to Ovando and to his brother Bar- tholomew by sending a venturesome sailor by the name of Diego Mendez across the dangerous chan- nel to the coast of Hispaniola. Finally two vessels were sent to his relief, and he went home to die, reaching Seville September 7, 1504. The work of Columbus was done, and the process of discovering the archipelago, which he called “ the Indies,” may be regarded as finished. He died in the belief that he had reached the far East by a western route, and with no conception of the conti- nents whose verge he had barely touched. Many of 50 THE WEST INDIES the smaller islands had not been visited, and no settlement was made elsewhere than on Espafiola in his lifetime, but nearly all that has been called the West Indies came within the range of his explora- tions. CHAPTER V SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT IT was after the return of Columbus to Spain from his first voyage to “ the Indies,” with his glow- ing report of discoveries, that Pope Alexander VI. obligingly issued his famous bull, running a line across the face of the earth from north to south, a hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands, and declaring that all ** heathen lands ” discovered and to be discovered west of that line should belong to Spain and all east of it to Portugal. By that indefeasible title all these ” In- dies ” of the west and the mainland thereabouts of whatever extent became the exclusive property of the Spanish monarchy, to have and to hold against all comers. By the treaty of Tordesillas the line of division between the possessions of Spain and Por- tugal was removed to three hundred and seventy leagues west of Cape Verde, but the title still rested upon the Pope’s bull. It was this change of the meridian of the infallible authority on rights of dis- covery and possession that gave Portugal its ground for claiming Brazil. It was not until 1509 that the 51 52 THE WEST INDIES Spanish colonists began to reach beyond the island of Hispaniola. By this time all the native tribes in that island had been subdued by the most atrocious cruelties; their lands and themselves had been ap- portioned among their conquerors by the process of repartimiento (allotment), and the centre of Spanish power was fully established at Santo Domingo, on the southern coast, where Bartolomeo Colon had built his castle. There had been five little kingdoms in the island at the time of the discovery, and the first to be brought into subjection was that of Guanacagari, the cacique who had befriended the invaders, and whose realm was on the north coast toward the east. Next Coanabo, the Carib chief in the Cibao Moun- tains, was captured for presuming to resist the gold- hunters. His territory was called Maguana. The kingdom of Guarionex was on the north coast east of the Yaqui River, extending to the Bay of Samana, and including the river valley and the Vega Real. On the south coast, at the eastern end of the island, was the cacique Colubanama, whose realm was called Higuey. The fifth kingdom was a populous domain at the western end of the island, called Xaragua, and ruled by Behechio, whose beautiful sister was the wife of Coanabo. All these were effectually subdued and their pos- sessions distributed among the Spanish officers and their followers. The Columbus family received a large allotment in the choicest part of the island, and the city of Santo Domingo, the oldest of the New World and long the capital of the colony, be- CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Painted in 1542 at the court of Philip II. of Spain, by Sir Antonio Moro, from two miniatures in the palace of El Pardo, which miniatures have since been destroyed. The original painting is now in the collection of C. F. Gunther, Esq., Chicago, by whose kind permission this reproduction has been made. SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT 53 came their headquarters. Among the forces of sub- jugation was a pack of fierce bloodhounds, but they were no more ruthless than the soldiers. Ferdinand and Isabella had been much concerned for the con- version of these poor heathen to the true faith, and the pious Admiral who scattered holy names among the islands so profusely wrote in one of his letters : “ Your Highness ought to rejoice that they will soon become Christians, and that they will be taught the good customs of your kingdom ” ; and yet the good Christopher, overcome by his eagerness for golden treasures to send to his sovereign — and to keep for himself — countenanced the atrocities by which the heathen were converted, not into Christians, but in- to slaves or tenants of the tomb. The resistance of the natives was not to the loss of their independence or to the sovereignty of the Christian King, but to forced labour in the mines, to a tribute which they could not pay, and to the ravaging of their fields and “ provision grounds/' to feed the Spanish sol- diers. The Spaniards sought to obtain the precious gold by the toil of others, for while they would en- dure hardships and dangers in war and adventure, they would not work. The Indians did not like to work except in their own quiet way and for their own benefit, and under the galling servitude they died by the thousands. Many perished from direct acts of cruel violence, many were starved to death, and multitudes committed deliberate suicide. The result was that the labour force by which the Spanish colonists strove to enrich themselves rapidly died out, and the goose that laid the golden egg was 54 THE WEST INDIES in danger of expiring. Then they set about captur- ing natives from the other islands and forcing them into servitude in the mines and on the plantations of Hispaniola. In 1509, Ferdinand, whose queen had been squeamish a few years before about the sending of slaves from “ the Indies ” to Spain, but was now dead, authorised the sale of the Lucayans into slavery on the Antilles. They were enticed from their own islands by an alluring promise that they were to see their ancestors in a land of happi- ness, and in a few years the Bahamas were depopu- lated, and the gentle Lucayans died out in their bondage like the other Arawaks. Not growing rich fast enough by this policy of starving and slaughtering their labour force, the colonists began to seek new fields. The earliest movement was that of Ponce de Leon from the eastern end of Hispaniola to the island of Borinquen, which Columbus had called San Juan Bautista, and which has since been known as Puerto Rico. One of the places at which Columbus had landed was Agua- dilla on the western coast, and there De Leon made his first landing for observation in 1508. Learning that there was much wealth as well as many people fit for slaves in the island, he returned to Santo Do- mingo for an armed force and a number of colonists. He found a splendid bay on the northern coast, where in 1510 he established the town of Caparra, on the side of the bay where is now the Pueblo Viejo, or Old Village. The next year, however, on a more favourable site he founded the city of San Juan de Puerto Rico, “ St. John of the Splendid SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT 55 Port,” and a few years later Caparra was aban- doned. Ponce de Leon pursued the fatal policy of dividing up the territory into personal allot- ments by the process of repartimiento, and forcing the inhabitants into servitude, slaughtering them without mercy, and hunting them down with blood- hounds when they resisted or ran away; and it produced the same effect as in Hispaniola. But in 1512, the year after he got San Juan established, he was carried away on his quest for the fountain of youth, and the colony languished. There was an invasion of Caribs and a destructive hurricane, and in a few years the island was deserted by the Span- ish colonists. For a century or more it was left undisturbed and almost without inhabitants. After the death of the great discoverer, his son, Diego Colon, became a person of consequence in Spain. He married Dofia Maria de Toledo, a niece of the Duke of Alva, and succeeded to the rights and dignities of his father in the New World. He came out to Hispaniola in 1509, and invested him- self with the title of Viceroy of the Colonies in America. He took possession of Santo Domingo, and built a splendid palace on the banks of the Ozama, a solid structure that stands there in ruins to-day, and is still called the Casa Colon. Diego was a man of considerable enterprise as well as great pretension, and did much to extend the colonial domain of Spain in the Antilles. In the first year of his power he sent an expedition to Jamaica under Juan d’ Esquivel, who built a town on the north coast, and called it Sevilla d’Oro. The oldest town 56 THE WEST INDIES now on the island was established in 1525 on the southern coast, and called Santiago de la Vega. It is the present “ Spanish Town.” D’ Esquivel under- took to deal humanely with the natives, but under his successors the insatiate greed for gold asserted itself, and the process of extermination by forced labour and atrocious cruelty began. This destruc- tive operation was intended to compel productive labour in the mines and on the plantations, and to force the payment of impossible tribute in gold and cotton. It was also resorted to as a means of sup- pressing resistance whenever the wretched victims presumed to attempt it. The result was the rapid dying out of the native population, which had almost disappeared in a generation, and the gradual substitution of negro slaves as a labour force. Cuba was the first of the Greater Antilles to be discovered and the last to be actually occupied. It was not known to be an island until after the death of Columbus. In 1511, Diego Velasquez was sent thither from Santo Domingo by Diego Colon with four vessels and three hundred men. He landed at a place near Guantanamo, but the first permanent settlement was made at Baracoa on the north coast. Among his companions was Hernando Cortez, who, in 1519, sailed from the young city of Santiago for Yucatan and proceeded to his career of conquest in Mexico, in spite of the protests of Velasquez. Another companion of Velasquez was Bartolome Las Casas, whose father had been a companion of Columbus in his early voyages. He had himself been educated at Salamanca and destined for the SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT $7 priesthood, but being of an adventurous disposition he had accompanied his father on the voyage of 1498, and afterwards came out to Hispaniola with Ovando and became one of the colonists. His sus- ceptibilities were outraged by the cruelties perpe- trated upon the natives, and in Cuba he tried in vain to stop them. He took his allotment of land and of slaves, but he freed the latter, and cried out against the whole infamous system. In 1516 he went to Spain and got a commission appointed to go to “ the Indies ” and put a stop to the inhuman treatment of the natives, but it accomplished nothing. To mitigate the evil, as he thought, he encouraged bringing out negroes as slaves, but awakening to the fact that negroes were also human beings, and finding that they, too, were treated in an inhuman manner, he retired to a monastery in Santo Domingo filled with disgust and indignation, and afterwards went to Mexico, where he became a bishop. Doubtless the feelings of Las Casas, who was called “ The Apostle of the Indies,” led him to ex- aggerate when, years after the event, he wrote his famous Brevissima Relacion de la Destruycion de las hidias . After speaking of the gentle and harmless character of the natives of the islands, he said, ac- cording to an old English version of his work — there is no recent one: “ To these quiet lambs, endued with such blessed qualities, came the Spaniards like most cruel tygres, wolves, and lions, enraged with a sharp and tedious hun- ger ; for these forty years past, minding nothing else but 58 THE WEST IX DIES the slaughter of these unfortunate wretches, whom with divers kinds of torment, neither seen nor heard of be- fore, they have cruelly and inhumanely butchered ; that of 3,000,000 of people which Hispaniola itself did contain, there are left remaining alive scarce three hun- dred persons. And for the island of Cuba, which con- tains as much ground in length as from Valladolid to Rome, it lies wholly untilled and ruined. The islands of St. John and Jamaica lie waste and desolate. The Lucaya Islands, neighbouring toward the north upon Cuba and Hispaniola, being above sixty or thereabouts — with those islands that are vulgarly called the Islands of the Gyants, of which that which is the least fertile is more fruitful than the King of Spain’s garden at Sevil, being situate in a pure and temperate air, are now totally unpeopled and destroyed, the inhabitants thereof, amounting to above 500,000 souls, partly killed and partly forced away to work in other places ; so that there going a ship to visit those parts, and to glean the re- mainder of those distressed wretches, there could be found no more than eleven men. Other islands there were near St. John, more than thirty in number, which were totally made desert.” Finally Las Casas confidently avers — “ that for those forty years, wherein the Spaniards exer- cised their abominable cruelties and detestable tyrannies in those parts, that there have innocently perished above 12,000,000 of souls, women and children being numbered in this sad and fatal list. Moreover, I do verily believe that I should speak within compass should I say that above 15,000,000 were consumed in this massacre.” The good bishop’s book appeared in 1542, twenty SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT 59 years after he retired to the Dominican monastery, and twelve years after he shook the dust of the Indies from his feet, and his statistics are faulty; but the native population of Cuba had been reduced to about 4000 in 1552, and in 1564 there were said to be barely sixty families of aborigines leading a vagrant life in the western part of the island. The Greater Antilles were virtually stripped of their na- tive population, which was largely replaced by Afri- can slaves. It should be noted that the “ St. John ” of our old English translation of Las Casas is San Juan, now Puerto Rico, and not the small island which bears that name at present. In fact, the Spaniards met with such fierce resistance when they attempted to kidnap the Caribs of the Lesser Antilles that they concluded to leave them alone, and never attempted to colonise those islands, though claiming them as possessions. Before the voyages of Columbus the Portuguese navigators had indulged in the traffic of buying negro slaves from the Moors in Africa and selling them in the peninsula. They had been bought both in Portugal and in Spain. A few had been brought out with the first colonists to Hispaniola, and as early as 1505 the Spanish traders to “ the Indies ” began to bring them for sale as workers in the mines. The dying off and killing off of the natives speedily stimulated the traffic, and it was even en- couraged by the priests, who had some little kind- ness for the “ Indians,” whom they desired to convert, but hardly regarded the African negro as a convertible human being. In 1517, the importa- 6o THE WEST INDIES tion of 4000 African slaves yearly was formally authorised by the Spanish Government, and the trade was granted as a monopoly to the chamber- lain of Carlos V., and he sold it out to a company of Genoese merchants. Spaniards could not deal directly with Africa on account of the papal bull giving that side of the world to Portugal, but enter- prising English rovers of the sea respected neither the bull of Alexander nor Spain’s monopoly in trade with her colonies, and they began to intrude with troublesome persistency. Finding a profitable market for slaves, a sea-captain, named Hawkins, afterwards “ Sir John,” began a regular traffic be- tween the African coast, where he kidnapped the negroes or bought them cheap from kidnappers, and the West Indies, where he disposed of his live car- goes at a great profit. The sugar-cane had been introduced into Hispan- iola by Columbus from Cape Verde. Sugar had been known in Europe only a few centuries, and was still a costly luxury. Cotton was indigenous to the islands, and though it had previously come to Europe from the East, it was comparatively ex- pensive and little used. Tobacco soon began to be appreciated on the other side of the Atlantic, and, in spite of denunciations, the demand for it gradually grew. The mines were not so rich as had been sup- posed, and when labour became difficult to get, the gold-hunters drifted away to the “ Spanish Main,” as the coast from the Orinoco to Darien was called, and to Mexico and Peru. Legends of El Dorado, the gilded king who lived in a gorgeous palace by a SPANISH POSSESSION AND ITS EFFECT 6 1 lake, and made offerings to the Spirit that dwelt beneath it by covering his body with gold dust and washing it off in its waters, enticed them like a will-o’-the-wisp into the interior of South America. But the plantations of sugar and of cotton and tobacco, worked by slave labour, gradually became more profitable than the mines, and those who had large allotments of land grew rich in time, and the slave trade flourished. The wretched negroes fared little better than the poor Arawaks, but they en- dured it better, and although the mortality among them was great by reason of cruel treatment, the force was kept up by importation. The attempt of Spain to maintain a monopoly of trade and to draw treasures to herself from her new colonies was an incitement to contraband traffic, which degenerated into piracy. The voyages of exploration and discovery had been made chiefly by Portugal and Spain, but England, France, and Hol- land had the trading propensity and were on the search for markets. Their ships ventured to the Spanish islands first in quest of traffic, but being excluded from that by Spanish authority, they fell to forcing their goods upon the colonists and com- pelling payment. From this it was an easy step to plundering the settlements or laying them under contribution and to lying in wait for the treasure galleons of Spain and capturing them. The rovers and corsairs became frequent in these waters by the middle of the sixteenth century. Thus it will be seen that the first effect of Spanish possession was the extermination of the native 62 THE WEST INDIES people in those islands actually occupied and in the Bahamas. The second was the establishment of slavery and an enormous stimulus to the slave trade, which afterwards extended to most of the colonies of the New World, including those of Great Britain, planted much later. The third was the develop- ment of smuggling and of piracy through the restric- tions put upon trade and the effort to monopolise it for the benefit of Spain and the enrichment of her ruling men. These evils were a direful heritage for all concerned, and Spain is still suffering from their consequences. During the century after the dis- coveries of Columbus, Spain's possession of the West Indies was not seriously disputed, but her oc- cupation was confined to the four large islands of the Greater Antilles, and there the settlements did not greatly increase or multiply. They were sub- ject to disastrous chances, and languished rather than flourished. Their history for nearly a century was almost a blank, save for hurricanes and earth- quakes, and occasional piratical forays from the ships of excluded nations. CHAPTER VI ROVING TRADERS, PRIVATEERS, AND PIRATES HE first Englishman who attempted to trade with the new 4 4 Indies, ’ ’ whose fabulous wealth began to be noised abroad, was Thomas Tison ; but as all traffic with Spanish colonies by foreigners was contraband, he sent goods from Bristol to Spain, and had them shipped from there. That round- about process being troublesome, and perhaps un- profitable, no scruple was made of attempting a direct trade even though it was regarded as wicked smuggling. There is record of a ship fitted out by royal authority in 1527, and devoutly named Domi- nus Vobiscum , to engage in this sinful pursuit. It was accompanied by other and smaller vessels, and proceeded boldly to Santo Domingo and asked for the privilege of trading with the inhabitants. The request was answered by a volley from the batteries on shore, and the ships were driven away, but were reported as finding more favourable opportunities for business in Puerto Rico, then called San Juan, or St. John. English and French 44 rovers ” came and clandestinely traded with 44 the Indians.” The 64 THE WEST INDIES cattle and hogs which had been imported from Spain ran wild, increasing and multiplying at a marvellous rate in the mountains of Hispaniola, and they fur- nished the remnants of tribes with the means of buying such trifles brought by the traders as took their fancy, and afforded supplies of provision and large profits to the traders themselves. The settlers of the coast were not averse to the illicit traffic when they dared to encourage it; and when they did not, the “ rovers ” were not averse to forcing it upon them, in spite of their feeble “ authorities.” Perhaps the most piratical of these traders at first were the Frenchmen, who were called corsairs — a term originally the same as courser, or cruiser, and hence practically synonymous with “ rover.” In 1536, one of these laid Havana — then a “city” barely seventeen years old, and really a little unpro- tected settlement — under contribution and forced from it a ransom of seven hundred ducats. Three Spanish vessels presuming to chase him afterwards, he captured them and went back and exacted another ransom as a penalty. In 1538, a French corsair entered the harbour of Santiago de Cuba and had a lively fight with an armed Spanish vessel, which was kept up for three days. Concluding that no profitable bargain could be struck at that port, the Frenchman quietly took leave under cover of night. The same year Havana was sacked and burnt. This kind of dealing with the people was kept up for many years, and in 1554 Havana was again de- stroyed in an effort to trade with it. When the Netherlands was at war with Spain in consequence TRADERS, PRIVA PEERS , AND PIRA TES 65 of the cruel policy of Philip II., after the loss of the seven provinces, the Dutch began to take a hand in this West Indian traffic. It was all very discourag- ing to Spain’s trade monopoly with her American colonies, and dangerous to the galleons on the way from Mexico and the Spanish Main with ducats and doubloons. Forts were built, some of which still frown upon the sunny harbours ; coast-guards were established, and Spanish warships patrolled the waters, but the depredations did not cease. At the same time the enterprising gold-seekers had mostly gone to Mexico, or were exploring the great central isthmus or the southern continent, and the planters were having a hard time to get work done without doing it themselves. The colonies were merely struggling along in those trying times. It was from 1562 to 1567 that Captain Hawkins, the Sir John and M. P. of a few years later, made his three trips to Sierra Leone and the Guinea coast to capture negroes and sell them for slaves in the Hispaniola market. He took back cargoes of sugar, ginger, and hides, which he disposed of to advan- tage in Europe. It was a profitable traffic, and carried on devoutly. Hawkins’s largest ship on his second slave-trading voyage, one of seven hundred tons, was called the Jesus, and after escaping from a gale with his human cargo, he wrote: “ The Al- mighty God, who never suffereth his elect to perish, sent us on the 16th of February the ordinary breeze.” Hawkins had difficulty in disposing of his cargo on this trip, and got a French corsair to help force some of the living merchandise upon colonists who did 5 66 THE WEST INDIES not want it, of course taking large pay in the prod- ucts of the land. On his third voyage to Africa, Hawkins was accompanied by a promising youth of twenty, Francis Drake by name, and on his return disposed of his slaves to advantage because the Spaniards no longer dared, even if they desired, to refuse to buy, after which he took refuge from a storm in Vera Cruz. Here he was granted the privilege of repairing his ships and then treacher- ously attacked by a Spanish fleet. He got away with only one of his five vessels, and that in a bad plight, and had a miserable time on what he called the “ sorrowful voyage ” home. Young Drake had naturally conceived no violent love for the Spanish on this his first long voyage. In 1572, when only twenty-five years old, he went forth as commander of an expedition of his own, which has sometimes been called piratical; but, though there was at that time no actual war with Spain, he had letters of marque from Queen Eliza- beth, which constituted a legal license to “ make re- prisals" upon the Spaniards. He did not operate among the islands this time, but made his attack upon Nombre de Dios at the isthmus, and getting a view of the Pacific was enticed into making his long and famous cruise in those waters in search of wan- dering wealth. A few years later, when there was really war between England and Spain, and when Drake was Sir Francis and an admiral, he came out with a fleet of twenty-five vessels and with 2300 men, for the avowed purpose of crippling Spain by an attack upon “ the Indies.” This was in 1585, TRADERS, PRIVATEERS , AND PIRATES 67 and after destroying the town of Santiago on the Cape Verde Islands, the doughty Admiral proceeded westward. He reached the island of St. Christopher late in December and spent Christmas there putting his ships in order. Early in January, he set out to attack Santo Do- mingo, but concluded first to demand a heavy ran- som, which he enforced by beginning to destroy the town. He came down in his terms to “ what the traffic would bear,” and being paid 25,000 ducats, directed his attention to Cartagena on the Spanish Main, and from there went to Nombre de Dios again. He collected large booty at both places in- stead of destroying them. He was presently called off to help dispose of the famous “ invincible Ar- mada” of Spain, which was threatening England. In 1595, he came back, accompanied by his old com- mander Hawkins, with twenty-seven vessels, includ- ing six of the “ Queen’s ships.” When they came to the Caribbees, there is said to have been a quarrel between Drake and Hawkins, the cause or conse- quence of which has never been made clear; but it does not matter, for the older mariner died then and there, and has been duly honoured in British history, piratical old slave-trader as he was. Like Columbus, however, he is to be judged with a full regard for the prevailing spirit of his time. Drake proceeded to Puerto Rico, and made an attack upon San Juan, but it was a half-deserted place without wealth, and he made nothing out of this venture, though he captured some stray vessels. Finding the islands an unprofitable field for his 68 THE WEST INDIES operations at that time, the knightly Admiral went on to that region of wealth, “ the Spanish Main,” and brought up again at Nombre de Dios, then the treasure city of the isthmus. The people had heard of his approach, and in the terror which his name inspired had hidden their treasures and dispersed themselves in the mountains and forests of Panama. Finding pursuit futile, Drake burnt the town and destroyed every vessel in the harbour, leaving a desolate spot where afterwards Puerto Bello, or the “ Beautiful Port,” took the place of Nombre de Dios, the “ Name of God.” Before his fleet got away, the famous old sea-fighter — not so very old either — succumbed to a sudden attack of dysentery, and is said to have died in full uniform, after delivering a farewell address to his men. His ships were after- wards attacked by a Spanish fleet off Cuba, and had to fight their way out. The rovers, English, French, and Dutch, swarmed so among the islands, and grew so piratical, that the coast settlements were terrorised and Spanish trade was in danger of extinction. The galleons to and from “ the Main ” had to sail in squadrons under the protection of men-of-war. Their usual course was a stop at Santo Domingo and a cruise to Cartagena and Puerto Bello to gather treasure, and then out through the channels among the islands, beset with piratical enemies, and at certain seasons subject to violent storms, for the homeward journey. So great were the perils and risks, that it is recorded that of one hundred and twenty-three vessels expected in Spain one year only twenty-five arrived in safety. TRADERS , PRIVA PEERS , AND PIRA TES 69 Spain at the end of the sixteenth century was the common foe of England, France, and Holland, and her domineering career was nearing its close. Her title to “ the Indies ” of the West was not yet seri- ously questioned, and her nominal possession of the islands was not disputed. Her actual occupation did not extend beyond the Greater Antilles, and the settlements in Puerto Rico had practically died out. The colonies of Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba, having killed off the native population, were suffering for lack of labour, which the enterprising slave-traders were not yet able fully to supply, while the depre- dations of the roving privateers, as pirates were called in time of war, and of open and avowed corsairs, were a serious discouragement. Balboa had “ stared at the Pacific in wild surmise ” as early as 1513; Cortez had gone from Cuba to Yucatan in 1519 and then to his conquests in Mexico; Ojeda and others had prowled about the northern part of South America in search of El Dorado ; Pizarro had opened up the treasures of Peru, and De Soto, start- ing from Cuba, had explored Florida and discovered the Mississippi. Adventurous spirits from Spain no longer sought for riches on the islands of the archipelago which Columbus gained so much glory in discovering, but were attracted to the strip of shore and the unexplored regions beyond, known as the “ Span- ish Main ” and believed to conceal inexhausti- ble wealth. An occasional English or Dutch vessel seemed to have something else in view than plunder or destruction, but for the present those who were 70 THE WEST INDIES looking for chances to colonise shunned the islands. Sir Walter Raleigh, on one of his prospecting trips to Guiana and the Orinoco region, stopped in Trin- idad, and in 1595 captured the Spanish town of St. Josef, but did not try to retain it. The contigu- ity of Trinidad to the South American coast, and the fact that its population was divided between the Arawaks and the Caribs, who still came from the mainland, explain the existence of a Spanish town here. It belonged rather to Venezuela than the West Indies. In none of the Caribbee Islands properly so called did the Spaniards effect a settle- ment. CHAPTER VII ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND DUTCH COLONISERS IF the sixteenth century was one of discovery and conquest in the western world, the seventeenth was a century of colonising, and it speedily became evident that Spain could not have it all to herself. When the infallible Pope drew his line across the face of the waters and awarded to that nation all the heathen land to the west thereof, he did not know what a gigantic contract he assumed, and when, in 1494, by the treaty of Tordesillas, Spain and Portu- gal agreed to remove the dividing line two hundred and seventy leagues farther west, the continent was still undiscovered. Great Britain, having become a Protestant power, had no respect for the title of possession which rested upon the Pope’s bull, and France lost respect for it as soon as she was on hostile terms with Spain. When the Netherlands got out of the clutches of Spain and was at war with her, she did not care by what title possession was claimed. She had no re- gard for it on any ground. It is remarkable what a proportion of her vast domain Spain succeeded in 71 72 THE WEST INDIES holding until near the present century. Portugal made good its claim to Brazil, and at the beginning of the colonising period England, France, and Hol- land each got a small foothold at Guiana; but other- wise she kept all South America until her colonies one by one revolted and gained their independence. Save for a little British spot at Honduras, she kept Central America and Mexico into the present cen- tury, when Mexico included Texas and California and all between. She also had, as the result of De Soto’s explorations, Florida, extending indefinitely westward from the peninsula, and at one time Louisiana, when it stretched all the way up the Mississippi valley and over to the Pacific coast “ where rolls the Oregon.” Near the end of the sixteenth century Sir Richard Grenville and Sir Walter Raleigh, and a little later Captain John Smith and others, in their hunt for eligible sites for colonies, paid special attention for a while to the Orinoco region, lured partly by the enticing legends of El Dorado. In their wanderings from South to North America, where they founded the Virginia colony, they were wont to pause among the Caribbees, and they did not forget the goodly prospect for colonising hereabouts for such adventurous spirits as had no respect for the Spanish title of possession or fear of the native inhabitants. For a time, however, English colonisers were kept busy in Guiana and on the North American coast at Virginia and New England. The French had made a beginning still farther north in Canada and had been feeding an appetite for possessions in newly ENGLISH , FRENCH , DUTCH COLONISERS 73 discovered lands.- They grew covetous of a share in the tropical islands with whose charms the cor- sairs had already made intimate acquaintance. The Netherlands had begun operations with a trading company, which first took possession where now flourishes the goodly city of New York; and Dutch smugglers had long been prowling about the Spanish islands with a special headquarters in the island of St. Eustatius, from which they were driven only to return. A so-called admiral of the Dutch took San Juan de Puerto Rico in 1615, but was killed for his pains and no advantage came of it. But in 1621 the Dutch West India Company was incorporated, which had serious colonising as well as trading purposes. The Spanish colonies had been confined virtually to the Greater Antilles. A few settlers had taken possession of the islands adjacent to the Spanish Main, including Trinidad and Curasao, or Querisao, as it is quaintly called in Dampier’s Voyages. They were practically left undisturbed in Trinidad until near the close of the last century, save for the un- ceremonious call of Sir Walter Raleigh two hundred years before. The Dutch, whose title was altogether one of conquest, acquired during the war between Spain and the Netherlands, captured Curasao and its neighbours Buen Aire and Aruba in 1634, and slowly colonised them. Spain retained the rest of what she called the “ Sotavento,” or Leeward, group of islands, the finest of which was Margarita, until they went with Venezuela upon the achievement of her independence. The first English settlement in the West Indies 74 THE WEST INDIES was made in 1624 by Sir Thomas Warner and his associates, who were an offshoot of Raleigh’s “ Com- pany of Noblemen and Gentlemen of England for the Plantation of Guiana.” They first took posses- sion of the island of St. Christopher, extending their claim to Nieves, which was close by, and which was Anglicised into Nevis. At this time there was one of those French adventurers generally called cor- sairs, by the name of Esnambuc, prowling around ; and in a tussle with a Spanish galleon which he had failed to capture, his vessel was crippled, and he put in at St. Christopher for repairs. The English and French were then on friendly terms, and as Warner was having a hard time with the intractable natives, he struck a bargain with Esnambuc for a combination against the Caribs and an equitable division of the island. This was in 1625. They had a hard struggle with the pagans, who persisted in trying to hold their own, but finally succeeded in quelling, killing, and driving them out. In 1629, the Spanish from Hispaniola, who regarded this as an intrusion upon their neglected preserves, made an unexpected visit and broke up the settlements, driving the colonists away. St. Christopher was always called the “ Mother Colony ” by the English and the “ Mere d’Antilles ” by the French; but when colonists returned after the first expulsion, England and France were having a quarrel, and each claimed exclusive possession. The island passed from one to the other several times, and was finally confirmed to Great Britain. The French refugees of 1629 from St. Kitt’s, as it ENGLISH , FRENCH , DUTCH COLONISERS 75 came irreverently to be called, joined with other outcasts and adventurers to seize upon the small island of Tortuga near the north-western extremity of Haiti, and were the means of finally wresting all the western part of Hispaniola from Spain. Sir Thomas Warner’s colonists, who were recruited from time to time, had strayed over to Barbuda in 1628, and some who were associated with him were among the settlers of Barbados even earlier, though the main colony there came out from England in 1625. In 1632, Warner took possession of Antigua and Montserrat, but a formidable rival was looming up. After the death of James I., the sham alliance with Spain was ended, and in 1627 King Charles assumed to grant the whole range of the Caribbees to the Earl of Carlisle, and this led to conflicting claims, till the Cromwell regime intervened to suspend them. Antigua, Barbuda, and some of the other northern islands were uninhabited when first taken, and others were the resort of smugglers and free- booters with whom these waters were infested. The infant colonies first planted here did not thrive, and after the Restoration a new settlement was made in Antigua under Lord Willoughby, to whom the island was granted by Charles II. and the Earl of Carlisle. In 1680, Barbuda was given to the Codrington family. Dutch settlers took possession of St. Eustatius in 1635, and, although it did not escape attack in the contentions which followed, that and the neigh- bouring island of Saba were finally confirmed in the possession of Holland. Dutch smugglers were the ;6 THE WEST INDIES first to occupy Tortola, but they were not colonists, and were succeeded by some English Quakers who held peaceful possession, but were ruined by eman- cipating their slaves. St. Martin in 1638 was a headquarters for French rovers, or corsairs, but the Dutch smugglers divided its possession with them, and in 1648 an amicable division of the island be- tween the French and Dutch was effected. The same year French colonists settled in St. Bartholo- mew. All this northern part of the Lesser An- tilles was sparsely peopled and feebly held by the aborigines, and after one or two spasmodic efforts Spain gave up all attempt to exclude other nations from them. The Bahamas in the meantime continued to be practically deserted. English writers are wont to say that a settlement was made at New Providence in 1629, and it is a matter of record that in 1630 there was formed “ The Governor and Company of Adventurers for the Plantation of the Island of Providence, Henrietta, and Adjacent Islands,” but there is no evidence of actual “ planting.” It has also been said that in 1641 the settlements were broken up by jealous Spaniards from Cuba, and that they were re-established in 1 666, to be again dis- persed in 1703 by Spanish violence, after which the islands were left a prey to the elements and the buccaneers for three quarters of a century. The fact seems to be that the so-called settlements were, for the most part, nests of pirates and wreckers who lay in wait for Spanish trading vessels, which, to avoid the perils of the Caribbean waters, had begun ENGLISH , FRENCH , DUTCH COLONISERS JJ to take the Bahama channels on their way from Mexico and Cuba. New Providence had, indeed, been granted to Lord Albemarle and others in 1680 as a colony, the “ lords proprietors ” having the right to appoint a governor and manage all the affairs of the island. Some settlers were brought over and attempts were made to develop the lonely colony before the Spanish and French attack of 1703, which resulted in the demolition of the puny defences of Nassau and the transportation of the governor and most of his subjects to Havana. The pirates and wreckers then had the Bahamas pretty much to themselves until our revolutionary war. The greatest resistance to colonising efforts came from the native population in the lower Caribbees. Two French adventurers, by the name of I/Olive and Duplessis, landed upon Guadeloupe in 1635 with a force of labourers, but they were unable to hold possession. Four chartered companies were ruined in the effort to colonise the island, and finally the surviving Caribs were removed to Dominica and St. Vincent. The English had attempted to take possession of Dominica as far back as 1627, but had been driven off, and the natives were left practically undisturbed for a century or more. The Caribs had showed themselves so formidable that no attempt was made to occupy Martinique until 1665, although Esnambuc had taken posses- sion in the name of France thirty years before. The formal adoption of the colony occurred in 1675, but before much progress could be made the natives had to be transported. Killing them proved to be too 78 THE WEST INDIES hazardous an undertaking. An English settlement was made on St. Lucia as early as 1639, but it had a hard struggle to keep alive until the period of con- tention between the French and English for the possession of this whole group of islands. St. Vin- cent, like Dominica, was left in possession of the aborigines by agreement, until, in the eighteenth century, both French and English settlers crowded in, and the island became subject to the long con- tention of France and Great Britain in their wars. Grenada and the Grenadines were first settled by the French, who with their negro slaves undertook to massacre or drive out the natives. They succeeded in holding the principal island. Barbados was somewhat out of range of the rivalry for possession between the English and French. In fact, it was not among the Spanish discoveries. An English vessel, named the Olive Blossom , made a landing there in 1605 while on the way to Surinam, and took possession for the British crown. Colo- nists were brought out in 1625, and the English have been in practically undisturbed possession ever since. Tobago, which lies off Trinidad, and is virtually appurtenant to it, was scarcely occupied by the Spanish, though nominally in their posses- sion. The British flag was raised over it in 1580, when the first schemes of colonisation in South America were on foot, but the Dutch and French successively took possession afterwards. No per- manent settlement was made there for a long time by any nationality, and in the final composition of the quarrels it was kept by Great Britain, As al- ENGLISH , FRENCH , AND DUTCH COLONISERS 79 ready stated, Trinidad, being really an appendage of the South American continent, was settled by Spaniards at an early period, but their little colony was confined to the shore of the Gulf of Paria, and the aborigines were long permitted to roam over the rest of the island. The latter appear to have been comparatively late comers from the mainland, and were divided between Caribs and Arawaks, with a preponderance of the latter. Perhaps the most interesting case of colonising in the West Indies during the seventeenth century is that which deprived Spain of the magnificent island of Jamaica, third in size and by nature one of the richest of the Greater Antilles. Spain’s enlightened policy in dealing with its natural resources and its native inhabitants had by the middle of that century almost reduced it to a “ howling wilderness,” peo- pled by wild cattle, hogs, and dogs, and overgrown with the luxuriance of tropical vegetation and ani- mal life. The human inhabitants numbered barely 3000, half of whom were negro slaves, and all of whom had lapsed into hopeless laziness amidst the decay of the early settlement. In 1655, Cromwell, in the height of his power, sent a fleet under Ad- mirals Penn and Venables to attack Spain in her island colonies, and being repulsed from Hispaniola, they took easy possession of Jamaica. Admiral Penn, by the way, who was no better than the other piratical sea-dogs of his time, was the father of the Quaker coloniser of Pennsylvania, who got vast credit for benevolence because he shrewdly paid the Indians a trifling fraction of its value for their land. 8o THE WEST INDIES instead of bringing trouble upon his infant colony by seizing possession of it. When Jamaica was taken in 1655, the Spanish residents had their choice of submitting to English rule or leaving the island, and a considerable part of them fled to Cuba, while most of the negroes took to the mountains. “ English colonists ” were sent out the next year, and they were mostly a pictur- esque lot of reprobates from the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, and offscourings of the land, mingled with some adventurous Jews, bent upon exploiting the wealth of the new domain. The Lord Protector gave encouragement by proclaiming that all goods sent to Jamaica should be landed free of duty for seven years, and that the products of the colony should be subject to no tax for ten years. Things started with a veritable “ boom,” but the interesting results belong more properly to a separate account of Jamaica later in our volume. What are called the Danish West Indies were never colonised in any proper sense of the word. St. Thomas was one of the early resorts of the rovers and pirates, and came into the possession of a trading company of which the Elector of Brandenburg was the director. He was succeeded by the King of Denmark, and this was long a neutral trading point and grew rich out of the plunder of the other islands. Santa Cruz and St. John, which latter was never of much importance, were acquired by purchase. CHAPTER VIII BUCCANEERS, FREEBOOTERS, AND MAROONS FOR a century and more the Spanish colony on Hispaniola was confined to the eastern part of the island about Santo Domingo; and scattered remnants of the natives hunted wild cattle and hogs near the coasts in the western part. These hunters had a mode of preserving flesh peculiar to them- selves, by drying and smoking it over a fire of green branches and leaves. Some writers say that the beef so prepared by fire was called “boucan” ; others say that the places used for drying and smok- ing the flesh were “ boucans.” P£re Labat, a French priest, who lived for some time in the Carib- bees at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and wrote a big book about them, says that “ bou- can ” was the Carib word for the cashew nut, which had to be roasted before it was edible. If this is so, the word was probably first applied to the edible product of the flesh-smoking process, though it may have been extended to the open-air smoke-houses afterwards. However that may be, when the trade was taken up by vagrant sailors and adventurers of 82 THE WEST INDIES European origin, the French made the verb “ bouca- ner” to apply to the process, and “ boucanier” to designate those engaged in the business. This latter word became buccaneer in English. In the time of the first roving traders and priva- teers, they were wont to get part of their supplies from the natives on shore, including this same viand “ boucan,” and gradually their sailors engaged in hunting and “ boucanning ” for themselves, and some of them remained on shore permanently for the pur- pose. Desperadoes and adventurers of various nationalities gathered unto them ; and they were joined by refugees from St. Kitt’s when the settle- ments there were broken up, and with them took possession of the small island of Tortuga off the north-western peninsula of Haiti as a headquarters of their own. They continued to hunt on the large island, but made Tortuga a centre of supply and of trade with the rovers and smugglers. In 1638, a Spanish force made a descent upon the small island in the absence of the hunters and massacred every- body that they found there. The hunters returned to the number of about three hundred, recruited their force from material of a still more desperate character, if possible, and took to making reprisals upon Spanish traders and depredations upon un- guarded Spanish settlements. In a few years they got together a considerable fleet of vessels and made this marine marauding their principal business. The original “ boucaniers ” were a wild and pictur- esque gang. To the waist they were generally clothed in a sunburnt and weather-beaten skin, and BUCCANEERS , FREEBOOTERS , MAROONS 83 they wore pantaloons of coarse linen, dyed and stiffened with the blood of bulls and pigs, and held up by a belt of rawhide stuck full of deadly knives. Their apparel terminated with pig-skin boots and no stockings, and they carried a long-barrelled fire- lock loaded with ounce balls of lead. They were animated by a common hatred of the Spaniard, which in their eyes justified any attack upon his person or property, and by a wild sort of attach- ment to each other in their perilous life, which led to their being known as the “ Brethren of the Coast.” When the Spaniards drove them into the career of marauders upon the sea, the word “ buc- caneer ” took on a new meaning, though they were also known as freebooters. This was a mongrel English word, ** buiten ” being Dutch and “ bueten ” German for “ plunder,” though the English language had and still has the noun “ booty.” Of this word “ freebooter ” the French made “ fribustier,” with the “ s” silent, after the manner of French spelling and pronunciation in those times, and then softened it to “ flibustier,” which the Spanish modified into “ fili- buster©. ” So we finally got the word back with a new meaning and a special application as “ filibuster.” France took possession of Tortuga in 1641, and made an attempt upon Hispaniola which was re- pulsed. She had the help and sympathy of the buccaneers, but Spain regained the small island in 1654, and these disturbances led them to take to the English side in the attack on Jamaica, and after its capture by Cromwell’s fleet they established their headquarters at Port Royal and entered upon a 84 THE WEST INDIES flourishing career. They owed their success for a long time to the fact that their attacks were made upon Spanish trade and Spanish settlements, and they had the connivance, if not the countenance, of the English and French authorities. They some- times even carried letters of marque. While the buccaneers’ headquarters were still on Tortuga, with their piratical fleet they maintained outposts in the Virgin Islands, in the Southern Bahamas, and in the Bay of Campeachy, where they waylaid Spanish traders and watched for the swag- bellied galleons from the treasure cities of Mexico and “ the Main,” and where they often hid their booty in caves. Their first great leader was a Frenchman named Montbar, whom they called Pierre le Grand, or Peter the Great. It is related of him that while lying off the Caicos for vessels passing the old Bahama Channel, he captured the ship of a Spanish vice-admiral. Another French- man, a native of Sables d’Olonne, and known as Francois l’Olonnois, who had come out to the West Indies as a common sailor, became a formid- able commander of buccaneers. He captured a Spanish frigate which was sent from Havana to put down the freebooters, with a negro executioner on board who was to hang to the yard-arm every man caught ; and he is said to have struck off the heads of the Spanish crew, ranged in a row convenient for the purpose, licking his sword after each blow. But the chief exploits of L’Olonnois, or Lolonois, as he is commonly called, were plundering settlements on the coast, especially the cities of the mainland. BUCCANEERS , FREEBOOTERS , ^jVZ> MAROONS 85 When the headquarters of the buccaneers were established in Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan, a Welshman by birth, rose to be a famous leader among them, and his depredations were also com- mitted chiefly on the mainland, though his plunder was brought to Port Royal, which became the resort of desperate and vicious characters and grew rich and wicked from the profits of freebooting. These profits were gathered mostly from attacks upon Cartagena, Porto Bello, and other cities of the Spanish Main, which were either sacked or forced to pay heavy ransom. Spanish trade on the water had been already ruined, and attacks upon it had be- come unprofitable. The days had gone by when the rakish craft of the buccaneer could lurk among the islands and conceal themselves in shady coves, to sally forth in the moonlight and seize a passing galleon or a Spanish fighting vessel, cutting the throats of captain and crew and carrying bags and buckets of treasure to Tortuga and St. Thomas. The end of hostilities between England and Spain about 1670 virtually put a stop to legalised or toler- ated piracy in the Caribbean Sea, and after Morgan’s great exploit of burning the city of Panama in 1671, buccaneering took to the Pacific, ravaged the west coast of South America, and wandered over seas, though much of the plunder was still brought to Jamaica by way of Cape Horn, and a general ren- dezvous was kept up among the islands. Morgan finally “ squared himself ” with the authorities, and settled down at Port Royal. He was twice Acting Governor of Jamaica, was knighted by Charles II., 86 THE WEST INDIES and died rich and more or less honoured, after the manner of those days. One of the last of the noto- rious organisers of buccaneering expeditions in the West Indies was a ferocious Fleming, named Van Horne, who kept his headquarters on Tortuga to the last. His most conspicuous exploit was an attack upon Vera Cruz, whither he proceeded with six vessels and 1200 men, taking possession of the town, plundering the houses, and demanding a heavy ran- som to save the place from destruction. While he was waiting for this, a Spanish fleet of seventeen vessels sailed into the harbour, but Van Horne escaped with the loot already taken. Buccaneering, which had its origin in the West Indies and spread far and wide, was practically sup- pressed by the peace of Ryswick in 1697, which brought an end to hostilities between France and Spain, as those between England and Spain had ended some years before. In the interval, France and England had got on bad terms, and even their buccaneers and pirates fell out with each other, which was ruinous to their enterprise. The century ended with Spanish trade in the West Indies well- nigh killed and the buccaneers dying out for lack of countenance and employment, but they were suc- ceeded by out-and-out pirates in the next century, enemies not of Spain especially, but of mankind, who preyed upon commerce indiscriminately on all seas. Though piracy was by no means a product of the West Indies and was only incidental to their later history, it continued to have some peculiar as- pects there. During the wars in which England, BUCCANEERS , FREEBOOTERS , MAROONS 87 France, Holland, and Spain were engaged, with more or less shifting of the belligerent parties, it was mixed with privateering in many cases. Jacques Cassard, the famous French corsair who came out in 1712, was furnished with a fleet by the merchants of Marseilles, and directed his operations against the Dutch, but these were plundering opera- tions purely. He captured St. Eustatius and ex- acted a large ransom from it. He proceeded upon a like enterprise to Curasao, and though he encoun- tered vigorous resistance he succeeded in collecting 600,000 louis d’or. But perhaps the most picturesque of West Indian pirates was the Englishman, Edward Teach, who was known as” Blackbeard. ” Much romance of doubt- ful authenticity has been mixed up with his maraud- ing career, but there is no doubt that he was a mari- ner who got his training as a privateer when there was war with Spain, and turned it to account in rank piracy, preying as freely upon English commerce as any other. In fact, after lurking off Barbados and the Caribbees and prowling among the Bahamas, picking up ” prizes ” now and then, he carried on his operations boldly off the Carolina coast and about the Bermudas, and it was the Governor of Virginia who finally secured his capture by offering a reward ” for apprehending or killing pirates,” and putting a spe- cially liberal price upon Blackbeard’s head. The head was finally obtained after a sharp tussle by one Lieutenant Maynard and his men, and taken to Bath Town ” hanging at the boltsprit end.” An interesting head it must have been, according to an 88 THE WEST INDIES old description of the doughty pirate, whose black beard is said to have covered his whole face and “ frightened America more than any comet that has appeared there a long time.” This beard, quoth the quaint writer of the description, was “ of an extravagant length ; as to breadth it came up to his eyes. He was accustomed to twist it with ribbons, in small tails, after the manner of our Ramilie wigs, and turn them about his ears. In time of action he wore a sling over his shoulders, with three brace of pistols hanging in holsters like bandaliers, and stuck lighted matches under his hat, which, appearing on each side of his face, his eyes naturally looking fierce and wild, made him altogether such a figure that imagination cannot form an idea of a fury from hell to look more frightful." Stories of his reckless bravery and wild brutality and debauchery are as picturesque and perhaps as authentic as this description ; and this delectable monster is said to have married fourteen or more wives at different times and places, some of them without their consent, to be sure. Another enterprising character who early in the eighteenth century captured cargoes off the Guiana coast, Barbados, and the Caribbees, was Captain Bartholomew Roberts. He even made seizures in the very ports of Martinique and Dominica. Dutch vessels were his special prey, but he finally trans- ferred his activity to the eastern hemisphere. Cer- tain regulations of the pirating business attributed to Roberts have been published. Among others relating to the conduct of crews were a prohibition BUCCANEERS , FREEBOOTERS , ^iVZ> MAROONS 89 of gaming “ at cards or dice for money ” ; a require- ment that lights be put out at eight o’clock ; that “ pieces, pistols, and cutlass be kept clean and fit for service”; “no boy or woman to be allowed amongst them deserting the ship or quarters in battle to be punished by death or marooning, and so on. The more famous Captain Kidd began his career with privateering in the West Indies, and it was Lord Bellamont, Governor of Barbados, who secured his commission as commander of the Adventure , to put down pirates. As is well known, he turned pirate himself, but his exploits in that character were performed on the other side of the world. Piracy continued all through the eighteenth cen- tury and into the present one on the pathways of commerce between the Old World and the New, and between Europe and the East, affecting the West Indian trade incidentally and having constant lurk- ing-places among the islands. Passing reference has been made to marooning as a penalty on board pirate ships, which reminds us to go back to another peculiar incident in West Indian experience. The word “ maroon ” has been variously explained. Almost as soon as negroes were introduced into the islands and upon the Span- ish Main as slaves, they were so inhumanly treated that the most daring of them ran away and estab- lished wild communities of their own in the woods and mountains. These came to be called cimar- rons, which seems to have meant mountain-dwellers, though restricted in its application to these fugi- 90 THE WEST INDIES tives. In the uncertain orthography of the time the English spelled the word “ simeron,” “ symaron,” and “ simaran,” and runaway negroes are spoken of by this term in the description of Drake’s landing at Darien. It is apparently a modification of this term that was applied to the negro slaves who fled to the woods when the English first took possession of Jamaica, for they were called maroons from the time they first established themselves as a dangerous ele- ment in the population of the island. As Jamaica came to be a great centre of the slave trade and her growing plantations were worked almost exclusively by slave labour under brutal task-masters, fugitives multiplied and the community of maroons became formidable enough to produce serious trouble, as we shall see when considering the history of Jamaica more in detail. The maroons being in effect outcasts, a verb seems to have been made of the word to express the pro- cess of casting out. It was first applied to the practice of the buccaneers or the pirates in getting rid of the captives taken by them when they plun- dered towns, by setting them ashore on some unin- habited island and leaving them to their fate. This was an alternative to killing them, and there was occasionally a pirate who had a distaste for whole- sale slaughter when he did not consider it necessary. Marooning was also adopted as an alternative to death in punishing sailors for mutiny or other offences on board ship, not adequately requited by knocking down with a marl inspike or flogging writh BUCCANEERS , FREEBOOTERS , ^iVZ> MAROONS 9 1 a rope’s end. By a peculiarity of piratical etymol- ogy the victim of this process and not its perpetrator was called a marooner. The term has come to be applied to anybody left on a lonely island in any part of the world, and in the South to picnic parties, who are said to go marooning. i 1 ! CHAPTER IX FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION EARLY in the seventeenth century Spain’s ex- clusive right to possession in the West Indies came to be seriously contested; by 1658 the Pope formally gave it up, and in 1670 it was abandoned by Spain herself. For nearly two centuries there was almost continuous war in which one and another of the colonising powers were engaged, and there were frequent contests for the possession of islands, especially those of the Lesser Antilles. As we have already seen, some of the original colonies were established by conquest. The nine years’ truce ended in 1618, and hostili- ties were renewed between Spain and the Nether- lands. England made a treaty with the latter power in 1625 which brought her into collision with Spain afresh. It was in 1629 that the Spanish fleet made the attack upon St. Christopher and drove out both English and French settlers, and in 1632 that the Dutch took Tobago and in 1634 Cura$ao. After the French took nominal possession of Guadeloupe, Dominica, and Martinique in 1635, France was at 92 FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION 93 war with Spain, which had previously made peace with England. In 1638 the Spanish made a descent upon St. Martin, which was jointly occupied by the French and Dutch, and took forcible possession, but it was afterwards recovered and the formal divi- sion of the island between Dutch and French was made in 1648. Although Spain and England were nominally at peace in 1638, an English expedition attacked and plundered the town of Santiago de la Vega in Jamaica, and in retaliation a Spanish fleet from Havana cleared out the infant settlement at New Providence in the Bahamas. During the Commonwealth time the royalist senti- ment was strong in the British West Indies, and there was almost a revolt under Governor Wil- loughby in Barbados ; but a fleet came out with Admiral Ayscue and settled the trouble, incident- ally capturing some Dutch vessels on the way. Cromwell adopted a vigorous policy in dealing with the pretensions of Spain, and it was at this time that the fleet was sent against Hispaniola and com- promised by capturing Jamaica, which Spain tried in vain to recover in 1658. There was a treaty of peace between France and Spain in 1660, and the restoration of Charles II. also brought peace between England and France; but in 1665 England fell out with the Dutch, who were joined the next year by France. Then the English and French in St. Kitt’s took to fighting. The French got the upper hand and drove the English out, but a fleet came up from Barbados and reversed the process. At the same time the French captured Antigua and Montserrat, 94 THE WEST INDIES but by the treaty of Breda in 1667 they were re- stored to England, and the old division of St. Kitt’s was re-established. Trouble kept up for some years with privateering and depredations upon the thriving trade of the Dutch, but no further changes of pos- session among the islands took place until the war between France and Holland in 1688, when the ac- cession of William of Orange brought England into the contest on the Dutch side. The French again drove the English out of St. Kitt’s and seized St. Eustatius, while the English made unsuccessful at- tacks upon Guadeloupe. The peace of Ryswick, 1697, restored the old condition, the Dutch retaining St. Eustatius and the French and English still divid- ing St. Christopher. From 1702 to 1715 there was a war, with England and Holland on one side and France and Spain on the other, and much privateering and plundering went on, but there was no change of territorial pos- session, except that the English drove the French out of St. Kitt’s this time, and by the treaty of Utrecht the island was finally ceded to Great Britain. Jacques Cassard, the famous French corsair, in the guise of a patriotic privateer, captured St. Eustatius and Curacao, but only for the purpose of extorting a ransom. There was a fierce contest between France and England for the possession of the Carib- bees during the Seven Years’ War from 1756 to 1763. In the meantime, Spain and Holland had been losing prestige, and were no longer rated as formidable powers. It was in this contest between France and Eng- FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION 95 land that Admiral Rodney and Sir Samuel Hood first came to the front as British naval commanders. At the beginning, the French were in possession of all the southern Caribbees, leaving Barbados and Trinidad out of the category. The English captured Guadeloupe in 1759, before the arrival of the home fleet, and held it till the end of the war. Rodney sailed from Barbados for Martinique in January, 1762, with eighteen ships of the line and a consider- able force of soldiers. The island capitulated, and the conquest was followed up with that of Grenada, Dominica, Tobago, St. Vincent, and St. Lucia in succession. Spain was involved in the quarrel at the time, and in May, 1762, Admiral Pococke laid siege to Havana, and in a month Morro Castle was re- duced, and soon after the Governor-General of Cuba capitulated, and Lord Albemarle took possession with land forces. These naval victories contributed powerfully to the peace of February, 1763. By the treaty of Paris, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and St. Lucia were restored to France, and Cuba was left to Spain in exchange for Florida, while Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Tobago were ceded to Great Britain. The next contest for the possession of islands in the Lesser Antilles came after France had joined the United States in 1778 in their struggle for inde- pendence from British power. The first move was the capture of Dominica by the French, that island lying conveniently between their two principal pos- sessions, Guadeloupe and Martinique. The English retaliated by seizing St. Lucia. A fleet came out 9 6 THE WEST INDIES from France, under Count de Grasse, who afterwards went up the Atlantic coast to help the American cause, and one from England, under Admiral Byron. The French got to work first and took Grenada and St. Vincent and spread alarm among the other islands. Rodney, over in England, was aroused, and pleaded for the command in the West Indies. He was not politically in favour, but the disasters finally induced the Government to send him out to replace Byron. But Spain had taken a hand in the conflict, and by way of diversion Rodney captured a Spanish squadron off Cape Finisterre and another off Cape St. Vincent, and went to the relief of Gib- raltar, sending part of his fleet into the Mediterranean before proceeding to western waters. It was late in March, 1780, when he arrived off St. Lucia, where he found a French fleet of thirty vessels, under Count de Guichen. Though his own ships num- bered only seventeen, he made two attempts to en- gage the Frenchman. He attributed his failure to force a fight to the inefficiency of his own men, and when De Guichen took refuge at St. Eustatius and afterwards got away, he put them through a course of training. Late in the year Great Britain declared war upon Holland for assisting the American colonies, and Rodney getting word of this pounced upon St. Eus- tatius, though the French fleet had departed, seized all the vessels in the harbour, confiscated all the property in sight, and ordered the inhabitants to quit the island. After the Seven Years’ War the English and French had tried to put a stop to con- FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION 97 traband trading, but the Dutch and the Danes had kept it up, and St. Eustatius and St. Thomas had prospered by the misfortunes and the quarrels of their neighbours. The Dutch had always been active as smugglers and contraband traders, and were disliked by those who had suffered by their enterprise. Probably Rodney cared less for this than for the fact that harbour had just been given to his enemy. At all events he made St. Eusta- tius suffer, breaking up its commerce and selling its accumulated merchandise to traders from the English islands. But some of the merchants at St. Eustatius were Englishmen, many were Jews, and those of St. Kitt’s had profitable dealings with them. Emissaries were sent to England who made trouble for Rodney with the authorities there. Politically, he still lacked favour, and, the French having suc- ceeded in retaking St. Eustatius and restoring it to the Dutchmen, a reaction set in, and the Admiral was recalled to England, where he arrived in Sep- tember, 1781, sick and disappointed by his trials and the disfavour into which he had fallen. But the tide began to run against British fortunes in the western world. Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, and De Grasse hastened back to the West Indies to play havoc among the English islands. He captured St. Kitt’s and Nevis, Mont- serrat, Dominica, and St. Vincent with alarming rapidity, and was planning a scheme for routing the English out of the Antilles, with fine prospects of success. In this dire emergency Rodney was called in consultation again, and the upshot was that he 98 THE WEST INDIES was sent out with a new fleet of twelve ships of the line at the special request of the King, to take the command over the head of Hood. He arrived at Barbados February 19, 1782, and soon learned that De Grasse was off Martinique preparing for the con- quest of Jamaica, with a Spanish fleet of fourteen ships waiting to join him near the coast of Hispan- iola. De Grasse himself had thirty-five vessels under his command, with 5000 troops on board, and his flagship, the Ville de Paris , was regarded by the French as the most powerful warship afloat. Rodney, after joining Hood and receiving some reinforcements, had thirty-six vessels, with the Formidable as his flagship, and he took up his station at St. Lucia, which still remained in Eng- lish hands, to watch the movements of the enemy. On the 8th of April he got word that De Grasse was setting sail for Hispaniola to take up the Spanish contingent for the descent upon Jamaica. The doughty Admiral, who had his own reputa- tion to vindicate as well as British interests in the West Indies to rescue from peril, put boldly forth, and on the 12th he overhauled the French fleet off Dominica. By skilful manoeuvring he divided the enemy’s force and cut into the midst of his ships with a furious fire from both sides, and as the sun went down De Grasse and his terrible Ville de Paris sur- rendered. A number of his vessels were sunk and others were captured, but a considerable portion of the fleet was allowed to escape, for which Rodney was criticised by Admiral Hood and attacked by his enemies in England. FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION 99 But he had won a great victory and saved the British West Indies, and though Admiral Pigot had been sent out to supersede him his work was done, and he was received with great acclamation when he got back to England, and was made Lord Rodney with a pension of 10,000 dollars a year. By the treaty of Versailles England got back all the islands which she held at the beginning of the war except Tobago, which France was allowed to add to her former possessions. Now there were ten years of peace and of great material progress, but in 1793 France was again at war with England and Holland. The first thing the English did was to capture Tobago, and when in January, 1794, Sir John Jervis arrived out with his British fleet he proceeded to force the surrender of Martinique, St. Lucia, and Guadeloupe. In 1796, Spain joined France in the conflict, with the result that the English sent an expedition from Martinique and wrested Trinidad away from her, and by the treaty of Amiens in 1802 they were allowed to keep it. The British fleet captured Curasao and the other Dutch islands in 1798 and dominated the Carib- bees and the Spanish Main, but the peace of Amiens restored the Dutch islands to Holland and the French islands to France, except that Great Britain was allowed this time to keep St. Lucia. The peace was short-lived, and in 1806 the English took Curasao again, but it was restored in 1814, when a lasting peace was made. No other change of possession took place during the contest of 1803-14, but there was an incident of 100 THE WEST INDIES no small interest in West Indian history. At the beginning of 1805, Napoleon planned his great naval stroke of a combined attack upon England by the fleets of France and Spain. They were distributed at Toulon, Cadiz, Rochefort, and Brest, and were to effect their union at Martinique, which, of course, it was the business of the British naval forces to pre- vent. Nelson was in the Mediterranean with his eye on Admiral Villeneuve at Toulon, but he had to withdraw occasionally for supplies, and once when he was not looking Villeneuve took French leave and escaped past Gibraltar into the open. Nelson waited till he knew which way he had gone before pursuing and was delayed some weeks ; and then he put out with all speed for the West Indies. He arrived at Barbados June 4th, to the enormous relief of the alarmed population, which knew of the pres- ence in the Caribbees of the dreadful French fleet, or some part of it. It had not effected the junction of its forces, but Villeneuve was off Antigua, though Nelson by false information was sent down to Trini- dad in pursuit of him. Getting scared, the French- man put back, and as soon as the Englishman got wind of it he was after him. We know what fol- lowed, Trafalgar and the death of Nelson, but this was not his only visit to the West Indies. He was cruising there twenty years before, and had first come with Lord Hood in 1783, just after the Rod- ney days. It was in the little island of Nevis that he married the widow Nisbet in 1787. There was a very important change in the owner- ship of one island at this period, which was not FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION IOI incidental to the war between France and England, but an indirect consequence of the French Revolu- tion. French settlers, as we know, got possession of Tortuga and the western end of Haiti in the old buccaneering days, and by the treaty of Ryswick in 1697 this territory was ceded to France. During the agitation following the French Revolution there was a rising of the blacks in Haiti, and when the menace of a British invasion from Jamaica came, in 1794, they were brought to the support of the French authority by an emancipation of the slaves. The next year the Spanish part of the island was ceded to France. The agitation continued with the result that the whole island practically gained its inde- pendence in 1801. The western part actually estab- lished its independence in 1804, the rest remaining nominally under French authority until 1808, when it was recovered by Spain with the aid of British troops, and retained until the revolution of 1821 made an independent republic of it. This brings us substantially to the final division of the spoils of Columbus’s first discoveries. Spain re- tained Cuba and Puerto Rico until the chronic revolt against her oppressive rule culminated in war with the United States in 1898, which swept away the last vestige of her American possessions. The first of her colonies, the old island of Hispaniola, contains the two independent republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo. Jamaica, all the Bahamas, and the greater part of the Lesser Antilles belong to Great Britain as the result of colonisation and conquest. France still holds the important islands of Guadeloupe, with 102 THE WEST INDIES its pendants, Desirade, Marie Galante, and Les Saintes, Martinique, and, as dependencies of Guade- loupe, St. Bartholomew and part of St. Martin, in the northern Caribbees. Holland retains Curasao, Aruba, and Buen Aire, off the coast of Venezuela, with Saba, St. Eustatius, and part of St. Martin in the northern Caribbees as dependencies of the same colony. Denmark first got possession of St. Thomas as a trading station, and acquired Santa Cruz and St. John by purchase, and has held them through all the wars and contests without even the necessity of de- fending them. The United States for the first time, as the result of the Cuban war, put its foot on the junction of the Greater and Lesser Antilles, the centre of the great bow that guards the Caribbean Sea and the approaches of the American isthmus, and Puerto Rico became her territory. CHAPTER X WEST INDIAN SLAVERY HE Spaniards who first took possession in the West Indies were in quest of earthly treasures. The conversion of the poor benighted heathen was subordinate to that even in the mind of the pious Columbus and of his great patrons Ferdinand and Isabella, who invested so liberally in his risky enter- prise. But while the Spaniards could endure hard- ship and privation in this quest, they did not like to toil for the treasures. When their effort to extract them by the labour of the natives failed, through the natives’ preference for death if they could not have liberty, they began the importation of African slaves to work the mines of Hispaniola. At that time, Portugal claimed possession of the African coast and was the first to engage in the slave trade. The victims were already slaves in Northern Africa, and were bought from Moorish and other native masters, but it was not long before kidnapping began to be resorted to down on the western coast. Some of the slaves had been sold in Portugal and in Spain, but the demand from the West Indies gave 103 104 THE WEST INDIES the first strong impetus to the traffic, and in 1517 an edict of the Spanish Government authorised the importation of 4000 annually into Hispaniola. When the mining fever subsided through lack of profit or the greater attractions of El Dorado on 44 the Main,” the negroes were put to work on the growing plantations, and were introduced into Cuba and Jamaica. Even the good Las Casas, in his pity for the disappearing aborigines, countenanced the substitution of slaves from Africa, though he re- pented when he realised the consequences. The Portuguese did not long enjoy a monopoly of trading in human commodities. The roving traders of Eng- land, France, and the Netherlands took a hand, and kidnapping became the easiest and most profitable method of obtaining the supply. It was then that Sir John Hawkins attained the evil celebrity which his naval services could not efface, as a slave-trader; but it was not until the development of the planta- tion system in the next century that the traffic as- sumed large proportions, and slavery was planted on an extensive scale in the West Indies. Though sugar-cane had been brought by Colum- bus, sugar in Europe was still a medicament bought by the ounce from the apothecary, or at most a costly luxury for the rich; and the culture in the islands was of slow growth. Cotton had been used by the aborigines to a limited extent in simple fabrics, and it had been introduced into Europe from 4 4 Calicut ” and elsewhere in the Orient; but it was long before its cultivation became a systematic in- dustry, and then it was almost confined to Jamaica WEST INDIAN SLAVERY 105 and some small islands after they became English. Tobacco made its way gradually as a marketable commodity in Europe, and finally coffee was intro- duced as adapted to the soil and climate of the new Indies. It was not until after the English had colonised Barbados that the development of the sugar planta- tion began ; it received a tremendous impulse after the taking of Jamaica, and it soon began to divide the field with tobacco in Cuba. The great price of sugar in Europe and the cheapness of its production in the Indies made the cultivation of the cane and the extraction of its saccharine contents an extremely profitable business, but the labour of the negro was considered necessary to carry it on, and no one thought of using it otherwise than as slave labour. Plantations multiplied not only on the English islands and in Cuba and Hispaniola, but on the French islands and to a less extent those occupied by the Dutch ; and an enormous impulse was given to the slave trade. Sugar was the great industry from Barbados to Santa Cruz and in Jamaica and Cuba, varied with coffee in Martinique, cotton in Jamaica, and tobacco in Cuba as the great staples; and Europeans who invested their money in large plantations and bought many slaves acquired vast fortunes in a few years and lived like nabobs. Bryan Edwards, the historian of the British colo- nies in the West Indies, declares that from 1680 to 1786 not less than 2,130,000 blacks were imported from Africa, of whom 610,000 were landed in Ja- maica; and the traffic began long before that period io6 THE WEST INDIES and continued long after it. In the days of the smugglers and buccaneers negro slaves were a con- spicuous article in the traffic and plunder of the time, and were considered a perfectly legitimate commod- ity, without which other business than piracy could hardly go on in the great archipelago. The wretched Africans were scarcely looked upon as human beings, and were brought over the seas crowded and huddled in the holds of vessels, where many died, to be dumped overboard like refuse. Probably no artist in words or colours could exaggerate the “ horrors of the middle passage,” while beings who claimed to be devout Christians and used the language of such commanded the overloaded slavers, bound from the Guinea coast to the West Indies, and alas! sometimes to the British colonies on the continent of America which became the United States. And herded on the great plantations in the islands, these creatures were treated like cattle. Sometimes cattle are treated extremely well, and it is policy so to treat those that work ; but sometimes human cattle are not submissive. Many of the owners of large plantations, especially those in Jamaica, were absen- tees who squandered their substance in luxurious living in London and left their West Indian estates in charge of agents, who employed overseers and slave-drivers. The few white people of the islands, the planters and their representatives and employees, were practically rulers of the land, and the far-off authority of the home government gave little heed to their doings. We know the effect of arbitrary power and unrestrained control of the strong over WEST INDIAN SLAVERY 107 the helpless upon the average nature of man, espe- cially the adventurous type of man that peopled the tropical colonies. That there were terrible cruelties in many cases need not be said, and of the horrors of plantation life in slave lands and in slavery times there have been many lurid pictures. Under the “ black code ” of Jamaica the slave had no rights of property and few of person, and little protection from outrage. His testimony was not legal evidence against any white men, and he could be unmercifully flogged, maimed, and maltreated with impunity; but if he showed violence toward his keeper, torture or death was the almost certain penalty. Gradual burning alive, beginning at the feet, was a legal punishment on a second conviction for beating a white man, and all manner of tortures were used to compel abject submission of the slave to his task- master. It is no wonder that the maroons were constantly recruited by fugitives from the plantations and be- came a formidable power in the mountains of Ja- maica, committing depredations and atrocities and spreading terror among the white population from time to time; and it is not strange that Jamaica was disturbed at frequent intervals in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by insurrections of slaves, and that the whites were constantly alarmed by the menace of risings, for their human cattle outnum- bered them about fifty to one. The state of things was not so bad in the smaller English islands, which had not been so much the resort of buccaneers and reckless adventurers, or so largely colonised by con- io8 THE WEST INDIES victs and cutthroats, but it was bad enough. Nothing was done to “ improve the condition ” of the blacks. The English Church did not recognise them as baptisable human beings, and teaching them was severely discountenanced. In the French islands, the general treatment of slaves seems to have been about as harsh and about as liable to bar- barous cruelty as in those under British sovereignty; but the Catholic priests did credit them with souls and made some effort to save them from perdition, though never dreaming that they were entitled to liberty in this world. Let us do the much-abused Spaniard one little measure of justice. After slavery became an estab- lished institution in his colonies, the negroes were not so badly treated as in Jamaica and Barbados, or even in Martinique and Santa Cruz. The Spaniard became a real colonist in the West Indies. He lived on his plantation, and peasants came out from An- dalusia and Catalonia and from the Basque prov- inces and settled in Cuba and Espaflola and Puerto Rico. The Spaniard became acclimatised and learned to work and attend to business in his tropi- cal home, and as a consequence a majority of the present natives of Cuba and Puerto Rico are whites, or creoles, while in the other islands the negro vastly preponderates in the population. The pres- ence of working white men and the direct interest and supervision of owners living on their estates certainly mitigated slavery in the Spanish West In- dies, where the negroes had certain recognised and legally protected rights. Not only did the Church WEST INDIAN SLA FEE Y log look after their souls, but the State treated them as human beings, albeit in abject servitude. Among the rights guaranteed to them was that of free mar- riage, the purchase of their own freedom by labour, and the holding of property. Except in the island of Haiti, the slave population would have diminished constantly but for the con- tinual importation of fresh supplies. Most of the negro women of the early slave-trade were landed in Hispaniola, and the enterprising traffickers of a later day dealt mostly in able-bodied men. Even when women were brought over for the deliberate purpose of breeding slaves there was no natural in- crease of the race, but rather a falling off, until the present century. The agitation for the suppression of the African slave-trade began in England toward the end of the last century, and was carried on with great vigour under the lead of Wilberforce, Clark- son, and other philanthropic men, who met with the usual opposition to great reforms. Denmark was the first to take practical action, and she declared the slave trade unlawful in 1792. It was abolished in Great Britain and her colonies in 1807, and France and Holland soon followed, while Spain brought up the rear in 1820. There was a great deal of contra- band traffic after the formal abolition, especially in Cuba, whose demand for labour was not well sup- plied. It has been said that not less than 500,000 Africans were brought to the island and sold into slavery after the traffic was prohibited, while Hum- boldt estimated the total importation before 1820 at 413,500. I IO THE WEST INDIES The abolitionists were not content with procuring the prohibition of the African slave-trade, but became emancipators and kept up the agitation for putting an end to human slavery* altogether, which, of course, was regarded as peculiarly radical and visionary*. The planters had no doubt that it would be ruinous to the West Indian colonies. Emancipation had already been effected in Haiti as the result of the French Revolution and the turmoil that followed, and it produced restlessness among the blacks in the other French islands. In Martinique it almost came to an insurrection. The abolition of the slave trade had its effect in arousing hopes of freedom, and still another disturbing element had come in. Protest- ant missionaries of the dissenting denominations had been working among the negroes and instilling into them the heretical notion that they had souls worth saving, and were entitled to have the gospel preached unto them. These things, even when accompanied by promises of joy* in another world, were calculated to produce discontent with their lot in this life among the poor creatures whose humanity was thus imprudently recognised. The planters were dis- turbed by this continual interference with the old order of things, and when the flogging of women and the using of the slave-driver’s whip in the fields were prohibited, and they were required to manumit slaves who wished to buy their freedom, they* be- came seriously alarmed. Many of the negroes knew what was going on in their behalf, and began to agitate on their own account. One free black fellow in Barbados, named Washington Franklin, made WEST INDIAN SLAVERY III eloquent speeches which led the slaves to believe that their freedom was at hand. Finally, in 1833, the pestilent abolitionists in Eng- land got through their Act of Parliament declaring an end of slavery in the British colonies on and after August 1, 1834, and providing that household serv- ants should continue in a relation of apprenticeship to their masters for four years and field hands for six years thereafter. All children born after the date of emancipation were free, and by subsequent legislation the qualified servitude by apprenticeship was terminated for all on August 1, 1838. Slavery continued in the French islands until the fall of Louis Philippe in 1848, when the revolution- ary government abolished it. Denmark had pro- vided in 1 847 that from the 28th of July of that year all children born of slaves should be free, and at the end of twelve years from that date slavery should cease in the Danish colonies. This postponement caused discontent and there was an uprising in Santa Cruz. A mob of negroes marched into Christiansted threatening slaughter, and the governor hastened over from St. Thomas and tried to put it down by declaring that the slaves were free, and asking them to disperse and enjoy the boon of liberty in quiet. They doubted his authority or good faith, and had to be put down by force, Spanish soldiers coming from Puerto Rico to help in the process. The gov- ernor’s declaration of emancipation was confirmed by the home government as the easiest and safest way of allaying the trouble. Slavery continued in the Dutch islands until THE WEST INDIES 1 12 1863, when it was replaced by ten years of compul- sory labour for compensation, bringing complete freedom in 1873. A law was passed in 1870 giving freedom in Cuba to all slaves over sixty years of age and to all children born after it took effect, but internal difficulties prevented the execution of this measure; and in 1880 the Cuban Emancipation Act was approved at Madrid, which put an end to slav- ery altogether six years later. In the meantime all slaves in Puerto Rico had been freed on the 23d of March, 1873. It was on October 6, 1886, that slavery in the West Indies came to an end. The effect of emancipation was different in the different islands. It was disastrous to the absentee planters of Jamaica, for instance. It was not easy to get the freed negroes to work in sufficient num- bers, and the cost of labour increased, while the one great interest of sugar production was depressed from other causes. Estates became encumbered, expenses could not be maintained, and plantations fell into neglect, while their owners in Europe fell into bankruptcy. The negroes began to get posses- sion of land, the whites began to emigrate, and the prosperous days of Jamaica seemed to have departed. The greatest drawback, however, was the existence of large plantations devoted to a single industry and owned by absentees, and a lack of enterprise and willingness to live on the island and attend to busi- ness on the part of English landowners. To some extent there was a similar effect in the other English islands. Where there was unoccupied land, as in Trinidad and Dominica, the negroes WEST INDIAN SLA VER Y 113 showed a disposition to desert the plantations where they had been in servitude and to set up for them- selves in a small way, leaving the owners to whistle for labour. To some extent they called it in from over seas in the form of coolies from India and China, who worked under contract for a term of years; but the prosperity of the planters was not what it had been. In Barbados, which stands apart from the other islands, the land was practically all in posses- sion and under cultivation, and the freed negroes had to work for their former owners, or perish. Barbados suffered less than the other islands from the upset of the labour system, and but for the gen- eral depression of sugar would have continued to prosper. In fact, it has continued to prosper fairly. In the French islands, the general effect of emanci- pation was much the same as in the English colonies, but there the whites have become more easily recon- ciled to the small holdings of land by the negroes and mestizos, and less addicted to abandoning their island homes. The least unfavourable consequences were felt in the Spanish colonies, where the white population predominated, and where the relations between whites and blacks had been more nearly those of sympathy if not of equality. Each race adapted itself to the changed conditions, and comparatively little trouble has arisen from the labour question in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Slavery is responsible for the general character of the population of the West Indies, and especially for the great preponderance of negroes and those 1 14 THE WEST INDIES of mixed blood in nearly all the islands, and it is the primary cause of the problems presented in the government of the colonies there. A ghastly ex- hibition of the consequences of the experiment of self-government for those unprepared for it has been going on in Haiti nearly all the present century. x CHAPTER XI THE BAHAMAS OR LUCAYAN ISLANDS HE submarine extension of our continent stretches in a long and relatively narrow plateau from the coast of Florida south-easterly to the deep channels off the shores of Cuba and Haiti. This great platform from which the Bahama Islands rise is more than seven hundred miles long and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles wide; and its outer declivity plunges abruptly to depths of 12,000 to 15,000 feet. From that huge rampart its general level slopes gradually downward toward the west and south-west, till it sinks off into the abyss of 10,000 feet or more toward the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti, the depth dimin- ishing from there westward to 6000 in the Old Bahama Channel, about 4000 in the New Bahama Channel, and 1000 in the Straits of Florida over the ridge whose farther slope sinks into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. On the surface of this peninsula plateau beneath the waves there are banks and shoals of varying ex- tent and altitude, and it is penetrated here and there by fiords and deep valleys. Near its northern part ii 6 THE IVEST INDIES the Providence Channel cuts in from the ocean on the east and from the Florida Straits on the west, and the two branches coalesce in the submarine gulf called the “ Tongue of the Ocean/’ which extends lengthwise of the plateau. There are also in the watery depths what would be called land-locked lakes, or bays, if their margins were above the sur- face. From this huge but broken platform rise the peaks and pinnacles whose tops reach the sunlight and the air, and constitute the hundreds of rocks and reefs and the few habitable islands which we know as the Bahamas. For the most part, these have been built up by the incessant growth through centuries of the coral polyp, and the growth goes on still, changing their contour from age to age. The process of construction which began when this region first sank beneath the waves can be watched and studied to-day. Sometimes the coral builders work up columns from the bottom, from thirty to fifty feet high and twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, which slowly spread at the surface, like an expand- ing mushroom, to a breadth of one hundred feet or more. Those in proximity coalesce, and amid crumbling and cementing by the currents and the calcareous sands, they form islands in whose founda- tions are caves and vaults and weird galleries and corridors, where shapeless monsters lurk. These caverns exist beneath all the islands, and in the por- ous substructure the waters of the ocean ebb and flow, often lifting and letting down with every tide the fresh water of wells. And around the islands are the silent labyrinths of THE BAHAMAS OR LUCA Y AN ISLANDS llj “ the coral grove Where the purple mullet and the goldfish rove," and a thousand fantastic forms which simulate vege- tation and make the “ gardens of the sea.” The islands consist of the calcareous rock formed of coral and shells and the cementing substance that comes from abrasion of the same material, and of the light soil which ages have accumulated from the growth and decay of vegetation upon the surface. There is no sign of primitive or volcanic formation, but only this result of coral growth. The general level is but a few feet above the water, though it rises here and there in a ridge or a hill of a hundred feet or more, and reaches its culmination on Cat Island in an altitude of less than four hundred feet. The limestone exposed to the air is hard, but below the surface it is easily quarried into blocks by sawing, and these harden from exposure. The soil which covers it in part, and which really has come from its substance, is strangely fertile in many places. On a few of the larger islands there are forest growths of hard wood, as mahogany, ironwood, and lignum- vitse, and also of pitch-pine and palm. On some there is rank vegetation of a subtropical kind, and the soil is easily cultivated to the production of many fruits and vegetables. There are tamarinds, oranges, lemons, limes, citrons, pineapples, pomegranates, bananas, figs, and others; but pineapples and oranges are those chiefly grown for the market. There are also melons, yams, potatoes, cassava, pep- per, ginger, coffee, cocoa, indigo, cotton, tobacco, 8 THE WEST INDIES corn, peas, etc., more or less raised upon this cal- careous soil. There is variety of life in the waters, of turtles, fish, molluscs, and all manner of inhabitants of shells; and the gathering of sponges, pearls, and ambergris has been among the occupations of na- tives and settlers time out of mind ; but the land fauna is scanty. The “ dumb dog," as the Span- iards called it, of the aborigines was probably the raccoon, and there were a few small quadrupeds and reptiles, including the ugly but harmless iguana. There is no profusion of birds, but among those worth noticing are the flamingo, the parrot, and the humming-bird. Cattle, horses, sheep, and domestic fowl, though not indigenous, thrive in the climate. And that climate is of the mild and genial kind of the verge of the tropic zone sur- rounded by the water and the air of the ocean. The temperature in summer ranges from 750 to 88° Fahrenheit, and in winter perhaps ten degrees lower. There is a wet season from May to Octo- ber which varies in wetness, and the rest of the year is delightful with warm sunshine and balmy breezes. Here is the paradise of delicate lungs and sensitive throats for those from harsher climes, though the native negroes are often the victims of pulmonary weakness. The Bahamas are in the occasional track of the hurricane, which loses much of its strength by the time it reaches this latitude, but sometimes sweeps with destructive fury along their scattered length. In noting the general arrangement and character- THE BAHAMAS OR LUCA Y AN ISLANDS II9 istics of the principal islands, we will begin with that nearest the Florida coast, barely sixty miles off Palm Beach. It is the Great Bahama, which retains the native name of the whole group. It is long and narrow, but lies across the head of the plateau in- stead of along its length like most of the others. It has always been sparsely peopled and of little im- portance, and its present small population is mostly descended from a few Scotch planters and their slaves. To the east of it are Little and Great Abaco. Great Abaco was the Yucaya of the aborigines, who called themselves Yucayos. This is one of the most populous of the islands, having about 4000 inhabit- ants, mostly whites and descendants of loyalists who left the Carolinas after the revolutionary war. It is also one of the wooded islands which makes some use of its timber. Its chief village is Hopetown, built on a narrow peninsula. Below these islands, which stand at the head of the group, are the two branches of the Providence Chan- nel, and just where these flow into one lies the small but important island of New Providence. It is nearly oval in form, extending east and west, and is barely sixteen and a half miles long by six miles wide; but it contains a population of nearly 15,000, more than one fourth of that of the whole Bahama group. Two thirds of the inhabitants live in the town of Nassau, the capital of the colony and its one important port. It is the position of this island at the converging of the channels and in the narrow line of deep-water navigation, and the fact that its harbour will admit vessels of fifteen feet draught, 120 THE WEST INDIES while no other in all the islands has a depth of more than nine feet, that make it the site of the colonial capital and give it all its consequence. Near the north shore of New Providence, for nearly its whole length, runs a wooded ridge from eighty to one hun- dred and twenty feet high, upon the seaward slope of which, five and a half miles from its eastern end, is the picturesque and solidly built town of Nassau. About six and a half miles from the western end of the island, at a place called Cave Point, a spur from this northern ridge, known as “ the Blue Hills,” strikes inland, and on either side of ft is a consider- able lake of brackish water that sways with the tide. The town of Nassau has at times a lively commerce, and affords facilities for docking and repairing ves- sels. Its buildings are of the limestone that is sawed into blocks when fresh and hardens afterwards. There is a modest Government House, a plain cathe- dral, several churches and chapels, the bishop’s abode, a public library, an asylum and hospital, a military station, an institute, a charitable society, and several schools. The Berry Isles, just north of New Providence, are only occupied by a few pilots, and the Bernini Keys, to the west, are distinguished merely as the site of Ponce de Leon’s delusive fountain of youth. To the east, however, is the long, crescent-shaped Eleuthera, — so named from the Eleuthera Croton , once valued for its medicinal properties, — a fertile, fairly peopled, and cultivated island, and the special garden of the pineapple. Harbour Island, close by, practically covered by Dunmore Town, with its THE BAHAMAS OR LUCA Y AN ISLANDS 12 1 2000 inhabitants in a space of two square miles, is a favourite health resort, and the place of residence of the wealthier planters of Eleuthera. To the south- east and separated by a few miles from Eleuthera is another long, curved island, though not so long or so curved, called by the name of Cat, because that animal runs wild upon it in a manner that may be harmless but is not necessary. Cat Island contains one hundred and sixty-five square miles of fairly fertile land, but it was wholly deserted in 1785 when one hundred loyalist emigrants from the United States with their slaves took possession. It now has a population of about 4000. Over on the west of the group, to the south-west of New Providence, stretching along that deep gulf called the “ Tongue of the Ocean,” but with a shallow expanse of water upon its margin, is Andros, the largest in area of the Bahama Islands, containing, it is said, about as much surface above water as all the rest. It is rather a group of islands, separated by narrow and shallow channels, and covered with swamps and forests. The shallow water about its shores and the utter lack of harbours make it of little use, and it has only about 1000 inhabitants, mostly negroes en- gaged in gathering sponges. It is the only island in all the Bahamas that has running streams. Dividing the space between Eleuthera and Cat on one side and Andros on the other, and acting as the crest to the barrier between the ‘ ‘ Tongue of the Ocean ’ * and Exuma Sound, is a string of reefs terminating in Great Exuma Island, which with its imposing name is of small account. To the south of this is Long 22 THE WEST INDIES Island, noted only for its length and as one of the stopping-places of Columbus, who called it Fernan- dina. But off to the east of this, with Rum Cay be- tween, standing as an outpost on the Atlantic marge of the plateau, is Watling Island, the San Salvador of the great discoverer. It is about twelve miles long by six wide, and its area is cut up by salt-water lagoons separated by low, wooded hills. It has a scattered and rather listless population of perhaps 2000, mostly simple-minded negroes living in primi- tive fashion. Continuing down the range near its central line we find the group of Fortune, Crooked, and Acklin among the inhabited islands. They are separated by narrow and fordable passages and are nearer to being one island than Andros. Here, too, was a stopping-place of Columbus, who considered the group one island and named it Isabella. Fortune has, next to New Providence, the best port in the Bahamas, Pitt’s Town, and consequently enjoys quite a flourishing trade with coasters and visiting steamers. This is due to its situation on the naviga- ble channel called Crooked Island Passage. Mari- guana is an insignificant piece of ground, and Great Inagua has few inhabitants, and those mostly con- centrated in Matthew T own. The Caicos and T urks, which have been politically separated from the Ba- hamas and attached to Jamaica since 1848, have a few weary inhabitants, who used to thrive on salt, but when the United States put a heavy duty on their chief product it closed their best market, and they have been obliged to gain a precarious liveli- THE BAHAMAS OR LUCA YAH ISLANDS 1 23 hood from sand and water in some other way than evaporation. Turk’s Islands are so named from a species of cactus, called Turk’s-head, which has a fanciful resemblance to a gray head swathed in a turban. Off on the lower verge of the plateau by the deep channel that separates it from Cuba is Great Ragged Island, the last touched by Columbus before he landed on what he thought was Cipango, the realm of the Grand Khan. It is in a chain of ragged reefs, and is more thickly peopled than the rest of the lower islands, though it is rather arid and sandy, and supports only a small population. Another physical feature of the submarine peninsula worthy of passing notice is called Salt Key Bank, between the Florida Keys and Cuba, lying in fact on a sort of truncated triangular pyramid between the Straits of Florida, the Santarem Channel, west of Andros, and the New Bahama Channel, north of Cuba. Most of the “ banks ” do not come to the surface of the water, and this one has an interior depression five or six fathoms below the surface, but its rim rises into the air in broken coralline reefs and sand- hills, which sometimes seem in the distance to move and shift in the sunlight like spectral craft under sail. All about the margins and scattered over the intermediate spaces of the Bahamas are strings and clusters of rocks and reefs and lonely islets, with here and there an inhabited space, but most of their life and activity are concentrated in about a dozen of the larger islands, along the two pathways of navigation, Providence Channel and Crooked Island Passage. 124 THE WEST INDIES After his discovery of the island which he piously called Holy Saviour, Columbus wrote to his most Christian Majesty, Ferdinand of Spain: “ This country excels all others as far as day surpasses night in splendour. The natives love their neighbours as themselves. Their conversation is the sweetest imag- inable ; their faces always smiling ; and so gentle and affectionate are they that I swear to your Highness there is not a better people in the world.” Seventeen years later, Governor Ovando, by direct authority of this most Christian Ferdinand, sent kidnappers to capture these gentle and affectionate people to work their lives out as slaves in the mines of Hispaniola. At first they were enticed with the promise of being taken to the “ heavenly shores” where their revered ancestors dwelt, and afterwards they were hunted with bloodhounds. Then for a hundred years and more, save for the wandering quest of Ponce de Leon for the miraculous fountain of Be- rnini, which his successor, Perez de Ortubia, found as a purling spring with no other virtue than that of quenching ordinary thirst, these islands were left to the tireless polyps and to solitude. In 1629 and later the British made some feeble attempts at settlement at New Providence, which the Spaniards baffled, and in 1680 Charles II. assumed to grant that and neigh- bouring islands to George, Duke of Albemarle, Wil- liam Lord Craven, Sir George Carteret, John Lord Berkeley, Anthony Lord Ashley, and Sir Peter Colle- ton, as lords proprietors, with power to appoint a THE BAHAMAS OR LUCA Y AN ISLANDS 12 5 governor and plant and develop a colony. A few respectable families were brought out ; but, what with pirates and Spaniards, the colony did not flourish, and in 1703 an expedition from Havana broke it up. For a while the pirates had possession of New Provi- dence, and it was the headquarters of “ Blackbeard ” when his depredation upon the commerce of the British colonies cost him his head. In 1718, some troops were sent out from England and new efforts were made to colonise, but without success, and desolation reigned again, interrupted only by the wreckers that came out from the Carolina coast and lurked among the passages to profit by the disasters of the sea. Near the end of the revolutionary war, the Spaniards took possession of the islands but did not hold them, and by the treaty of peace they were confirmed to Great Britain, and a few years later, in 1787, the heirs of the old “ lords proprietors ” were bought out at $10,000 each, and the Bahamas be- came a Crown colony. The settlers were largely loyalists and their slaves from the United States. Growth and progress were slow and uneventful before the civil war, but during that struggle Nassau had a great “ boom ” from blockade running. It became the place of landing arms and supplies for the Confederates and receiving cotton and other cargoes from vessels eluding the blockade, at Charles- ton, Wilmington, and other Southern ports. The business was risky but enormously profitable, lead- ing to extravagance and excitement at the staid little port of New Providence. After the war was over, this flurry subsided, and Nassau became a winter 26 THE WEST INDIES resort and a fruit market. In 1866, it suffered ter- ribly from a hurricane. At least four fifths of the inhabitants of the Ba- hamas are negroes, with comparatively little inter- mixture of other blood. Conditions did not make their life so hard in slavery days as that of the slaves in the British Antilles, and it has been little different since. The social distinction between whites and blacks is almost as marked as ever, the freedmen have no political power, and as labourers they are generally paid by advances to meet their wants of living, and are kept in debt to their em- ployers; but they are mostly a happy and easy- going lot. Industries are little developed beyond the gathering of sponges and shells and the raising and shipping of fruit. Sisal has been introduced from Yucatan and is raised on a growing scale, but there is little plantation life. Of the total annual exports of .£124,011, according to the latest statis- tics, sponges figured at £67,565, and pineapples at £22,784. The total imports the same year were £172,581 in value. The trade is mostly with the United States. The government of the colony is lodged with a governor appointed in England, an Executive Coun- cil of nine and a Legislative Council of nine deriving their appointments and authority from the same source. They simply represent “ the Crown.’ * There is a Legislative Assembly of twenty-nine members elected by the people, but the suffrage is so qualified that it makes no trouble. One must have an estate of £500 to be eligible, and nobody can vote THE BAHAMAS OR LUCA Y AN ISLANDS \2J who is not a freeholder or a payer of taxes on prop- erty to the amount of about $100. Few negroes vote, and the Assembly is made up chiefly of the mer- chants and property-owners of New Providence. There are thirteen parishes in the colony, but they pertain only to a civil administration which emanates from the central authority. The English Church has been disestablished, and its membership is greatly exceeded by the Methodists and Baptists. There are practically no Roman Catholics. There are government schools and a Board of Education over which the governor presides. Many light- houses are maintained nowadays, which have gone far to ruin the old trade of the wreckers, which be- came quite legitimate, though subject to abuse, especially in the days when the escape of crews with their lives forfeited compensation for saving cargoes. The yearly revenue of the colony is about £6 5,000. The Caicos and Turk’s Islands are governed by a commissioner and a council of five as an appanage of Jamaica. There is little evidence of growth or advancement in the political, social, or commercial life of the Bahamas. CHAPTER XII THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA ITH its western extremity at Cape Antonio pointing across the water toward the head- land of Yucatan (Cape Catoche), the island of Cuba has the appearance of being a projection from the Mexican peninsula; but the channel between, one hundred and twenty miles wide, has a depth of 6000 feet, while that on the north between Cuba and Florida, while it is of nearly the same width, is less than a third as deep. In remote geological ages, the continental connection is believed to have existed on both sides, but the fossils of huge quadrupeds of vast antiquity found in Cuba are like those revealed in the same formations in the United States. Fol- lowing the dorsal curve of the island from Cape Antonio to the eastern point at Cape Maisi, Cuba is nine hundred miles long, though it is one hundred and forty miles less measured on a parallel of lati- tude. Its width varies between the tapering capes from forty to one hundred and twenty-five miles, but the average is about sixty miles. Statistics of area from different sources do not agree, but it is about 45,000 square miles for the island proper, to 128 PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA 1 29 which over 2000 are to be added for the Isle of Pines, itself containing over 1200 square miles, and the thousand and more of fringing islets and reefs, a few of which have inhabited spots. The greater part of the area of Cuba consists of calcareous formation, similar to that of the reefs still growing on its borders, but this rests in the uplands upon an underlying skeleton of tertiary rocks, cov- ered in part by diorites and porphyries, and inter- spersed on the south-eastern coast with basalt and trachyte. Here and there protrudes a primitive granite, but nowhere is there sign of volcanic prod- uct. The highest projection of the rocky skeleton is in that eastern head of the island whose southern coast-line runs nearly due east and west from Cape Maisi to Cape Cruz. Here is a well defined moun- tain range, called the Sierra Maestra, springing abruptly from the water’s edge and starting with the sharp headland at Cape Cruz, and rising in a series of terraces to the crest of Ojo del Toro, 3300 feet high. Farther east it culminates in the Pico Tarquino, which is probably a corruption of Pico Turquino, “ Blue Peak,” of a height variously esti- mated from 6900 to 8400 feet, but never accurately measured. From this height there is a precipitous decline seaward, and a gradual slope landward in a broad plateau which declines into the valley of the Rio Cauto on the north. Continuing eastward the mountain system contracts into the Sierra del Cobre, which finally breaks into the circle of hills about Santiago Bay, and then sinks away into the marshy valley of the Rio Guantanamo. Poised on 130 THE WEST IX DIES the top of one of the ranges of “ Copper [Cobre] Mountains is a huge mass of conglomerate, which gives to that peak the name of La Gran Piedra, or Big Rock. Beyond a wide depression that lies eastward from these lofty sierras, there is a mountainous region of disordered masses, cut into groups or isolated peaks by river valleys, and sometimes culminating in those sharp crests called cuchillas, or“ knives.’ * One of these mountain masses, the Yunque (“ Anvil ”) de Baracoa, is a grand truncated cone 3300 feet high. Turning westward, we find these irregular elevations running parallel to the northern coast until, near the middle of the island, the whole upland structure falls away into a depression, only forty-five miles across from coast to coast, traversed in former times by a trocha, or trail, and in recent years by a railroad. This is a central plain bordered on both sides by low marshes. West of this depression the land rises again into hills, which are often broken by precipices and ravines into a mountainous aspect, but seldom reach an elevation of 1000 feet. There is a culminating point north-west of Trinidad, near the southern coast, called the Potrerillo, which is said to reach an altitude of 2900 feet. Near the northern coast, be- tween Matanzas and Havana, the Pan de Matanzas is 1300 feet high, and west of Havana there is a range, the Cordillera de los Organos, whose loftiest height. Pan de Guajaibon, is 2000 feet. The ter- minating headland is north of the Bay of Guadiana, and across that is a low peninsula of swamps and sand-dunes to Cape Antonio. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA 131 In the shell of limestone that covers much of the great island are many caverns, some of vast extent, “ measureless to man,” with tortuous labyrinths and dark galleries, corridors, and vaults, and with pools and streams into which the surface water disappears. One of the caves most visited is near Matanzas ; and in the eastern peninsula north of Guantanamo are those of Monte Libano, while near Cape Maisi is a cavern distinguished for the prehistoric remains found therein. There are also extensive caves in the Cubitas Sierra and in the vicinity of Remedios, Holguin, and Bayamo. The rivers of Cuba are mostly insignificant in length and volume, flowing north or south from the interior highlands to the sea. The largest is the Rio Cauto, draining the valley to the north of the plateau that comes down from the Sierra Maestra, and flowing westward into the large bay on which Manzanillo is situated, the Bajo de Buena Esperanza (Good Hope). It has many affluents, and the main stream is one hundred and thirty miles long and navigable for small craft for nearly half its length. The alluvial deposits brought down by the river have produced a shifting delta which has sometimes caused serious obstruction. Once, in 1616, it closed the old mouth and opened a new one in such a way as to leave several vessels, including a man-of-war, shut in from the sea. The most considerable river on the northern coast is the Sagua la Grande, a little west of the middle of the island, but there is a multitude of small streams which vary in volume with the seasons. 32 THE WEST INDIES The cavernous structure of the limestone formation produces some remarkable effects upon the water- flow. There are rivulets that lose themselves in dark underground reservoirs, and after winding about and joining with subterranean affluents, emerge upon some declivity, to tumble down in picturesque cascades and possibly to sink out of sight again. Twenty miles south-west of Havana there is a beautiful lake of six square miles’ area among the green ridges, called the Ariguanabo, from which flows the Rio San Antonio. When this stream reaches San Antonio de los Bafios, it sinks under a large ceiba, or “ silk cotton,” tree and dis- appears, to make its way to the coast unseen. The Rio Mayari, which flows into Nipe Bay from the cuchillas in Santiago province, has a series of three splendid falls, and the Moa has on one of its branches a cataract three hundred feet high, and not far below this it plunges into a cave to reappear farther down. The Rio Jatibonico del Norte also runs part of its course through underground chan- nels, and another part over a series of cascades. There are few surface lakes in the uplands, on account of this propensity of the water to run away through caves and gorges, leap down steep declivi- ties, and hurry away to the sea. But in the low parts of the island, in several places these vagrant streams are checked and forced to spread out into tranquil ponds and lagoons, or to be lost in weltering swamps in which the turtle and the alligator loaf their lives away. Some of these marshy districts along the coast contain impenetrable morasses and PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA 1 33 thickets of mangrove, with winding passages and mysterious grottos, amid the weird decorations of luxuriant tropical verdure and bloom. The Rio San Diego in the west flows through that series of natu- ral arches called Los Portales, and several come down from wild gorges through verdant plains and afford a few miles of navigation. Fully one half of the Cuban coast is fringed with keys and reefs, which constitute a perilous barrier to navigators who are not acquainted with the chan- nels. These are the work of those incessant builders, the coral polyps, whose whole process of construc- tion consists in unconsciously growing and dying off age after age, leaving a calcareous deposit that ever climbs toward the light. Their structures take a thousand forms, strange and grotesque, beneath the waves, and spread and coalesce above; and in the sun and air take on the vesture of plants and flowers. From the peninsula of Sabinal, just west of Nuevitas, there is an outer coast-line of one hundred and twenty miles, formed of islets, keys, and reefs, coral banks and shallow basins in which salt deposits are formed by evaporation in the tropical sun. Here was what Columbus called the “ Gardens of the King. ” The Cayo Romano in this series is an isle of one hundred and eighty square miles with three small hills among its sand-dunes and salt basins. This outer coast-line is almost continuous, the land areas being considerable and the intersecting channels narrow; but extending beyond it nearly to Matan- zas, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles more, there is a more broken and irregular chain of 134 THE WEST INDIES reefs and islets, almost attached to the shore at its western extremity between Cardenas and Matanzas. West of Havana again, from Bahia Honda almost to Cape Antonio, there is a vast coral bed from which rise the calcareous peaks and pinnacles of another line of keys and reefs, one hundred and forty miles long. Off the southern coast there are few outlying reefs along the shore from Cape Maisi to Cape Cruz in the east, where the sweep of the current from the Wind- ward Channel is felt, or at the western end of the island, where a similar influence comes from the cur- rents of the Yucatan Channel. But westward from Manzanillo there are the Cayos de las Doce Leguas, or the “ Twelve Leagues of Keys,” with multitu- dinous rocks and reefs between them and the main shore. Here were the “ Gardens of the Queen ” of Columbus. The Isle of Pines farther west is on the outskirts of a veritable wilderness of these coral islands which includes the Jardines and the Jardinil- los, “ gardens ” and ” little gardens.” The Isle of Pines itself, which Columbus called Evangelita, is divided by a tortuous passage, la rivtire salte , or “ salt river,” the section north of this being diversified by hill and dale, with the Sierra de la Cafiada, rising to a height of 1540 feet, and that south of it being low, swampy, and full of quagmires and bog-holes. The island takes its name from the northern tree which thrives there as nowhere else in the tropics. Notwithstanding the coralline barrier that guards so much of its coast, Cuba has many bays and harbours accessible to the largest vessels. The chief ports on PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA 1 35 the northern coast are Bahia Honda, Mariel, Ha- vana, Matanzas, Cardenas, Nuevitas, and Nipe; and on the southern side, Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, Trinidad, and Cienfuegos. While the general coast-line of the island of Cuba is said to be 2200 miles in extent, it stretches to 6800 miles, if all the indentations and the contours of the outlying keys and reefs are followed. What mineral wealth may be concealed in the bowels of Cuba or within the interstices of its rocky skeleton is scarcely known. The Spanish discover- ers sent from here some meagre treasures of gold which were extorted or enticed from the natives and may have been the slow accumulations of a long time. Gold there is known to be in some of the river beds, and from those of the Holguin and Sagua la Grande fine samples of the precious metal have been obtained, but not in permanently “ paying quantities.” Silver ore was discovered back in 1827 in some of the mountains of the Santa Clara province, which promised a rich yield at first, but either it grew poorer or was badly worked, for the mines were long ago abandoned. Rich copper de- posits there are known to be in the Cobre Mountains, and mining was carried on profitably there many years. The mines are now abandoned and filled with water. Iron has been extracted from the hills of Juragua near Santiago by an American company with good returns, notwithstanding official inter- ference and obstruction that frequently had to be bought off. There is a variety of coal widely dis- tributed, which is so bituminous that it burns with 136 THE WEST INDIES a fierce heat and leaves little ashes. In some places it softens to an asphaltic pitch, almost to petroleum. Near Havana there are quarries of slate from which thick slabs are taken that are of value in building, and there are specimens of marble and jasper which take a high polish. But in nearly four centuries of Spanish possession there has been no systematic exploration, no surveys or careful examination of mineral resources, no en- couragement of enterprise, but every obstruction; and the mountains and gulches of Cuba are in their interior composition an unknown land. Twenty million acres of its area are unreclaimed territory, and 13,000,000 are said to be “ virgin forest," what- ever virginity in a forest may signify. Among the virgins of the wood are huge trees of mahogany, cedar, and ebony, and the sabicu and grandilla peculiar to the American tropics. It was the rich verdure of the forests, and the rank luxuriance of vegetation, which includes flowering plants to the number of more than 3300 actually recorded as in- digenous to the soil, which gave Cuba the title of the “ Pearl of the Antilles." Perhaps her pride and glory are the “ feathery palm-trees,” of which thirty varieties rise “ o’er the smiling land ” ; but she has all the varied shrubs and herbs that belong to a rich soil under tropic suns. Fruits there are in great variety, of which the orange and the pineapple are the chief ; pepper and spices are not wanting, and farinaceous plants like the yam, the potato, and cassava are plen- tiful; while maize, the Indian corn that waves so luxuriantly in August over our continent, was the PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA 1 37 chief crop of the modest agriculture of the Arawak. That enticing narcotic, tobacco, with which the gentle aborigines were wont to soothe their nerves when first intruded upon by the restless white men, has captured the conqueror, and wide fields of it now draw his wealth to the plundered island. The soil, far the greater part of which still reeks with its own richness without cultivation, has been generously receptive of exotic plants, and the sugar-cane and coffee of the East have flourished in it as hardly in their native ground. In quadrupeds Cuba was poor when first sur- prised into a consciousness that it had been an undis- covered country. “ Guaquinaji ” is what the natives are said to have called that “ dumb dog ” which so puzzled the Spaniards, now conjectured to have been the raccoon, and they had a “ jutia,” which was much like a big rat, but black of colour and resi- dent in holes and clefts of trees. The dogs and cats introduced by the first colonists ran wild, and still infest the woods, and there are some specimens of deer of European origin. Our domestic animals and fowls have no trouble in thriving, but none of their like were indigenous. The island does some- what better in reptiles. There is a crocodile, or cay- man, of respectable size, and many lizards ; one large but harmless serpent, twelve or fourteen feet in length sometimes, and several smaller members of the family from which even paradise was not exempt. It is commonly said that none are venomous, but a vicious red asp has an ugly bite. The hideous but harmless iguana and the inconstant chameleon are 138 THE WEST INDIES found here, and of insects there is no end. The scorpion is not deadly but he can make his victim extremely uncomfortable, and there is a very nasty spider, while mosquitoes buzz and fireflies flicker in multitudinous hosts. There is a “ vegetating bee ” afflicted with a chronic fungus, a pestilent jigger, and an ant that never takes a siesta. Land crabs march in hordes at certain times long distances on a trocha of their own. Turtles and tortoises luxuriate in the tepid waters and the sweltering air; fish roam in multitudes in the thousand coves and crannies of the shore, and oysters and others of the mollusc kind repose in soft beds of mud and marl. Birds of the air are numerous, as in all the islands, and have their kindred on both the northern and the southern continent. There are two hundred species now indigenous to Cuba, many of which have fine plumage but few melodious notes. Among them parrots and humming-birds are conspicuous. The only birds of prey worth noting are a repulsive vul- ture and a turkey buzzard, which are protected from harm because they act as scavengers in towns where the lazy inhabitants throw out their refuse and leave it to rot and reek. Climate has much to do with what the scientific people call the flora and fauna of the country, or in plain terms with its plants and animals; but the effect upon its human inhabitants and its history is not less important. The climate of Cuba is neces- sarily that of the torrid zone, but climate varies much with altitude as well as latitude. On the coasts, where by far the larger proportion of the PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CUBA 1 39 people now dwell, it may be torrid, but in the up- lands it is temperate, and there are heights where frost and ice are not unknown, though snow has rarely been seen on the loftiest peaks. It is com- mon to divide the year into two seasons of equal length, the warm and wet from May to October in- clusive, and the cool and dry from November to April; but the rainfall of the wet season is irregular and is seldom heavy before the end of June or after the end of September, while nearly one third of the aggregate for the year comes in showers during what is called the dry season. The rain, which is brought by the north-east trade-winds, is heaviest on the northern coast and toward the eastern end of the island. The total fall in the year about Havana is 40. 5 inches, but the ratio of humidity in the at- mosphere is high a large part of the time. The temperature even on the coast cannot be called extreme at any time. The hottest months are July and August, and the range at Havana is from 76° to 88°, with an average of 82° on the scale of Fahrenheit. In December and January the mini- mum is 580 and the maximum 78°, and the air is generally soft and balmy. The climate is healthful to the human constitution, except in swampy and malarious districts where drainage and cultivation are alike unknown, and in cities and towns where no proper attention is given to sanitary requirements. There is nothing like a troubling and a distributing of water and a cultivation of the soil to dispel mala- rious exhalations and extinguish the germs of fever; and in thickly peopled places health is largely a 140 THE WEST INDIES question of an ample and wholesome supply of water judiciously used for cleanliness, internal and external. There is one effect of the elements upon health and comfort which cannot be averted or avoided, if once it takes to the war-path. Hurri- canes sometimes afflict the island of Cuba, though not so frequently as they scourge Jamaica, and the Caribbees. In 1846, one swept furiously over the very city of Havana, destroying 2000 houses and damaging 5000 more, and cutting a swath of deso- lation across the country twenty miles wide. There is a popular territorial division of Cuba which relates rather to its physical than its political aspects. The western end is called the Vuelta Abajo, or the “ bend below,” designated with refer- ence to the trend of the coast-line from Havana. Eastward of that to about the meridian of Santa Clara is the V uelta Arriba, or ‘ ‘ bend above. ' ' Then comes the Cinco Villas section, so called from the five ancient towns — Trinidad, Santo Espiritu, San Juan de los Remedios, Santa Clara, and Sagua la Grande. The large section from Puerto Principe east is the Tierra Adentro, or ” land within.” CHAPTER XIII HISTORY AND SPANISH GOVERNMENT OF CUBA OLUMBUS visited the southern coast of Cuba twice, subsequent to his first discovery of the island from the other side. Both in 1494 and in 1 502 he explored westward, but only persevered to the Isle of Pines, which he called Evangelita, and then struck south; and he died in the belief that what he had discovered was a peninsula projecting from the Asiatic continent. In 1508, Ocampo, who set out to examine the land with more care, in view of the early exhaustion of Hispaniola, persisted in his exploration until he rounded Cape Antonio and returned by the northern coast. It was in 15 11, as we have already noted, that Velasquez and his three hundred men came to make a permanent settlement and landed near Baracoa. In 1515, they founded the towns of Santiago de Cuba and Trinidad, and a little later San Juan de los Remedios and Santo Espiritu. Among the companions of Velasquez, as we also know, were Bartolome Las Casas, the cham- pion of the natives, and Hernando Cortez, who after being a cruel slave-driver in the Cobre mines, sailed 142 THE WEST INDIES away from Santiago to Yucatan with a part of Ve- lasquez’s fleet, to become the conqueror of Mexico. At the time of this first invasion, the island was very populous and divided into nine tribal com- munities, each under its own cacique. These were rapidly “ improved off the face of the earth ” after the vigorous manner adopted in Hispaniola. The last of the chiefs to hold out, and the only one who made much resistance, was Hatuei in the eastern section of the island, who had heard of the atrocities across the channel and fought desperately. He was burned alive for refusing to be baptised, because it would send him to the same heaven where “ good Spaniards ” went. He preferred to avoid their com- pany at the risk of perpetual burning. The first settlement toward the west was made on the south coast on Broa Bay east of Batabano, and called San Cristobal in honour of the discoverer ; but the ground was unfavourable, and the settlement was moved around to the north coast at the entrance to the Chorrera, or “ watercourse,” where is now the Torre de Chorrera, popularly called the ” Buccan- eers’ Fort.” The full name of the place was Cristo- bal de la Habana, and when it made another move eastward and established itself on the peninsula between the Carenas basin and the sea, it came to be called simply La Habana, which the English transformed successively into “ Havannah,” ” Ha- vanna,” and ” Havana.” It has been sometimes assumed that this meant haven in the original, but it meant nothing of the kind, and the better opinion is that it is a corruption of Savannah. THE BUCCANEERS' HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF CUBA 1 43 Columbus had given the land which he discovered on the 28th of October, 1492, the name Juana, but when Ferdinand died it was called Fernandina. When the English deprived Jamaica of the appella- tion of the patron saint of Spain, the memory of the king was displaced by that of the saint, and this island was called Santiago for a time. Then the name was left to the flourishing town on the south coast, and the island as a whole was named succes- sively Ave Maria and Alfa y Omega; but in the end the old native name for the central section got the better of all Spanish designations, though mutilated to less than half its legitimate length. That name was Cubanacan, and the flippant French buccaneers began to call the whole place Coube ; and the Spaniards finally accepted Cuba. Hernando de Soto was the first governor by royal appointment, and in 1538, before he started on his explorations of the Gulf coast, he began the fortifi- cations of Havana in consequence of the attack of French privateers which had just occurred. The peril from French, English, and Dutch marauders of the sea long continued, and the defences were strengthened from time to time. The Castillo del Morro and the Castillo de la Punta on opposite sides of the entrance to the Bay of Havana were constructed before 1600, but were enlarged after- wards. The colony did not advance much until the latter part of the eighteenth century. Previous to 1580, the scattered inhabitants were chiefly engaged in raising cattle. Then tobacco and sugar began to 144 THE WEST INDIES be cultivated on a modest scale, and coffee was in- troduced when immigrants came from Martinique in 1765. These Frenchmen also introduced bees, and wax became an article of trade. Plantations grew slowly for a long time, because trade was dis- couraged by privateers and buccaneers and the gen- eral impertinence of Spain’s numerous enemies as well as by her own short-sighted policy. There were few towns, and there were wide wastes of rich land without inhabitants. Governors came out from Spain and made a great parade in Havana with their gorgeous state coaches in the streets and their sumptuous barges in the harbour, and civil and military officers made small fortunes and went home. The meagre annals were enlivened near the end of the Seven Years’ War by the British capture of Havana, Matanzas, and the adjacent territory, and after that shaking up there was greater progress. The large profits of sugar, tobacco, and coffee began to be realised, and the hidalgos of Spain acquired large estates and many slaves and drew riches from the land. Peasants were brought out from the Spanish provinces as colonists, and the white popu- lation increased. Commerce becoming safer, Havana grew to be a flourishing port in spite of stupid re- strictions upon trade, and had a navy-yard and ship- building works. In 1790, a really enlightened and energetic governor was sent out in the person of Don Luis Las Casas. He instituted many public works and improvements, promoted education as well as industry and trade, and gave a new impulse to the life of the island. It was largely due to him HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OE CUBA 145 that Cuba was little disturbed by the commotions in Haiti after the French Revolution. He was suc- ceeded by the Count of Santa Clara, who continued his policy and looked especially after the defences of the various ports. A good many French immigrants came into Cuba after the revolution in Haiti and contributed to its material development. In 1808, after Napoleon had upset the dynasty in Spain? every member of the Cabildo, or provincial council, in Cuba took an oath of allegiance and fidelity to the “ legitimate sovereign,” which won for it the familiar title of the “ Ever Faithful Isle.” The French domination in Spain, nevertheless, had a good effect, because it removed the restrictions upon trade just when the conditions were favourable to a development of the industries of the island, and from the beginning of the present century until about 1825 there was a period of unexampled pros- perity and growth. After that the oppressive effects of the despotic and corrupt government of the colony began to be seriously felt. It had long been governed under the “ Laws of the Indies ” (Las Leyes de las Indias) adopted in the sixteenth century and hardly modi- fied afterwards. A royal decree defining the powers of the governor-general in 1825 gave him the same authority as belonged to the governor of a besieged city; and though it was revoked in 1870 the auto- cratic power of the colonial ruler was hardly miti- gated. The governor-general was always in effect a military ruler, having the title of captain-general and being a lieutenant-general of the Spanish army. 146 THE WEST INDIES He was the representative of the Crown of Spain and responsible only to the sovereign, and he was the supreme head of the ecclesiastical as well as the civil and military jurisdiction, the Church being maintained as part of the government of the State. His authority was virtually arbitrary and unre- strained, and the manner of its exercise depended entirely on the character of the man appointed to wield it. There were six governors of provinces, but they, too, were appointed by the Crown and were military officers of the rank of generals, sub- ject to the orders of the captain-general. There were thirty-four subordinate jurisdictions, or cap- taincies, which for purposes of civil administration were under military officers, though these were called “ lieutenant-governors.” Each town had an Ayuntamiento, or council, which chose the mayor, but their functions were purely local, and even as such were subject to the overruling power of the colonial government. In 1879, the right of representation in the Cortes at Madrid was granted as a measure of ” reform.” The province of Havana could send three senators, each of the other five provinces two, the archbishop of Santiago one, the University of Havana one, and the Society of Friends of the Country one; and there were to be thirty members of the House of Deputies, elected and apportioned according to population, the suffrage being qualified by the pay- ment of $25 a year in taxes. Not only was this representation in a hopeless minority at Madrid, but the choice of senators and the election of depu- HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF CUBA 1 47 ties were so controlled that they were nearly all natives of Spain and not of Cuba. By another “ reform ” in 1895, a council of administration was established to be advisory or auxiliary to the gover- nor-general ; but of its thirty members fifteen were appointed by the Crown and the others chosen by controlled elections in the provinces. Besides, the governor-general could suspend them individually at will to the number of fourteen, and if the rest were not tractable he could suspend the whole body on the advice of the “ Council of Authorities,” con- sisting of the archbishop of Santiago, the bishop of Havana, the commanding officers of the army and navy, the chief-justice of the Supreme Court at Havana, the attorney-general, the head of the de- partment of finance, and the director of local ad- ministration. These all represented substantially the same power as the governor-general and were invariably subservient. There was an elective assembly in each province, of twelve to twenty members according to popula- tion, with limited functions and virtually controlled by the governor, who could prorogue it at any time and report his action to the governor-general, who could suspend any provincial assembly whenever he saw fit and report to the government at Madrid. The official influence over elections extended even to the towns, and when the Ayuntamiento did not choose the right member for mayor, the governor- general could substitute one of his own selection. To all intents and purposes, the government was autocratic from top to bottom. 48 THE WEST INDIES The military jurisdiction proper was divided into two departments, with headquarters at Havana and Santiago, the former under the direct command of the captain-general, and the other subject also to his authority under the command of a general who was called the “ Governor of Cuba." There was also a second in command at the capital, who was known as " Governor of Havana." The navy was also under a commanding officer, and there were five stations, Havana, Trinidad, San Juan de los Reme- dios, Santiago, and Nuevitas. The army in time of peace was about 20, (XX) men, and a number of in- ferior gunboats were kept in Cuban waters, with a cruiser generally in Havana harbour. The ecclesias- tical establishment was originally subordinate to that of Santo Domingo, but a bishopric was established at an early date at Santiago, which had exclusive jurisdiction until 1788. Then the diocese of Havana was created, and in 1804 that of Santiago was ele- vated to an archbishopric. The Inquisition was introduced in the sixteenth century, and the State religion was maintained with rigour. No other was ever tolerated under the Spanish sovereignty. The judiciary system consisted of the Real Audi- encia Pretorial at Havana, and two superior courts, one at Havana for the western provinces and one at Puerto Principe for the two eastern provinces. The Real Audiencia acted as an advisory Council of State. There were twenty-six judicial districts, each with an alcalde mayor, and there were auxiliary delegates, or alcaldes, acting as local magistrates. All the higher offices and the greater number of HISTORY AND GOVERNMENT OF CUBA 1 49 minor places were held by Spaniards, most of whom had for years been, justly or unjustly, charged with corruption. The combination of civil, military, naval, ecclesi- astical, and judicial power was virtually swayed by the governor-general, who represented the royal authority at Madrid, and exercised its prerogatives in the colony without the restraints of constitutional limitation, or of responsibility to anybody but a sovereign who rarely interfered except to substitute one governor-general for another, being therein re- stricted to the lieutenant-generals of the army. Even the educational system, such as it was, was under the direction of the governor-general and the rector of the university, who was also appointed by the Crown and always sent out from Spain. The uni- versity was established at Havana in 1721 by the ** Order of Preaching Friars ” under authority of the Pope, and was extended and more liberally endowed by Governor-General Las Casas. There was a col- legiate institution in each of the six provinces, with power to confer the degree of bachelor, or licentiate. There was a system of public schools, and elementary education was made compulsory by law in 1880; but the ratio of illiteracy continued to be very high. The salary of the governor-general was $50,000 a year, that of each governor of a province $12,000, and the bishop of Havana and archbishop of San- tiago each received $18,000 a year. The expenses of every branch of administration, including that of the Church, were charged upon the revenues of the island, which also had to pay the cost of keeping THE WEST INDIES 150 itself in subjection, including all the debts, honest and otherwise, incurred in the process. Besides this, about $6,000,000 of revenue per year used to be paid to the home government. While the taxes would have been extremely heavy if the proceeds had gone wholly to meet legitimate expenditures, the corrupt exactions of collectors and the pecula- tions of public officers notoriously added greatly to the burden. The people, most of whom were de- prived of all political power, were forced to support a horde of Spanish office-holders and to enrich some of them, under a system which tended to crush the life out of productive industry and seriously ham- pered trade with the rest of the world. CHAPTER XIV PROVINCES, CITIES, AND TOWNS OF CUBA HE six provinces, or political divisions, of Cuba are transverse sections of the long island, four of which are regarded as western and two eastern. Statistics of the island are uncertain, as no accurate surveys have been made, and the latest census, which was taken in 1887, is not altogether trust- worthy. The figures here given of the area and population of the several provinces and the popu- lation of cities and towns are taken from the most authoritative sources. The name by which each province is designated is the same as that of its chief town. That at the western end of the island is Pinar del Rio, area 5950 square miles, population 182,204. It contains most of the Vuelta Abajo sec- tion, which is famous for its fine tobacco. The next, as we proceed eastward, is Havana, whose area is only 3420 square miles, but which has a popula- tion of 435,896, nearly half of which is contained in the capital city. It includes the Isle of Pines, which remained uninhabited until 1828, when a military station was established there. In recent years it has become a health resort for consumptives. 52 THE WEST INDIES The province of Matanzas, with an area of 3380 square miles and 283,120 inhabitants, is the only one that has practically no southern coast, the next prov- ince of Santa Clara being allowed to extend a narrow wedge below it and include the great marshy region of the peninsula of Zapata (“ the Shoe ”). Matan- zas includes a large part of the richest sugar district, and is agriculturally the most highly developed section of the island. Santa Clara includes the old Cinco Villas, and has an area of 9210 square miles and a population of 321,397. It is the scene of most of the earliest settlements of the island, and contains some of the largest sugar plantations and mills. It also produces a great variety of fruits, and is be- lieved to be rich in minerals. The available seaports are on the southern coast, whereas farther west they are on the northern. These four western provinces contain rather more than half the length of the island, but much less than half its area. A little east of the boundary of Santa Clara is the low and narrow section which practically divides the island of Cuba into two parts. A sinking of three hundred feet would actually separate it into two distinct islands. Here is the old trocha, which has been transformed into a military railroad, and near by is the dividing line of the two dioceses. The province in which this depression lies is officially called Puerto Principe, though it is often referred to as Camaguey. It is bordered by lines of reefs on both sides, and its only good seaport is Nuevitas on the northern coast. A large part of it is moun- tainous and covered with forests, and it contains the HAVANA, CUBA, FROM ACROSS THE BAY, PROVINCES , CITIES , AND TOWNS OF CUBA 1 53 great caverns which are the wonder of the few who have explored them. With an area of 12,900 square miles, Puerto Principe province has less than 70,000 inhabitants, and has been the favourite scene of rev- olutionary uprisings on account of the almost inac- cessible fastnesses of its mountains. It has little in the way of systematic industries, and its people are engaged chiefly in getting out some of its fine cabi- net timber and preserving guava. The largest of all the provinces in extent is that of Santiago de Cuba in the east, which has an area of about 14,000 square miles and a population of 230,000. It contains the mountains from which copper and iron are obtained, and has available harbours on both coasts — Mayari, Gibara, and Baracoa on the north, and Guantanamo, Santiago de Cuba, and Manzanillo on the south. Places are sometimes referred to as being in certain “ districts,” meaning the judicial districts. These are Guanajay, Guane, Pinar del Rio, and San Cristo- bal in the province of Pinar del Rio; Bejucal, Guan- abacoa, Guines, Havana, Jaruco, Marianao, and San Antonio de los Banos in Havana province; Al- fonso XII., Cardenas, Colon, and Matanzas in the province of Matanzas; Cienfuegos, Juan de los Remedios, and Sagua la Grande in Santa Clara; Moron and Puerto Principe in Puerto Principe; and Baracoa, Guantanamo, Holguin, Manzanillo, and Santiago de Cuba in Santiago. They are designated by the names of towns in which the court proceed- ings are held and the alcalde mayor has his seat. The one great city of Cuba, and indeed of all the West Indies, is Havana. At the time of the 154 THE WEST INDIES last census its population was 198,720, but it has been lately estimated at 250,000 or more. After two ineffectual attempts to found a western capital, this unrivalled location was fixed upon in 1519, in a deep and sheltered bay, at the natural starting-point of commerce from the western world in the early days, which led to its being called “ Llave del Nuevo Mundo,” “ Key of the New World.” The city is on a peninsula thrust into the bay from the west, with a deep channel about a thousand feet wide on its northern side. This channel is strongly fortified and capable of being made impenetrable. At its entrance on the side opposite to the city is the Castillo del Morro, or Morro Castle, built in 1589 and afterwards strengthened, and on the city side is the Castillo de la Punta, or Castle of the Point, of the same date. On the heights to the east of the Morro is the Castillo, or Fortress, of Cabafta, over- looking the channel and the city with its guns, and defended on the seaward side of the narrow penin- sula on which these structures stand by three bas- tions. Farther within the bay on the same side are the Casa Blanca and Fort San Diego, and at the end of the western arm of the bay on the city side is the Castle of Santo Domingo de Atares, while on the heights back of the city landward is the Castillo del Principe with its adjoining camp and batteries; and on the shore west of the channel entrance is the Santa Clara battery, so called from the governor-general who built it at the end of the last century. The harbour itself is spacious and deep, though fouled for generations by the drainage of the city. There THE PRADO AND INDIAN STATUE, HAVANA, CUBA. PROVINCES , CITIES , AND TOWNS OF CUBA 1 55 is a fine lighthouse, some good wharves, and a large floating dock. The city of Havana has an exceedingly picturesque appearance from the bay, its low buildings being mostly of white and yellow stone, or stuccoed over and tinted with pink, blue, and green, but the background is somewhat flat and tame. In the old time of peril from prowling enemies, a wall was built about the city, and though this was demolished in 1863 the intramural and extramural city are still spoken of. The former is the old part, and its streets are narrow, with sidewalks that afford a foot- ing for but a single line of passers, and on a close view it seems shabby, dirty, and overcrowded. The chief public buildings are the great yellow palace of the governor-general on the Plaza de Armas, the bishop's palace, the university, the cathedral built by the Jesuits in 1724 and containing within its unat- tractive walls some richly frescoed spaces and costly altars, the old church of San J uan de Dios dating from 1573, and that of San Felipe, which has a large library. The chief monuments are the structure which long purported to contain the remains of Columbus, and the statue of Ferdinand VII. on the Plaza de Armas. The Prado or Paseo Isabel is a fine boulevard laid out in the last century, with the little Parque Cen- tral at its beginning. The Paseo Tacon, the gardens of Los Molinos, with their grand avenues of palm, the botanical gardens, and spacious suburban villas form attractive features of the city. There are also three theatres and a grand opera house ; a number of good hotels and many lively cafes. But Havana 156 THE WEST INDIES is, in the main, a commercial town and the natural seat of a great trade, hitherto repressed by a nar- row policy. It is the centre of the great tobacco industry, and is the chief port of entry of the island. There are three good harbours on the north coast of Pinar del Rio west of Havana. These are Mariel, Cabaftas, and Bahia Honda, but they are compara- tively little used, and the most flourishing towns of this province are inland — Pinar del Rio in the centre of the tobacco district, with a population of 20,000, and Guanajay, which is surrounded by coffee plantations. At San Diego in the Organos Hills are mineral springs much resorted to in summer. Guanabacoa, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, is on a commanding height just south-east of Havana. And in the interior of the same province, farther to the southeast and connected with the great seaport by rail, is Guines, the chief agricultural centre of this section. On the southern coast, as a stepping-place to the Isle of Pines, is the little port of Batabano. Regia, a suburban place across the bay from Havana, has a famous bull-ring. The second city in Cuba, and next to Havana in importance as a seaport, is Matanzas, fifty-four miles east of the capital by waggon road and seventy-four miles by rail. It was founded in 1693 by immigrants from the Canary Islands on a magnificent bay be- tween the rivers San Juan and Yumuri, across both of which it has grown in later times, the section to the north of the Yumuri being called Versalles and that to the south of the San Juan, Pueblo Nuevo. The whole city has now nearly 90,000 inhabitants. i OLD ARCH OF THE JESUIT COLLEGE, HAVANA, CUBA. PROVINCES , CITIES , AND TOWNS OF CUBA I 57 Its original name was San Carlos Alcazar; that by which it is now called, meaning “ butcheries,” is an ill-omened reminiscence of a massacre of the abor- igines in this neighbourhood. There is a large public square, garnished with a statue of Ferdinand VII., and having the commandant's residence on one side, and a beautiful park up the valley of the Yumuri. The Estaban Theatre is the finest in the West Indies, and the Empresa Academy is said to be one of the best educational institutions. The Casino and Lyceum are attractive buildings, and the Boulevard de Santa Cristina is a handsome thoroughfare. Matanzas is chiefly engaged in the business of exporting sugar and molasses, which has suffered much in recent years. About two and a half miles east of the city and opening on the bay are the beautiful stalactite caves of Bellamar, much used for bathing, the intrusive sharks being excluded by iron gratings. Thirty miles farther east in the Matanzas province is the thriving port of Cardenas. Though founded in 1828, it has grown to a city of more than 20,000 inhabitants, and is handsomely built and actively engaged in manufactures and trade, in which Ameri- cans take so large a part that it has been called the “ American city.” Its spacious harbour is sheltered from the north-west winds by the Punta Icacos, and it is connected by railway with Matanzas and Ha- vana and with all the important interior towns as far as Santa Clara. Its trade is mainly in sugar, molasses, rum, and tobacco. The centre of the sugar industry in the interior is Colon, formerly called i5« THE WEST INDIES Nueva Bermeja, which has a population of about 6000. As we reach the province of Santa Clara we find the industrial and commercial activity shifted to the southern side of the island, with its chief outlets at Cienfuegos and Trinidad. Cienfuegos is on a splen- did harbour, which was visited by Columbus, and surveyed by Ocampo, and of which Herrera said it was “ unrivalled in the world and yet no town was established there until 1819, when a French planter named Louis Clouet from Louisiana came with about forty families, partly from Gascony and the Basque country, and partly refugees from Santo Domingo. The name was that of a Cuban governor, and the place has grown to a flourishing city of 27,000 inhabitants, altogether outstripping the an- cient port of Trinidad, on account of the superiority of the harbour and the position of the town directly upon it. Trinidad is a little back from the coast, some forty miles farther east, and is approached through three small bays. Between the two towns is a district where fine tobacco is grown, nearly equal to that of the Vuelta Abajo. Santo Espiritu and San Juan de los Remedios in the interior are chiefly noted as two of the old Cinco Villas. The latter was originally established on the north coast, near where the port of Caibarien now is, but the settlers were driven inland by the buccaneers and founded Santa Clara in 1690, the present capital of the province, which has a population of 35,000 and is the centre of a region of considerable mineral wealth. Sagua la Grande, one of the “ five cities,” THE PLAZA, CIENFUEGOS, CUBA. PROVINCES , CITIES , TOWNS OF CUBA I 59 is near the northern coast on a river of the same name, twelve miles from its mouth. It is connected with Cienfuegos, Santa Clara, and Havana by rail and is a place of some importance, with a population of about 14,000. This is where the auriferous sands of the river were first worked, but the yield of gold was so scanty that the effort to collect it was long ago given up. The only towns in the province of Puerto Prin- cipe worth noticing are Nuevitas and the capital, Puerto Principe, and the former is important only as the seaport of the latter, with which it is con- nected by railroad. The harbour of Nuevitas is in a deep bay, sheltered by promontories and entered by a narrow and winding channel. It was visited by Columbus, who called it Puerto Principe. The name was inappropriately transferred to the interior town, founded on the site of a native village called Camaguey. The native name still clings to the place. Puerto Principe is on a broad plain midway between the two coasts, and has a population of about 45,000. Santiago de Cuba, capital of the province of the same name, was founded by Diego Velasquez in 1515, three years after the first settlement of the Spaniards from Santo Domingo at Baracoa; and for some years it was the capital of the colony. It now has a population of over 70,000, and ranks third in commercial importance among the cities and seaports of Cuba. It is on a bay which is reached by a winding channel only one hundred and eighty yards wide in its narrowest part. The bay i6o THE WEST INDIES itself is about six miles deep by two wide, and the city lies upon its inmost shore. The entrance is guarded by the Morro Castle, a picturesque fortifi- cation on a promontory to the right, built by Gov- ernor Pedro de la Rocca in 1640, and the Zocapa Castle on a corresponding height opposite. A little way up the channel is the star-shaped Estrella bat- tery on the right, and a little farther yet on the left the Cayo Smith battery. At the turning into the bay there is another defence on the right in the Punta Gorda battery. These works have been proved to be, under Spanish command, more formidable in ap- pearance than in reality, but the harbour might be made impenetrable; and its commercial value could be greatly increased by dredging, as it has been allowed to shoal with silt and foul deposits from the city. Along the bay front is the Alameda, with shady palms and other trees, and a botanical garden at its eastern end, and from this the blue-, yellow-, and pink-tinted houses, interspersed with gardens, rise in terraces within an amphitheatre of hills, having a bold background of mountains in the distance. On close inspection much that is shabby and dirty appeared in the city in the lazy Spanish days, and the atmosphere stagnated in the encircling hills in most insalubrious fashion in the hot and humid season. But the old cathedral, built in 1522, was an attractive structure, and the military barracks and hospital were objects of languid interest. In its quiet way Santiago was a centre of commercial activity, whence was shipped more or less of tobacco, MORRO CASTLE, SANTIAGO DE CUBA. PROVINCES, CITIES , AND TOWNS OF CUBA l6l coffee, cocoa, hides, and other products of the region. It is between the copper mines at Cobre and the iron-works at Juragua, but the iron company has its own wharf at Daiquiri on the outer coast. In the outskirts about the old Indian village of El Caney, or “ The Grave,” suburban residences of the mer- chants have been built. The only other important seaport of Santiago province is Manzanillo on the bay of Buena Esper- anza at the delta of the Rio Cauto. It has a popu- lation of more than 20,000, and in the region back of it much sugar and tobacco are raised, and the de- scendants of the bees which the French immigrants brought here produce wax and honey for export. In the basin of the Cauto is the old town of Baya- mo. Farther inland toward the northern coast is Holguin. Some thirty miles east of the entrance to Santiago Bay is the broader and more open basin of Guantanamo, which is rendered too shallow for much use by deposits from the short streams that come down from the Santa Catalina district. Gibara on the north coast has an excellent harbour admit- ting vessels of sixteen feet draught, and this advan- tage has given it a considerable trade in sugar, coffee, tobacco, fruits, and ornamental woods. According to the best authority, it was here that Columbus made his first landing on the coast of Cuba, though others give the honour to Sabinal Bay where the port of Nuevitas is situated. We may as well terminate our notice of towns where Velasquez began, when he came to establish settlements on the island of Cuba. This was at XI THE WEST INDIES 162 Baracoa, which is on the northern coast only a few miles from Cape Maisi. It is on the Puerto Santo of Columbus, but though it had an early and fav- ourable start it was not well located for growth, and at the age of nearly four hundred years it has little more than 5000 inhabitants, mostly engaged in selling cocoa and bananas, so far as they have anything to do. Near by are the wonderful stalac- tite caves containing human fossils, and the road from Baracoa to Santiago over the crests of the Cuchillas is described as one of the most romantic and picturesque conceivable. There is a monument of the olden time in the ruins of Velasquez’s house at Baracoa. CHAPTER XV SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN CUBA HE industrial and commercial development of Cuba has been almost wholly a matter of the present century. The first census was taken in 1774, and gave the population as 171,620, fully one half of which consisted of negro slaves. In 1791 it had increased to only 272,000, but by 1811 it had leaped to 600,000. Under the policy by which Spain strove to monopolise the trade of her colonies and draw their resources to herself, there was no chance for healthy growth. Even the negroes did not thrive, and the slaves were constantly recruited by importa- tion to prevent their dying out. The plantations were in the hands of a few owners, and the peasant colonists increased slowly. The first real impulse came with the French immigrants and the introduc- tion of coflee culture. Though there was a begin- ning of this near the middle of the last century, especially just after the English occupation, its main volume followed the disturbances in Haiti conse- quent upon the French Revolution. Still more beneficial was knocking off the shackles of trade when Napoleon overturned the Bourbon dynasty of 163 164 THE WEST INDIES Spain, though these were subsequently replaced in part. Of the 600,000 inhabitants in 1811, about 274,000 were whites, 212,000 slaves, and 1 14,000 free persons of colour. The first quarter of this century was a period of great prosperity, and coffee plantations were especially profitable. That was the leading staple, and the production reached over 90,000,000 pounds, valued at $20,000,000, in one year. The fall in price and the advance of sugar to the position of the most profitable crop caused coffee to fall behind, and in recent years that interest has been comparatively unimportant. The population of the island reached 900,000 in 1841, and the relative increase was greatest with the white race, which then included 418,000 of the inhabitants to 152,000 free coloured persons and 330,000 slaves. The changing ratio continued down to the disturbances of the last war. The population at the outbreak of the insurrection was calculated, upon the normal increase after the census of 1887, to be about 1,650,- 000, and of this 950,000 was said to be made up of white creoles, that is, native descendants of Euro- pean settlers; 500,000 were negroes, and 150,000 Spaniards of European birth. There were also about 50,000 Chinamen. The Mongolians were mostly brought as coolies for plantation work after the abolition of slavery. The density of population differed widely in the different provinces, averaging 2. 10 per square kilometre in Puerto Principe, 7.75 in Santiago, 15.09 in Pinar del Rio, 15.34 in Santa Clara, 30.59 in Matanzas, and 52.49 in Havana. COURTYARD OF CUBAN HOUSE. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 1 65 The general classification of the population was into Spaniards, who were recent immigrants or tem- porary residents, and who largely held the offices and employments of the government, including those of the Church, but some of whom owned plantations or were engaged in business in the larger cities; native white Cubans, who constituted the bulk of the inhabitants of the rural parts of the island and the small towns, and carried on the minor industries and trade ; the negroes, who were formerly slaves or the children of such, still employed chiefly on the plantations and in the sugar mills in a condition of virtual peonage, and enjoying little more political or social advantage than before emancipation; and finally the mulattoes and mixed breeds, — generally spoken of in all the West Indies as “coloured,” in contradistinction from “ blacks,” — whose position was intermediate between the creoles and negroes. The Spaniards insisted upon a certain exclusiveness, and social as well as political superiority, while the native Cubans cherished a pride of their own, which was strongly tinged with insular patriotism. The revolution of 1895-98 broke up the normal conditions of Cuban life and society, and reduced the population by a number variously estimated from 300,000 to 600,000 ; and it is necessary for the present to deal with those conditions as they were before the outbreak. It is generally stated that about one half of the area of the island was still covered with forest and other wild growths, though not more than one fifth consisted of mountain and swamp land that was not susceptible of cultivation. Much more THE WEST INDIES 1 66 than one half of the remainder, consisting of fertile plains, hill slopes, and valleys, was given up to pasturage, supporting not a tenth of the cattle that might be raised, and yielding not a hundredth of the return that might be derived from it by culti- vation. Lack of trustworthy statistics forbids positive statement, but the area of the island is approxi- mately 30,000,000 acres, and one authority puts the cultivated land at one fourth of the whole, while another says it does not exceed 2,000,000 acres in all. What is actually known is that little had been done to develop, or even to ascertain, the mineral re- sources of the island or to utilise the known resources of the forests in valuable timber, of which there are said to be forty varieties ; that there were vast areas of rich land uncultivated and unoccupied ; and that the scale of production even for the great staples was far below what it might be. While 1000 miles of railroad have been built since the beginning of construction in 1837, and the lines connect Havana with inland points in the west and reach east as far as Santa Clara and Remedios, and local lines pene- trate a short distance from all the principal seaports, the system is very incomplete, and in all the eastern half of the island merely rudimentary. There are a few good waggon roads on what used to be the main lines of travel, but for the most part the means of internal communication are wretchedly deficient. In spite of all drawbacks, the agricultural produc- tion in 1892 is said to have amounted to $1,000,000,- 000 in value. The sugar plantations, which were SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 1 6 7 largely in the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, and Santa Clara, were said to cover an area of 2600 square miles, and to yield one fourth of the world’s supply of sugar, more than eighty per cent, of it going to the United States. The land appurtenant to sugar “ ingenios ” generally ranged from five hundred to 10,000 acres in extent, and they were equipped with the best machinery, much American and European capital being invested in them. The tobacco farms, or“ vegas,” ranged from one hundred to 1000 acres, the best being in Pinar del Rio and the southern part of Santa Clara. The “ cafetales,” or coffee planta- tions, were much reduced and rather languishing, and the indigo culture, which was introduced by Las Casas a century ago, had dwindled to small pro- portions. Apart from what are regarded as the three great staples of Cuba, there was some raising of cotton for home use and the cultivation of cacao and manioc on a moderate scale. Domestic animals, except sheep and goats, thrive on the broad hill- slopes of the interior, and cattle-raising is a con- siderable industry in the eastern provinces. The horse, originally brought from Andalusia, has be- come smaller and tougher than his progenitors. Fruits can be raised in great profusion and variety, but their systematic cultivation is confined to a few localities convenient to the seaports. The annual product of the sugar crop before the last insurrection was not far from 1,000,000 tons, while the yield of tobacco was about 500,000 bales. Not less than 250,000,000 cigars were manufactured, mostly in the city of Havana. According to the THE WEST INDIES 1 68 United States Bureau of Statistics, the imports of this country from Cuba for the five years ending June 30, 1895, amounted to $346,902,092, and the exports thereto to $87,269,138, while the specie shipments to the island during the same period were $87,544,830 in gold and $298,256 in silver. Apart from sugar and other products of the cane, and to- bacco, there is little manufacturing done in Cuba, and much of its provisions, especially meat and flour, are imported. On account of discriminating duties, the imports of manufactures came chiefly from Spain. Spanish exports to Cuba for the year end- ing June 30, 1894, amounted to $23,412,576, while the imports from the island were only $7,528,622. The total annual exports from Cuba just before the revolt of 1895 were about $90,000,000 in value, and the imports $60,000,000. Of the total foreign trade, about three fourths was with the United States. Apart from the political disturbances of recent years, the sugar interest has suffered from a serious decline in prices and from the competition of the beet-sugar product of Europe stimulated by subsidies and pro- tective duties. There are several lines of steamers connecting Havana and other Cuban ports with New York, some of them making calls at other islands and at intermediate ports on the Atlantic coast. A Span- ish line runs between Havana and Cadiz, touching at Santander and Corunna, a French line between Havana and St. Nazaire, and a German line between Havana and Hamburg, while an English line from Southampton to Vera Cruz, Mexico, stops at Ha- SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 1 69 vana and St. Thomas on its way. There are also regular lines connecting Havana with Vera Cruz and Sisal; with Colon, stopping at Nuevitas and Gibara; and with San Juan de Puerto Rico, stop- ping at the ports on the northern coast of Cuba. Coastwise steamers ply from port to port all around the island. The principal towns are connected by telegraph, which has been established by the govern- ment, largely for its own civil and military service, and kept under its control. There is a submarine cable connecting Havana with Key West and the Florida coast, one running around from Havana to Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, another starting at Havana which reaches Panama by way of Santi- ago, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles, and finally one from Havana to Venezuela and Brazil by way of Santiago, Haiti, and Santo Do- mingo. The bone and sinew and to a large extent the brains and character of the population of Cuba for two generations have been in the native creoles, though the Spaniards have continued to dominate politically and even socially, especially in the great city of Havana, which contains a full sixth of all the people of the island. These “ Cubans,” as they are proud to call themselves, include a considerable ele- ment of highly intelligent and cultivated people, many of them being educated abroad. A small num- ber have attained distinction in science and litera- ture, but the general level of education is not high. The university at Havana and the colleges there and at Puerto Principe and Santiago, as well as most THE WEST INDIES 170 of the schools of lower grade, are practically con- trolled by the Roman Catholic Church and priest- hood, but the Sociedad Economica, which was formed some years ago, had for its main purpose the advancement of popular education. The native Cubans are, as a rule, ambitious for the education of their children, and the rate of illiteracy is kept up largely by the almost total ignorance of the negroes, who constitute the plantation hands and manual labourers. There are a few libraries and learned in- stitutions in the larger cities, and some newspapers which, under a severe censorship, have done little credit to the communities in which they appear. Social and domestic life in the cities, especially in Havana, has much of the old Castilian stateliness, and women are generally kept in retirement. Girls are mostly educated in convents and encouraged to marry early, and are not given to accomplishments. When young they are often attractive, with jet black hair and eyes, but overmuch addicted to cos- metics and meretricious ornament. The city houses are mostly Spanish in style, close upon the street, and built around a patio from which they are entered. While the Church was supported by the State at considerable cost, — perhaps in some measure be- cause it was so supported, — the more intelligent Cubans have been given to a cynical free-thinking, leaving the women to attend mass and indulge in piety. Among the poorer and more ignorant, there was much of the devout superstition common to their class in Roman Catholic lands. The peasant life is described by some as slovenly and verging NATIVE CANDY SELLER, HAVANA, CUBA. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Ijl into that of the blacks, who live in rude cabins amid patches of yams and bananas, careless alike of the present and the future. The class known in time of trouble as “ pacificos ” are not merely non-combat- ants, but those heedless and submissive beings who take life as it comes in a land where it is “ always afternoon,” and always going to be to-morrow be- fore anything happens. But there are also in times of peace many thrifty farmers and decent villagers capable of making a useful population. With an area nearly as large as the State of New York, a soil and climate that make it capable of a vastly greater production at much less outlay, and a situation unrivalled for an independent com- merce, Cuba has barely one fifth of the population of that State, and its capacity for development is yet to be tested. . CHAPTER XVI REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA LMOST from the time that the loyalty of Cuba was glorified with the sobriquet of the “ Ever Faithful Isle,” the spirit of revolt against the Spanish sovereignty began seriously to assert itself. Little sign of it had appeared in the last century, when the population, except in two or three cities, was sparse, and made up largely of negro slaves, and when the native white people had not grown out of their Spanish sympathies. The contest for independence in the United States, to which both Spaniards and Cubans had given aid, and the revolution in France, with the disturbances produced by it in Haiti, were not wholly without a disquieting effect; but the firm and judicious administration of two enlight- ened governors-general in succession, Las Casas and Santa Clara, prevented any serious discontent. There was indeed a growing antipathy between the Cubans and their Spanish rulers, which became more marked as the rule was felt to be more oppressive, and the Cubans were wont to speak of the Spaniards as Godos, or Goths ; but when there was an insurrec- 72 REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA 1 73 tion of slaves near Bayamo in 1812 they joined forces to put it down with the utmost rigour, and its leader, Aponte, and a number of his associates were incon- tinently hanged. But an uneasy spirit was fomented by the revo- lutions which spread from the colonies in South America through Central America and Mexico, and by the independence of Santo Domingo following upon that of Haiti ; and it was fanned when many residents of Florida migrated to Cuba after the ces- sion of the peninsula to the United States. A revolutionary association called “ Soles de Bolivar ” attempted an uprising in 1823, which was speedily frustrated. Then refugees in Mexico planned an invasion under the “ Liberator ” himself, but it failed for lack of support. About 1827, a secret organisation was formed under the name of the “ Black Eagle,” with headquarters in Mexico and branches in the United States and Cuba, but its designs were opposed by the slave-holding power, and it died out. All efforts to give vitality to revolt in Cuba seemed doomed to failure. An appeal was made to Spain in 1835 for representation in the Cortes, which was at first treated with contempt, though the privilege was afterwards granted in a delusive form only to be withdrawn. In 1844, there was another “ scare ” over a threatened uprising of slaves, and those concerned in it or suspected of planning it were summarily tried, evidence in many cases being extorted, and more than 1300 were con- victed, and seventy-eight of them were shot. Not far from this time began an agitation in and 174 THE WEST INDIES out of Cuba for the annexation of the island to the United States. It was promoted in this country chiefly by the slave power, whose advantage would be increased thereby. As far back as 1822, at the time of the French invasion of Spain under the Due d’Angouleme, there was a suspicion that France might try to seize Cuba, or that Great Britain might seek to frustrate the attempt by tak- ing possession herself; and a party in Havana, alarmed at the prospect, made secret overtures to President Monroe, which he did not entertain, for securing the independence of the island and its sub- sequent admission into the Union as a State, to be ultimately divided into two States. This matter was first made known by John Quincy Adams when a member of the House of Representatives in 1836. In 1848, President Polk made a serious proposition to the Spanish Government, through the American Minister at Madrid, for the purchase of Cuba for $ioo,ooo,cxx) ; but this was rejected with little show of diplomatic courtesy. It was the next year that Narciso Lopez, a Venezuelan by birth, who had served in the Spanish army, made his first unsuccess- ful attempt to head a revolutionary movement in Cuba. Escaping to New York, he got up a filibus- tering expedition with six hundred men and effected a landing at Cardenas in 1850, but was forced to re- embark, and was chased to Key West by a Spanish man-of-war. The next year he got away from New Orleans with another expedition of four hundred and fifty men, with Colonel Crittenden of Ken- tucky as second in command, and made a landing REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA 1 75 on the coast thirty miles west of Havana. The force was attacked by Spanish troops and divided, and Colonel Crittenden and his associates were ruth- lessly shot. Shortly afterwards Lopez was captured, and on the 1st of September, 1851, he was garrotted. These filibustering attempts naturally excited a hostile feeling against the United States on the part of the Spaniards, and it was at that time that a clumsy kind of retaliation was begun, which has done much to produce enmity toward Spain in the United States. The Black Warrior was a steamer plying between New York and Mobile, which had been accustomed to call at Havana to land and re- ceive mails and passengers without discharging or taking freight. On that account, and with a perfect understanding that she carried cargoes in her coast- ing trade, she had long been allowed to enter and clear at Havana, as “ in ballast,” and without ex- hibiting her manifest. The privilege had been ac- corded by written order of the authorities, but suddenly, in the early part of 1850, the Black War- rior was seized for having an undeclared cargo on board, the cargo was confiscated, and a fine of twice its value was imposed upon the captain. This he refused to pay, and, leaving his vessel behind, he made his way to the United States with his crew and passengers as best he could, giving the owners a chance to put in a claim for indemnity for $300,- 000. After a delay of five years this was paid. In 1852, an attempt was made on the other side of the Atlantic to effect an agreement between Great Britain, France, and the United States, that 176 THE WEST INDIES none of those powers should acquire the island of Cuba for itself. This was defeated by the refusal of the United States to enter into the bargain. In 1854, the American Ministers at London, Paris, and Madrid, Messrs. Buchanan, Mason, and Soule, held a conference, and signed what was known as the 44 Ostend Manifesto.” The substance of this was that the United States ought to possess Cuba, that it would be to the advantage of Spain to sell the island, and that under certain conditions, the chief of w hich w*as the emancipation of slaves by Spain, the United States would be justified in taking pos- session by force. This caused much discussion, but w as not upheld by the United States Government. In 1858-59, when Buchanan was President, he re- commended the purchase of Cuba, and a proposal wTas considered in Congress but never adopted. Matters had been quiescent in the island itself for some years, and during the American civil war they continued in that condition ; but after the close of that contest, with the resulting abolition of slav- ery, the spirit of revolt w*as awakened again and became more menacing than ever before. In the meantime, the oppression of the Spanish power had become galling to a people in wdiom the spirit of independence grewT year by year. It was not only absolute and arbitrary in its exercise, absorbing offices and emoluments in the hands of Spaniards and depriving Cubans of all share in their own gov- ernment, but it w*as corrupt and extravagant, for the profit of the ruling class, while returning none of the benefits of costly administration to the people. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA iyy Taxes were heavy, trade was restricted, and indus- tries were hampered. Revenue amounting to about $26,000,000 a year was raised, and its volume was increasing rapidly, while a burdensome debt had been incurred; and the main object was to benefit the exhausted finances of Spain at the expense of her colony. The organisation of the volunteers aggravated the feeling of discontent. These were called Los Volunterios de Cuba, or Cuban Volun- teers, but they were recruited wholly from the Span- iards in the island and became a powerful political factor for the support of Spanish authority. Their function was to act as a guard in the various towns and to protect public property and suppress dis- order; and they were liable to be called upon for military service. Ordinarily in time of peace they served without pay, but were supplied with arms and ammunition and furnished with armories by the government, and were relieved by their enrolment from the greater part of the regular conscript service. About the middle of 1 867, a conspiracy was formed at Bayamo for the liberation of Cuba. The leading spirit of the revolutionary movement was a wealthy lawyer and planter of Santiago province, Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, a man of high character and ability and an ardent patriot. Little progress was made in organising the movement until the latter half of 1868, when the revolution occurred in Spain which drove Isabella II. from the throne, to be fol- lowed by the virtual dictatorship of General Prim and Marshal Serrano, the republic of Castelar, the new monarchy under the Italian Amadeo, and the 12 i;8 THE WEST INDIES restoration of the Bourbon line in Alfonso XII. The actual rising in Cuba started at Yara under the lead of Cespedes, and a declaration of independence was proclaimed under date of October io, 1868, at Manzanillo. In April, 1869, a constitution was adopted at Guaimaro, and Cespedes was made presi- dent of the “ Cuban Republic.” Slavery was abol- ished and freedom of worship guaranteed. For two years the insurgents struggled hopefully and had practically full possession of the eastern half of the island, but they were ill supplied with arms and unable to move aggressively into the western provinces. Filibustering expeditions came rather feebly to their aid, the most effective being that of General Thomas Jordan from the United States. The Spanish forces were gradually strength- ened, and under the command of Count Valmaseda carried a devastating and barbarous war of suppres- sion into the east, without effectually quelling the revolt. An irregular and desultory struggle was kept up year after year, but slowly the heart seemed to be dying out of the cause of Cuba Libre. In the autumn of 1873, Cespedes was deposed by the Cuban Congress, and was shortly afterwards found dead, killed, it was supposed, by the Spaniards. Then Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt, Marques de St. Lucia, a scion of the old Spanish nobility, was made president in the hope of keeping the cause alive and getting recognition from the United States. The conflict dragged on until General Martinez Campos was sent out as captain-general of the Spanish forces and governor-general of Cuba. As REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA 1 79 early as 1870 our Government had made a tender of its good offices to bring about an adjustment on a basis of emancipation and a fair measure of self- government, but Spain would not entertain the offer. Special sympathy was excited in the fall of 1871 when some young students of the university at Havana were summarily tried by a court-martial of volunteers and shot, having been charged with the offence of defacing a public tomb in which the body of a deceased volunteer had been ostentatiously placed. At about the same period reports of the barbarities of Valmaseda stirred a feeling of resent- ment. But the incident which aroused the sentiment of the United States against Spain most violently is that known as the “ Virginius affair.” The Virginius was an irresponsible tramp steamer which had been a blockade runner, and was cruising about in a suspicious manner, with a mongrel crew, partly made up of Americans. But she was registered as an American vessel, carried the American flag, had regularly cleared from Kingston, Jamaica, for Port Limon, Costa Rica, October 23, 1873, and was en- gaged at the time in no clandestine or illicit opera- tions, so far as appeared. She was seized off the coast of Jamaica by the Spanish cruiser Tornado , and brought into Santiago, November 1st, charged with piracy. On this absurd charge the governor of Santiago de Cuba proceeded, in spite of the vigor- ous protests of the American vice-consul, to try members of the crew one after another and to have them shot, until in six days fifty-three had been dis- posed of in that way, including several American i8o THE WEST INDIES citizens. This gentle operation was interrupted by the appearance of a British man-of-war from Ja- maica and the success of the consul, after many re- buffs, in getting attention to his remonstrances from higher authority than the Spanish officer in com- mand at Santiago. Our Minister at Madrid, General Sickles, had been working energetically, and though Castelar was then president of the Spanish Repub- lic, he had much difficulty in securing the necessary interposition. The slaughter had been stopped on the 8th by the arrival of the British man-of-war, which had been followed in a few days by Com- mander Cushing with the Wyoming, of the United States navy ; and finally, on the 26th, after asking for his passports, General Sickles secured compliance with his demands that the Virginius and the surviv- ors of the crew be given up, that the perpetrators of the massacre be punished, and the flag of the United States saluted. Subsequently an indemnity of $80,- 000 was obtained for the families of those Ameri- cans who had been shot. This incident had a lasting effect upon the senti- ment of the people of the United States toward Spain in her relation to Cuba. In November, 1875, Secretary of State Hamilton Fish addressed a com- munication to the Hon. Caleb Cushing, American Minister at Madrid, to be laid before the Spanish Government, remonstrating against the continuance of the existing condition in Cuba, and announcing “ with reluctance ” the conclusion that the time was at hand when it would become the duty of the Government to intervene “ with the view of bring- REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN CUBA 1 8 1 ing to an end a disastrous and destructive conflict and of restoring peace in the island of Cuba.” President Grant, in his annual message to Congress in December of the same year, after giving at length reasons for not recognising the independence of Cuba or according belligerent rights to the insur- gents, declared that intervention might become necessary to terminate the strife which was so injurious to the interests of the United States. Doubtless these events hastened the efforts of Spain to bring the war to an end, which was at last accomplished by General Campos by the treaty of El Zanjon, in February, 1878. The life of the in- surrection was no doubt exhausted, but it was charged that its surviving leaders were bought off. The terms included a general amnesty and oblivion, and liberty to leave the island without molestation, and there was a promise of “ the same political privileges, organic and administrative, enjoyed by the island of Puerto Rico,” which meant little more than barren representation in the Spanish Cortes. Assurances of other reforms were given as an induce- ment for signing the treaty, and General Campos gained the credit and prestige of pacifying the Ever Faithful Isle ” after a vain struggle of ten years for her freedom, which it was said to have cost Spain 100,000 men and $200,000,000 to defeat. The total number of Spanish soldiers engaged, how- ever, was a little over 155,000, besides 80,000 volun- teers, and the number of deaths among the former during the war, according to the official records, was 81,098. CHAPTER XVII THE ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE HATEVER promises or assurances of reform may have been made by General Campos to secure the peace of 1878, they were not kept, and the grievances of the island grew heavier. The cost of the war was put upon Cuba, and a debt that began with $3,000,000 in 1864 was increased to $175,000,000. Taxes were multiplied and rigor- ously exacted in the face of a decline in the great sugar interest, and official corruption continued. General Pando, in a speech in the Cortes in 1890, gave a list of peculations which he reckoned at $40,- 000,000 in the aggregate; and a writer in the Ateneo de Madrid , in 1895, declared that the custom-house frauds since the close of the war amounted to $100,- 000,000. The exhaustion of the last insurrection had not subdued the spirit of revolt, and it was not long before a new revolution was plotted from the outside. There were many Cubans, refugees or voluntary exiles, scattered over the world, and no less than 40,000 lived in the United States, many of whom had become American citizens. A “ Gran 182 ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 1 83 Junta” was formed with headquarters in New York and with subordinate juntas in different parts of the United States and Spanish America, and even in the leading cities of Europe, while secret societies were organised in the island itself. The purpose was to lay plans, raise funds, and make preparations which should free Cuba from Spanish rule and establish her independence. By the begin- ning of 1895, the revolutionary party was said to comprise one hundred and forty societies, or juntas. The leading organiser and promoter of the revolu- tion at that time was Jose Marti, a native Cuban who had been educated in Spain and had lived long in the United States. He planned a general upris- ing in all the provinces of Cuba to take place on the 24th of February, 1895, and organised an expedition which was to start from Fernandina, Florida, with three vessels, a considerable force of men, and war supplies and munitions. The departure of this ex- pedition was prevented by the United States authori- ties, and Marti set out for Santo Domingo to concert plans with General Maximo Gomez and other lead- ers of the former rebellion. Two of the chiefs in the new movement were the mulatto brothers, An- tonio and Jose Maceo, who were in Costa Rica. The rising took place on the appointed day, but only in a feeble manner in Santiago province under Henry Brooks and Pedro Perez, and in Matanzas under Manuel Garcia. Marti and Gomez issued a manifesto ” from Santo Domingo on March 25th. The Maceos, Dr. Agramonte, and others succeeded in landing near Baracoa, March 31st, and Marti and 1 84 THE WEST INDIES Gomez arrived at Cape Maisi, April 13th, with eighty men. When the movement began, the Spanish cap- tain-general, Emilio Calleja Isasi, had only 19,000 troops at his command, 9000 of whom were in the eastern department ; and though martial law was proclaimed in Matanzas and Santiago and several arrests were made, the revolt gathered head in the latter province. A battalion of 7000 men was brought from Puerto Rico, and Calleja was superseded by Marshal Martinez Campos, who had ended the former rebellion, and who now came out with rein- forcements from Spain. He landed at Guantanamo, April 16th, to take personal command in the field. The insurgent leaders effected a junction and drummed up recruits in the eastern provinces, most of them negroes. The first care of these leaders was to organise a semblance of civil government. At a formal meet- ing at Mejorana on the 4th of May, in which Marti, Gomez, and Antonio Maceo took part, a call was issued for the selection of representatives of the Cuban people to form a Constituent Assembly. Marti was killed in a skirmish with a Spanish force, encountered on the way to the coast, where he was to embark for Jamaica with the intention of going to the United States. This event delayed proceed- ings somewhat, but members of the Constituent Assembly were chosen, and it met at Jimaguayu, September 13, 1895, declared the independence of Cuba and its separation from the Spanish monarchy as a republic, and adopted a provisional constitution which was to have effect for two years unless the ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 1 85 freedom of the island was sooner accomplished. The Assembly chose the venerable Salvador Cisne- ros y Betancourt of Puerto Principe as president of the new-born republic, and Bartolom£ Masso as vice-president. Heads of administrative depart- ments were also named, and Maximo Gomez was elected commander-in-chief of the army, and An- tonio Maceo second in command with the title of lieutenant-general. Tomas Estrada Palma, head of the Gran Junta, was chosen to be “ delegate pleni- potentiary and general agent abroad of the Cuban Republic.” A capital was established in the moun- tains of Cubitas, and a form of civil administration for provinces and prefectures was organised and carried out in part, though the actual governing power was chiefly exercised through the military officers. In the meantime military movements were actively afoot. The insurgents got the advantage in the first encounters in the east, including one with a part of the forces of Campos near Bayamo, in which the Spanish general Santocildes was killed. They made their way into the province of Puerto Prin- cipe, while General Lacret succeeded in landing with an expedition from Jamaica, and Roloff and Sanchez arrived with another from Key West. Baffled by the elusive tactics of the insurgent bands, General Campos prepared for the fall cam- paign by rehabilitating and strengthening the old ” trocha ” across the island from Jucaro to Moron, clearing timber away from the line, establishing forts and blockhouses at short intervals, and plan- 86 THE WEST INDIES ning to station 50,000 troops on this barrier to con- fine the insurrection to the east, where he expected effectually to suppress it. There was only a se- ries of desultory movements and preparations until November, when Generals Pando and Marin arrived with 30,000 more troops from Spain. The insur- gents did not concentrate and wait to be suppressed, but by dividing into small bands and moving about in a bewildering manner they worked their way west of the trocha to the vicinity of Santo Espiritu and then to the valley of Cienfuegos. When Cam- pos undertook to make a stand against their advance, with a force concentrated in front of them, they scattered and eluded him, and zigzagged back and forth until they got into Matanzas province. If they encountered a small Spanish detachment they worsted it; and if they found a strong one in their way they evaded it. So they gathered force as they went, coercing those to join them who would not do so voluntarily, and appearing at the beginning of 1896 within a dozen miles of Havana with a force of nearly 12,000 men. Maceo made his way into Pinar del Rio with 4000 men, and Gomez stopped the cane-grinding and ravaged the plantations of the rich provinces of Matanzas and Havana, to deprive the Spanish army of its chief support. The general policy of Campos was one of concilia- tion, and he could find no chance to conciliate. His military campaign was systematic on paper, but it was deranged and his forces were scattered by the irregular and baffling movements of the insurgents, who were gathering strength and carrying every- ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 1 87 thing before them, at a distance from the cities and military stations. In short, Campos's whole plan of campaign was a failure, because his efforts to carry it out were constantly thwarted. A cry was raised for his recall, and he left Cuba, January 17th, turning the command over to General Sabas Marin* His successor, General Nicola Valeriano Weyler, Marques de Tenerife, arrived at Havana, February 10th, to institute a campaign of vigour and of rigour. General Weyler had a command in the former war, and by his ruthless methods earned the sobriquet of the “ butcher." He now proceeded to justify it. Maceo had been having things his own way in Pinar del Rio ; and, in spite of a new trocha which General Marin established from Mariel to Majana in the western province, he got back to join Gomez in ravaging, burning, and destroying in Matanzas and Havana. General Weyler undertook to gather the scattered Spanish forces and reorganise an army for attack upon the insurgent " army," which consisted of agile bands of guerillas chiefly engaged in avoiding attack while devastating the country. He ordered the " pacificos " of the rural sections, who were as- sumed to be aiding and supporting the insurgents, to be concentrated in the towns under military guard, about which were " zones of cultivation," where they were to sustain themselves as best they might. The Spanish commander then set forth on a campaign of destruction and extirpation of rebels, as if determined to " make a solitude and call it peace." He found his concentrated army THE WEST INDIES 1 88 effective only for the work of general slaughter and devastation, being unable to bring the armed forces of the enemy into actual engagement. False re- ports of victories were sent abroad, and foreign cor- respondents were not allowed to disseminate facts. The province of Pinar del Rio was declared to be “ pacified,” whereupon Maceo sacked Batabano, and then made his way back west of the Mariel- Majana trocha, where his principal lieutenant, Ber- mudez, an ex-bandit chief, had been spreading terror by plundering and burning the unresisting towns and plantations. General Weyler then de- voted himself to strengthening the trocha and stationing 30,000 men along the line. During the marauding campaign of the summer, Jos6 Maceo, Sanchez, Mirabel, and Zayas among the insurgent officers had been killed, and Gomez began to work his way back through Santa Clara to Camaguey. Early in the year, Calixto Garcia, after three unsuccessful attempts to get away from the United States coast with filibustering expeditions, had succeeded in landing with one hundred and eight men and some munitions and supplies in eastern Cuba, where he strove to rally the languish- ing spirit of revolt. In the autumn Gomez was moving toward the eastern provinces, while Maceo was in the hills of Pinar del Rio, with Weyler’s army threatening to close in upon him from the fortified line of the new trocha. The Cuban chief succeeded in making his way around the trocha with a small escort over Mariel Bay, and endeavoured by couriers to rally the scattered forces of the insurrec- ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 1 89 tion left behind by Gomez in Matanzas and Havana, at a rendezvous near Punta Brava. While awaiting concentration there he was suddenly attacked by a band of Spaniards under Major Cirujeda and killed. He was recognised only when the dead were stripped by prowlers, and his body was then rescued and carried away by Pedro Diaz. His staff surgeon, Dr. Zatucha, surrendered, and was accused of having betrayed his chief. The depressing effect of Maceo’s death and the retirement of Gomez from the western provinces were not overcome by the accession of strength brought by the comparatively few and feeble fili- bustering expeditions which succeeded in landing, among the many actively promoted and supported by the Cuban Junta and other sympathisers in the United States. The efforts to get help to the island from that quarter were baffled by the vigilance of the American authorities. The eastern provinces were in the hands of the insurgents, except a few points held by Spanish garrisons, like Santiago, Manzanillo, and Holguin, and there was little chance for aggressive operations there. Early in 1897, Weyler, assuming that the western provinces were “ pacified,” proceeded upon a campaign of slaughter and devastation eastward as far as the fer- tile region between Santa Clara and Trinidad, while Gomez, Garcia, and Bandera were indulging in des- ultory movements still farther east. The raiding bands left behind in Matanzas and Havana were under the command of General Lacret. He was relieved by command of Gomez for being too lenient 190 THE WEST INDIES with “ pacificos ” who did not support him, while those “ concentrated ” out of his reach were dying of disease and starvation. He was succeeded by General Rodriguez, but the only result of the opera- tions in the west in the spring of 1897 was to destroy property, paralyse industry and trade, and aggravate the terrible distress which was almost universal. There was the usual lull in the summer, but the horrors of the Weyler campaign of slaughter and destruction and the suffering and wholesale death of the wretched “ reconcentrados ” were producing a profound impression in the United States. In August, Canovas del Castillo, the Prime Minister of Spain, who had sent General Weyler out to suc- ceed Campos, and who insisted upon the policy of forcing submission before considering measures of conciliation and reform, was assassinated, and was succeeded by Praxedes Mateo Sagasta, who pro- ceeded to reverse that policy and to propose meas- ures of conciliation and reform as a means of bringing the insurrection to an end. To carry out the new policy, General Ramon Blanco was sent to supersede Weyler as governor-general, and the latter returned at once to Spain to join in the opposition to a prof- fered scheme of autonomy for Cuba. Hostilities were virtually in suspense, save for some spasmodic movements here and there, and on the arrival of Blanco, in November, 1897, he pro- ceeded with his new policy of pacification. Partly in response to remonstrances from the United States Government, the orders of reconcentration were re- voked, and measures of relief for the suffering and ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 19I starving “ pacificos ” were taken or permitted, for they were little better off in their devastated homes than in the guarded towns. The insurgent forces were scattered, exhausted, and disheartened, and the Spanish army was demoralised. A scheme of autonomy, which had not yet been approved by the Spanish Cortes, and whose chief feature was the creation of an insular parliament with restricted powers, was laboriously put into effect, though utterly repudiated by all sympathisers with the re- bellion, and disliked by most of the resident Span- iards. It had the support of a small autonomist party, chiefly in Havana ; and by most others was regarded either as visionary and impracticable, or as a delusion and a snare. In the United States there was little confidence in its being accepted by the Cubans or continued in good faith by the Spanish Government. The Cuban “ Constitution ” of 1895 had provided for a new Constituent assembly, to meet in October, 1897, and an electoral law was passed by the “ Ad- ministrative Council ” for the selection of delegates from the six provinces. Under this, twenty-four representatives were elected by the “ citizens of the republic," including those who were serving as soldiers in the field, and the sessions of the As- sembly were held in October and November, 1897. A new constitution was adopted, to be in force two years unless independence was sooner achieved, and new officers of government were chosen. Bartolom6 Masso was made president, and Domingo Mendez Capote vice-president, and heads of departments 192 THE WEST INDIES were elected by the Assembly as before. Major- General Maximo Gomez was again made general-in- chief of the army, and Calixto Garcia was made lieutenant-general and second in command. The village of Esperanza in the Sierra de Cubitas con- tinued to be the nominal capital, but it was captured by a Spanish force in January, 1898, the govern- ment of the “ republic ” making good its escape. In December, 1896, President Cleveland devoted much space in his last message to the United States Congress to a review and discussion of the situation in Cuba, and declared that the time might arrive “ when considerations of humanity and a desire to see a rich and fertile country, intimately related to us, saved from complete devastation, will constrain our Govern- ment to such action as will subserve the interests thus involved [those previously discussed] and at the same time preserve to Cuba and its inhabitants an opportunity to enjoy the blessings of peace.” In his first annual message to Congress, in Decem- ber, 1897, President McKinley reviewed the situation in the light of the events of that time, giving reasons against a recognition of Cuban independ- ence or belligerency, accepting the change of policy adopted by Spain as sincere, and favouring an ami- cable settlement of all difficulties; but in closing he said : “ If it shall hereafter appear to be a duty imposed upon us by our obligations to ourselves, to civilisation and humanity, to intervene with force, it shall be with- ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 1 93 out fault on our part, and only because the necessity for such action will be so clear as to command the support and approval of the civilised world.” While Governor-General Blanco was endeavouring to carry out the plan of autonomy in January, 1898, there were riots in Havana in opposition to the move- ment, in which the volunteers took the leading part, and there was a display of hostile feeling toward the United States, which seemed to menace the lives and property of American citizens. The Atlantic squadron of the United States navy had been moved down from Hampton Roads, Va., to Key West, Fla., and on the 25th of January the second-class battle- ship Maine was sent to Havana, under the guise of a “ friendly visit,” but obviously as a precaution in case American interests should need defending. On the night of February 15th, the Maine was de- stroyed by an explosion, which was afterwards decided by a court of inquiry to be external and below its hull, and probably that of a submarine mine discharged from the shore. Congress was then in session, reports of the atrocities of Weyler’s campaign and the sufferings of the “ reconcentra- dos ” were still rife, and there was much debate of intervention, peaceable or forcible, for the termina- tion of the warfare in Cuba. The fact that the case of the insurgents had become desperate, and that they were in danger of losing all they had struggled for, joined with the belief that the Maine had been blown up at the instigation or with the connivance of Spanish authorities or officers, tended irresistibly to bring about intervention ” with force,” though 13 i94 THE WEST INDIES the President appeared to be striving by diplomacy to avert the necessity. The drift toward hostility was so strong that on the 5th of April, General Fitzhugh Lee, the Ameri- can consul-general at Havana, abandoned his post, after warning all Americans of the expediency of leaving Cuba, and after aiding the departure of all who desired it. On April nth, the President sent a special message to Congress in which, after re- viewing the situation anew, he asked that body to “ authorise the President to take measures to secure a full and final termination of hostilities between the Gov- ernment of Spain and the people of Cuba, and to secure in the island the establishment of a stable government capable of maintaining order and observing its inter- national obligations, insuring peace and tranquillity and the security of its citizens as well as our own, and to use the military and naval forces of the United States as may be necessary for these purposes.” This led to the adoption of a joint resolution on the 19th of April, declaring that the people of Cuba 44 are and of right ought to be free and independ- ent,” demanding that the Government of Spain re- linquish its authority in the island and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters, and directing the President to use the land and naval forces of the United States 44 to carry these resolu- tions into effect.” This was immediately followed by the departure of the Spanish Minister from Washington and of the American Minister from Madrid, an order for the blockade of the ports of Cuba, and a call for 125,000 volunteers for the United ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE I95 States army; and on April 25th, there was a formal declaration by act of Congress that war existed and had existed “ since the 21st day of April, A.D. 1898, including that day, between the United States of America and the kingdom of Spain.” During the war, which was suspended by the sign- ing of a peace protocol at Washington on the 12th of August, the blockade of the ports of Cuba was maintained, and insignificant attacks were made upon the defences of Matanzas and Cardenas ; but the decisive events were the destruction of the Spanish fleet of four cruisers and two torpedo-boat destroy- ers, under Admiral Cervera, outside of the harbour of Santiago, on the 3d of July, and the surrender of the city of Santiago de Cuba to the land forces of the United States on the 14th of that month. Cervera had left the Cape Verde Islands for the West Indies on the 29th of April, and after cruising about in a manner that seemed somewhat aimless, had taken refuge in the harbour of Santiago on May 19th. As soon as this was known, an American flying squadron,” under Commodore W. S. Schley, took up its position off the entrance to the harbour, and was joined by the main body of the American fleet, under Acting Rear-Admiral W. T. Sampson, on the 1st of June, the latter officer then taking command. There was some bombarding of the defences and an attempt to block the channel by sinking the collier Merrimac across it, on the night of June 3d, at a point within the line of the outer forts, — a perilous venture heroically carried out under the fire of the enemy’s guns by Lieuten- 196 THE WEST INDIES ant Hobson and six men, who were captured and held as prisoners until exchanged a month later. A land force was immediately sent to co-operate with the navy at Santiago. A body of six hundred marines had landed at Caimanera on Guantanamo Bay, June 10th, and had a sharp skirmish to hold the place; and on the 22d, the Fifth Army Corps of about 12,000 men arrived from Tampa, under command of Major-General W. R. Shafter, landing at Siboney and Daiquiri east of Santiago. In making the advance up the heights for the attack on the city, a part of the force encountered the enemy at Sevilla, or “ Las Guasimas,” on the 24th of June, and had a fierce and deadly struggle in breaking the way for the army over a narrow trail. On July 1st and 2d, there was hard fighting in the taking of El Caney and San Juan, and the Ameri- can loss was two hundred and thirty-one killed and 1364 wounded, but the victory over the Spaniards was complete. On the 3d of July, Admiral Cervera, acting under orders from Captain-General Blanco, made a dash out of Santiago Bay with his fleet and attempted to escape along the coast to the west. There was a terrible running battle, the American cruiser Brook- lyn and the battle-ships Iowa , India?ia , Oregon , and Texas joining in the attack and destroying or driv- ing ashore all the Spanish cruisers, with dreadful destruction of life and the capture of all the surviv- ing officers and crews. A demand was then imme- diately made upon the commander of the Spanish land forces, General Toral, for the surrender of the ACHIEVEMENT OF CUBAN INDEPENDENCE 1 9 7 city of Santiago and the adjoining territory, and after considerable parley and negotiating the demand was complied with, and on the 17th of July the United States flag was raised on the government building. Brigadier-General Leonard Wood was put in command as military governor. In the peace protocol already referred to, it was agreed that “ Spain will renounce all claim to all sovereignty over, and all her rights over the island of Cuba," and that “ Spain will immediately evacu- ate Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the other islands under Spanish sovereignty in the Antilles." Three com- missioners were to be appointed by each party to the agreement to settle the details of the evacua- tion. There were about 118,000 troops to be trans- ported to Spain, and the commissioners met in Havana early in October to direct the manner of their removal, with the expectation that the process would be completed by the end of the year. Plans were adopted for organising an army of occupation during the autumn, which was to be landed upon the island as the Spanish troops departed. This army was to be under the command of General John R. Brooke, as military governor of Cuba, and there was to be a department commander in each province. General Fitzhugh Lee, the last consul- general at Havana, was to have command of the troops in Havana province, and General William Ludlow was made military governor of the city. An assembly of Cuban deputies, consisting of eight delegates from each of the six corps of the Cuban army, representing also the six provinces of 98 THE WEST INDIES the island, met at Santa Cruz del Sur, on the 24th of October, to take the preliminary steps toward the organisation of a permanent government for the re- public. Early in November, President Masso and other officers of the “ Provisional Administrative Council ” resigned their offices, and the assembly appointed a committee of five, of which Rafael M. Portuondo was president, to take charge of affairs until the reassembling of the constituent body, for which no date was fixed. One of the functions of the committee was to secure the disbandment of the Cuban army and a general submission of the people to the temporary authority of the United States, pending the organisation of an independent civil government. Before its work began, Domingo Mendez Capote, late vice-president of the “ Cuban Republic,” took the place of Portuondo as the pre- siding officer. The assembly also created a com- mission of five members, with General Calixto Garcia at its head, to visit Washington and represent the interests of Cuba and the wishes of its people before the President and Congress of the United States, with reference to proceedings for the organ- isation of a permanent system of administration. Captain-General Blanco resigned after the arrange- ments for evacuation were concluded, and his suc- cessor, General Adolfo Jimenez Castellanos was the last Spanish governor-general. Thus the long struggle for the independence of Cuba was brought to a close, and four hundred years of Spanish sov- ereignty in the western world ended almost where it began after the first discoveries of Columbus. CHAPTER XVIII NATURAL ASPECTS AND RESOURCES OF JAMAICA LITTLE less than ninety miles south of the eastern part of Cuba lies the island of Jamaica, third in size of the Greater Antilles. It is about one hundred and forty-five miles long from South- East Point at the eastern end to South Negril Point in the west. Its extreme width, where it runs down into the promontory of Portland Point on the south, is fifty-three miles, but the general width of the middle section is about forty-five miles. It falls away to the east to twenty miles and then tapers to a point, and toward the western end it narrows more abruptly, chiefly on account of a north-westerly trend of the southern coast. Its shape is sometimes compared to that of a huge turtle, and its area is about 4200 square miles. On the southern shore and well toward the east, in the angle between the wide and narrow parts, is a deep inlet, or lagoon, almost inclosed on its southern side by a long sand spit which leaves a channel barely one hundred and sixty feet wide. Within this nearly land-locked bay is Kingston, the capital and chief city, and on 200 THE WEST INDIES the inclosing arm of the sand spit was that Port Royal where revelled and rioted the slavers, buc- caneers, and pirates in the wicked old times of ill- gotten wealth. Here is still the chief port, and the plains and slopes which extend backward and upward from the shore were the scene of the old colony whence spread the plantations and the groves and gardens that constituted the J amaica of former days. Thence have scattered the communities which now occupy the island. The coast is indented with many other bays which afford safe harbours, and there are now several ports more or less visited. East of King- ston and not far from the end of the island is Port Morant, and a few miles west of the capital is Old Harbour, above which Diego Colon planted the capital of his colony and called it Santiago de la Vega. It still lingers, and has always been called Spanish Town by the English. Well toward the western end of the island on this coast is Bluefields Bay with the port of Savana la Mar, and at Green Island on the west coast is a small harbour. Pro- ceeding eastward along the northern coast we find in succession the ports of Montego Bay, Falmouth, St. Ann Bay, where Columbus spent his last dreary months in the western world, Port Maria, Annotto, and Port Antonio. Jamaica has no such fringe of coral reefs as deco- rates the edges of so large a part of Cuba, nor are there swamp areas along its coasts. For the most part it is “ rock-bound,” and in many places steep ridges and broken cliffs come to the water’s edge. ASPECTS AND RESOURCES OF JAMAICA 201 Off to the south-east are the Morant Keys, and forty miles to the south is Pedro Bank, a long sub- marine plateau, from which some scattered keys rise to the surface. The three small islands to the north-west, called the Caymans — Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brae — belong politically to Jamaica, though geographically they are part of the extension of Cuba westward from Cape Cruz, which is mostly under water. These islands have an area of less than two hundred square miles, and support a primitive population of about 4300, chiefly engaged in gathering cocoanuts and green turtles for export. The general level of Jamaica is somewhat higher than that of Cuba, and a larger proportion of its area is occupied by mountain ranges or broken into ridges and deep valleys. The geological structure is much the same, consisting of a shell of limestone over a skeleton of primitive or metamorphic rock, which protrudes here and there in granite or mica- ceous schist, interspersed with porphyry, quartz, and spar. The loftiest mountain range is in the east, and as one approaches the island from that direction a delicate blue haze hangs over these heights, which has given them the name of “ Blue Mountains.” Their general altitude is about 6000 feet, but they rise to 7400 in Cold Ridge. There is a sharp crest running east and west, from which the slope is gradual toward the north, breaking into lower and lower ridges with intervening valleys, and spreading into plains here and there down to the coast, while on the south the descent is more abrupt and some- 202 THE WEST INDIES times stops suddenly in overhanging cliffs at the verge of the sea. Westward of an elevation of 4460 feet, called Catherine Hill, there is a depression, comprising a region of variegated uplands, beyond which again spring ridges and broken plateaus, sometimes reaching 3000 feet above the sea-level. Again the surface falls away, and the widest areas of level country are in the west. There is a depres- sion across the island where the valley of the Black River opens to the south and that of the Great River to the north, and beyond that are more highlands which end in a bold promontory called the Dolphin’s Head, 3500 feet high, at the very extremity of the island. Traces of volcanic action in remote ages have been found near Spanish Town. The central uplands are mostly rugged and broken with ravines and hollows. There are wild amphi- theatres and secluded gullies sometimes called “cockpits.” On the northern slope for sixty miles eastward from Great River is a region of gorges and caverns from which the surface water often disap- pears into ” sightless chasms,” to well up again at widely separated places, and tumble in cataracts or gush and flow in quiet springs. Sometimes the course of subterranean streams can be traced by these outlets in a manner to show that the interior slopes vary from those of the surface. There are many lakelets among the hills, but often the water makes its way through clefts in the limestone shell into underground reservoirs. Of the many streams which flow from the mountains and hills to the sea, few are entitled to be called rivers. The largest is ASPECTS AND RESOURCES OF JAMAICA 203 the Black, which may be navigated for thirty miles by flat-bottomed craft. The Minho, or Dry River, comes down from the central uplands to the southern coast, but most of its course is too steep or too shal- low for useful navigation, and all streams are liable to become torrents in the wet season and to dis- appear almost entirely in the dry. The Cobre, which flows into the lagoon on which Kingston is situated, has little depth of water, and in a part of its course runs out of sight. The principal streams on the north are the Great, the Martha Brae, and the White. The eastern end of the island is drained toward the north by the Rio Grande and toward the south by the Plantain Garden River, both small streams, with numerous rivulets running into them. There are some flat spaces on the island described as plains or vales. The largest of these is the “ Plain of Liguanea, " which includes the region of Kingston and Spanish Town. On the north of the mountains is the plain of “ Thomas in the Vale," and in the east the " Vale of Bath." Minerals have been found concealed within the rocky structure of Jamaica, but no systematic exam- ination of their whereabouts or their extent has ever been made. There have been unprofitable efforts at mining of copper, iron, and lead ; traces of gold and silver have been found, and there are deposits of co- balt and antimony ; but whether there are riches to be dug from the earth is yet to be ascertained. There is plenty of ungarnered wealth on the surface. Much of the mountain region is covered with forests, con- taining mahogany, rosewood, lignum-vitae, ebony, 204 THE WEST INDIES satinwood, and cedar, as well as logwood, fustic, and others which afford dyestuffs. The palm and the bamboo are common, and the silk cotton and the pimento are almost characteristic of this island, — both trees of beauty, and the latter furnishing large supplies of that aromatic product, allspice. It is a wide-spreading and picturesque evergreen. One variety of the palm, the Palma Christi , is a source of castor oil. The general verdure and vegetation that richly clothes the island is mostly that common to these tropic lands of the Caribbean Sea. There is a great variety of ferns — some great tree-ferns — in the mountains, and orchids lavishly decorate the forests, while a profusion of flowering plants and shrubs delight the eye, including the aloe, the yucca, and the datura, which are not so common elsewhere. Maize grows luxuriantly, and willingly yields two or three crops a year to the industrious, and of pro- saic vegetables and fruits there is no end. The list suggests a lesson in geography or a passage from the encyclopaedia — yams, plantains, cassava, ochra, arrowroot, cacao, ginger, breadfruit, tamarinds, mangoes, pineapples, oranges, lemons, and so on, and so on. Nearly all European vegetables can be raised successfully on the higher lands, and guinea grass waves profusely over wide stretches of pasture- land, making cattle-raising an easy and profitable process. A few plants were brought from Africa in the old slave-trading days, including the poisonous horse bean, which was used in weird incantations, and to which the superstitious blacks still attribute ON THE ROAD TO CASTLETON, JAMAICA. ASPECTS AND RESOURCES OF JAMAICA 205 miraculous qualities. Out of the porous branches of the “ trumpet tree” they make the Koromanti flute, whose sweet and melancholy notes are so familiar among them. But for a long time the soil of the fertile plains, valleys, and hillsides of Jamaica has been mainly devoted to the cultivation of those two exotic plants, the sugar cane and the coffee bush, because they afforded the most profitable crops in the days of slave labour. Latterly there has been an increase of tobacco, cacao, and fruits. Of animal life there is plenty, as in all tropic climes where the land teems with vegetation ; but, like the other islands, Jamaica is poor in native quadrupeds. Of what she originally had there remains the agouti, some lingering remnants of the monkey tribe, and a pestilent breed of rats which no ingenuity has been able to exterminate. The mongoose was introduced from the East to attempt the task, but it has given so much attention to catching snakes and birds and to sucking eggs and multiplying its own species that it has become al- most as much of a nuisance as the rodents it was expected to destroy. There is the alligator and the usual variety of lizards, including the ugly but edible — for those who like that sort of thing — iguana. The land crab is particularly multitudinous, and in the spring his armies emerge from the rocks and cliffs and march to the coast for the annual cere- mony of depositing eggs in the sand at the edge of the surf. The males lead the way and stand guard, and when the young are hatched the hosts return through the thickets and woods to their retreats in 2o6 THE WEST IX DIES the interior, encountering many perils and enemies on the way. Millions of them are fortunately de- voured, or there would soon be no room for anything else. There are objectionable reptiles and insects, but few that are noxious, though the scorpion and centipede are uncommonly large and vicious. There are several varieties of fireflies that illumine the night. The seal and manatee are found on the coast, turtles are abundant, and the waters swarm with fish. There is a great variety of waterfowl, and birds of the air are many, including pigeons and parrots and others of brilliant plumage, and over twenty species of song birds. The domestic animals of Europe were introduced early and have always thrived, many of them running wild in the uplands. The climate of Jamaica has some peculiarities of its own, and differs considerably on the two sides of the central mountain range, especially in the eastern part, and on the different levels above the sea. The moisture brought by the trade-winds is precipitated much more heavily on the northern than the southern side, and while the annual rainfall on the north slope of the Blue Mountains is about one hundred inches, it is only forty-four at Kingston^ and the plains about Spanish Town are subject to drought. There are practically two wet seasons of six or eight weeks each, — in May and June and in October and November, — with a period of compara- tive dryness between, much addicted, however, to sudden and violent storms of short duration. It is in this interval, too, that the hurricane is apt to break loose and sweep with devastating force over ASPECTS AND RESOURCES OF JAMAICA 20J this and other islands. In all parts of the wet season there are times of heavy rain, accompanied by terrific thunder and lightning. From Novem- ber to April the climate is genial, and seldom dis- turbed by sudden or violent changes. The temperature may be said to be equable at all times. At Kingston the recorded extremes of the year are 66° and 920, with 740 as the mean. The ordinary range in the lowlands in the hot season is from about 750 to 85°, and in the cool season some ten degrees lower. At Up Park, two hundred and twenty-five feet above the sea level, the average of the temperature is a fraction above 8i° in the hot season and 75 0 in the coolest part of the year. At Newcastle, where the English troops are now sta- tioned, 3800 feet above the sea, the average is 68° in the hot season and 6 1° in the cool. There are still higher levels where the range is from 40° to 50°. There is a great deal of humidity in the air a large part of the time, and vapours accumulate in masses over the mountains and sometimes spread a decided chill through the uplands. In the coast plains there is generally a sea breeze in the daytime and a land breeze at night, which contributes to equalise the temperature. The nights are rarely uncomfortable, and the most oppressive time is from seven or eight to ten o’clock in the morning, after the land breeze dies down and before the sea breeze springs up. Much question is made of the healthfulness of this and other tropical climates, but it is as much a matter of altitude as of latitude, and more a matter 208 THE WEST INDIES of habit than of inevitable conditions. There are places in Jamaica which are subject to fever and other maladies, but on the whole the island is very salubrious. Diseases due to miasma and malarial exhalations are lessened with the improvement of drainage and the cultivation of soil, and only about one fourth of the island has yet been reduced to cultivation. The health of cities depends mainly upon sanitary arrangements, which have not been so much neglected in English as in Spanish colonies. The safety of the individual depends largely upon adapting his dress, diet, and general regimen to the conditions of the tropics, and not trying to pursue habits of living and of working there which are fitted for a colder and more changeful climate. . CHAPTER XIX HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF JAMAICA HE early history of Jamaica has been fairly covered by the accounts of colonising, buc- caneering, and slave-trading. The town of Sevilla del Oro, established by the first Spanish colonists under Juan d’ Esquivel in 1509, was close by the Bay of St. Ann, the Santa Gloria of Columbus, near the middle of the north coast, and the spot is still marked by the ruins of an ancient church. But the permanent Spanish colony was on the southern plain of Liguanea, backed by a ridge of hills of the same name, and its capital, founded in 1525 by Diego Colon, was the Santiago de la Vega which the English called Spanish Town, and retained as the capital of their colony until 1869. During the old wars of Queen Elizabeth’s time, Sir A. Shirley made an attack upon Jamaica, but did not occupy it, and in the time of Charles I., one Colonel Jack- son from St. Kitt’s plundered and nearly destroyed Santiago of the Plain. Later on, the island was coolly partitioned among ” eight noble families,” but no respect was paid to their title when, under 209 210 THE WEST INDIES Cromwell’s administration in 1655, Penn and Ven- ables finally got possession and an English colony was planted. By that time the Spanish had ex- terminated the original population and had them- selves become reduced to about 1500 persons, with an equal number of slaves, and were chiefly engaged in cultivating cacao. Most of the Spaniards took refuge in Cuba, while the negroes fled to the mount- ains and became the nucleus of the maroons. The first British colonists were a rude lot, and speedily the buccaneering and slave-trading era set in, and Port Royal was founded at the end of the Palisades/’ as the sand spit inclosing the bay was then called, as the headquarters of the most iniquit- ous combination of enterprises ever countenanced by a civilised nation. As the traffic became lucrative, the place attracted adventurers from every quarter, and “ Port Royal itself,” says an English historian, “ united to more than royal opulence the worst vices and the lowest depravity that ever disgraced a sea- port ; nor could anything else be expected in a city whose most honoured denizens were buccaneers, most welcome visitors slave-traders. ” But a terrible retribution seemed to await the sinful city of the sand spit. On the 7th of June, 1692, near the hour of noon, while the assembly was in session and the people were occupied as usual with their schemes of money-getting, or squandering their gains in revelry, while the waters glittered in the tropic sun and the summer air was filled with a placid calm, there came a sudden roar, followed by a dreadful rumbling, as if the mountains were shaken by a tremendous ex- AT THE FOUNTAIN, JAMAICA. HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 21 1 plosion beneath their very foundations ; and before the startled citizens could gather their wits together an earthquake of awful energy rolled through the depths under their feet. “ The Palisades ” rocked and heaved, houses tumbled in ruins, the waves leaped over the land, carrying vessels with them, and the sand spit sank from its ancient level. When the tumult was over, a frigate had been hurled over houses and landed high and dry, houses were submerged beneath the waves, where some of them remained visible for a hundred and fifty years, and the mangled remains of buildings and water craft were mingled over the dead bodies of 3000 of the inhabitants. Only the fort and about two hund- red houses remained, and the next year the new city of Kingston was founded on the flat land within the bay and at the foot of the slopes where it now stands. Port Royal was further scourged by a pestilence that sprang from the decomposing bodies of the unburied dead. Shortly after these disasters, in 1694, a French fleet landed soldiers near the east- ern end of the island, who ravaged the country about Port Morant. In 1712, a terrific hurricane swept over Kingston and the remnant of Port Royal, al- most wiping them from the face of the earth. The Spanish made some feeble efforts to recover their colony, but the principal disturbance in the history of Jamaica for two centuries came from the Africans, who had been forced from their own coun- try to be slaves in this distant land. The little remnant that remained to the Spaniards, when they were driven out, established themselves in the 212 THE WEST INDIES mountains and relapsed into barbarism, if they had ever been lifted out of it. Some of the many thou- sands brought from Africa by the slave ships escaped and joined these “ maroons.” Many of them were unreclaimed pagans from the Guinea coast, from Koromanti and the Cameroons, and they established savage communities in their stronghold and made raids for murder and plunder upon the white settlers. About 1730, united under a chief called Cudjo, they became such a terror to the colonists, who were numerous only in their slave property, that two regiments were added to the military force in the island for the special purpose of subduing them. An irregular war was carried on for several years, marked by barbarous atrocities on both sides. One method of fighting the maroons was to track them with bloodhounds, and each military barrack had a pack of dogs, ” provided by the churchwardens of the respective parishes.” The Mosquito Indians were also employed in hunting down the negroes. Finally, in 1739, Governor Trelawney brought about a pacification, and regular articles were signed. Two reservations of land, one of 1000 and one of 1500 acres, were granted to the maroons and their descendants in perpetuity, upon which they could maintain complete independence on certain condi- tions. They were to refrain from depredations upon the whites, and they agreed to surrender run- away slaves, receiving a premium of fifteen dollars in each case for capturing them, while there was to be a severe penalty for harbouring fugitives. This naturally produced antagonism between the free HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 21 3 Africans and the slaves, as was intended. The ma- roons had the superstitious and savage instincts and pagan practices of their ancestors, and nothing was done to rescue them from barbarism, while the slaves on the plantations were so inhumanly treated that there were repeated attempts at insurrection. One of these, near Port Maria on the northern coast, in 1760, resulted in an attack upon the fort, the killing of the sentinel, and the seizing of arms and ammunition, with which the negroes began an indiscriminate slaughter of the whites. The colon- ists banded together for self-defence, with the aid of the military and some help from the maroons, who were bound by their treaty to render it in such an emergency, and put down the revolted bondmen with burnings, hangings, and massacres, and such horrors of torture as it is sickening to relate. In 1795, there was another serious trouble with the maroons, growing out of the whipping of two of those of Trelawney Town for stealing a pig. They would have put up with any reasonable punishment for such an offence, but public whipping by the hangman, who was a negro, was an “ indignity ” to the whole maroon community on the Trelawney Reservation. They had already been exasperated by a law which gave validity to negro testimony against them, though it would not be received to support any charge against a white man ; and lat- terly they had been strictly confined to their limits, though formerly allowed to wander at will so long as they did not violate the laws to which they had agreed to submit. After the incident of the stolen 214 THE WEST INDIES pig and the public whipping there were threats of an outbreak, which a hot-headed governor, Lord Bal- carres, proceeded to suppress before it came. Merely because the maroons demanded redress for their “ indignity,” he recalled troops that had just been sent away, declared martial law, and surrounded the rebellious community, thereby arousing among all the settlements a dread of a general rising that might include the slaves on the plantations, who were always in a restless mood at such a time. The maroons refused to surrender, and held out in their fastnesses until menaced with bloodhounds from Cuba. Under the dread of these, when they found that a hundred of them had been brought from Havana, they yielded to General Walpole, agree- ing to a treaty which bound them to ask the king’s pardon on their knees, to occupy thereafter such a reservation in any part of the island as might be assigned to them, and to deliver up all slaves who had joined them, in return for which their lives would be spared and they would not be transported from the island. Ten days were allowed for collecting their families and making the required submission, and because they were unable to get in all their number within the stipulated time, Lord Balcarres, in spite of the remonstrances of General Walpole, had six hundred of them sent to Nova Scotia. There they were found to be not half so bad as they had been represented ; in fact, they became quite harmless, but their forcible expatriation has always been counted by the other maroons as a breach of faith and a grievance. HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 21 5 It may be said here that maroons have continued to exist upon reservations in the mountains of Ja- maica, with certain defined treaty rights, and that they have continued to have causes of complaint, or at least to make complaints and threaten trouble. The latest occasion of trouble was an encroachment upon land allotted to them by treaty in the Annotto Bay district, but not occupied by them until they found it had been for years in “ adverse possession ” of a white man. The court decided against their title, and was upheld by the governor notwithstanding the treaty. A regular colonial government was established for Jamaica in 1661, with a governor-general appointed by the Crown and a legislative assembly, which was elected in the island. The suffrage was confined to the planters and slave-owners, and for about two hundred years they formed an oligarchy which ruled virtually without restraint, though nominally under the laws of Great Britain. As the slaves had no rights and white colonists were few, this system worked smoothly. When the Earl of Carlisle was governor in 1678, the population then numbering about 8000 whites and 10,000 negroes, it was de- termined to exact an annual tribute of ^8000, or about $40,000, and to curtail the privileges of the council. In a few years the privileges were restored and the revenue, reduced to $30,000, was to be used in paying salaries in the colony. In 1672, a mono- poly of the slave trade was granted to the Royal African Company, and about the same time the cultivation of the sugar cane began. In the century 2l6 THE WEST INDIES following, there was a great multiplication and ex- tension of plantations devoted almost wholly to this profitable crop, and a vast increase in the number of slaves by whom the labour in the fields and in the mills was almost wholly performed under white overseers and slave-drivers. The political history of the last century was barren, save for the occasional visits of hostile privateers or pirates, and the great alarm caused in 1782 when the French and Spanish fleets were preparing for an at- tack upon the island. The people were saved from that serious peril by the great victory of Rodney over De Grasse off Dominica, and their gratitude was long embodied in a statue of Rodney in Spanish Town, which was transferred to Kingston when that became the capital, and now stands in the Victoria market- place. When, near the end of the last century, the agitation for the abolition of the slave trade began, it had no more vigorous opponents than the planters of Jamaica, the life blood of whose prosperity had been slave labour. When slavery itself was abol- ished, they deemed themselves and their fair island forever ruined. It did have a disastrous effect upon the sugar planters. They had been absolutely de- pendent upon the negroes for labour, and these had been so treated that most of them refused to work on the plantations as hired men. They sought small holdings of land for themselves, and many of them “ squatted ” in the ample spaces that were unoccupied, away from the cultivated tracts. No political rights had been granted to them ; they re- ceived no more social recognition or religious or HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 2iJ educational care than before, and nothing was done to conciliate them. On the other hand, there had been no white-labour force built up in the island, while Cuba continued her competition with slave labour. To some extent coolies were brought from India and China under contract, but this did not coun- teract the depression under which the sugar es- tates sank into decay. The owners left them in the hands of agents, and most of the whites who could get away emigrated, while the blacks took to multiplying as never before. The absentee planters became embarrassed, and their estates were heavily encumbered by the liens of merchants who made advances to keep them going; and the Encumbered Estates Act of 1854 being applied to them, many were sold out and divided up. The large sugar plantations which numbered eight hundred and fifty- nine in 1805, were only three hundred in 1865. The freed negroes were more and more becoming small land-owners, and were even beginning to raise sugar cane on a small scale, uniting to support one cheap mill to thirty of their little farms. In later years they increased the scale of these operations and obtained improved machinery. Trouble between the whites and negroes did not cease with emancipation. The very year before the passage of the Abolition Act in England there was a serious rising of slaves, due to a belief on their part that they had already been freed by law but were kept in bondage by the masters and would not escape without an effort of their own. The revolt 218 THE WEST INDIES was attended by the usual outrages and put down with the wonted merciless rigour. The slaves burned and destroyed a large amount of property but took few lives, while 1500 of their number were shot, hanged, or otherwise put to death. Memory of these events and of the old plantation life did not tend to make a docile class of hired labourers of the emancipated negroes; and the few remaining whites looked upon them, and were disposed to treat them, much as they did in the old slavery days. In 1865, there came what has been called an “ insurrection " of the blacks, which was put down in the old manner. In the eastern part of the island there was much discontent occasioned by obstacles put in the way of holding or acquiring land, by taxation, and by an al- leged failure of the local court to do justice to the ne- groes. A coloured preacher named Gordon, who was a member of the legislative assembly, harangued meetings of the discontented, and inflamed the prevalent sense of wrong into a violent opposition to the constituted authorities. The result was an uprising near Port Morant which was really a riot, but which created a sudden dread of a general negro insurrection in which the whites would be massa- cred. Governor Eyre declared martial law, and treated the revolt with crushing promptness and severity, for which he was severely condemned in England. The mob had killed eighteen white men and injured thirty-one. In its suppression, four hun- dred and thirty-eight negroes, including Gordon, were put to death, and six hundred were sentenced to the lash or other severe corporal punishment. HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 219 Governor Eyre was recalled, and a commission was sent out to investigate, which in a measure justified his course. An effort to have him indicted for murder in London was defeated, Lord Chief- Justice Cockburn making thereon a somewhat fa- mous exposition of martial law and the power of courts-martial. This event was followed in 1866 by a radical change in the government of Jamaica. It had had a “ constitution,” or “ charter,” with large local rights, which, however, had been exercised by a very small class. Now it was made a Crown colony, with a governor and council appointed by the home government, and practically exercising all important authority. This was modified in 1884. Since then there has been a governor and a privy council for executive purposes, and a legislative council with six official and nine elective members, though the governor can increase the number of official or ap- pointed members to nine. There is a mayor and town council in the city of Kingston, and elsewhere local administration is in the hands of parochial boards, each of which has two official members and from nine to fifteen elective members according to the size or importance of the parish. Their powers are for local regulation merely. Suffrage is qualified by requirements of taxation, income, or property- holding which reduce the electorate to not more than one in thirty or forty of the population. The island is divided into three counties: Surrey in the east, Middlesex constituting the central sec- tion, and Cornwall in the west. There are fourteen 220 THE WEST INDIES parishes, including Kingston, which has only eight square miles and consists mainly of the city of Kingston. The others in the county of Surrey are St. Andrew, with an area of one hundred and seventy-five square miles and 35,000 inhabitants; St. Thomas, in the east, two hundred and eighty square miles, 34,000 inhabitants ; and Portland, three hundred square miles and 30,000 inhabitants. The figures for population are taken from the latest authoritative source, and are doubtless somewhat below the actual number at present. Middlesex county is divided into five parishes: St. Catherine, area four hundred and sixty-five square miles, popu- lation 61,000; St. Mary, area two hundred and thirty-six square miles, population 40,000; St. Ann, area four hundred and eighty square miles, popula- tion 46,000; Clarendon, four hundred and eighty-two square miles, population 50,000; and Manchester, three hundred square miles and 48,000 population. In Cornwall there are five parishes: St. Elizabeth, four hundred and eighty-six square miles and 54,- 000 inhabitants; Westmoreland, three hundred and eighteen square miles and 49,000 inhabitants; for Hanover the figures are one hundred and thirty and 30,000; for St. James, two hundred and thirty-four and 34,000; and for Trelawney, three hundred and twenty-four and 32,000. The parochial division is for administrative purposes only. The Church is not" established," and a comparatively small minor- ity of the people are attached to the " English Church. ’ ’ Since the abolition of slavery the dissent- ing sects have done missionary work among the KINGSTON AND HARBOR, JAMAICA. HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 221 blacks, and the Methodists and Baptists far out- number the Episcopalians, while there are a good many Moravians. Of Roman Catholics there are very few. Education has been left mainly to private initiative, and is largely carried on by the churches and religious teachers. Elementary instruction is becoming quite general. There is a judiciary system on the English model. The governor-general is the chancellor, but there are a vice-chancellor and chief-justice, two puisne judges of the Supreme Court, seven district courts, four stipendiary magistrates, and a police magis- trate of the city of Kingston. There is a constab- ulary of 1000 members, and the military force maintained in the island is ordinarily from 1200 to 1500 men. The yearly revenue of the colony is about £815,000, and the expenditures £837,000. The public debt was £2, 175,000 in 1896. Kingston has long been the chief seaport and the one commercial centre of Jamaica, and since 1869 it has been the seat of the colonial government, though the governor maintains his residence on high land outside of the city. It has about 40,000 inhabit- ants, scarcely one third whites, and though well supplied with water from the Liguanea Hills and fairly well kept, it is a rather dingy and unattractive place on close inspection. There are no notable buildings architecturally, but the old parish church dates from the foundation of the city and has con- tained the tomb of Admiral Benbow since 1702. There is a creditable court-house, hospital, public library and museum, and a fine market and landing 222 THE WEST INDIES place of recent design, by which the Rodney statue stands. Out of town there are attractive groves and gardens, including a large botanical garden and acclimatisation forest, and among the heights of the interior are some delightful resorts. The old Port Royal site used to have the military station, which has been moved up to Newcastle to save the troops from fever, and it is still occupied by a fort and naval station and the appurtenances thereof. The British Government is at the present time renewing and strengthening the fortifications and construct- ing a dockyard and naval depot within the harbour. Spanish Town, the old capital, is a decayed place of about 6000 people, in the midst of a monotonous plain, which would be arid but for irrigation from the Cobre River. Port Maria is the largest place on the north coast, and has about 7000 inhabitants. Falmouth, at the mouth of Martha Brae River, has 3000 people, and Montego Bay, which is the port of the maroon district of Trelawney Town, has 5000. These northern ports have neither deep nor spacious harbours, and are chiefly engaged in the fruit trade, though Port Antonio and Port Morant near the eastern end of the island are the principal exporting points for oranges and bananas. Of the 1 5, coo or 16,000 whites in the island, mostly English, about five sixths live in and about Kings- ton. There are a few in the other seaport towns and at the head of plantations or trading places in the interior, but the bulk of the population, now estimated at nearly 700.000. is made up of negroes with little mixed blood, mostly speaking the Eng- THE OLD ASSEMBLY ROOMS, SPANISH TOWN, JAMAICA. HISTORY AND CONDITION OF JAMAICA 223 lish language, and amenable to discipline and in- struction, though little accustomed to it until recent years. There are perhaps 20,000 Asiatic coolies. Industry and trade have languished much of the time since the abolition of slavery, on account of the difficulties of the labour question, the depression of the sugar interest, and the slow progress of ad- justment to new conditions, the reasons for which are not far to seek. The imports of Jamaica amount to about $12,000,000 a year, substantially one half of which come from Great Britain and the other half from the United States. The exports are valued at $10,000,000, of which coffee now figures as the largest item at $1,500,000, sugar next at about $1,- 000,000, and rum $800,000. The relative decline in sugar in recent times is very great. Tobacco is of growing importance, and there is a chance for a far greater variety in the cultivated productions of the island. There is the beginning of a railroad system, a main stem from Kingston to Spanish Town with branches into the interior north and west, about one hundred and twenty miles in all, but scarcely more than one fourth of the land has been brought under cultivation. Industry is almost wholly confined to garnering the products of the soil and sending them out of the country. Telegraphic communication has been well established throughout the island and with the rest of the world. There has long been a state of discontent in Jamaica on account of the depressed condition of trade, which is attributed largely to the subsidising of beet-root sugar in Europe and the duty on cane 224 THE WEST INDIES sugar in the United States. Relief has been sought through British legislation and governmental changes. The confederation of the British colonies in the West Indies has been proposed, political con- nection with Canada has been advocated, and even annexation to the United States has been agitated. It is a question whether the real difficulty is not a lack of white colonisation, a mistaken treatment of the freed negroes, and a want of enterprise in vary- ing the industries of the island since great planta- tions of sugar and coffee have become unprofitable. Whether there are conditions of climate and race which make the difficulty insuperable is not an appropriate subject of discussion here, but is an interesting question for those whom it most con- cerns. CHAPTER XX THE ISLAND OF HAITI THE submarine ridge from which the island of Jamaica rises stretches eastward in the ocean depths about one hundred and thirty miles and then comes to the surface directly south of the eastern point of Cuba in the long and mountainous peninsula which constitutes the south-western prong of the island of Haiti. In like manner the ridge of which the whole length of Cuba forms a part continues under the Windward Passage for sixty miles and comes to light in the shorter north-western prong of Haiti. The deep trough between these great ridges runs in between the lofty peninsulas to form the Gulf of Gonaive, ending in the triangular Bay of Port-au-Prince. The southern peninsula, terminat- ing in Cape Tiburon, is one hundred and fifty miles long, and varies from twenty to forty miles in width ; and the northern, which ends with that great natural embankment called Mole St. Nicholas, is fifty miles long and about forty wide. The gulf between is eighty miles across, and is divided near the entrance to Port-au-Prince Bay by Gonaive Island, which is x5 225 226 THE WEST INDIES thirty-six miles long by eight and a half wide. From this there is a rampart of coral reefs to either shore, broken by passages which leave channels suf- ficient for safe entrance to the bay. The whole length of the island of Haiti, from Cape Tiburon to Cape Engafio at the extremity of its single eastern peninsula, is four hundred and seven miles. Its greatest width, where it extends down to Cape Beata on the southern coast, is one hundred and sixty-five miles; but its form is very irregular, narrowing toward the east, and its area is about 28,250 square miles. This is nearly two thirds of the area of Cuba and more than six times that of Jamaica. The entire coast-line is about 1500 miles, and is indented with many bays and inlets, some of them affording good harbours. Within the gulf and to the north of Port-au-Prince is Gonaive, and there is an inlet at Mole St. Nicho- las and another on the north coast at Cape Haitien. Farther east is Manzanillo Bay, about the middle of the north coast Puerto Plata, and near the eastern end of the island the bays of Escocesas and Samana, separated by a narrow peninsula, barely attached to the mainland. The Bay of Samana, which is about thirty miles long by ten miles wide, is partly filled with coral reefs, but it has ample spaces of deep water and a liberal entrance channel. On the southern coast the most important indenta- tion is that at Santo Domingo, where the Ozama River empties, and the largest is formed by the two bays of Ocoa and Neyba, which receive the waters of the Yaqui Chico. On the southern shore of the THE ISLAND OF HAITI 227 long peninsula in the south-west are Jacmel, Baianet, St. Louis, and Aux Cayes, and on its northern or gulf side are Jeremie and Baraderes. Here and there are fringing reefs and islets besides those which ob- struct the Bay of Samana and the Gulf of Gonaive at the two ends of the island. The Ile-a-Vache, which is nine miles long by two wide, lies off the south shore of the south-west peninsula near St. Louis Bay, with reefs between it and the coast. In the extreme south, opposite Cape Beata, is the island of Beata, five miles by two, amid a cluster of islets. Within the western gulf in the Bay of Baraderes is Great Cayemite, five miles by three. The island of Tortuga which lies off the north-western peninsula, the original haunt of the buccaneers, is twenty-two miles long and five miles wide. The island of Na- vassa in the Windward Passage has been claimed by Jamaica, and is only important for its guano deposits. South of the eastern end of Haiti is the considerable island of Saona, or Adamanay, fifteen miles by three and a half, and to the west of that, Catalina. The island of Haiti is the culmination of the great mountain system rising out of the depths of the ocean in the Greater Antilles. It contains in the interior grander and loftier heights than are to be found anywhere in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Running through the length of the island from Mole St. Nicholas slightly south of east to Cape Engafto, is an almost continuous range, rising near the centre of the island to an altitude of 9000 feet or more in the loftiest peaks of the Sierra de Cibao, where that old Carib cacique 228 THE WEST INDIES Coanabo had his retreat. The mean altitude of this long ridge, the backbone of the island, is over 6000 feet, and the central peaks, Jicoma, Gallo, and Entre Rios, rise to a height of 9000 feet. Isolated from the main ridge on its southern side are the great Pico de Yaqui, or Rucillo (gray), and Loma Tina, which have never been explored and are be- lieved to be more than 10,000 feet high. For the most part this great mountain range is covered with dense forests whose depths have hardly been pene- trated since the aborigines disappeared. There is another mountain range near the northern coast, taking its name from that Monte Cristi upon which Columbus looked with so much awe that he gave it that imposing name. This flat height itself springs sheer from the sea to about eight hundred feet, and from that level the range rises eastward to Sella de Caballo (“ Horse Saddle”), 3900 feet, and again after a depression to Campo Diego, 4000 feet, and then it falls away into variegated uplands stretch- ing to the peninsula of Samana. In that peninsula, almost severed from the island as it is, this northern mountain system terminates in the abrupt eleva- tions of Monte Diablo and Pilon de Azucar(” Sugar Loaf ”), which are about 2000 feet high. There is also a southern mountain system, but it is wholly west of the Bay of Neyba and the valley of the river which flows into it. It is connected with the Cibao range by a group of uplands stretching to the south-west, which is cut by the great river val- ley. The Loma Paciencia and the Loma Barranca here rise to the height of 6260 and 754° feet, respect- OF HAITI (NORTH SIDE). THE ISLAND OF HAITI 229 ively ; and toward the west lower ridges and broken plateaus continue to the great bay, while still farther south and near the coast a longer and loftier range runs out into the peninsula to Cape Tiburon. From a densely wooded region of hills near Cape Beata, it begins with the Sierra Baburuco and rises to a height of 8900 feet in the Sierra de la Selle, sending a spur to the north-west toward Port-au-Prince, which cul- minates in Mont Noir, or Prince’s Peak, 5000 feet high. The western extension is interrupted by a rather deep depression, and then springs up in the Montagnes de la Hotte, of which the highest peak is 7400 feet, and ends abruptly in the Tiburon head- land, 2870 feet above the sea. Not only is Haiti the most mountainous of the Antilles, but it is the only one that has much in the way of rivers. It has little of that porous shell of limestone which we have encountered in the other islands, and in which the copious rainfall gets dis- sipated and lost ; but it is endowed with a rugged structure of rock, not primitive, indeed, but of the secondary formations, — slate, conglomerate, and metamorphic masses, sometimes broken by protrud- ing syenite. Between the great central mountain ridge and the Monte Cristi range on the north, stretching all the way from Manzanillo Bay to the Bay of Samana, one hundred and forty miles, is that broad valley which Columbus called La Vega Real. Through its western part flows the great Yaqui River, coming down from the heights of Cibao and turning westward to the bay at Monte Cristi’s feet. A slight elevation near the middle of 230 THE WEST INDIES this royal plain turns the watershed eastward into the Yuna, which makes its way to the Bay of Sa- mana. From the southern slope of Cibao the Neyba, or Yaqui Chico, flows to Neyba Bay, and from the same central mountain mass the Artibonite, largest stream in all the island, makes its way westward into the Gulf of Gonaive. These rivers have many affluents draining the valleys and plains, but they are navigable to no great distance. Worth mention- ing also is the Rio Ozama, whose golden sands led to the founding of the city of Santo Domingo at its mouth. It has a tributary called the Brujuelas, or “ Witch," which is one of the few streams in the island that slink underground; but just here is a stretch of limestone full of holes. The whole coast region east of Santo Domingo City is low and flat. In the south-west, north of the Sierra Baburuco and the Sierra de la Selle, and between them and the opposing ridge on the north, is a level depression reaching almost from Neyba Bay to the Bay of Port- au-Prince, containing two lakes, about two hundred feet above the sea-level. The larger, which the aborigines called Xaragua and the Spaniards Enri- quillo, or Little Henry, from the native chief whose last refuge was an islet in the lake, is called Etang Sal6 by the French negroes of the region, because its water is saline. It is even inhabited by marine animals, as sharks and porpoises, and was once con- nected with the sea. It is very deep, and has an area of one hundred and seventy-six square miles, but in times of flood it is united with the other lake, a smaller body of water, the Laguna de Fundo, or THE ISLAND OF HAITI 231 the Etang Saumache (“ Brackish Pond ’ ’). Together they have a length of sixty miles and a breadth of nine or ten miles. Farther south in the same de- pression, but at a higher level, is a fresh-water lake, the Icotea de Limon, which receives the torrents of the Baburuco Mountains and is thought to send the surplus water to Lake Enriquillo through under- ground channels. To the east of this long depres- sion and near the delta of the Neyba River is Lake Rincon. In this island was the Bohio, or land of gold, to which Columbus was lured on as he came down through the Bahamas and left the coast of Cuba be- hind him after a vain search for the Grand Khan of Cipango; and for a time it proved to be a land of gold, much of the precious metal being sent to Spain, until the mines failed for lack of labour, and adventurous spirits wandered off to Mexico and the South American coast. What mineral wealth is still concealed in the mountains is practically unknown, for there has been no systematic effort to find out for several generations. There have been no real explorations or surveys, and no application of modern methods, and the means of communication in the interior are little better than they were in the days of the first discoverers. There has been so much political disturbance and so little progress for two centuries that Haiti is still an undeveloped land. We know that there is not only gold, but silver, copper, iron, platinum, mercury, and other valuable minerals and useful and precious stones; but to 232 THE WEST INDIES what extent enterprise and labour might turn these into available wealth we cannot tell. We know also that in the dense and almost interminable forests there are vast supplies of those same valuable woods that are to be found on the other large islands. The soil is everywhere fertile, even on the highest slopes and levels that have been laid bare, but as yet the great stretches of rich plain are cultivated only in patches. The natural productions of the vegetable world are the same tropical plants in variety and profusion that we have found in Cuba and Jamaica; and the exotic sugar-cane and coffee grow with the same luxuriance, and have long afforded the staple crops. Cotton and tobacco are indigenous, but neglected. The natural resources of the island, if fairly developed, would sustain ten times the present population in comfort. There is nothing exceptional or peculiar in the animal life of Haiti. It has the same lack of in- digenous quadrupeds and mammals as the other An- tilles, but has rather more of the domestic animals gone wild, including dogs and cats as well as cattle and hogs. The undisturbed wilderness and great stretches of unoccupied land give them a vast range of freedom. There is no great variety or abund- ance of birds, but many snakes and reptiles, mostly harmless, and insects in plenty, some of which have unpleasant ways. The island stands open to the north-east trade-winds, and on account of the great elevations on its surface, the contrasts in its climate are somewhat stronger than in the other islands. The general rainfall is heavy, especially on the north- THE ISLAND OF HAITI 233 ern slopes, and the wet season lasts from May till October; but there are sheltered plateaus where very little rain comes and vegetation is nourished by heavy dews. There is much heat and moisture in some of the lowlands near the coast, and at Port- au-Prince the temperature ranges from 65° to ioo° Fahrenheit. There is no more delightful or salu- brious climate in the world than is to be found in much of the upland country, and the plains that border the river valleys are always healthful. If the cities and towns are not so in the wet and hot sea- son, it is largely due to lack of attention to sanitary and hygienic requirements. Haiti has been several times shaken in spots by violent earthquakes. About once in a century some promising town has been quite destroyed. This happened to Concepcion de la Vega in the great east- ern plain in 1564, and to Port-au-Prince on the west- ern bay in 1751. In 1842, Port-au-Prince was shaken into ruins by convulsions of the earth. But no ex- ternal indications of volcanic action in recent ages have been found, and the hurricane does not strike this island with the violence which it sometimes ex- hibits toward the lower Caribbees and Jamaica and Cuba. It does not lie across the favourite path of that raging monster of the air. Espafiola, or “ Little Spain," was the mother of the Spanish colonies in the West Indies. After the excitement of the discovery days and the eager quest for gold, when Diego Colon at Santo Do- mingo assumed the airs of a royal ruler, expeditions were sent to Jamaica under Esquivel and to Cuba 234 THE WEST INDIES under Velasquez, while De Leon went over to Puerto Rico to begin its colonial career; and the Cuban expedition was the starting-point of Cortez and the conquest of Spanish possessions on the mainland. The mother colony itself settled down to quiet with no history separable from that of the dis- covery, the colonising, and the doings of the traders and buccaneers who came to infest these waters. Ovando explored along the southern coast and founded a town called Salva Tierra near the present Aux Cayes, but the Spanish settlements were mostly within easy reach of Santo Domingo or in the great plain over the mountains, which sloped to the sea at Samana and at Monte Cristi. After the wretched natives had died out and negro bondmen had been brought in, plantation life began its infancy and its slow growth. In 1585, Drake captured the city of Santo Do- mingo, but only to exact ransom and sail away ; and the languishing colony was occasionally harried on its coasts by marauding enemies of Spain or of all peaceable mankind. After the French refugees from St. Christopher joined the first “ boucaniers” in pos- session of Tortuga, the Spanish drove them out more than once, with the result that they finally set- tled upon the western end of the larger island, at Petit Goave on the north side of the southern pen- insula within the gulf. They held on there and were joined by other Frenchmen. They established plantations and bought negro slaves, trading chiefly with the buccaneers. Unlike the other colonists, they obtained African women as well as men, and THE ISLAND OF HAITI 235 their slaves increased in number spontaneously, instead of dying out on their hands, and had a superior physical vigour. The colonists built a fort at the head of the bay which they called Port-au- Prince, but just when and in honour of what prince seems to be unknown. But these Frenchmen raised sugar and coffee and cotton and established a flourishing trade, and when the peace treaty of Ryswick was signed in 1697, Spain was fain to con- cede to France the colony which had grown up on the western end of “ Little Spain.” The French called their colony St. Domingue, while the Spanish retained the name of Espanola, or Hispaniola; and it was not until the former declared its independence that it assumed the old native appellation of Haiti for itself. After the Spanish colony had passed through its transformation to a like state of inde- pendence, it took the name of Santo Domingo, and each of the two republics acquired the habit of call- ing the whole island by its own name. Unfortun- ately, the rest of the world has accepted both names for the island and used them indiscriminately, in- stead of leaving them to designate the two nations, and retaining the original Spanish title in its Latin- ised form for the whole land. It was a little more than one third of the area of the island that was ceded to France, and the bound- ary was not definitely fixed until 1777, and has been in dispute most of the time since. The two colonies grew side by side, not always peaceably when their mother countries were quarrelling, but without any serious contests between themselves. But the 236 THE WEST INDIES French colony was more rapid and vigorous in its growth. When the Revolution of 1789 came in France, it had fully twice the population of Espa- nola, and far more than twice its wealth and foreign trade. Of its population of 500,000, 38,360 were whites of European origin, 28,370 were free persons of colour, mostly mulattoes with white fathers, and the rest were negro slaves. There were many large plantations, over 11,000, it has been said, and a flourishing trade, mostly centred at Port-au-Prince. “ Colonial produce,” which meant chiefly sugar, coffee, and cotton, was sent to Europe and ex- changed for manufactured articles, and many of the mulattoes became property-owners, and some of them received a good education in France. Mean- time the Spaniards at the other end of the island were going on in a more quiet way and increasing much more slowly. Their plantations were fewer and smaller, and they raised comparatively little for export; and what substance they had was mostly drawn to Spain. In the most palmy days of the French colony of St. Domingue came the great convulsion in France, for which generations of arbitrary rule and oppres- sion of the mass of the people had prepared the way. The close relations which the colonists had kept up with the mother country led them to feel the thrill and to share the alarm. The friends of liberty in the motherland bethought them of the slaves of the distant colony and the cruel treatment they were said to have been subjected to by the lordly plant- ers; and the society of 14 Les Amis des Noirs ” was THE ISLAND OF HAITI 23 7 founded in Paris. The whites in the island, with the exception of some of the rich planters — the “ petits blancs,” — were quite ready for their share of liberty, fraternity, and equality, but did not wish to admit the coloured brother to it. When the an- cient regime was overturned, the white colonists were admitted to all the privileges of the new French citi- zenship, but the free people of colour were excluded. They agitated vigorously for equal rights, and when these were denied there was an insurrection led by Vincent Og6, one of the mulattoes who had been educated in France and had imbibed there the new- born spirit of liberty. The revolt was put down, and Og£, who had taken refuge in Espafiola, was given up by the Spaniards and broken on the wheel, while twenty-one of his followers were hanged. This by no means allayed the excitement, and in response to the efforts of “ Les Amis des Noirs ” the French Assembly decreed that all persons of colour “ born of free parents ” were entitled to all the privileges of citizens of France. On protest of the planters the government delayed putting this de- cree into effect, and that renewed the conflict with increased fury, and even the slaves were aroused to insurrection. This so alarmed the whites that they were ready to concede the demand of the mulattoes, when the Assembly at Paris revoked the decree. This threw the free coloured people and the blacks together in a common resistance to the authorities. Commissioners were sent from France to settle the trouble, but found it too much for them, and the Spaniards took the opportunity to invade the colony 238 THE WEST INDIES from the east, while the English attacked it from the water, capturing Port-au-Prince and laying siege to Port h la Paix. In this dilemma the French com- missioner Sonthonax, then in the colony, took it upon himself to proclaim universal freedom in August, 1793, his action being ratified and confirmed the next year by the national convention in France. This brought the whole black and coloured force to the side of the new-born republican power in France, under the command of Francois Dominique Tous- saint, ever since known as Toussaint L’Ouverture. The name is said by some to have been assumed on account of the opening of a new era for his race, and by others to have been conferred by a French officer because the way opened wherever he appeared. He was a full-blooded negro, a slave and the son of slaves, though descended from an African prince; but with a slight education gained in his master’s family he had in these stirring times developed a genius for military command and for rule over the people of his blood. The French Government made him commander-in-chief of the native forces, the Spanish and English were driven out, and when by the treaty of Basle in 1795 Espaftola was given up to France, Toussaint L’Ouverture became virtual dictator of the whole island. The black ruler, the revolted slave of a few years before, developed administrative ability as remark- able as the military capacity that he had shown. He established himself in the old palace at Santo Domingo and assumed imposing airs of state with a body-guard of 1500 men in brilliant uniform, and THE ISLAND OF HAITI 239 a council of nine members, of whom all but one were white planters of substance and capacity. A constitution was drawn up, free trade was declared, and Toussaint L’Ouverture was made president for life. All this was nominally in subjection to the authority of the French Republic, but there was a new turn of affairs in France. A still greater genius for war and for the rule of men had come into power there as First Consul, and he would not brook the pretensions of the black upstart of Haiti, who seemed to aim at an independent empire of his own. Toussaint in fact declared the independence of the island, and proclaimed himself the supreme chief in July, 1801. Napoleon sent out an expedition with sixty-six ships of war and an army of 30,000 men under Gen- eral Leclerc to bring the revolted colony to its alle- giance. Leclerc landed at Samana, and, finding an opposition that he could not overcome by force, tried to secure the submission of L’Ouverture by diplomatic proceedings, in which the two sons of the black chieftain, who had been in France for their education and had been brought over with the ex- pedition, were used as emissaries. They brought a letter from the First Consul, offering great honours to the negro ruler if he would return to his allegiance, but he chose to be faithful to his own people. He formally abolished slavery and established a system of free labour under which those who worked the plantations were to have one third of the crop. There was a long and bloody struggle, and the pur- pose of the French general to restore slavery as well 240 THE WEST INDIES as the sovereignty of France was finally avowed. This made the blacks fight with desperation for the preservation of their freedom. The conflict was carried on mainly in the old French colony at the western end of the island. Yellow fever came to the aid of the struggling negroes and threatened the French army with destruction. Then General Le- clerc resorted again to tricks of diplomacy. Having won over the two black generals Dessalines and Christophe to his scheme by plausible representa- tions, he finally induced Toussaint himself to con- sent, upon solemnly repeated assurances of good faith, to a plan of holding a representative assembly of the people of the island, which should provide for their future liberty and welfare. Then by base pretences Toussaint L’Ouverture was enticed to a conference in Gonaive, seized and carried to France, where he died of neglect and starvation in the dun- geons of the Chateau Joux. General Leclerc had remained behind and assumed the title of governor-general, but the insurrection broke out with new violence under Dessalines, Christophe, and other lieutenants of Toussaint L’Ouverture. On the death of Leclerc, General Rochambeau succeeded to the command and con- tinued a ruthless policy. Bloodhounds were brought from Cuba to reinforce the French army and hunt the blacks from their hiding-places, while a raging epidemic of yellow fever rendered the army itself well-nigh helpless. This horrible warfare was kept up with appalling barbarity and suffering on both sides, but the debilitated French soldiers were finally THE ISLAND OF HAITI 24I penned up at Cape Frangois (now Cape Haitien), and forced to eat their Cuban bloodhounds or die of starvation and disease. They finally surrendered, and France lost the greatest of her West Indian colonies forever. The Haitians formally declared their independence anew on the 1st of January, 1804, and General Dessalines was made governor for life with the right to name his successor. He soon declared himself emperor, with the title of Jacques I., and proceeded to order every French person on the island to be put to death, turning out to be such a murderous brute that in 1806 he was assassinated by his own soldiers. Rival negro chiefs then divided the heritage. Christophe established himself in the north-west as “ chief magistrate for life,” with his capital at Cape Haitien, but in 1811 he proclaimed himself king in that domain with the title of Henri I., and built a strong castle and a pleasure palace some distance from the coast. In the meantime, Spain, with the help of the English, had recovered nominal control of her old colony in the east. In the south-western peninsula, a mulatto named Petion held sway with headquarters at Port-au-Prince. He was a comparatively wise and benign ruler, and died in 1818 much regretted by his people. In 1820, the black king, Christophe, shot himself, and General Boyer became president of the Republic of Haiti, which now included both sections of the western end of the island. Its independence was acknow- ledged by France in 1825, upon an agreement for the payment of 125,000,000 francs to indemnify 16 24 2 THE WEST INDIES French citizens for their losses of property. This was afterwards reduced to 90,000, coo francs, and long rested as a debt upon the republic. In 1821, the Colombian flag of Bolivar was raised in Santo Domingo and its independence from Spain was declared ; but the next year, to save itself from being forced back under the Spanish sovereignty, it yielded to General Boyer’s attack and was merged in the Haitian Republic. From that time until 1844 the whole island continued under one government as the Republic of Haiti, but in the latter year the separate autonomy of Santo Domingo was estab- lished under the title of the Dominican Republic. CHAPTER XXI THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI THE boundary between the two republics of Haiti and Santo Domingo begins at the mouth of the Anses-k- Pitre on the south and terminates at the mouth of the Riviere du Massacre on the north, but it is irregular in its course and has been much disputed. Haiti has an area generally stated as 10,204 square miles, including the islands of Tor- tuga, Gonaive, and Ile-k-Vache. It is divided on the French system into departments, arrondisse- ments, and communes. The latest estimate of the population is 1,210,000; but according to the last official statement, the six departments of the repub- lic and the number of inhabitants were as follows: Nord, 250,000; Nord Ouest, 70,000; Artibonite, 125,000; Ouest, 350,000; and Sud, 200,000. The history of the Haitian Republic has been one of almost constant revolution or insurrection, and the constitution has been several times modified. General Boyer, who became president on the death of Christophe, or Henri I., “ King of the North," in 1820, and who succeeeded not only in uniting the 243 244 THE WEST INDIES sections of the west, but in bringing the Spanish end of the island under his sway, exercised power in an arbitrary fashion until a growing opposition broke into revolution and drove him out in 1842. Two years later the old Spanish colony revolted under the leadership of Juan Pablo Duarte, and set up for itself as an independent republic. General Faustin Soulouque, the new ruler of Haiti, tried to bring it into subjection again and failed. He was a violent and superstitious African, with strong pagan instincts but much personal power, and in 1849 he declared himself emperor of Haiti with the title of Faustin I., had the constitution changed to fit the case, created orders of nobility, with black dukes, counts, and barons, and in 1850 was crowned with great pomp and circumstance. He became so ex- travagant, despotic, and corrupt that in 1858 his empire was overthrown and the republic was restored under General Fabre Geffrard. Soulouque tried to recover his ground, but soon had to save his head by taking refuge in Jamaica. There were plots against Geffrard and an attempt upon his life which resulted in the killing of his daughter. There was a successful revolution in 1867, which drove him to Jamaica, and a triumvirate was formed under Generals Nissage-Saget, Chevalier, and Salnave. A new constitution was adopted and Sylvestre Salnave was made president, but this led to division and tumult, from which Nis- sage-Saget emerged as president. General Salo- mon, who became president in 1879, succeeded in holding power for eight years, putting down onQ THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 245 serious insurrection in 1883, and in getting himself elected again in 1887; but the ambitious warriors and statesmen of the land thought he had enjoyed the profits of power long enough, and there was a revolution. One of the rebel leaders, General Le- gitime, assumed the part of dictator, and was chosen provisional president, but he had several rivals for the glory of -succeeding the banished Salomon, among them Generals Thelemaque, Hippolyte, and Manigat, who had helped to bring about the revo- lution. Thelemaque was killed, and Manigat and Legitime joined the exiles in Jamaica to plot trouble for the successful aspirant for presidential honours. Louis Modestin Florvil Hippolyte became the chief magistrate under an amended constitution in 1889. He was not a gentle or mild-mannered person, but had a rude and vigorous capacity for government. He was constantly on the watch for conspirators, and prompt in crushing any resistance to his power. Legitime and Manigat succeeded in exciting in- surrection a number of times, but it was speedily suppressed, and certain rebel leaders falling into the hands of Hippolyte in 1891, he summarily put them to death. He gained a reputation for bloodthirsti- ness by the prompt and merciless manner in which he dealt with those whom he regarded as traitors. In 1896, he died of apoplexy, and his death was kept secret until his successor had been chosen in the person of his secretary of war, General Tiresias Augustin Simon Sam. Haiti has an army of less than 7000 men, but every person conspicuous in politics or public life seems to be a “ general.” 246 THE WEST INDIES Under the constitution as it is at the time of this writing, the president is elected for a term of seven years by the National Assembly in joint session of the two houses. The Assembly consists of a Senate of thirty-nine members and a House of Deputies of ninety-five. The deputies are elected for a term of three years by popular vote to represent the com- munes, and the senators are elected for a term of six years by the House of Deputies from a list of candi- dates furnished by the president and a college of electors, one third going out every two years. There is a judicial system wTith a Court of Cassa- tion, which is the tribunal of appeal, a superior court at the capital of each department, and subsidiary and primary courts in the arrondissements and com- munes; and the framework of the law is the Code civil. According to law, education is gratuitous and compulsory, but the law is not enforced, and ignorance is general. A degenerate French patois is in common use, and few know any other language, or have any doubt that the Haitians are as intelli- gent and highly educated as any people on the face of the earth. Most of them have a patriotic pride in their government, which is always arbitrary, gen- erally inefficient, and notoriously corrupt. Nine tenths of the million and more of free and independent citizens are of pure African blood, and most of the rest have an intermixture of it. The French whites who were not slaughtered were ex- pelled after the revolution, and no alien is allowed to own land in the republic. The religion of the old French colony was Roman Catholic, but the THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 247 slaves were not very thoroughly inoculated with it, and while they nominally retained it in their state of freedom, it became deplorably mingled with an in- herited African paganism. Voudooism and the mystic rites of Obeah prevail more or less openly, with all the horrid practices of serpent worship, sometimes including the sacrifice of infants — “ the goat without horns ” — and the eating of human flesh. Reports of heathen practices in secret places are doubtless exaggerated, but there are authentic accounts of the hideous orgies which attend the Vou- doo, or “ Vaudoux,” worship; and serious but un- availing attempts have been made to suppress the cannibalism which is still a feature of it. There is certainly a general lack of enlightenment and progress in the Black Republic. Public improve- ments are almost wholly neglected ; the roads are bad, and the bridges so dilapidated as to be generally avoided. They are hardly ever renewed or repaired. The villages are, as a rule, slovenly collections of shan- ties, and most rural habitations are squalid and un- kempt. The old plantation buildings have gone to decay, and industrial enterprise has fled. Agricultural and commercial methods are crude and primitive, or negligently conducted, and business honour is as scarce a commodity as social and domestic virtue. The currency of the nation is disordered and its finances are ignorantly conducted ; and of the $9,- 000,000 or so of government expenditures, a large pro- portion is misapplied or fraudulently appropriated, while corruption in the collection of revenues is al- most universal. Such is the unqualified testimony 24S THE WEST INDIES of competent observers who have spent much time in Haiti. The capital of the republic, which is also the principal port and the chief commercial city, is Port- au-Prince at the head of the bay which penetrates so deeply into the western end of the island. The French built a fortification here at an early date, but the city was not founded until 1749, when it was called L’Hopital. The old colonial capital was Leogane, which has an outlet on the bay now called £a Ira. Port-au-Prince has 30, cxx) to 35,cxx) in- habitants, but though it is the centre of nearly all the foreign trade, it is a shabby, ill-kept, foul-smell- ing, and most unwholesome place. It was shaken to pieces by an earthquake in 1842, and has been several times nearly burned up, but it retains its flimsy construction, speedily becomes dingy after being rebuilt, and reeks with filth at most times. Back from the city the plain of Cul-de-Sac once contained flourishing plantations and is by nature one of the most attractive and productive stretches of land in the whole country. The port of St. Marc to the north of the capital is the outlet for the coffee gardens and mahogany groves of the lower valley of the Artibonite. Near by is Gonaive, where the independence of Haiti was declared, and whence Toussaint L’Ouverture was carried to his dismal fate. There is a good harbour at Mole St. Nicholas, the end of the north-western peninsula, where Columbus first touched this great island and where the French established their real stronghold before PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI. THE REPUBLIC OF HAITI 249 their possession was conceded by the Spaniards. Here also the Acadians from Nova Scotia were in temporary exile before going to Louisiana. On the north coast opposite Tortuga is Port-ci-la-Paix, the “ Valparaiso ” of Columbus. Cape Haitien, farther east, has a flourishing coffee trade, and a few miles south of it is the chateau “ Sans Souci,” which Christophe established as his royal residence when he was king. The most eastern port is Li- bert£, which has a deep harbour and is largely the shipping point for dyewoods. Along the southern peninsula on the bay side are a number of small trading places, Grand Goave, Petit Goave, Barade- res, Jeremie. It is a country of coffee and cacao culture. At Jeremie were the ancestral estates of the family of Alexandre Dumas. On the outer side of the peninsula beyond Cape Tiburon are several havens — Coteaux, Port Salut (which is not safe), Aux Cayes, Aquin, and St. Louis. Aux Cayes is the place from which Cromwell's fleet took its de- parture for Jamaica, and at which Bolivar’s expedi- tion for the liberation of the Spanish colonies in South America was fitted out in 1816. There is so much coast-line to Haiti that there are few towns of consequence in the interior. Though the industrial condition is so backward and trade is less flourishing than in former times, there are still exports of cotton, coffee, cacao, mahogany, dye- woods, tortoise shell, and a few other products ; and manufactured wares and fabrics are imported from Europe and some provisions and cotton goods from the United States. The foreign trade amounts to 250 THE WEST INDIES about $15,000,000 a year, of which $9,500,000 con- sists of exports, but the capacity of the country for profitable production is scarcely touched by the thriftless population. Political conditions and a narrow and exclusive policy, dictated by jealousy and fear, keep out foreign capital and enterprise as well as the civilising influences that might induce progress and elevation, though probably at the ex- pense of the full freedom of the blacks in the experi- ment of self-government, for which they were so ill-prepared. CHAPTER XXII THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC HE full form of the Spanish title “ Santo ” was reserved to Dominicus and two or three other special worthies in the calendar of saints, and the English habit of abridging it to “ San ” in the case of this name is highly improper, though ignorant usage has forced its acceptance by some “ authori- ties.” The Republic of Santo Domingo has an area of 18,045 square miles, which is nearly double that of Haiti, while its population numbers only 610,000, or about one half that of the negro nation. There is also a wide difference in the character of the people of the two republics. Those of Santo Domingo are to a considerable degree Spanish in their origin and traditions, and retain the Spanish language without much degeneration. The Span- iards were not driven out when the bond of sover- eignty was broken, and have never been excluded. About one tenth of the present inhabitants are of pure Castilian blood, and the rest exhibit every de- gree of mixture of white and ” coloured,” with comparatively little of the unadulterated negro. The Spanish slavery system was not so harsh as 251 252 THE WEST INDIES that of the more flourishing French colony, where large plantations enriched their owners; and the Catholic Church did more to soften and modify the African character in the eastern part of the island. The consequence is the mixture of races and the more tractable character of the people, who do not cling to pagan superstitions and practices or retain savage qualities to the same extent as those of Haiti. The Dominican Republic is now divided into ten provinces and districts, as follows, the figures in- dicating the population according to the latest official statements: Beginning at the western limit on the south coast, Azua de Compostela, 50,000, Santo Domingo, 134,000, Santa Cruz del Seybo, 56,000; in the interior, Concepcion de la Vega, 132,000, Santiago de los Caballeros, 40,000, Bara- hona, 20,000, San Pedro, 40,000; in the north-east, Samana, 180,000; and on the north coast, Puerto Plata, 40,000, and Monte Cristi, 40,000. The capi- tal town in each province and district has the same name as the political division itself, except that the port of Samana is sometimes called by the old name of Santa Barbara, but the capital is not in every case the largest town. Of the five provinces into which the republic was originally divided, that of Azua de Compostela in- cludes a fine grazing region, the upper valley of the Artibonite, and a district of mineral springs near the borders of Haiti. At San Juan de Maguana some curious relics of the aboriginal cult have been found, including a circle of stones roughly representing the THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 253 emblem of eternity, in the form of a serpent with its tail in its mouth. Azua on Ocoa Bay is the only important port on the southern coast west of Santo Domingo. The capital city itself is the oldest in the western world, though not the original town of Bartolome Colon, which was on the other bank of the Ozama River. There are still some vestiges of ruins on the east bank which recall the memory of Colum- bus, including those of the chapel where Bobadilla proclaimed the deposition of the great Admiral and his own assumption of command ; and even traces of the tower by the river’s mouth in which he was imprisoned before being sent home in chains. The first settlement was destroyed by a hurricane in 1502, and the other bank of the river was chosen as a more favourable site. The great tower of the Homenage, built in 1509, still frowns dismally at the entrance to the modern city, and farther up are the ruins of the palace built by Diego Colon, and known yet as the Casa Colon. Santo Domingo is a strange mixture of the endur- ing relics of former splendour and the squalid domi- ciles of the living generation. It is partly inclosed in the old Spanish walls over which appear the quaint domes and belfries of churches and convents of the sixteenth century. On the central plaza are the government buildings and a cathedral more than three hundred and fifty years old, with a statue of Columbus in front of it; but crumbling ruins of still earlier structures may be explored. Remains of the convent church of San Nicolas, built in 1509, are visible, and in that of San Francisco the dust of 254 THE WEST INDIES Bartolom£ Colon and of the intrepid soldier Alonso de Ojeda are said to repose. To the convent church of Santo Domingo still cling fragments of the walls of the first university founded in the New World, where the gentle Las Casas began his ministrations before going to Cuba. The cathedral was many years in building and was finally completed in 1540. Already the remains of Diego Colon had been placed in a vault beneath one of its chapels, and on petition of survivors of the family those of the discoverer himself were brought thither and deposited near them. Are they still there ? When the colony was ceded to France in 1 795 , Spain was permitted to remove these precious relics to Havana, which she was supposed to have done with great solemnity and much ceremony; but it is now pretty well demonstrated that the wrong casket was removed and that the bones of Christo- pher Columbus still repose in the city of his brother and his son, which succeeded the Navidad and Isabella of his own founding. Extending about the city of Santo Domingo is a district of small towns and plantations connected with it in recent times by railroad. The Seybo province to the east is mostly a region of forests and broad savannas. The eastern slope of the great and fertile plain that so captivated the eye of Columbus contains some quietly flourishing towns and many sugar and coffee plantations, but near the mouth of the Yuna River there is a long marsh called the gran estero . The old port of Las Flechas near the end of the island has been abandoned for that of Samana, within the THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 255 sheltered bay, which is connected by railroad with La Vega and Santiago. It is intended to extend the line through the Yaqui valley to Monte Cristi. The pearl fisheries on the south side of Samana Bay, near San Lorenzo, where there are some fine stalac- tite caves, have been abandoned. There is stock- raising as well as the cultivation of sugar, coffee, and tobacco in the long stretches of the Vega Real, and some mining still in the neighbourhood of Monte Cristi. Puerto Plata, the only seaport of consequence on the north coast, took the place of the ill-fated Isabella of Columbus. Its harbour is not deep but is locally serviceable, and there has been a project of a railroad across the island from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata, taking in Santiago and intersecting the line from Samana. The French took possession of the old Spanish colony of Espaftola after the treaty of Basle in 1795, and maintained a garrison there through the troubles of those and subsequent times; but in 1809 it was driven out by the English who restored the sover- eignty of Spain. This continued until 1821, when Santo Domingo gained her independence only to be coerced by General Boyer into the union with Haiti in 1822. This lasted until 1844, when the new Do- minican Republic was established under a separate constitution, and General Pedro Santana was chosen as the first president for a term of four years. His successor, Jimenez, conspired with Soulouque to bring back the old state of things, and was resisted and defeated by Santana, who regained power as a temporary dictator, though Buenaventura Baez was 256 THE WEST INDIES elected president in 1849. l%5 3> there was a fierce contest in which Santana won the presidency and Baez was banished, but in 1856 the latter was recalled and put in power, to give way to Santana again in 1858. Getting discouraged by the difficulty of main- taining a stable government, the president allowed Spain to resume control in 1861. But this only made things worse, and in 1865 the Spanish authorities were expelled, independence was again declared, the old constitution was adopted anew, and Baez was once more made the chief magistrate. But the very next year he was expelled and a triumvirate was established, to be succeeded in 1868 by Jos6 Maria Cabral as president, who offered to lease the Bay of Samana to the United States. Cabral was speedily displaced by the persistent Baez, and a commission was sent to Washington in 1871 to promote the annexation of Santo Domingo to the United States. Its mission was a failure, and in 1873 Samana was ceded to an American company which forfeited its rights by failure to pay the stipulated rental the first year. In 1873, Ignacio Gonzales became president, and there was a period of comparative quiet but little progress. After a renewal of disturbances in 1886, General Ulisses Heureaux was elected president, and was re- elected for three successive terms of four years. His administration was disturbed by insurrections and revolutionary movements, which became serious in 1893 and in 1896, but he put them down with an energetic hand and maintained his power. THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 257 The constitution, which was adopted in 1844 and reaffirmed in 1865, was revised in 1888, and again modified in 1896. The legislative body is a single chamber of twenty-four members, two representing each province and district, and two the cities of Santo Domingo and Santiago. They are elected by popular suffrage for a term of four years, as is the president, or chief executive. The judiciary con- sists of a Supreme Court at Santo Domingo, and lower courts in the districts, while every town and parish has its alcalde, or local magistrate. There are provincial assemblies with limited jurisdiction, and town councils, or ayuntamientos, after the manner of Spanish municipal administration. The Roman Catholic Church has continued dom- inant, and the archbishop of Santo Domingo still claims the old title of “ Primate of the Indies,” but a policy of toleration has been pursued, and there are many Protestants in the republic, mainly Metho- dists and Baptists. Though there is a university, two colleges, and many schools, education is back- ward. While Santo Domingo does not appear to prosper or to advance very perceptibly, it has maintained a steadily progressive policy under President Heu- reaux. There has been no such jealousy of foreign influence as prevails in Haiti, and English and American capital has been encouraged. Railroads have been begun and are to be extended, and most of the important towns are connected by telegraph. In 1888, Santo Domingo, Samana, and Puerto Plata were connected with the submarine cable system by 258 THE WEST INDIES way of Santiago de Cuba, taking in Mole St. Nicho- las on the way. Still the foreign trade has amounted to less than $4,000,000 a year, the imports being valued at about S1 >703,595, and the exports at $2,- 200,000. The latter consist chiefly of sugar, coffee, cacao, mahogany, logwood, hides, goat-skins, and honey, and the former of cotton fabrics, hardware, earthenware, and breadstuffs. About half this trade is with the United States. Since 1893, the “San Domingo Improvement Company “ of New York has had charge of the collection of customs and the distribution of the revenues of the republic. There are no national taxes except the customs duties, and these increased from $652,000 in 1892 to $1,601,000 in 1897. There have been considerable public im- provements made in recent years, including the building of docks, warehouses, and lighthouses, as well as railroads and telegraph lines. The people of Santo Domingo are generally peaceable and law- abiding, and are especially courteous and hospitable to strangers, but there is a lack of enterprise and energy, and as a consequence the great natural resources of the country have been little developed. CHAPTER XXIII PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PUERTO RICO HE great submarine plateau from which the Bahama Islands spring and the vast ocean ridges to the south of it converge to an apex some 1500 miles from their western origin. The two ridges which run through Cuba and Jamaica, one having its apparent point of departure at Yucatan and the other at the angle of Honduras, coalesce in the island of Haiti, and sink again below the sea- level in a single ridge, which reappears at a distance of ninety miles in the island of Puerto Rico. This island stands like a huge pillar, with deep abysses on either side, between the broad and varied forma- tion which constitutes a submerged extension of the continent and the long chain of rocky and coralline isles that sweeps in a vast semicircle to the coast of South America. It stands guard at the main en- trance to the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, in the natural pathway from the east to the narrow isthmus which divides the American Medi- terranean from the Pacific. The channel between Haiti and Puerto Rico is called the Mona Passage, 26o THE WEST INDIES and near the middle of it rises Mona (“ Monkey ”) Island, which belongs politically to Puerto Rico. The western coast-line of the large island runs irregularly north and south from Punta de Pefia Ahujerada to Punta de Aguila, with the Punta del Juguro marking the farthest westward projection, about one third of the way down the coast. This western boundary is a little over forty miles long, and the island extends eastward a little more than one hundred miles in the form of a parallelogram, with its north and south sides slightly indented here and there with bays and inlets. Toward the eastern end it diminishes in width, and its outline becomes more broken, while the eastern coast-line is quite irregular and deflected to a north-easterly and south-Westerly direction, with two small islands and a number of islets and keys lying off the shore. At the north-east angle is Cape San Juan, and the south-eastern cape is Malapasqua. The largest of the outlying islands is Vieques, or 44 Crab,” which is about seventeen miles long by five wide, with a ridge of hills running through its length. North of its eastern end is La Culebra (4‘ The Snake”), six miles by three, with a rugged but wooded surface. Near by this latter is Culebrita, or Little Snake, and North-east and Bird Keys, which are rocky but wooded cones rising out of the sea; and between it and Cape San Juan is a string of reefs, with the cluster of isles named Obispo, Zancudo, and Ramos off the shore opposite Fajardo. Including these Islas del Pasaje, or Islands of the Passage, and Mona Island in the west, the area of CHARACTERISTICS OF PUERTO RICO 26 1 Puerto Rico is set down as 3630 square miles, which puts it somewhat below Jamaica in size and makes it about one fifth as large as Haiti and one twelfth the extent of Cuba. An elevated ridge of land runs through the island from west to east a few miles from the southern coast, throwing off spurs here and there irregularly in a northerly direction ; but it is hardly more than a range of wooded hills with a general altitude of less than 1500 feet, though in the east it is dignified by the name of the Sierra Cayey. There is a short range more worthy of the name of mountains in the north-east, sweeping in a southerly curve from near Cape San Juan westward, called the Sierra de Luquillo, which culminates in El Yunque, “The Anvil, ’ ’ a graceful peak over 3600 feet high. Except this solitary summit, none of the heights break into rocks or precipices, and nowhere on the surface are there signs of volcanic action. The whole rocky skeleton of the island is overlaid with soil, mostly rich in quality, and the many hills and ridges are covered with forests and dense vegetation to the very top. The outer formation of rock is chiefly limestone, and in some of the lowlands near the coast there are caves, notably in the vicinity of Arecibo on the northern side ; and there are coral- line structures here and there, though no such islets and reefs as profusely stud parts of the shores of Cuba and Haiti. There are hundreds of running streams, some of them rivers of considerable size, winding through the long valleys. Seventeen are enumerated as 262 THE WEST INDIES running to the north coast, sixteen to the south, nine to the east, and only two to the west. The longest naturally take a northerly course, and the principal ones on that slope are the Arecibo in the west and the Cayagua in the east. On the shorter southern slope are the Coamo and the Ja- caguas. None of these are navigable to any con- siderable distance, and they are not often broken by picturesque waterfalls; but they lend an aspect of rich verdure and splendid beauty to nearly all the land. Exposed directly to the steady draft of the north-east trade-winds, Puerto Rico has a heavier rainfall on the northern than on the southern slope, and there are places on the latter where irrigation is needed for a proper distribution of the water supply throughout the seasons. The line of coast is de- pressed at frequent intervals by the river valleys, and there are many small bays, some of which afford safe harbours, though few are deep. The principal ports on the northern coast are Arecibo and San Juan de Puerto Rico; on the western coast, Agua- dilla and Mayaguez ; on the south, Guanica, Guaya- nilla, La Playa, “ the Beach ” (of Ponce), and Arroyo ; and on the east, Humacao and Fajardo. Comparatively little has been ascertained regard- ing the mineral resources of the island, but gold, iron, copper, and coal are known to exist beneath the verdant surface. Placer mining for gold has been carried on to a small extent in the Luquillo and Corozal districts, and there are copper mines at Naguabo. The deposits of copper sulphates are quite extensive but little worked. There is a valu- CHARACTERISTICS OF PUERTO RICO 263 able magnetic iron ore, and small foundries have been established in San Juan, Ponce, and Maya- guez. The coal is chiefly a variety of lignite found in the west near Moca and Utuado. There is a compact limestone which makes an excellent build- ing material, and several varieties of marble are easily obtained. In the forests, which cover all the higher eleva- tions, there are many species of trees which afford valuable timber. Among these are mahogany, cedar, ebony, lignum vitse, and a tree peculiar to the island which bears a profusion of odorous white flowers and yields a timber called Sabino. Log- wood, fustic, and other dye materials are also abund- ant in the forests, which are easily accessible except for the obstruction of rank vegetation, through which no roads or trails have been broken. The cocoanut palm is common, and there is all the variety of tropical plants and fruits found upon the large islands to the west, growing in even greater luxuriance on account of the unbroken richness of the soil and the general distribution of water in run- ning streams. Shrubs and herbaceous plants with showy flowers are not, however, characteristic of the landscape, which is conspicuous for its verdure rather than its bloom. This verdure includes rank growths of ferns, some of which tower into spread- ing trees with graceful, drooping fronds. There is, comparatively speaking, a lack of birds as well as of flowers. Though there are parrots, pigeons, cuckoos, and humming-birds, orioles, war- blers, and nightingales, the verdurous landscape is 264 THE WEST INDIES not much lighted by brilliant plumage or enlivened by notes of song. Wild animals are few, though the agouti and the armadillo are still found ; rep- tiles are not specially plentiful, and insects are less intrusive than in most tropical climes. There are, however, some objectionable specimens, including a chigoe that will bore through the sole of a shoe and attack the sole of the foot. Puerto Rico is a land of rich soil and luxuriant vegetation rather than of varied animal life, and it is capable of cultivation far beyond anything to which it has been subjected. Among its indigenous products are tobacco, maize, cotton, cacao, yams, plantains, bananas, oranges, and many other fruits, and great crops of these can be easily raised ; but the leading “ staples ” have long been the exotic coffee and sugar-cane, on account of the profit which they yielded in former days. They still hold the front place in spite of negligent cultivation, de- pressed prices, and the lack of proper means of transportation. The climate of the island does not differ materially from that of the other Antilles, except that it has less of the variety due to differ- ences of altitude. It is very warm and very wet in the summer months, and on the northern slope the rainy season is rather prolonged. The heat and humidity in August and September are oppressive and enervating in the low lands near the coast, and malarial fevers are common in the absence of sani- tary and hygienic precautions. Little attention has been given in the past to drainage or a proper dis- tribution of the abundant water supply, and where CHARACTERISTICS OF PUERTO RICO 265 there is a dense population in the artificial condi- tions of towns epidemics sometimes appear. But on the whole the climate is remarkably healthful, and from November to June has a delightful soft- ness and splendour. The prevailing winds are easterly and north-easterly, and there is a notable absence of the land breeze which is characteristic of the islands farther west. Sometimes in the wet season there are thunder-storms of terrific violence, and occasionally the hurricanes, which are bred be- low the Caribbees, sweep with all their fury across this narrow barrier to the open ocean, though their customary track is farther west. A very destructive one visited the island in 1825. CHAPTER XXIV PUERTO RICO IN SPANISH HANDS HEN Columbus sailed from the northern side of Hispaniola for Spain, after his first voy- age of discovery, he probably did not observe the verdant heights of the beautiful island to the south, for he left no record of it; but on his return in No- vember, 1493, he came up from the Caribbees past the Virgins and skirted along its southern shore. As he went up its western coast on his way to the forlorn colony which he had left at La Navidad, he made a landing in a broad bay where he found generous springs of water for his ships. He called the place Aguadilla, admired the waving palm-trees on the sandy shore and the green background of wooded hills, and went his way. The natives called their land Borinquen, but with his fondness for labelling his discoveries with the names of saints Columbus called it San Juan Bautista, or St. John the Baptist. For fifteen years the island was left undisturbed under the cacique Agueynaba, whose people were said to be numerous, and were, so far as we know, PUERTO RICO IN SPANISH HANDS 2 67 happy and harmless. Before Diego Colon came from Spain to exercise his inherited prerogatives and send Esquivel to Jamaica and Velasquez to Cuba, a Spanish commander in the east of Hispa- niola, Juan Ponce de Leon by name, made a pro- specting trip across the channel, lured by reports of great wealth in the unexplored island of San Juan Bautista. He was received with imprudent hospital- ity by Agueynaba, who with childish delight showed him glittering grains of gold from the river beds. Confirmed in his anticipations of wealth, Ponce de Leon returned to Santo Domingo, and two years later, in 1510, went with an armed expedition to take possession of Agueynaba’s realm. He ex- plored the northern coast until he came to a deep inlet opening into a spacious bay, and near this he founded the town of Caparra; but finding that he had chosen the wrong side of the bay for defensive purposes, he started again a year later on the island that guarded the entrance on the east, and built a city which he called San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico. This became the capital of the new colony, and remained so while Spain held her sovereignty in the western world. Unwittingly Ponce de Leon gave a new name to the whole island, for though Puerto Rico meant simply a “ splendid port,” it was incongruously applied to a land of large extent and many ports, and the English, with their pro- pensity for assimilating foreign words to the sound of their own language, came to call it Porto Rico, as if it were Portuguese instead of Spanish. Ponce de Leon had hardly started his new colony 268 THE WEST INDIES when he was carried away by his dream of the fount- ain of perpetual youth, and went wandering up the Bahamas; but he returned, and, though he received the imposing title of Adelantado of Bernini and Florida, he gave his attention for a time to the gentle process of exterminating the natives of Puerto Rico with firearms and bloodhounds, and to med- dling with the Caribs farther south, by way of de- veloping the resources of the land. He had adopted the repartimiento plan of dividing up the territory and its inhabitants, and because the people would not work as slaves they had to die. As for the Caribs, they were no doubt obtrusive and trouble- some, but Ponce de Leon’s expedition down the islands for their punishment was a disastrous failure. Finally, in 1521, the conquistador went to take pos- session of his realm of Florida; but its native deni- zens objected vigorously with bows and arrows, and instead of renewing his youth or prolonging his life, the visionary warrior retired to Cuba to die of wounds. For a long while after that little is known of Puerto Rico’s history. In fact there seems to have been little history to know. The colony was at- tacked by Caribs and by hurricanes and gave up the struggle for existence ; but the Spanish held posses- sion at San Juan with soldiers and guns in spite of visits from English and Dutch admirals, French corsairs, and all manner of smugglers and buc- caneers. Drake in 1595, finding that there was no ransom to be extorted, sacked the place and left it, and in 1598, the Duke of Cumberland repeated the PUERTO RICO IN SPANISH HANES 269 process; but Baldwin Heinrich, the Dutchman, in 1615, met with spirited resistance from the garrison and lost his life. All through the seventeenth century and far into the eighteenth the beauty and riches of the island were left to flourish in lonely desolation, save for a few places feebly held by soldiers on the coast, and here and there a languishing settlement. It is recorded that in 1700 there were only three villages in all the island, and in 1765 the entire population numbered 45,000. It seems like a strange oversight that the enemies of Spain did not seize this neglected domain ; but though they stopped to fire guns at the forts of San Juan now and then, they do not seem to have been attracted by a land where there was nothing to steal and one had to work in order to get wealth. At last Spain began to wake up to the value of this posses- sion, and not only were slaves introduced to culti- vate plantations, but Andalusian peasants were sent out as real colonists. In 1775 the population was 79,000, of which 50,000 consisted of negro slaves, and when Lord Abercrombie made his attack on San Juan in 1797, he had to give it up after a siege of three days. The fertility of the soil and the rich returns that came from raising coffee and sugar gave a strong impulse to immigration from Europe, and to the increase of slaves, and the population grew, the white element gaining more rapidly than the black and mixed breeds. At the time of the revolutions in South America and in Central America and Mex- 270 THE IVEST INDIES ico, many lovers of peace and seekers for prosperity betook themselves to this tranquil isle. Thus it came about that after a century or two of neglect and solitude, it was one of the most populous and thriving of the Antilles. Of the progress of popula- tion there is no accurate record, but the last Spanish census, taken in 1887, made it 799,000, of which 475,000 was white and 324,000 black and 4‘ col- oured," or mixed. It was estimated in 1898 at over 900,000, nearly two thirds Spanish and creoles of European descent, while the mulattoes outnum- bered the negroes. Puerto Rico during the comparatively short his- tory of its development was rather submissive to Spanish rule, partly because that rule was somewhat milder than in Cuba and partly because resistance was hopeless. In 1820, when the spirit of revolution was rife and there were many refugees from countries in which it was raging, an uprising was attempted even here, and as Spain had her hands full at the time, the insurrectionary movement was kept alive until 1823, when she had no difficulty in reasserting her author- ity. An attempt at revolt was made in 1867, when the Cuban plots were fermenting, but it was promptly suppressed, with the help of an alarming earthquake. In fact, the people had little chance to arm or to organise ; there were no mountain fastnesses in which to take refuge; and it required but few Spanish soldiers to keep them in subjection. In 1869, the Spanish Cortes decreed a constitu- tion to Puerto Rico, which made it in form a pro- vince of Spain, instead of a colonial dependency. It PUERTO RICO IN SPANISH HANDS 27 1 was to be represented in the Cortes by regular provincial deputies, elected upon the same condi- tions of suffrage as those prevailing in Spain. The governor-general was to be the resident representa- tive of the sovereign power. He was at once the captain-general of the armed forces and the chief administrative officer. As civil governor he was president of the supreme tribunal of justice and the head of an administrative council appointed at Madrid, having supervision of civil, military, and ecclesiastical affairs; but the fiscal interests of the government were in charge of a specially appointed officer, called an ‘ ‘ Intendant. ’ ’ There was a bishop, appointed by the Crown, with the approval of the Pope, and made subordinate to the archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. The judicial system was like that of Cuba, with an Audiencia Real, district courts, and local magistrates called alcaldes. These were all appointed by the central government, and the provincial autonomy was a mere matter of form. The province was divided into seven departments for convenience of central administration and with little regard for actual local self-government. The names of the departments and their chief towns, with the population of each, according to the last Spanish census, is here given in a compact table : DEPARTMENTS. POP. CHIEF TOWNS. )San Juan Bayamon Rio Piedras Aredb° 124.835] utuado POP. 27.000 15.000 11.000 30.000 31.000 272 THE WEST INDIES DEPARTMENTS. POP. Aguadilla 86,551 | Mayaguez 116,982 Ponce 160,140 Guayama 98,814 Humacao 88,270 806,708 CHIEF TOWNS. POP. Aguadilla 16,000 Lares 17,000 Mayaguez 28,000 San German 20,000 Cabo Rojo 17,000 Ponce 43,ooo Yauco 25,000 Juana Diaz 21,000 Adjuntas 16,000 Guayama 14,000 Caguas 15,000 Humacao 15,000 The island of Vieques was a sub-department of Humacao, and used chiefly as a military penal sta- tion. The discrepancy between the aggregate of the table and the total population previously given belongs to the official statements. CHAPTER XXV PORTS AND TOWNS OF PUERTO RICO THE only inlet on the whole coast of Puerto Rico that affords a landlocked harbour is that on which Ponce de Leon established his headquarters. It has a narrow, winding channel, but the basin within is deep and spacious. Though there is a lofty back- ground of hills at a distance, and El Yunque, the highest summit on the island, is visible, the land about the bay is low and swampy, except on the west, where the islands of Cabra and Cabrita are made virtually part of the mainland by connecting sand-banks. The harbour is inclosed to the east- ward of the channel by a coralline island, connected now with the main shore by a causeway and the Bridge of San Antonio. It was on the western point of this island, by the harbour entrance, that San Juan Bautista de Puerto Rico was first founded, and there the capital city, generally called simply San Juan, still stands, though it has grown beyond the ancient walls which constituted part of the forti- fications of Santa Catalina. Morro Castle is still close to the city inclosure, as are all the defences of 273 274 THE WEST INDIES the port. This adds to the picturesque appearance of the place, but exposes it to direct attack in case of hostile operations. The island on which the town was built extends about two and a quarter miles along the channel into the bay, but is only from a quarter to half a mile in width, and ends in a bluff about a hundred feet high. The walls and battlements are mediaeval in aspect, and the inclosure is crowded with the habitations of some 20, (XX) people. Six parallel streets run length- wise of the narrow space and are crossed by seven others. The houses are of gray stone, or of brick stuccoed over and tinted drab, yellow, pink, or blue, making a variegated and attractive picture as seen from the sea. The houses are mostly of two stories, but the lower is a kind of high basement crowded with negroes and people of the poorer sort, while the upper floors are occupied by respectable and well-to- do families. There are iron balconies to the main or upper story, but the windows which open upon these have no glass behind the shutters, or jalousies, and the houses have no visible chimneys. They are entered through interior patios, and some have roof gardens, but there are no open spaces about them. The people are dependent upon rain for their water supply, and there is no drainage except from the surface. It is not strange if the narrow and crowded streets become unwholesome in a moist, hot atmos- phere, and are haunted by vermin and the germs of fever. Besides the forts and barracks there are a “ gov- ernor’s palace,” a city hall, theatre, cathedral, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO. PORTS AND TOWNS OF PUERTO RICO 275 and a number of churches. The Casa Blanca, or “ White House,” of Ponce de Leon is still standing where it looked northward over the sea so long ago, and the dust of the visionary conquistador is cher- ished in a leaden casket in the old Dominican church. It was taken from the vault under the altar in 1863, for the purpose of being placed beneath a monument which was to be raised to the memory of the founder of San Juan, but the monument has not been built, and the casket waits the never-coming ‘ ‘ mafiana’ * for its final repose. On the bay side below the old walled town is the Marina, with wharves and wooden buildings and some humble dwellings, and in the outskirts on the one roadway to the mainland is Puerta de Tierra, with some 2000 inhabitants. At San Turce, out on the road beyond, are suburban residences, and also at Rio Piedras and Catafto across the bay. The near-by rural retreats are mostly on sand spits surrounded by mangrove swamps. A few miles inland to the west of the capital is Bayamon on a river of the same name. It is the centre and market-place of a rich agricultural region. Arecibo, farther west on the north coast, is called a seaport, but it is some distance from the shore, and the Rio Grande de Arecibo is a shallow stream, navigated only by flat-bottomed boats. The town, nevertheless, affords the outlet to the sea of a fertile district which contains the populous towns of Ad- juntas and Utuado. It is built about a central plaza upon which the principal public buildings face. Just around the north-west angle of the island on 2j6 THE WEST INDIES the west coast is Aguadilla, whose harbour is shel- tered from the trade-winds, and which has a thriving trade. From it are shipped the sugar and coffee of the plantations of Moca, El Pepino, and Lares in the rich Colubrinas valley. Mayaguez, farther to the south, is the most important shipping point on the west coast, and yet it stands some distance back and a considerable stream crossed by an iron bridge intervenes between the town and the roadstead for vessels. Transportation to and fro is conducted in a primitive fashion, and yet from Mayaguez is shipped a large share of the products of Afiaso, Cabo Rojo, San German, and the adjacent region. Oranges, bananas, and other fruits figure conspicuously in the exports from this point. Guanica on the southern coast has one of the best natural harbours on the whole island, but the adja- cent country is marshy. Here, nevertheless, is the outlet of a productive district farther inland, which includes, besides the southern precincts of San Ger- man, Sabana Grande and Yauco. Ponce, the largest and commercially the most important city on the island, is three miles inland from the wharves and warehouses of La Playa. Its public buildings are of stone and brick, and the most important of them front on a large public square. There are fine gar- dens and plantations in the neighbouring country, and the considerable towns of Juana Diaz and Coamo are near by. Mineral and thermal springs add their attractions to this part of the island, and there are some famous baths at Coamo. The place of most consequence east of Ponce is Guayama, near the port OLD GATEWAY, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO. PORTS AND TOWNS OF PUERTO RICO 2 77 of Arroyo. The eastern end of the island is the least populous part, and, being exposed to the trade- winds, there are no sheltered harbours, and the towns are built back from the coast. The most important are Cayey, Naguabo, San Lorenzo, and Humacao. This is a hilly region with coffee planta- tions interspersed with stretches of grazing land. Near San Lorenzo are some hot springs. Fajardo is little more than an open roadstead on a channel sheltered by the group of small islands heretofore mentioned, but on the south side of the island of Culebra is a safe port frequented by fisher- men and wood-cutters, though the island itself has no permanent residents. On the north side of Vieques is Port Mula at the mouth of a little stream. It con- tains the residence of the local governor, and has about 1000 inhabitants. On a projecting point is a lighthouse with a fixed red light. On the south side of this island is the little village of Isabela Segunda. The group of islands which extends into the Virgin Passage are picturesque to look upon, but there is little industrial life among them. Among the features of the country along the south coast of Puerto Rico are occasional marshes, where salt is prepared for the market. These are found near Cape Rojo and Guanica and at Salinas. The interior towns are mostly points for the collection of agricultural produce to be sent to the coast, and they are located altogether in the valleys. CHAPTER XXVI GENERAL CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO HE development of Puerto Rico came after the era for creating great West Indian plantations, and the increase of population, when it began, was so rapid as to prevent the concentration of land in few hands. Moreover, this increase was caused largely by immigration of white settlers from Euro- pean and Spanish-American countries, and produced a genuine peasantry attached to the soil. The negroes, not having been the property of great planters under slave-driving overseers, were better treated than those in most of the other islands, and when they were all freed in 1873, they found them- selves more nearly on a footing of equality with the rest of the people. They were also in a minority and not an object of dread ; and of the 900,000 and more inhabitants now in the island scarcely more than one third are black or 44 coloured.” This dis- tinction between negroes and those of mixed blood as 44 black ” and 44 coloured ” is generally made throughout the West Indies. In the middle of the last century there were almost GENERAL CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO 279 no towns, and the few inhabitants wrere so dispersed over the country that they seldom came together except for some religious or festal celebration, when they met at an appointed place in the middle of a parish. During the rapid growth of population in the present century a considerable number of towns and cities have been built up, but none of them are large, and nearly five sixths of the people are still rural in their way of living. Their dwellings are mostly scattered along the valleys, where alone there are practicable roads. There are very few on the tops or slopes of the hills. Nearly all the natives, of whatever complexion, are engaged in agriculture in some form. The soil of the high- lands is a rich red loam, and that of the valleys a black mould, wrhile near the coast it becomes more or less sandy. It is nearly everywhere extremely fertile, but methods of cultivation are still very primitive. Oxen are harnessed to rude implements by the horns and prodded with cruel goads. No crops are raised on a large scale, and hardly any modern appliances or processes are used. The land is capable of producing more sugar to the acre than any other in the wrhole archipelago, and the finest of cotton and tobacco can be raised, but even rural industry is backward. In general the low lands near the coast are oc- cupied by sugar plantations, interspersed with fruit groves and orchards. The tobacco fields are on higher ground back of this belt, w'hile the slopes of the hills are covered with coffee gardens. The means of internal communication are poor, and the 280 THE WEST INDIES transportation of produce to the towns is clumsy to a degree. Often it is carried long distances on the heads of men and women and the backs of beasts. Frequently there is only a trail or bridle-path grown up with tangled vegetation and crossed by bridgeless streams. A system of roads has been planned but only partly executed. There is a fine military road which winds across the island from Ponce to San Juan, making a distance of more than eighty miles, with stations under military guard at frequent inter- vals; but this was constructed and maintained by the government for strategic purposes. The princi- pal towns are connected by roads, some of which have been kept in fair condition ; but those which have not been solidly built for military use are apt to be washed out by heavy rains and grown over by rank vegetation. A railroad system has been projected to connect the towns near the coast all around the island, with inland spurs at all important points. The plan is quite feasible. Roads have already been built from Mayaguez to San German in the west and from Ponce to Coamo in the south, and there is a line across the island from Guayama to San Juan. As hardly any point is more than twenty miles from a coast town, the development of means of commu- nication will be an easy matter. Most of the towns are already connected by telegraph, and the tele- phone has come into use in the principal cities. Telegraphic communication has been established by submarine cable from San Juan to St. Thomas and thence down the Lesser Antilles to South America, GENERAL CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO 28 1 and also from the capital to Jamaica, Cuba, and the United States in the other direction. Notwithstanding the backwardness of industrial methods and a general lack of capital and enterprise in the island, and in spite of the exacting and oppres- sive rule of Spain, the numerous population has been fairly prosperous, and a considerable trade has been built up, which is mostly in the hands of Spaniards or other foreigners. The collecting and distributing of commodities have been effected by an active coasting trade, but the foreign commerce has been carried on chiefly through the Danish island of St. Thomas, which was long the principal entrepot of trade in this part of the West Indies. The latest statistics of foreign trade give the imports as about $17,000,000 in annual value, and the exports $16,- 500,000. Over one half the exports consists of coffee and a little less than one fourth of sugar, the next largest item being tobacco. Cacao and fruits make up a large part of the remainder, though some tim- ber, hides, and rum are sent abroad. The exports to Spain, under her system of trade restriction, amounted to 28,750,000 pesetas annually, and the imports from Spain to 2 1,500,000 pesetas, the peseta being about equivalent to a French franc, or one fifth of a dollar. The annual revenue of the government under Spain was about $4,000,000, and the expend- itures a little less, more than one fourth of the latter being for the support of the Spanish military force in the island. Of the social condition of the people of Puerto Rico there is not much to be said. As in Cuba, the 282 THE WEST INDIES Spaniards have been wont to dominate society in the chief cities, with the same claims of superiority, but with something less of aristocratic pretension. Many of the creoles, or descendants of the earlier Spanish and other European settlers, are people of property and education. The mass of the whites are peaceable, tractable, and fairly intelligent, but there has been no general system of public instruction, and the ratio of illiteracy is large. The mass of the rural inhabitants are simple in their habits and buy little in the markets. They subsist largely upon the fruit and vegetables which grow so abundantly about them with little attention to cultivation, need little clothing, and are content with very primitive shelter. The Catholic religion is the prevailing one, as in all Spanish lands; but in consequence, perhaps, of the rapid growth and the mixed origin of the population, there has been a wide toleration, and the Protestant sects have a foothold in some of the towns. One of the important buildings in Ponce is an English Episcopal church. There is a class of small landowners and rural labourers called Gibaros, who are said to be of old Spanish stock with some mixture of the aboriginal Indian. There may be a fruitful field of archaeologi- cal or ethnological study in this island, with refer- ence to the original races of the Antilles and the adjacent continents. It is here that the Arawaks seem to have made their last stand before the pur- suing Caribs, in the migration from the south ; but of what preceded these migrating people little trace has heretofore been found. Some of the stone GENERAL CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO 283 relics, first discovered in quite recent times, are sim- ilar to some that have been dug up in Mexico. Near the Rio Grande de Loiza in the north-east there is a rude monument of stone with curious de- signs roughly wrought upon it. Fragments of pot- tery, regarded as ancient, have been unearthed, and there may be a sufficient crop of such things if prop- erly cultivated to teach something new in Amer- ican archaeology. CHAPTER XXVII PUERTO RICO IN AMERICAN HANDS SHORTLY after the surrender of Santiago de Cuba to the military forces of the United States in July, 1898, Major-General Nelson A. Miles, commanding general of the American army, with about 3500 men, who had been brought to Cuba as reinforcements but were no longer needed there, proceeded to the capture of Puerto Rico. He sailed from Guantanamo Bay, July 21st, with the cruiser Columbia , the auxiliary cruiser Yale , and the gun- boat Gloucester , and made a landing at Guanica on the south coast, on the 25th, without resistance. As he proceeded toward Ponce, the town of Yauco surrendered with enthusiasm, and he was welcomed at the chief city of the island on the 28th with ac- clamation as a liberator. Meantime other forces had been dispatched, under General Schwan, from Tampa, Fla., General Wilson, from Charleston, S. C., and General Brooke, from Newport News, Va. The last named landed at Arroyo to the east of Ponce and took possession of Guayama. The entire force in the island was then 284 PUERTO RICO IN AMERICAN NANUS 285 about 17,000 men, and General Miles promptly adopted a plan of concentrating it upon San Juan over lines that passed through the principal towns. He set out upon the military road and passed Coamo to Aibonito, while General Brooke advanced toward Cayey, intending to join forces with him. General Wilson was proceeding northward with Arecibo as his objective point, and General Schwan had passed San German and reached Mayaguez on his way to the same point through the coast towns. In this situation the order came on the 13th of August to suspend hostilities on account of the signing of a pro- tocol embodying terms of peace with Spain on the preceding day. By those terms Spain agreed to “ cede to the United States the island of Puerto Rico and the other islands which are at present under the sover- eignty of Spain in the Antilles,” and immediately to ” evacuate ” those islands. Three commissioners were appointed on each side ” to agree upon the details of the evacuation of Puerto Rico and other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the An- tilles. ” Those acting for the United States were Rear-Admiral W. S. Schley, Major-General John R. Brooke, and Brigadier-General W. W. Gordon. They met at San Juan on September 6th, General Brooke crossing the island under escort furnished by Governor-General Macias from Ponce, where his headquarters had been established, and Admiral Schley and General Gordon arriving from the United States on the transport Seneca. They met with cordial co-operation from the Spanish commissioners 286 THE WEST INDIES and other authorities, and the evacuation of the island was effected so that the United States flag was hoisted over the government buildings at San Juan on the 18th of October as a symbol of the new sovereignty under which the island of Puerto Rico then passed. A part of the army of occupation, including those who had been wounded in the slight engage- ments that had occurred with Spanish detachments on the first advances upon the southern towns, and those debilitated with malarial fever, were sent north, but about 8,000 troops remained under the command of General Brooke, who was acting as military governor. Local administration was main- tained on the old system and the supreme authority was continued in the military commander, pending the action of the Congress of the United States with reference to the future government of the new acqui- sition. Late in the year 1898 General Brooke left the island for another command, and General Guy V. Henry was made the military governor. An Assembly was held, which consisted of delegates from the cities and towns to the number of seventy, to formulate the wishes of the people with reference to their future government. CHAPTER XXVIII LESSER ANTILLES, CARIBBEES, WINDWARD, LEEWARD HE designations “ Lesser Antilles ” and “ Car- ibbees ” are both loosely applied to all the small islands of the West Indies to the east and south of the four large islands known as the Greater Antilles ; but those which are not colonial depend- encies of some European power, having passed from Spain to Venezuela with the independence of that republic, are not rated politically even as West Indies. Geographically, these islands appertain to at least three different systems, and should be in some way distinguished accordingly ; but names are a matter of history rather than of science or logic. The group to the east of Puerto Rico, called “ The Virgins,” rises from an extension of the submarine formation which runs through the Greater Antilles. The separating channel, known as the Virgin Pass- age, is relatively narrow and shallow, while this group is separated from the true Caribbean chain by a chasm 6000 feet deep and two hundred and fifty miles across. This chain consisting, as we have 288 THE WEST INDIES noted in the early part of this volume, of a main volcanic strand that begins with Saba, and an outer coralline string that starts with Anguilla and the Sombrero rocks, terminates with Grenada, five hun- dred miles or more to the south, while Barbados stands off a hundred miles eastward in an isolated position, and Trinidad and the other islands off the Venezuela coast belong distinctly to the continental system of South America. The deep-water separa- tion between Grenada and the nearest of the latter is about as great as that between Barbados and St. Vincent. The old Spanish navigators appropriately desig- nated the islands which constitute the eastern barrier of the Caribbean Sea as Barlovento, or “ Wind- ward,” and those along the South American coast as Sotavento, or “ Leeward,” with reference to the regular trade-winds, which blow steadily from the north-east the greater part of the year; but these terms have become perverted and misapplied by English authority. The term “ Windward ” came to be applied to only the lower section of the Carib- bees, from the fifteenth parallel southward, and was then used as the designation for a colony composed of the British islands in that section, which were associated together under one government. At first this included Barbados, but latterly the Wind- ward Islands colony has consisted of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada and the Grenadines, and Tobago, though this last is more properly appurtenant to Trinidad, which, like Barbados, now constitutes a colony by itself. WINDWARD ISLANDS 289 The colony of the Windward Islands has a gov- ernor and executive council appointed by the Crown, but it is divided into four administrative depart- ments, each of which has an executive and a separate legislative council of its own. These departments are St. Lucia, St. Vincent with a part of the Grenadines, Grenada with the rest of the Grenadines, and To- bago ; but there is no real autonomy or self-rule in these so-called legislative councils. The governor and his executive councillors, representing the Crown, are all-powerful. The administrator and colonial secretary who presides over the local council is an appointee of the governor, and so are virtually the members of that body. The legislative council of Grenada, where the governor himself presides, consists of thirteen members, of whom six are ap- pointed officials and the other seven, though unoffi- cial, are named by the governor. Of course he controls a body so constituted in the exercise of its limited functions. The legislative council of St. Lucia consists of five official and five unofficial mem- bers, but the latter are appointed by the governor of the colony, as is the official administrator who pre- sides. The same system exists in St. Vincent and Tobago, except that in the former there are four offi- cial and four unofficial members of the council, and in the latter three of each class ; but they all repre- sent the appointing power and consequently the imperial government, and in no sense or degree the people of the colony. By way of distinction from this southern group of islands, those north of 150 north latitude, to and 290 THE WEST INDIES including The Virgins, have been called “ Leeward " very inappropriately, for they are the farthest from the leeward position with reference to the Caribbean Sea; and in 1871 the British possessions in this section were organised into the “ Leeward Islands Colony." This was in form a confederacy with some semblance of representative government and local autonomy, but none of the substance. The confederacy consisted of five members: Antigua with Barbuda attached, St. Christopher and Nevis with Anguilla, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, and Dominica. Each of these was formerly a colony, and each surrendered its separate existence, in which there was a trace of political independence, for the advantages of a confederation which is really gov- erned by a consolidated bureaucracy. The system is complex, with a certain appearance of representa- tive character. The governor and executive council of the colony and all the administrative officials are appointed by the Crown. The colony as a whole and each of its constituent members has both an executive council and a legislative council — sometimes called house of assembly, — the former being appointive. The legislative council of Antigua consists of twenty- four members, six official, six non-official appointed by the governor, and twelve elected, — two from the city of St. John and one each from the ten other elec- toral divisions. The suffrage is so restricted by prop- erty qualification that only three hundred or four hundred votes are cast as a rule, and councillors have sometimes been elected by three or four votes. LEEWARD ISLANDS 29I There is a higher property qualification for mem- bership in the council, and only a small number of citizens are eligible. The governor, whose official residence is in Antigua, appoints the president and vice-president of this local council, and practically controls its action. The St. Christopher-Nevis council has no elective members, but consists of ten official and ten unoffi- cial members, the latter, with the president, who has a vote, being appointed by the governor, — seven from St. Christopher and three from Nevis. In Dominica there is a president and executive council of seven, appointed by the Crown, and a legislative council of fourteen members, of whom five are officials, two are appointed by the governor, and seven are elected under a restricted suffrage. The president has a casting vote. In Montserrat the council consists of two official and three non- official members, none of whom are elected ; and in The Virgins there are four official and three non- official, all appointees. There is a legislative council of the whole colony, which is chosen for a term of three years, and meets once a year at the capital on the island of Antigua. This consists of ten appointed and ten elected mem- bers, the former including six public officials and four others who are selected by the governor from the elected, or the non-official appointed, members of the separate island councils. The so-called elected members of the colonial council are not elected by popular vote, but by the island councils from their own elected or non-official members, four 292 THE WEST INDIES from Antigua, four from St. Christopher-Nevis, and two from Dominica, leaving Montserrat and The Vir- gins without representation. The president of this colonial legislative council is appointed by the gov- ernor from the members who come from the island councils, and the body is permitted to choose a vice- president for itself. How much of self-government or of popular representation there is in this system must be obvious ; and, so far as local autonomy in the separate islands is concerned, it is only necessary to add that the legislative council of the colony can re- peal or amend any act of an island council or legislate in its place. Moreover the governor can summon, prorogue, or dissolve the colonial council at will. The reason for this arbitrary form of government for these islands no doubt is that the population is made up chiefly of negroes who were slaves a gen- eration or two ago, and of their descendants, more or less mixed with other races. In the English islands there is less of the mixed blood, or of 44 coloured ” population as distinguished from 44 black,” than in the others, for English sentiment has been more repugnant to miscegenation, which has been pretty general in the French and Dutch islands. This same sentiment, or 44 race prejudice,” left the emancipated slaves in a more abject condi- tion of ignorance and incapacity for civic duties. While in servitude they received neither secular nor religious instruction, and practically nothing was afterwards done to fit them for the exercise of politi- cal rights. As they largely outnumbered the whites, there was no apparent desire to intrust them with such rights or to prepare them for their exercise. CHAPTER XXIX THE VIRGINS AND THE DANISH ISLANDS ON his second voyage in November, 1493, Co- lumbus came up the Caribbees scattering holy names among the islands, and when he reached the last group before turning westward he disposed of the whole procession by calling them “ The Vir- gins,” in honour of St. Ursula and the spotless band she led through Europe to be slaughtered by the Huns. As he departed he bestowed separate names on St. Thomas and St. John, and saw in the dis- tance on his left a verdant island which he endowed with the name of the Holy Cross, Santa Cruz. These three now belong to Denmark, but the rest of The Virgins are part of the British “ Leeward Islands Colony.” There are said to be a hundred of them, but for the most part they are a barren lot, mere wind-blown islets, with scanty vegetation and no inhabitants. Though they occupy a watery space of nearly one hundred miles by twenty, their total inhabited area is only fifty-seven square miles, and their population about 5000. On the few peopled 293 294 THE WEST INDIES spots there is a little raising of sugar and cotton, and latterly of sisal, and some pasturing of cattle, and here and there guano is found, or salt is ob- tained; but the population has long been on the decline, and the life of The Virgins seems to have been waning. The two most important islands are Tortola and Virgin Gorda. The former is crescent-shaped and traversed by a ridge which rises into one peak 1800 feet above the sea. Just north of the island a line of reefs beginning with “ Jorst Van Dyck’s Guano Isle ” runs to St. Thomas, and another extends from Virgin Gorda to St. John. These inclose that ex- panse of water like an inland sea which is called the “ Road of the Virgins.” The vagrant buccaneers used to wander in here and make a retreat of Tor- tola, but they were succeeded by a sedate Quaker community, which tried an unsuccessful experiment of cultivating plantations with free negro labour. Their unprofitable example was not followed for a long time after; and since slavery was abolished Tortola has pined away. Its only port is Road Town, and its chief export is pineapples, which get into the channels of commerce at St. Thomas. Virgin Gorda consists mostly of rugged highlands, and is almost uninhabited, though a little fort is maintained to guard the “ Road.” The English sailors used to call the place Spanish Town, which the negroes corrupted into” Penniston.” A line of reefs forming the outer rampart of the submarine plateau on which The Virgins stand terminates in Anegada (” swamped ”), which is half submerged CHARLOTTE AMALIA, SAINT THOMAS, FROM BLACKBEARD’S CASTLE. THE VIRGINS AND THE DANISH ISLANDS 295 when the waves run high, and has been the scene of many a wreck. There used to be tales of sunken galleons hereabouts and of treasures hid in caves, but nobody has been able to derive wealth from this legendary source. Some of The Virgins received from buccaneers and other profane navigators less sanctimonious names than Columbus was wont to bestow. Besides Jorst Van Dyck’s Guano Isle, here are Rum Island, Beef Island, Prickly Pear, Camphor and Salt, Dutchman’s Cap, Dead Man’s Chest, and Broken Jerusalem. More than once the whole dreary group has been lashed unmercifully by hurricanes. Near these English Virgins is an island with a history. St. Thomas is known the world over as a seaport, a port of call for all manner of craft going and coming in those waters, while the real name of the seaport town, Charlotte Amalia, is hardly known at all. In fact, the port is pretty much all there is to the island. St. Thomas is less than forty miles east of Puerto Rico, and is thirteen miles long by three wide, containing about thirty-five square miles of area. A ridge runs through it lengthwise, attain- ing its highest elevation of about 1500 feet in West Mountain. On the southern slope there were sugar plantations in the old slavery days, but latterly they have been devoted mainly to growing maize, vege- tables, and fruit, and to pastures of guinea grass. The island is still a place of traffic and shipping, and nearly all its 15,000 people, of whom nine tenths are blacks, or “ coloured ” in various shades, live in and about the port. The bay on which the 296 THE WEST INDIES town is snugly built is on the south side of the island. It is nearly circular and almost landlocked, and is deep and spacious. The principal street of the town runs along the curve of the shore and out into the country on either side. The background is an amphitheatre of mountains with bold headlands, and within its circuit rise terraces of streets and gar- dens in picturesque fashion, with red-tiled roofs. Most of the white citizens reside in the outskirts. Two isolated structures with ancient towers are known as the castles of “ Blackbeard ” and “ Blue- beard " ; but, notwithstanding the romantic sugges- tion of pirate chiefs, they are known to have been built by the government about the year 1700. The port is securely sheltered from the winds of the north and east, but hurricanes are wont to come from the south, and in 1819 one got in here and stranded all the vessels in the harbour and did much mischief. One almost equally destructive forced an entrance in 1837, and another in 1867. The buccaneers and pirates did not fail to find this sheltered bay and use it as a refuge and a lurk- ing-place, and Dutch and English settlers followed in their wake, the former in 1657 and the latter in 1667 ; but in 1671 the Danish West India and Guinea Company took possession and set up a trading sta- tion. It ranked next to Port Royal, Jamaica, in the slave trade. It soon passed into the hands of the “ Company," of which the Elector of Brandenburg was the director. It was maintained as neutral ground, and French refugees settled upon it after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. About the THE VIRGINS AND THE DANISH ISLANDS 297 middle of the last century the King of Denmark took direction of the affairs of the trading company and made a national possession of the island. The port was kept free to all nations; and at times it afforded the only place of interchange between the West Indies and Europe. In fact, through the wars and contentions of two centuries St. Thomas profited by its advantage of neutrality. It had been a trading-place for buc- caneers and smugglers and slavers; and then when England and France and Holland were fighting and destroying each other’s commerce, it picked up trade with all the belligerents and with the Spanish colonies which they were harrying. There was little occasion for tilling the soil. It was only necessary to take toll on the exchanges that constantly went on at the wharves. Through the revolutions by which Spain lost her colonies St. Thomas also profited, and when these commotions were over it found itself in the pathway of com- merce not only from Europe to the West Indies and the old “ Spanish main,” but from the United States to Brazil, and it became a harbour for refuge, for repairs, and for coaling, though it became rela- tively of less importance than in the old days of sail- ing ships. There is a marine railway and a floating dock two hundred and fifty feet long, completed in 1875, and all the appliances of a convenient port of call. The prevailing language at St. Thomas is Eng- lish, though it is a place of various nationalities and many tongues, and the negroes have a mixed 298 THE WEST INDIES patois of their own. It swarms with grinning and chattering blacks, and the “ ’longshore ” work is largely done by women, who coal steamers by marching in procession with baskets on their heads. The streets are neat and well kept, and alive with fruit vendors; the place is healthy and comfortable, and is connected with the world by many lines of steamers and by telegraph. There is a government college and a Roman Catholic college in Charlotte Amalia, and some Moravian schools. About one third of the people are classified as Roman Catho- lics, and the English Church and the Wesleyans are represented in the population as well as the Mora- vians. There is a public library and reading-room and two hospitals, besides the quarantine station on Light-House Point. Little evidence of the State of Denmark is seen about the place except the small garrison and its flag, and Denmark has long been willing to part with it. Secretary Seward bought it for the United States in 1866 for $5,000,000, but Congress refused to ratify the bargain, to the great disgust of the Danish king and the mortification of many Americans. St. John is of small account. It has a little town of the same name on the north coast, and hardly more than 1000 inhabitants all told, who raise a little sugar and coffee and the fruit and vegetables whereby they live. It is near Tortola and off the beaten track of commerce, but on its eastern side is a good harbour of refuge from the prowling hurri- cane, little resorted to except by fishing vessels. The English, with characteristic facility in pervert- THE VIRGINS AND THE DANISH ISLANDS 299 ing foreign names, called this harbour “ Crawl Bay,” though the Spanish designation was Corral, meaning an inclosure. The island came into the possession of Denmark by purchase as a bargain, but proved to be of little value. Santa Cruz, which stands isolated about forty miles south of St. Thomas, and is rather an outpost, by submarine attachment, of the Caribbean range of islands than an appurtenance of the Virgin group, was also profaned by the presence of the buccaneers. It was afterwards in charge of the Knights of Malta, but passed from them to the possession of France, and was sold to Denmark in 1733 for $150,000. The island is about twenty-five miles long and five or six miles wide, extending east and west. Parallel to the coast in the western part is a ridge which culminates in Mount Eagle, 1300 feet high. The eastern part is hilly and the central undulating, and on the south shore there are some flat marshy spaces with lagoons of brackish water. Of the 51, 168 acres of land, all but about 4000 acres is tillable, and in former times fully half of this was covered with sugar plantations. Since the abolition of slavery and the depression of the cane-sugar interest, it has greatly languished in comparison with the flourishing days of yore, when its sugar, molasses, and rum figured conspicuously in the markets of the world. Rum is in fact what chiefly makes the name of Santa Cruz familiar. The soil of the island is extremely fertile and cap- able of a great variety of products; its climate is healthy for the tropics, and in natural attractions it 300 THE WEST INDIES is one of the most charming of the West Indies; but it is cut off from the world except for trade through St. Thomas, and white settlers do not flock to it. The population of 25,000 consists mostly of negroes, and the plantation owners are largely Englishmen, whose language prevails in the island. The capital is Christianstaed, at the head of an inlet on the north coast which admits vessels of moderate draught. Its white, pink, and yellow houses, with red or purple tiles, give it a picturesque appearance from the out- side, but on close inspection they seem rather shabby and dirty. The streets are unpaved, and the cabins of the negroes are mostly flimsy structures, but in the country around there are good roads lined with palm, tamarind, and mango trees, and leading through luxuriant gardens and plantations out to the wooded heights. The English name of the town is Basin, or Bassin, which seems to be a per- version of Basse End. The only other place of importance is Frederick- staed on the west coast, popularly called “ West End.” It is on an open roadstead and accessible only to small craft ; but it is also in the foreground of rich plantations and verdant and flowery fields. This place was attacked and burned at the time of the insurrection of blacks in 1878, which was caused by the hard conditions under which they were bound to labour by yearly contracts after emancipation. The trade of Santa Cruz, always confined to sugar, molasses, and rum, has declined, and it is much less flourishing than formerly. The governor of the Danish colony resides at Christianstaed half the THE VIRGINS AND THE DANISH ISLANDS 30I year and at St. Thomas the other half, and his presence and that of two small garrisons, one at Basse End and the other at West End, are about the only reminders of the Danish mother country. CHAPTER XXX ANGUILLA, ST. MARTIN, ST. BARTHOLOMEW, BARBUDA, ANTIGUA BETWEEN the broad, deep channel that sepa- rates the submarine plateau of the Greater Antilles and The Virgins from the submerged mount- ain system whose crests appear in the double line of the Caribbees, and the clear passage of forty miles which crosses that system north of Guadaloupe, lies an irregular group of a dozen inhabited and culti- vated islands divided in ownership between Great Britain, France, and Holland. Part of them are in the inner range of igneous and volcanic peaks, which must have sprung originally from a vast rift in the earth’s crust far below the present surface of the water. The others are in the outer and less elevated line of calcareous and coralline structures, built upon a ridge which remained below the level at which the waters finally came to rest. The latter begin farther to the north than the others, and the first in the series after the barren and wind-swept “ Sombrero ” and “ The Dogs,” whose only marketable products are guano and phosphate of lime, is Anguilla. 302 ANGUILLA AND ST. MARTIN 303 This name means “ snake,” and is supposed to be due to the appearance of the long, narrow, low-lying strip of land weltering in the sea; but it is generally attributed to Herrera, the earliest historian of the Spanish-American colonies, who really called the island Aguila, or ” Eagle.” It is about sixteen miles long and varies from half a mile to three miles in width. It is a breezy, healthy piece of ground, but its 2500 people are mostly negroes engaged in breeding cattle and ponies, and raising small crops of Indian corn and tobacco, though salt and phos- phate of lime figure among its meagre exports. These reach a market at St. Thomas. There is another and smaller strip running off to the north- east, called Anguilletta, or the ” Snakelet.” An- guilla belongs to the presidency of St. Christopher- Nevis, and a stipendiary magistrate represents public authority among its peaceable inhabitants. Barely five miles south of this little English island, across a shallow channel, is St. Martin, the only land in the Antilles divided in its allegiance between two European powers. It has an area of thirty square miles and a population of nearly 8000. About three fifths both of area and of people are French and two fifths Dutch, though in point of fact a large proportion of the settlers were English, and their language still prevails. The division between France and the Netherlands was peaceably made in 1648, and has remained undisturbed through all subsequent commotions. The French part is in the north, and there is a considerable elevation there, rising to 1920 feet in Paradise Peak. There are 304 THE WEST INDIES some lower summits to the south of this, and then a gradual slope to the coast. On the west is a low peninsula called the Basses-Terres, or lowlands, con- nected with the shore by a sandy isthmus with Simpson’s Lagoon in the middle of it. On the east- ern and southern coasts are narrow inlets which run far inland ; and near the middle of the south shore is Grand Bay, at the head of which lies the Dutch town of Philipsburg. Here is Fort William and the centre of such authority as is exercised in behalf of the colony of Curasao, of which this is a remote de- pendency. The French capital is Marigot on the west side just north of Basses-Terres, where there is a well sheltered port. St. Martin used to be much given to sugar raising, but since that became un- profitable its principal salable products have been provisions and salt. It raises fruits and vegetables and some cattle, and to the north of Philipsburg is a large “ salt pan,” worked by a French and Dutch company. A little to the south-east of St. Martin is the French island of St. Bartholomew, familiarly called ” St. Bart,” and, like the French part of St. Martin, a dependency of the colony of Guadeloupe. It is a crescent, only six miles long from east to west, and three miles across in its widest part, and its popula- tion of less than 3000 consists mostly of negroes. Though the original possessors were French, the English language is chiefly spoken now. The island was first settled in 1648, when the French divided St. Martin with the Dutch ; but when the ambitious Gustavus was trying the expansion and colonising ST. BARTHOLOMEW AND BARBUDA 305 policy in 1784, it was ceded to Sweden. That ac- counts for the name of the present capital, Gustavia, and of Fort Gustave, which are on the western side of the island, where there is a sheltered harbour that will admit vessels of eight or ten feet draught. In 1877, France bought the island back for 275,000 francs. The shores are much indented and the sur- face irregular, rising into a limestone ridge in the interior about 1000 feet high. There are no streams or springs, and the hilltops are rather barren, but the valleys are fertile and yield good crops of sugar, cotton, tobacco, and fruits, when cultivated ; but the foreign trade is slight and absorbed in that of Guadeloupe. St. Bartholomew is at the end of a submarine bank, and across a broad expanse of deep water to the south of east, forty miles away, lies Barbuda, which belongs to the presidency of Antigua, from which island it is separated by a stretch of thirty miles of shallow water. It is at the end of a sub- marine peninsula reaching northward from the larger island. While Barbuda is rated as a dependency of the Leeward Islands colony, it is private property, having been granted to the Codrington family about 1680. It remained in the family until a recent period, when it was purchased by some private cap- italists, who have only to keep up the old obligation of presenting a fat sheep to the governor when he deigns to make a visit to the vassal of his sovereign. This may be commuted to a goodly buck or green turtle, or perhaps to anything satisfactory to the visiting official. It is a mere token of allegiance. 20 306 THE WEST INDIES The fact of this private ownership and the some- what isolated position of Barbuda, as well as its lack of harbours, have prevented its industrial develop- ment. It is ten miles long by eight wide, low-lying, and beset with reefs ; but though there is a lack of springs and of running water, the land is fertile and would produce fine crops of the staples of sugar, cotton, and tobacco, as well as indigo, fruits, and vegetables. But it is little cultivated, and the en- tire population is little more than 1000, mostly connexions and dependents of the proprietors. Much of the land is thickly wooded and in the na- ture of game preserves. This is one of the few islands in which the whites outnumber the blacks, but that is doubtless because there has been no systematic employment of labour in the cultivation of land or in trade, of which there is practically none. Sir William Codrington gave a church and school to the little community in 1843. Antigua, which is at the southern end of this outer line of islands and between forty and fifty miles from Guadeloupe, is the centre of British authority in the Leeward Islands. The size of the island is variously stated by different authori- ties, but is perhaps twenty-five miles by fifteen. It is approximately oval, with its longest axis nearly east and west. The highest land is in the south- west, and though the elevation nowhere attains 1500 feet, there are steep cliffs and picturesque ravines, festooned with rank vegetation. This limestone region would make a tolerable stronghold at need. The heights are wooded, and the general ANTIGUA 30 7 surface of the island is varied with hill and dale and covered with verdure, though subject to occasional drought. The formation is calcareous, with marine and fresh-water deposits in which animal and vege- table remains appear. There are no surface streams, and the few springs are brackish, so that the water supply has to be stored from the direct rainfall. In 1789, there was a prolonged drought which caused the death of many cattle and general distress. Now reservoirs are more liberally supplied, the capital having one which will hold 600,000 gallons. Not- withstanding the liability to drought, the soil is fer- tile and in former times there were flourishing sugar plantations. These have languished of late, and little has been done to fill their place, though the cultivation of fruit has been increased, and special attention is given to pineapples. Notwithstanding the generally calcareous and coralline character of this island, there is evidence in English Harbour, on the south coast, of the igneous and volcanic formation that belongs partic- ularly to the inner line of Caribbees, which is broken here with a gap of forty miles from Montserrat to Guadeloupe. This harbour is in fact formed by a group of low craters which have been invaded and swamped by the ocean. Although there is a capa- cious and sheltered port at this place, it has been so long used for a naval station, barracks, dockyard, and arsenal, that trade has kept away. The com- mercial port is on the north side of the island, where the capital of the colony, St. John, stands on an eminence at the head of a bay, affording good 308 THE WEST INDIES anchorage for vessels of twelve to fourteen feet draught. St. John has a population of about 16,- ooo, which is probably half that of the entire island. It is the seat of government of the Leeward Islands colony, as well as the Antigua presidency, and has such public buildings as the colony affords. It is a well built town with stone houses and a fine cathedral with two yellow towers. The island is divided into six parishes, each with its town or vil- lage and its church and chapel. With some varia- tion of industries it might still be a thriving place, but it has long been declining, because wholly de- voted to sugar in slavery times. The population at the time of emancipation in 1834 was 2000 whites and 33,000 negroes. Since then the whites have diminished in number and the blacks increased, while the old plantation life has decayed. As Columbus came up the islands on that second voyage he christened this one for Santa Maria la Antigua, with whose fane in Valladolid he was familiar. It was in that same church that his mortal remains were first deposited. In 1520, a Spaniard named Serrano made an effort to colonise the island, but the Caribs objected so strenuously that he had to desist. Even when that persistent English colo- niser, Sir Thomas Warner, first settled here in 1632, he had some desperate fights with the Caribs, who were not wont, like the Arawaks, to give up their land without a struggle. There is a romantic story of an English governor whose wife was stolen by a Carib chief and carried off to Dominica, and who after recovering her went insane with jealousy. The ANTIGUA 309 island was granted to Lord Willoughby after the restoration, but the French seized it at about the same time. It was definitely conceded to Great Britain by the treaty of Breda in 1667. After the plantation system was well under way there was a serious uprising of the negro slaves in 1736, which was put down with a relentless severity that was re- garded as necessary to the safety of the small white population. Earthquakes and hurricanes have troubled the island at times. There was a violent shaking in 1833 and a furious blowing in 1835, and in 1841 the city of St. John was wellnigh destroyed by fire. | CHAPTER XXXI SABA, ST. EUSTATIUS, ST. CHRISTOPHER, NEVIS, MONTSERRAT T the head of the line of ‘volcanic peaks that come up out of the depths of the ocean are the two little Dutch islands of Saba and St. Eusta- tius, which are dependencies of far-off Curasao. The former is scarcely more than a volcanic cone, rising sheer out of the waves 2800 feet, but the in- ternal fires long since went out. It is dead, and in an old crater on the western side, eight hundred feet above the shore, is the little town of Bottom. As one lands by a small boat on the rocky beach, and climbs the steep path appropriately called the “ lad- der," up which human freight-carriers go with loads on their heads, he imagines that “ Top ” would be a better name. But the crumbling of the sides and the filling up of the depths of what was once a fiery vent from the bowels of the earth has made the “ bottom " of a depression the dwelling-place of the little Dutch community. The rim of the Titanic cup still surrounds it, and it is through a break in this that it is reached from the steep acclivity. There is another break on the opposite side, through 310 ST. EU ST ATI US 311 which one may wander over what there is of the island besides the craggy mountain top, but in this Bottom are concentrated practically all the inhabit- ants, barely 2000, of whom perhaps one third are negroes. The Dutch families are rosy-faced and cheerful folk, who speak English and build the best boats in all the islands, though they have no timber and no facilities for navigation. St. Eustatius is larger, and its dead volcanoes are not so tall. The culminating peak is about 2000 feet above the sea-level, but it is much damaged by time. It has crumbled away on the northern side so as to exhibit a yawning gap, and the central crater, called the “ punch-bowl,” is overgrown with dense vegetation, and has become the lurking- place of reptiles and gruesome insects. From the towering mass slope peaceful hills and fertile valleys over a limited area toward the sea. On the west side is Orangetown, situated on an open roadstead, and giving access to the interior gorges and dells, which are often visited by excursion parties from St. Kitt’s, where erst the smuggler, the buccaneer, and the pirate found refuge from pursuit, or con- cealment for ill-gotten commodities. St. Eustatius is not what it was in the days when there was vast profit in illicit trade or gain in Dutch neutrality while France and England fought over the posses- sions of Spain. It has no such stirring times as when Rodney seized its port, confiscated the wealth of its traders, and sold out their merchandise under the hammer. Now it is little more than a land of marvels for the occasional visitor. Its population is 312 THE WEST INDIES less than 3000, and only yams and sweet potatoes figure in the statistics of its exports. St. Christopher, or St. Kitt’s, as the English are fond of calling it, has a great deal of history in pro- portion to its size. It extends from north-west to south-east in the form of a rude oval, about thirteen miles long by six wide ; but a narrow handle, like that of a spoon, stretches ten or twelve miles farther, ending with a circular head having a lagoon in the middle like a crest or monogram. The entire area is given as sixty-five square miles. Whether Columbus was so delighted with its aspect when he first came upon it that he favoured it with the name of his own special saint, or bestowed that appellation on account of the fancied appearance of a big mountain carrying a little one on its back, does not greatly matter. The Caribs, who had the best right to name it, called it Liamuiga, meaning “ fertile," which exhibits a sounder principle in christening. The Spaniards found it expedient not to disturb the Caribs, but when the English and French came with colonising intent, St. Christopher was the first spot upon which they settled, and they quarrelled over it for the best part of two centuries. Sir Thomas Warner and his associates landed on the verdant isle overlooked by its grim mountain top in 1623, and were in so much peril when the piratical Esnambuc arrived some months later, with his ships disabled in a tussle with a Spanish galleon, that they welcomed French co-operation in wresting the land from the natives. It required some desperate fight- ing, but they were all killed or driven out, and the ST. CHRISTOPHER 313 English took the uplands in the middle, while the French occupied both ends by the sea. It is said that they established an indisputable boundary by means of a cactus hedge. They did not dwell long in peace. In 1629, along came Don Frederic de Toledo, a Spanish admiral, — all Spanish naval officers of consequence then, as now, were admirals, — and scattered them, some to betake themselves to the buccaneers of Tortuga, and some to return when the Spaniard left the island again unoccupied. French and English resumed their relations until their mother countries were at war, and then the English, under Governor Watts and Colonel Morgan, in 1666, with the help of some settlers in Nevis, undertook to drive the French out. General de la Salle came to the rescue of the latter, who turned the tables and drove the English out ; but the peace of Breda in 1667 restored the status qua. When England and Holland were united against France, after 1688, there was another fight in St. Kitt’s. The French expelled the English in 1689, and they got back the next year, and again the peace of Ryswick in 1697 restored the old division; but that of Utrecht in 1713 gave the whole island to Great Britain. After that there was more fighting, and the French got temporary possession in 1782, St. Kitt’s being one of the islands rescued by Rod- ney’s great victory over De Grasse. Since then the English sway has been undisputed. The island’s natural aspect and recent condition are as interesting as its history. The French called their two ends Capesterre and Basseterre, — freely 3*4 THE WEST INDIES interpreted ‘ 4 highland ” and “ lowland ” ; and Basse- Terre is still the name of the capital, which the Eng- lish perversely call “ Bar Star,” while retaining the French orthography. It is on a sheltered bay on the west side, near where the spoon handle starts toward Nevis, and is quite picturesque with its white houses and red roofs, its ranks of cocoanut and cabbage palms, its groves of mango and orange, its gardens of various fruits and flowers spreading up the slopes. In the days when sugar plantations were enriching their owners, — the good old days before emancipation and beet-root subsidies, — there was a broad belt of fields of waving cane on the slopes all around the island, with the tall chimneys of the mills sticking up here and there. The belt of fertile field is still there, but not flourishing as of yore, and at the foot of the slopes all around the island is a fine road lined with tropical trees, shrubs, and varied vegetation. Out of the verdant slopes back of Basse-Terre rises Monkey Hill, and behind the sharp ridge towers the awful form of Mount Misery, 4330 feet high. As a side elevation near the west coast, less than eight hundred feet high, is Brimstone Hill, once crowned with a citadel, and called the ” Gibraltar of the West Indies.” Mount Misery is said to have been so named from its occasional habit of sending down floods and torrents which swept away houses and overwhelmed plantations. It was peculiarly profuse and reckless with one of these in 1880. This hoary old volcano has lost the vigour of its early days and has been very quiet for a century or two ; but there BASSE-TERRE, SAINT CHRISTOPHER. ST. CHRISTOPHER AND NEVIS 315 is a crater 1000 feet deep, which in the wet season forms a dismal lake fringed with palm trees; and there are fissures through which sulphurous gases still issue. The population of St. Christopher is something less than 30,000, and has not been increasing of late except among the blacks. There is but a small white element, descendants and representatives of the old landowners, and Portuguese traders from the Azores. Sugar was the one great staple, and it has not been replaced by anything greatly profitable, for lack of enterprise. The negroes are not fond of working on the estates, and cannot get possession of small allotments of land to cultivate for them- selves, and the industrial condition is not satisfac- tory. Much fruit is grown, and it pervades the town of Basse-Terre, which contains the life of the island, with a mingling of shades of colour in com- plexion and dress as picturesque as that of the houses and gardens. Nevis, as the English have always called it, think- ing perhaps of Ben Nevis, though Columbus rever- ently named it Nieves for “ Our Lady of Snows ” in Spain, is hardly more than a pendant to St. Kitt’s geographically, as it is politically. The passage between, called “ The Narrows," is barely two miles across. Nevis is about seven miles long by six wide, and is mostly occupied by a volcanic cone 3460 feet high, flanked on either side by a lower summit. The fertile land, which used to be covered with rich plantations, is a mere margin around this mountain mass, and is no longer a flourishing girdle THE WEST INDIES 316 of sugar-cane. Of the whole area of 24,640 acres, only about 6000 can be cultivated, and that mostly on steep slopes, which, however, are extremely pro- ductive like all the ancient lava soil. Sugar and molasses were the only products for export, and since they became unprofitable the little island has gone into a decline. Its population numbers a few thousand, mostly negroes and “ coloured ” now; and Charlestown is a decaying village on the open roadstead in the south-west. Near by are warm sulphur springs where there used to be fine baths, making it a watering- place for visitors from far and near ; and there was genteel society in Charlestown in the old times. We must not forget that here was the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, who went to the United States in his youth to become one of the leading statesmen of the infant republic ; and it is worth while recalling again that Horatio Nelson was here captivated by the charming widow Fanny Nisbet, and was married to her at the old Fig Tree Church on the road out of town in 1787. It is not so pleasing to remember how, when he became a famous admiral, he wrung the heart of the faithful wife, lured away by the brazen attractions of that aristocratic huzzy, Lady Hamilton. We may note on our way to Montserrat that the little islet of Redonda has a few inhabitants and belongs to the presidency of Antigua. The bold, steep shores and jagged heights of Montserrat re- minded Columbus of the old Catalonian monastery, where Ignatius Loyola “ promoted ” the Society of Jesus. Hence its name. It is thirty miles to the I MONTSERRA T 317 north of west from Antigua, so that the volcanic range of this island group is shorter at both ends than the calcareous bulwark to the east. The island is nearly oval, twelve miles long and eight miles wide at the most, and two thirds of its area is taken up by volcanic mountains, which give slight evidence of their wonted fires in puffs of sulphurous vapour from La Soufriere. The culminating peak of the sierra is 3000 feet above the sea, and some of the heights are inaccessible on account of sheer preci- pices and impassable chasms. The eastern slopes are steep and covered with forests, containing valu- able timber, but those of the west are gentler, and in former times were covered with plantations, mostly of sugar-cane. A bit of enterprise in Montserrat has shown that some things can be done as well as others. Some thrifty Quakers back in the fifties began raising limes and extracting the juice, and the new in- dustry has grown until it supplies the English market with lime juice and citric acid. There are large groves of lime trees, but there are also fields of cotton and of arrowroot, and this is one of the most densely peopled and prosperous of all the islands, though that only signifies some 10,- 000 people, for the habitable area is small. Its one town is Plymouth in the south-west, neatly built and thriving, but with hardly two hundred white residents. There is no harbour, and the place is only visited by coasting vessels from St. John or Basse-Terre. The climate is mild and healthful and the scenery picturesque, and Montserrat has been called the “ Montpelier of the West.” CHAPTER XXXII GUADELOUPE H E three relatively large islands which constitute the middle links of the great Caribbean chain are distinctively French, though the middle one of the three has been in the possession of Great Britain for more than a hundred years, with a short inter- ruption early in the present century, and is now a member of her Leeward Islands colony. The largest and most northerly, Guadeloupe, marks the convergence, almost the coalescence, of the great igneous range, with its dead or slumbering volcanoes, and the calcareous ridge that forms the external barrier on the ocean side. In fact, it consists of two islands lying side by side and separated by a pass- age one hundred feet wide where they come nearest to a junction, — one of them rugged and mountain- ous, with exhausted and dilapidated craters here and there, the other flat, with marshy spots, and still wrought upon by the coral builders. By a curious freak of nomenclature, the one that is full of mountain peaks and ridges and of lofty up- lands is called Basse-Terre; and the really lowland segment, though smaller in area, is called Grande- 318 GUADELOUPE 319 Terre. But the French had a general way of calling the upper end or the windward side of islands, in the Caribbees, “ Capesterre,” or headland, and the lee- ward side, which was generally lower, “ Basseterre/' or lowland. The latter term seems to have been first applied to the lower part of what may be con- sidered Guadeloupe proper, where the town of Basse- Terre now is, and afterwards extended to the whole, without reference to the character of the twin island on the east, which came to be called Grande-Terre, because it had a larger area that was available for cultivation. In the north-west the highest peak is Grosse Mon- tagne, 2370 feet, from which jagged ridges radiate in different directions. Not far from the middle of the west coast is Deux Mamelles, 2540 feet high, and toward the south the great cone of La Soufri£re, which reaches an elevation of 4900 feet. The crest of the latter rises from a plain which was an ancient crater, and there are other vestiges of volcanic action in remote ages besides the comparatively modern rupture. Not only are there filled-up craters and deposits of sulphur, but gases and sulphurous va- pours still issue at times from the crevices, while near the foot of the Mamelles, on the very verge of the sea, are the Puits Bouillants, where vapours puff out of the sand and bubble up from the water. There is a sinuous ridge throughout the length of the island, and at the southern extremity a peak called Caraibe rises 2300 feet. Among the mountain peaks and ridges are many wild and verdurous gorges, and the upland valleys 320 THE WEST INDIES slope in fertile expanse toward the coast. The lower lands have all the rich fertility and luxuriant vegeta- tion of the other volcanic isles, for this section of Guadeloupe is watered by many streams. Considera- ble stretches are well cultivated, the lower levels being covered with sugar plantations and the hills with coffee gardens, while tobacco, cotton, and arrowroot are raised to some extent, and cattle farms are scattered among the hills. The natural growths are those common to this range of islands, a variety of palms, and the “ palmiste” with its spreading top, mangoes, and tamarinds, the dark green breadfruit tree, various tropical fruits, and rank vines and ferns, — all the verdure and bloom of a land of eternal summer. There is little that is peculiar in the animal life, but the deadly fer-de-lance, or lance-head snake, is first encountered here on our southward course. The highest elevation on Grande-Terre is four hundred and fifty feet, and the whole section con- sists mainly of limestone and a conglomerate of sand and broken shells which contains vegetable and animal remains, including occasional Carib skele- tons, too recent to be called fossils. This peculiar conglomerate is much used as a building stone, and is known as “ magonne de bon dieu.” The bay be- tween the sections of Guadeloupe on the north is called the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin, and that on the south the Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin ; and the narrow passage between, which is about five miles long, is the Riviere Sal6e, or “ Salt River.” Vessels drawing seven or eight feet of water can pass through it, but it could be readily improved into a serviceable chan- GUADELOUPE 321 nel. Near its southern entrance, on the Grande- Terre side, is Pointe-k-Pitre, the chief port and the real commercial centre of Guadeloupe. It is access- ible by deep water from the sea, and has the ap- pliances of a genuine seaport. It contains great sugar-reducing works, the Usines Centrales, to which the planters bring their cane and sell it, in- stead of undertaking to make sugar as well as grow the raw material themselves. The capital and political centre is Basse-Terre on the south-west coast, and upon the heights of St. Claude is Camp Jacob, a health resort and place of summer residence, where the governor spends much of his time. On the eastern coast is Le Moule, whence considerable shipments of sugar are made, though it is an exposed roadstead. In the south- east is a place called Porte d’Enfer. Basse-Terre is about twenty-eight miles long by twelve to fifteen wide, while Grande-Terre, with less area, extends thirty-four miles from north- west to south-east, and twenty-two from north to south, being of irregular shape with a long pen- insula at the south-eastern extremity. The six hundred and more square miles credited to Guade- loupe include some outlying small islands to the east and south. While Columbus was coming from the east near the beginning of November, 1493, eager for the sight of land, the first discovered was called La Deseada, or the “ Wished-for,” which has been corrupted by the French to Desirade. This is of the same formation as Grande-Terre, but is higher, though containing only about ten square 322 THE WEST INDIES miles of area. An island of sixty-five square miles nearly south of Grande-Terre and east of the lower point of Basse-Terre was named Marie Galante for the vessel commanded by Columbus. It rises in a succession of terraces to an elevation of six hundred and seventy-five feet on the eastern side, and has a circuit of fifty miles. It has a poorly sheltered har- bour called Grand Bourg. A little farther west a cluster of islets, made from broken craters and lava heaps, were called Los Santos, “ The Saints,” be- cause first seen on All- Hallows. The highest is named Le Chameau, and rises to 1000 feet or more, with fortifications on the top. In fact,” The Saints ” have been converted into a military and naval station and armed for the defence of the colony, and they have ” in their midst ” a deep basin specially adapted for the safety of naval vessels. This has been called ” the Gibraltar of the Antilles.” Columbus kept on his way up the eastern side of the large double island, which the natives called Curucueria, and made a landing. He named it Guadalupe, in honour of Santa Maria de Guada- lupe in Estramadura, and here he made his first acquaintance with the fierce Caribs. He was de- lighted with the land, but reported its people to be bloodthirsty pagans and cannibals. The warriors being mostly absent on some expedition, he rescued some female captives from the north, took a Carib or two along, and went his way. The Spaniards seemed to pay no more attention to this particular island, and in 1635 two French adventurers, named L’ Olive and Duplessis, tried to take possession. BASSE-TERRE, GAUDELOUPE. GUADELOUPE 323 They had to give it up, but the French claim to the island began then and was maintained ever after. After a long struggle the Caribs were overcome, being partly slaughtered and partly transported to Dominica and St. Vincent. Slavery was introduced and sugar plantations grew up, while coffee came in somewhat later. The English made several attacks on the island during the wars, and in 1759 it was captured by Admiral Moore and General Barrington, but was restored by the treaty of 1763. It was one of the French possessions that fell into British hands with Rodney’s victory in 1782, but again it was re- stored by the treaty of 1783. In 1794, the English, under Sir John Grey and John Jervis, took it, but the commissioner of the new French republic, Victor Hugues, declared the emancipation of slaves and turned the negroes against the invaders and drove them out. In 1802, Napoleon re-established slavery, which caused a bloody insurrection. The blacks fought desperately, and many killed them- selves rather than submit. Others were ruthlessly slaughtered, and many were transported. During the “ Hundred Days ” in 1810, the English got possession once more, and held the island until after the peace of 1814, but since then the French con- trol has been uninterrupted. Slavery was abolished in 1848, but was followed by a system of long-con- tract service. Latterly many of the blacks have become small landowners. La Soufriere has con- tributed one or two exciting incidents to the history of the island. As lately as 1797 it had an alarming THE WEST INDIES 3M eruption which seriously disfigured the landscape, and in 1843 it went into convulsions which shook the whole island and did considerable damage, almost destroying the city of Pointe-k-Pitre. The latest authentic statistics of the population of Guadeloupe as a colony place it at 135,650, in- cluding 13,850 for Marie Galante, and 1400 for D^sirade. About three fourths of the people are classed as “ blacks/’ and there are all shades of colour, though the white element has never been sufficiently large to reduce the African predomi- nance noticeably. The aspect of life in the towns is extremely picturesque, with light costumes and turbans of gay colours, and a cheerful appearance of thrift and comfort. While the foreign trade is chiefly in sugar and coffee, the local traffic in fish, vegetables, and fruits, mostly carried on by women, gives life and colour to the market-places. At first Guadeloupe was attached to the colony of Mar- tinique, but it has had a separate administration since 1775, and in 1837 the French municipal system was introduced. It is a department represented by one senator and two deputies in the French Corps Legislatif, and is divided into three arrondissements : Basse-Terre, Pointe-k-Pitre, and Marie Galante. There is a governor and council appointed by the home authorities, and a general council of thirty-six members elected from the communes to represent local interests and sentiment. The annual revenues of the colony amount to about $1,000,000. The aggregate of foreign trade is about 45,000,000 francs or $9,000,000 per year, divided almost equally be- tween imports and exports. CHAPTER XXXIII DOMINICA HE culminating height of the volcanic ridge whose peaks constitute the main line of the Caribbees is Mount Diablotin, 5340 feet high, in the northern part of the island of Dominica. That central island of the range is about twenty-five miles south of Guadeloupe and a little more than that north of Martinique. Its entire length from north to south is twenty-nine miles, and its width from twelve to sixteen, the greatest length being on the west side. A large part of its area is covered with mountains, which are clothed with dense forests and tropical vegetation of rank luxuriance; its shores are rocky and precipitous, with few indentations that can be used as landing-places. The only avail- able. anchorages are on the west side at Prince Rupert’s Bay in the north, where the town of Ports- mouth is situated, and at Roseau, the capital, farther south, where there is a practicable “ carn- age.” The mountains are cleft with wild gorges and ravines, and there are many streams, which often fall in beautiful cascades over the precipices, 326 THE WEST INDIES or slip through deep dells covered with flowering vines and shrubs. There is valuable timber in the primeval woods, but little use is made of it. There are ancient craters among the mountains, and fre- quent sulphur cavities and boiling springs. One old chasm used to be known as the boiling lake, and was said to be three hundred feet deep, but a few years ago a landslide partly filled it up, spoiled the symmetry of its banks, and stopped its ebul- litions. A comparatively small part of the island’s area of two hundred and ninety square miles is subject to cultivation, and much of that is stony, but the soil is very rich and produces all tropical plants and fruits in great abundance. The palms and fruit trees, the shrubs and flowering plants, so common in all these islands, flourish in Dominica, and it has several varieties peculiar to itself. The ceiba tree, though not its exclusive possession, is specially con- spicuous, with its trailing parasites and profusion of orchids ; and tree ferns grow to a height of twenty or thirty feet. There are few quadrupeds, but in the woods a great variety of birds with bright plumes and musical notes are found. Wild bees swarm in the blooming wildernesses and store honey in the clefts of trees, which is stolen from them and sent into the markets of the world. Honey and wax are among the chief exports, though sugar and coffee are still sent abroad. In the old days the Dominican planters did not find their land so well adapted to sugar-cane as to coffee, and this was never one of the islands in DOMINICA 327 which great plantations flourished. Since the aboli- tion of slavery, it has been slow to adapt itself to new conditions, and has not been prosperous. Its climate on the west coast, which is alone accessible to commerce, is moist and hot, and of its 30,000 in- habitants few are white Europeans. There has been some cultivation of cacao and arrowroot, and of lemons and limes, and less reliance on the old “ colonial produce,’ ’ but labour conditions are not favourable, and there is less evidence of thrift and cheerful content than in the French islands, though the language and traditions here are French rather than English. Roseau, or Charlotte Town, is a neat and quiet place of 5000 people, but has an air of having seen better days. It has an old French cathedral, an English church, and a Wesleyan chapel, and there is a botanical garden and a public library. At Portsmouth, or Prince Rupert’s, up by the foot of Mount Diablotin, there is a better har- bour and more encouragement for foreign commerce, of which the island has comparatively little, though capable of producing many things for which there is a steady demand. After passing La Deseada, Marie Galante, and The Saints, Columbus bore down toward the verdant land that seemed to rise out of the water to the south, but, finding a rock-bound coast and no good landing- place, he turned back. As it was Sunday, he called that rugged island Dominica, and proceeded to Guadeloupe. The Carib possessors were left in peace until 1627, when a few Englishmen, presum- ing on that lavish gift of King Charles to the Earl 328 THE WEST INDIES of Carlisle, tried to take possession. They were vigorously repelled, and after the French had begun to settle the neighbouring islands, they too made some unsuccessful ventures upon this. By the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, Great Britain and France agreed to leave this island to the Caribs as a sort of neutral ground, but, as it was convenient to the French from Guadeloupe and Martinique, they persisted in making encroachments upon it, and at the beginning of the war of 1756-1763 the English captured it as part of the enemy’s territory. At the end of the war Great Britain was confirmed in possession, and appointed a commission to dispose of land to colonists, permitting the French settlers to remain on taking the oath of allegiance and paying a moderate quit-rent. In 1778, the French from Martinique attacked the island, and with the help of these same settlers forced it to capitulate, but it was recovered by Rodney, and the title was again conceded by the treaty of 1783. In 1805, General La Grange attacked Roseau and compelled a sur- render of the town, which was burned ; but the gov- ernor, Sir George Prevost, succeeded in defending the island, and the Frenchmen gave up the attempt to hold it. In 1813-14, there was a raid of fugitive blacks from the mountains, and Governor Ainslie adopted a policy of extermination for the fugitives, killing everyone caught and offering a reward for everyone hunted down and slain. He was recalled to explain his inhuman conduct, but he carried home a testimonial to his clemency and humanity, signed by one hundred and sixty citizens of Roseau, DOMINICA 329 with the rector of the English church at the head of the list. There is still a remnant of Caribs much adulterated with negro blood within the confines of a reservation on the eastern side of Dominica. CHAPTER XXXIV MARTINIQUE ERHAPS the most interesting island in the most attractive archipelago of all this world is that in which the French ardour of soul is com- mingled in the highest degree with the native blood of the tropics. Martinique is about thirty miles due south across the blue Caribbean waters from Domin- ica. Columbus made its discovery on his last voyage in 1 502, but if he tried to fix a saint’s name upon it, it did not stick. The native Caribs called it Ma- diana, or, some say, Matinina, and, whichever it was, the present name is a French corruption of it. The English navigators used to call it Martinico. The island has the same general characteristics as its nearest neighbours, with some peculiarities of its own. Its extreme length is about forty-five miles from north-west to south-east, and the main part of it is in shape an oval with rough edges, its greatest width being fifteen miles. At the lower end of this main part, the old Fort Royal Bay — since the French Revolution Fort de France Bay — cuts in so deep as to come within six miles of meeting the in- 330 FORT-DE-FRANCE, MARTINIQUE. MARTINIQUE 331 lets of Le Robert and Le Francis on the other side. Below this huge gash, which is thickly plastered with mangrove swamps, is another expanse of mountainous territory to the south terminating in the Morne du Diamant. The whole area of near four hundred square miles is mountainous, the lofti- est height being Mount Pel6e, 4450 feet, in the north-west, near the foot of whose western slope on the coast is the bay upon which St. Pierre is built. Farther south, midway of the oval, are the three crests of Courbet, and all along the mighty ridge are black and ragged cones of old volcanoes. These slumbering monsters cannot yet be reckoned as absolutely harmless, for in 1851, after a century of seeming quietude, Mount Pelee broke out with a dangerous eruption. In the section south of the deep bay there are two less elevated and more irregular ridges, one running south-east and terminating in the Piton Vauclin, and the other extending westward and presenting to view on the coast Mounts Caraibe and Constant. All the east coast is notched with inlets and fringed with reefs, showing how the em- broidery of the tireless polyp still goes on. The mountainous interior is torn and gashed with the ancient throes of volcano and earthquake, and there are perpendicular scarps, deep clefts and gorges, black holes filled with water, and swift torrents dashing over precipices and falling into caverns; but over all this ravage of the primal ages the soak- ing rains and fervid sun of the tropic zone have wrought upon the rich lava soil a robe of verdure 332 THE WEST INDIES and of bloom which covers the ghastly disfigurement with surpassing beauty. To name the trees and plants of Martinique and to speak of the animal life of its woods and waters is hardly more than repetition of what has been said of Guadeloupe and Dominica. It has its great ceiba trees with their hanging vines and orchids, the graceful columns of the palm with tufted crown or spreading umbrella-like shade, the lithe bamboo, the round, dark top of the breadfruit tree, the orange groves, the waving cane fields — “ The glows And glories of the broad belt of the world.” In these woods and glens and on these rocky shores the fierce Carib was allowed to remain undis- turbed until that adventurous Norman captain, Esnambuc, came down from St. Christopher in 1635 and founded St. Pierre at the very foot of the frowning peak of Pel£e. It was a long struggle with the resisting natives, but forty years later France took up the colony and turned it over to a chartered company as part of the royal domain. The Caribs were killed, driven off, or transported, the hapless negro and the sugar-cane were brought in. Coffee was introduced here first of all in 1726, and the plantation system, that made a few families rich from the blood and sweat of thousands, was established. Martinique shared in the vicissitudes of the old contests of France and England against Spain and with each other, and saw some stirring incidents in West Indian history. MARTINIQUE 333 In that Titanic struggle for possession, while Great Britain was engaged in the futile effort to put down her American colonies on the Atlantic coast, it was in Fort de France Bay that the Count de Grasse gathered his formidable fleet which was to join with the Spaniards off Hispaniola, capture Jamaica, and drive the English out of West Indian waters. It was behind the rock of Gros Islet on the north coast of St. Lucia, only thirty miles to the south, that Rodney lurked with the Formidable and the other British men-of-war, waiting for the enemy to come out into the open, watching day by day upon the height, spy-glass in hand, for the signal that De Grasse had ventured forth. It was April 8, 1782, that the welcome word came, and on the 9th Rodney was on the track of the French admiral. Three days the baffling calms and un- certain winds delayed the fight, but on the 12th, off Dominica, the two great powers were face to face, with the chief glory of their navies in fierce combat for possession of the islands, all but one of which had been torn from Great Britain in Rod- ney’s absence. That day not only saved the British West Indies from France and Spain, but had much to do with the terms of peace in 1783. . A mile or so south of Morne du Diamant, a great volcanic rock springs from the sea to the height of six hundred feet, with shaggy sides and a flat crest. Its top is almost inaccessible, but can be reached by perilous clambering and clinging to crags and vines. In 1805, in the Napoleonic times, Sir Samuel Hood, vexed that the French ships passed through the 334 THE WEST INDIES narrow channel between this rock and the shore and thereby eluded him, hoisted men and guns and pro- visions for four months to the top of the volcanic cone, — one hundred and twenty men and five cannon with ammunition, — and they peppered any warlike Frenchmen that came past. It was only a question of time when they would be forced to give it up for lack of ammunition and food, if hostilities continued ; and in June, 1805, they finally surrendered after a five months' resistance, but “ Her Majesty’s sloop of war Diamond Rock ” became famous by that daring exploit. Martinique, as the centre of French life and activ- ity in the West Indies, was much perturbed by the French Revolution; and the freeing of slaves in Haiti caused a tension hard to control. There was no actual outbreak until 1831, when a serious insur- rection of slaves occurred. It was not repressed with the British harshness, but 3000 of the discon- tented were manumitted and all free persons of colour were vested with the political rights of Frenchmen. After emancipation in 1848, there was a contract-labour system, and East Indian coolies were imported when the negroes showed a preference for working on patches of land of their own and left the planters short of labour. That system has been abolished, and more and more small holdings pre- vail, and plantations disintegrate into farms. Long time sugar was the one great staple, coffee having much declined, and cotton receiving little attention. Sugar, molasses, tafia, and rum were the chief ex- ports, but there is less profit in these products of Copyrighted by J. Murray Jordan, 1898. STATUE OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, FORT-DE-FRANCE, MARTINIQUE. — MARTINIQUE 335 cane nowadays, and there is an increase in tobacco, cacao, indigo, ginger, fruits, and other things which might as well be raised. The exports in recent years have averaged about $4,500,000 in annual value and the imports $5,500,000. The population of Martinique is reckoned at about 175,000, of whom 10,000 are whites, 15,000 of Asia- tic origin, and 150,000 black, or coloured in various shades. It is not an idle or thriftless population, but lively and generally in comfortable case. It is rather careless of the marriage relation and of the conventionalities of civilised society, and two thirds of the births are said to be illegitimate. The strain of French seems to give a peculiar gayety and a charm of sensuous beauty to the variegated popu- lace, which is fond of bright colours and gaudy ornaments in their light attire, and of frolicsome diversions mingled with a formal observance of the rites of the Romish Church. In the streets and market-places it makes a fascinating crowd, and in the highways and byways it exerts an idyllic charm on the beholder. Fort de France on the north side of the deep inlet is the capital and fortified place of the island, the centre of military and naval activity, the point of departure for transatlantic steamers, and of connec- tion with all the world by submarine telegraph. It is built on a flat shore, with the mangroves stretch- ing away inland and ranks of tall palms shading its well kept streets. It was awfully shaken by earth- quake in 1839, and almost destroyed by fire in 1890. Not far away on the same bay is Lamentin, farther 336 THE WEST INDIES around St. Esprit, and on the southern side Dia- mant and Marin. The chief towns of the east coast are Le Francois, Le Robert, and Trinite, and Ma- couba is on the north. But the oldest, most popu- lous, picturesque, and flourishing place of all is St. Pierre in the north-west. It is also the chief seat of the island’s trade. There is a lower and an upper town, and from the bay it seems to rise in terraces of yellow houses with red roofs embowered in gar- dens and groves. The streets within the city are mostly narrow, steep, and well paved, and are periodically washed down by the rains. The slop- ing country around is productive of anything trop- ical to which attention may be given, and rises to verdant heights far above the sea-level, cultivated to the top. Like Guadeloupe, Martinique is a department of France, with one senator and two deputies to repre- sent it. It is divided into the two arrondissements of St. Pierre and Fort de France, and into twenty-five communes. A governor and council are appointed by the home government, and there is a general council of thirty-six elected members. We must not overlook the interesting fact that Martinique was the birthplace of the Empress Josephine. A marble statue gazing out to sea from the palm-shaded savanna of Fort de France is a constant reminder of that fact. Those decayed scions of French gentility, the Taschers de la Page- rie, came out here early in the last century, and Joseph Gaspard de Tascher de la Pagerie was an artillery officer in the time of the Seven Years’ War HOUSE IN WHICH THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE WAS BORN, MARTINIQUE. MARTINIQUE 337 of 1756-1763; and it was in June of the last year that his daughter, Marie-Joseph-Rose, was born at the petit bourg of Trois Islets, across the bay from Fort de France. At sixteen she went to France to marry the son of the governor of Martinique, Mar- quis de Beauharnais, but after that unhappy union was dissolved returned to her tropical home to emerge again in her maturer years and captivate the great Napoleon amid the gayeties of Paris. That prouder union was destined to a still unhappier dis- solution. Madame de Maintenon was also born in Martinique and passed her girlhood there as Fran- $oise d'Aubigne. History and romance unite with lavish nature and a peculiar people to give this island a fascination all its own. 22 CHAPTER XXXV ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT WENTY miles across the clear water south of Martinique lies St. Lucia. At its northern end stands that Gros Islet, or Pigeon Rock, as the English call it in their prosy manner, from which Rodney watched for the signal that De Grasse had issued from Fort Royal Bay, as it then was, on those memorable days after Y orktown. On the north-west shore of the island itself is the harbour of Castries, many a time the headquarters of the British fleet in these waters, with a magnificent entrance between two headlands and an amphitheatre of wooded mountains at the back. The island is nearly oval in form, with its axis pointing east of south, and its greatest length is forty-two miles and its width twenty-one. The area is two hundred and forty- two square miles. It is almost filled with wooded mountains running in a jagged ridge through its length, and rising in a succession of volcanic cones with fantastic variations of form. The highest ele- vation is over 4000 feet, but the shaggy covering of forest, with its varying hues, goes to the very top, 338 THE PITONS, SAINT LUCIA. ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT 339 save where the blackened and broken lips of craters appear, over which clouds almost always hover. As one sails down the leeward coast, two sharp peaks appear to the south above the verdant ridges, like a donkey’s ears, as the vulgar seamen put it. These are “ The Pitons ” at the south end of the island. All sharp peaks are pitons in the lingo of the French, but these are “ The Pitons.” Viewed from the south they rise sheer out of the sea at the island’s verge, one 2680 and the other 2710 feet, like misshapen towers of some vast submerged cathedral, whose roof is the mountainous back of the island be- hind. Between them a quiet bay charms the eye with its verdant background, over which looms in the distance the sombre form of the great Soufriere, or Solfatara. This huge crater is not altogether without life, though its inexhaustible sulphur de- posits are accessible to man. Within its gloomy depths the lava boils and bubbles, acting in its state of fusion, perhaps, as a safety-valve for imprisoned forces; and at many a spot among the mountains sulphurous vapours issue and thermal waters gush out. As elsewhere in this marvellous range of tropic islands, the mountains are cleft by wild gorges and picturesque valleys, and on the slopes the soil, made from ancient lava and decomposed vegetation, is exceedingly rich. Here are all the trees and vines and flowering plants and the profuse variety of fruits that we have found in the other islands, but four fifths of all the surface is still covered with unbroken forest. Here, too, are the birds and tiny beasts, 340 THE WEST INDIES the reptiles and the insects common to the Carib- bees, but St. Lucia is the special home of that hideous and deadly serpent, the “ fer-de-lance,” or spear-head. He also infests Martinique, and is said to have been found in Guadeloupe and St. Vincent and on Bequia at the northern verge of the Grenadines. As his original home is Guiana, and he is never seen in the islands beyond the limits mentioned, his presence is a standing puzzle to the scientists. He is sometimes called the rat-tailed snake, and his make-up is peculiarly repulsive, per- haps intensified by the known fact that he needs no provocation to strike, and the stroke of his venom- ous fangs is almost instantly fatal. There is a harm- less snake of his own size — sometimes six or seven feet long — called the cribo, which will fight and kill the fer-de-lance and eat the slaughtered enemy like a cannibal Carib. In the old plantation days sugar was raised on the slopes of St. Lucia, and to some extent is still raised ; but since the abolition of slavery there has been languishing and decay, as in so many other English islands. Of the 45,000 inhabitants, barely 1000 are whites, and the planters’ families have mostly emigrated. The negroes have obtained small allotments of land, and a central “ usine,” or sugar factory, has been established with gov- ernment aid, and there are still some exports of sugar, coffee, and cacao. The town of Castries, named for Marshal de Castries at the time of the French occupation, capital and chief city, has 5000 or 6000 people, and until lately seemed to be ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT 341 going to decay in spite of the advantages of its location and its splendid harbour. When Lord Rodney urged the retention of St. Lucia rather than Martinique, he advised making a great naval station here. His advice was not followed, but in recent years the harbour has been dredged and lined with wharves, and Castries has become the British coaling station in the Windward Islands, having telegraph connection with all the world. On the heights of Morne Fortunee, seven hundred and seventy feet above the sea, is the station for troops, and Chabot and Chazeau are health resorts. In the valleys, especially where there are swamps near the mouths of the many streams, the climate is con- sidered unhealthy. There are a few stone houses in the town of Castries, but for the most part it consists of long rows of small dwellings occupied by negroes. St. Lucia had its full share in the vicissitudes of the struggle for control between England and France in this part of the Antilles. It is set down among the discoveries of Columbus on his fourth voyage in 1502, but was left to the native Caribs for more than a century and a quarter. It was included in the sweeping grant of Charles I. to the Earl of Carlisle in 1627, and the English made attempts at settle- ment, but were driven off. In 1642, the King of France undertook to sell the island to a couple of Frenchmen. They were equally unsuccessful in their attempts to establish a colony, but rival claims were thus set up to its possession. In 1664, it was attacked by an English force from Barbados, but was ceded to France by the treaty of Breda. In all 342 THE WEST INDIES the subsequent wars it was fought over, taken, and retaken, and in the intervals was sometimes treated as neutral ground. When Rodney came out in 1782, it alone remained in English hands among the Lesser Antilles. It was French again after 1784, until Sir John Moore and Sir Ralph Abercrombie recovered it by crushing the combined force of the French and negroes in 1796, for the French gov- ernor had freed the slaves in 1794, and they fought desperately and vainly to keep their freedom. Sir John Moore was governor of the island for a while, — he of Corunna and Wolfe’s famous dirge. The French got hold of St. Lucia again in 1802, but it was retaken in 1803, and has remained an English possession from that time, though in character and tradition more French than English, like Dominica. St. Lucia is in the track of the hurricane, and has suffered severely from its visitations. That of Sep- tember 11, 1898, was less destructive here than in St. Vincent and Barbados, but owing to the steep slopes of the island the heavy rain which accom- panied the furious wind caused landslides that ruined many plantations, destroyed crops, and buried the habitations of the people, sometimes with their oc- cupants. The fact that most of the cultivated land and of the population is on the western side of the volcanic ridge saved them from such complete de- struction as was wrought where the tempest had a less interrupted sweep. St. Vincent is the smallest of the range of volcanic islands, being about seventeen miles long and ten wide, of a generally oval form, and containing one ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT 343 hundred and thirty-two square miles. It is traversed lengthwise by a range of volcanic hills intersected by beautiful valleys, but there is only one tall cone, the Morne Garou, 5200 feet in altitude. From the dark and jagged top, upon which clouds almost constantly hang, the rich lava soil slopes to the sea, spreading into green plantations and verdant groves and gardens toward the coast. The great Soufriere, the scene of the terrible eruption of 1812, is in the north-west, flanking the main peak at some distance. The volcanic eruption of April 27, 1812, is indeed the chief event in the history of St. Vincent. There are inconsistent accounts of a somewhat similar oc- currence in 1718, which tore the mountain to pieces, and there was some volcanic disturbance in the vicin- ity in 1785. But at the beginning of this century the old crater was quiescent and contained in its depths what has often been described as a “ beauti- ful blue lake,” though nobody could get more than a casual glance at it through the jungle about its rocky walls. For a year or two before the eruption of 1812, the earth had been disturbed by internal convulsions over a broad region. Expanding gases under tremendous pressure were struggling to escape and shook the islands and the shores all around the American Mediterranean. On the 26th of March, they seemed to gather all their energies under the foundations of the Venezuela coast, and, with a gigantic effort to break loose, they shattered the city of Caracas into a heap of ruins, burying 10,000 of its people in a common grave. Still roaring and bellowing in the subterranean chambers, they sought I 344 THE WEST INDIES a vent where the resistance would be least. They found it in a month in the old Soufrfere of St. Vin- cent, but not through the ancient water-logged crater. They broke, with a terrific explosion, through the mountain on the other side of a rocky wall eight hundred feet high, and hurled into the heavens with enormous force and fury a cloud of stones and dust and black volumes of smoke that filled the canopy of heaven with impenetrable darkness for three days and spread dread and gloom over all the island. At the end of that period, the pro- longed discharge of ash-laden vapours that extin- guished the sun was followed by a gush of lava which flowed down to the sea, and the agony of the earth was over. The terrible rumblings and explo- sions in the bowels of the globe, as the imprisoned forces rushed to the new-found vent, were heard with terror in Venezuela and Barbados, but were accom- panied by no surface shocks. At Barbados the English soldiers took it for the cannonading of ships at sea and prepared for an attack; and then came the strangest part of the phenomenon. This island is one hundred miles east of St. Vin- cent, while the trade-winds blow steadily toward the south-west ; but over Barbados gathered a black pall that shrouded it in Egyptian darkness, and an im- palpable black dust began to fall like a snow of pul- verised jet. It covered the island inches deep, with ultimate fertilising effect, and after the fright was over, it was found to be the dust of that terrible commotion in the Soufrikre of St. Vincent, fanned a hundred miles over sea by the returning currents ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT 345 above the trade-winds. It must have been hurled some 16,000 feet into the air. This eruption so re- lieved the agonies of the earth that the burnt-out cones of the Caribbees have been quiescent since, save for inward boiling, though occasionally the im- prisoned gases, under the pressure of sinking strata of the earth’s crust, swell and rumble through the deeper galleries and make the surface quake and tremble. St. Vincent was the chief victim of the terrible hurricane which swept from Barbados across the “Windward Islands” on the nth of September, 1898. It seems to have been in the line of its in- tensest fury, and Kingstown and nearly the whole area of cultivated land were torn by its blasts and lashed by the torrents which they carried. The city was almost destroyed, many of its inhabitants were crushed to death, and according to the early reports three fourths of the population of the whole island were made homeless and destitute. The wind stripped the foliage from the trees, leaving those which still stood like bare poles; and with the driving rain it shaved the vegetation from the face of the ground and scattered the flimsy cabins of the negroes like chaff. Even the animal life is said to have been silenced, and in the grey desolation which suddenly took the place of tropical exuberance there was neither sound of bird or insect nor sight of rep- tile for many days. The island had not been struck by a hurricane comparable to this since 1831, and it is said to have excelled in destructive violence the greater one of 1780. 346 THE WEST INDIES It was on his third voyage in 1498 that Columbus discovered the island of St. Vincent. It was granted to the Earl of Carlisle by Charles I. in 1627, given to Lord Willoughby by Charles II. in 1672, and be- stowed upon Lord Montagu by George I. in 1722; but the Caribs made a desperate resistance to the delivery of the goods in each case, and as France put in a rival claim, it was agreed by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle to leave it neutral like Dominica and let its own people keep it a while longer. The agreement was disregarded by adventurous colonists, and French and English long fought for possession. It was conceded to Great Britain by the treaty of 1763, and settlers began to fight the Caribs in ear- nest. There were still French and English conten- tions, but after 1783 the English held the island, and in 1796 they settled the Carib question after a bloody struggle by transporting nearly all that were left of the aborigines to the island of Roatan in Honduras Bay. A small remnant was left, which with a mix- ture of negro blood still survives on a reservation on the eastern side of the island, peacefully cultivating yams and arrowroot. It is similar to the remnant in Dominica, living apart, but so modified by the African strain as to exhibit none of the fierce char- acteristics attributed to the race. After the peace of 1783 had finally confirmed Brit- ish possession, sugar plantations under slave labour were developed on the fertile slopes of St. Vincent, and planters grew rich. Since the abolition of slav- ery there has been the decline elsewhere experienced in the English islands, and of the 48,000 inhabitants KINGSTOWN, SAINT VINCENT. ST. LUCIA AND ST. VINCENT 347 less than 3000 are of unmixed European blood. Some Asiatic coolies were introduced and a few Portuguese labourers from the Azores, but the large profits of sugar were gone, and many plantations have been broken up into small allotments. The blacks are gradually becoming landholders, and arrowroot is now the chief export. Kingstown on the leeward coast, at the extreme south-west, is the one available port, and there is, or was before the last hurricane, a straggling town of 6000 people, or less, on the shore. The bay was beautiful to look upon, with a verdant amphitheatre back of it, and red-roofed houses rising on the lower slopes amid palm trees and gardens. In the middle, at the highest point, was a substantial government house surrounded by a botanical garden. There were three parallel avenues conforming to the curve of the shore, and intersecting streets ran up the slopes and out to the suburban gardens and planta- tions. It is the trading centre and the one town of importance in the island, and it contains the churches and chapels of five Protestant denominations and an increasing number of schools. Away from Kings- town the population is almost wholly rural, occupy- ing scattered villages, which consist of negroes’ huts clustering about a few more substantial structures, or living in cabins appurtenant to the old plantation buildings. Industry and trade have relapsed to a primitive state and respond but feebly to the pulsa- tions of the world’s commerce, which touch the island only at the port of Kingstown. CHAPTER XXXVI THE GRENADINES AND GRENADA HE sixty miles between St. Vincent and Gren- ada is strewn with islets, which continue the great curve of the Caribbees, bearing a little west of south. They are called the Grenadines, and state- ments of their number range from three hundred to six hundred, but most of them are mere rocks and bits of earth. On the surface they have the appear- ance of fragments of some greater island, shattered to pieces and scattered over the waters; but in real- ity they are the peaks and pinnacles of a submerged mountain ridge, with deep water around and among them — a section of the broken and partly sunken bridge which in ages far remote connected the con- tinents on their eastern side and inclosed the double basin of a sea whose outlet was over the present Cordilleras to the Pacific, as modern scientific men believe. Some of these islands are fertile and cultivated, and all together have perhaps a dozen square miles of area and 3000 inhabitants. Bequia, a short dis- tance from St. Vincent, is six miles long, and con- THE GRENADINES AND GRENADA 349 tains some 8000 acres, and Cariacou, or Cariabacu, near the southern end of the range, is the next largest. Many of them have names, some of Carib origin, like the two already mentioned, some derived from families that have owned or occupied them, as Balliceaux and Battowia, but more from some physi- cal characteristic or aspect, as Round, Castle, Sail, Bird, Mosquito, and so on. The present dwellers are mostly negroes, and though some cultivate patches of sugar-cane, cotton, indigo, or fruit trees, where once were considerable plantations, for the most part they raise “ provisions,” and cattle and sheep, build boats, and go a-fishing. Sometimes they catch whales among the rocks and reefs and extract their oil. Often an island is owned by a single person, or by a family which is engaged in raising cattle and poultry, and, from the centre all round to the sea, is “ lord of the fowl and the brute.” And they are said to be much attached to their broken bits of country, these people of the Grenadines. The land is volcanic and in places fertile ; but, with water everywhere around, there is sometimes a lack of that which is good to drink, for there are no running streams and few wells that escape a decided saline flavour. On Cariacou there is a sloping hill 1000 feet high, and elsewhere there are varied heights and terraces of the jagged character which on other islands appears high in air instead of along the water- level. Symptoms of volcanic action in the depths are sometimes exhibited even yet. Having passed these straggling Cyclades, we come to Grenada, last and most beautiful of the Caribbean 35o THE WEST INDIES isles. It is about eighteen miles long by seven wid< with an area of one hundred and twenty square mile; and has a range of volcanic hills running through : and throwing off lower ridges which sink into gent) slopes and spread into valleys, though they som< times strike the coast with steep promontories an abrupt cliffs. Many streams come down betwee the slopes, their banks softening into marsh-land nec the sea. There is a central culminating peak,Mour Maitland, 2750 feet high ; and crumbling cones hei and there are vestiges of ancient craters. Doub' less the” Grand Etang,” or “ Big Pond,” up in th mountains, occupies a space that once belched fii from the ” burning core below.” It is 1740 fet above the sea-level, nearly circular, two miles and half in circumference, and rimmed around with wa\ ing palm and bamboo. The special charm of the scenery of Grenada in the softening of the jagged outlines made by rifl and scars of volcanic action, a variety of form an colour and of material in the exposed rocks, an an exceptional richness in the thick vesture c verdure and of bloom that covers it. Among il forest-clad precipices are grey and red sandston buttresses, basaltic pillars and colonnades, slabs c argillaceous schist and ornamental porphyries; an in the mossy and fern-clothed glens are pure rivi lets, while sulphurous and chalybeate springs su£ gest the everlasting fires below. The animal lii is mostly of the familiar tropic kind, but with n noxious reptiles, though the scorpion and cent pede seem almost to merge from the insect to th THE GRENADINES AND GRENADA 35 1 reptilian order. The iguana is rather plentiful, and among the mountains is a “ wilderness of mon- keys," much given to making raids upon neigh- bouring plantations and often hunted as “ rare sport " by the unfeeling victims of their pranks. As in most of the Antilles, the humming-bird is conspicuous among feathered creatures, and the firefly shines in the insect tribe. The variety and profusion of vegetation and of fruit seem almost without limit, ranging from shore to mountain top. It was on his third voyage in 1498 that Columbus discovered this island, and called it Ascension, watching the church calendar, as usual, for his names ; but the Spaniards seem to have forgotten about it or to have considered it prudent to leave its Carib possessors undisturbed. It was included in the prodigal grant to the Earl of Carlisle, but about 1650, when royal grants were out of favour in Eng- land, the French came down from Martinique under Governor Duparquet, a nephew of that doughty ad- venturer, Captain Esnambuc, and, after getting the good-will of the unsuspecting natives, proceeded to their extermination in the most systematic and cruel fashion. On the northern coast there is a promontory called the “ Morne des Sauteurs," or, by the English, " The Caribs’ Leap," where the last of the desperate and hounded aborigines are said to have thrown themselves into the sea. But little progress was made until 1714, when the French West India Company acquired property here and established intercourse with Martinique. The Brit- ish seized this island at the time of Rodney's first 352 THE WEST INDIES cruise in 1762, and held it after the peace, and though the French captured it in 1779, it was re- covered by Rodney' s great victory of 1782, and has been in English hands ever since. It had its era of prosperity in the days of great sugar plantations, when most of its cultivated soil was devoted to cane-fields, though equally adapted to cotton, tobacco, indigo, and all manner of fruits and spices. With the abolition of slavery and the depression in sugar came languor and decay. Old planters gave it up and went home; there was a general emigration of whites, and the land fell into the hands of the negroes in small parcels, until the Europeans numbered a few hundred among a popu- lation of near 50,000. It is a populous island in proportion to habitable area, and though it no longer exports much of the old “ colonial produce,” it has been more prosperous for the actual inhabitants than in the slavery days. They raise little cotton, sugar, and coffee, but cacao has become a staple, and gin- ger, nutmegs, cloves, and other spices, and even tea, are grown, and show the capabilities of the land. On the different levels the capacity for varied production is such that a systematic industry would make this a source of all tropical luxuries. There were once several good harbours on this island, Egmont in the south, Grenville Bay in the east, and Charlotteville in the north ; but of late even the chief port is not much used — St. George in the south-west, where the capital, St. George’s, or George Town, is situated, headquarters of the Windward Islands government. This is called the THE GRENADINES AND GRENADA 353 “ finest harbour in the Antilles.” A long penin- sula stretches into the bay, ending with a headland, formerly strongly fortified, but latterly fallen into neglect. On the right of this, looking inward from the sea, is the deep “ car£nage,” where large vessels can come close in shore and be safe. Within the fortified headland along the slope of the peninsula for nearly a mile straggles the white town with its red roofs and its church spires, pretty at a distance but shabby and out of repair within. The long street leads to suburban villas and gardens on the semicircular slope at the head of the lagoon, which heighten the beauty of the picture, while farther back rise the verdant hills even to that cen- tral volcanic peak. Across the bay is the “ Etang du Vieux Bourg,” a pond with surroundings suggest- ive of volcanic eruption and of earthquake, and said by vague tradition to be the site of an old French town. It seems to be an ancient crater, and the broken and dilapidated end of the island near here marks the termination of the volcanic ridge that cuts the sea with a curve of a thousand miles and sticks its jagged edges in the air. Between it and the South American coast is a space of sixty miles of deep water. Grenada is divided into six parishes for purposes of administration, and it has a legislative assembly of seventeen elective members, but qualified voters are few. There is a fine government house and a few stately mansions at or near St. George’s, and there are several English Protestant and French Catholic churches, some with schools for the blacks, 354 THE WEST INDIES who make up the bulk of the growing generation. Life in this charming island is languid, and for many years industry has seemed lazy and trade dis- couraged. Perhaps the lavish generosity of nature and the ease with which life may be sustained in indolent comfort make it too much like the land “ In which it seemed always afternoon/* and “ All round the coast the languid air did swoon, Breathing like one that hath a heavy dream.” SAINT GEORGE’S AND BAY, GRENADA. CHAPTER XXXVII BARBADOS HE island of Barbados is isolated from the rest of the West Indies in more senses than one. It is ninety-five miles from the nearest point in the Caribbees, which is the southern end of St. Lucia, and the intervening space sinks to a depth of 1350 fathoms, or more than 8000 feet. It is still farther from Tobago and the continental system of South America, with abysmal depths of ocean between. It is the flattened top of a vast cone, lifted during the reign of “ chaos and old night " by Titanic forces beneath, at a weal: spot in the earth's crust, out of the profound depths to the water’s surface, and there covered during long ages with coral de- posits. Its limestone structure is in layers which indicate a succession of upheavals, and from certain points of view the present surface rises in terraces toward a central elevation. Quarries reveal the dif- ferent coral beds distinctly. On the windward side the aspect is more broken and the work of external erosion is more apparent. There is a highland sec- tion, popularly called ** Scotland," where there is 355 356 THE WEST INDIES sandstone and a chalky soil containing remains of infusoria; but six sevenths of the area is of coralline limestone. At one point the trachyte core of the huge cone appears above ground, and there are still traces of old volcanic action. The polyps have not ceased their work, or rather their growth, and the island is almost encircled with reefs. In some places the fringe is three miles wide. There are few deep channels in this coral rim, and navigation is danger- ous for those not familiar with the passages. This island is twenty-one miles long from north to south, and about fourteen miles across at the widest part, expanding toward the south into a rough pear shape. It is fifty-five miles around the shore, not following the indentations, and the area is one hundred and sixty-six square miles. A low ridge runs through the land nearly north and south, culminating somewhat north of the middle point in Mount Hillaby, which is only 1145 feet above the sea-level ; but the surface in general is undulating, with a great variety of hill and dale of the gentler kind, and none of the abrupt declivities and wild ravines of the Antilles. It is a “ rolling country,” and a verdant one. The ingredients of the soil, derived from coral limestone and ancient volcanic ashes, moulded with the remains of thousands of generations of vegetable life, produce a mixture of inexhaustible fertility. Once it was covered with forests, but these have been swept away, and nearly the whole surface has been long under cultivation, which has reduced the indigenous flora to com- parative insignificance. There are palm trees and BARBADOS 357 remnants of tropical growth, but they are not con- spicuous, and the gardens are variegated with exotic trees and plants, and a kind of bloom that suggests old England. The streams are few and insignificant, and the porous and well-drained ground is free from mi- asma. The island is healthy, fanned by the steady trade-winds for three quarters of the year, though it has its hot ” spells ” and its wet” spells,” like other tropic lands. The driest month is March and the wettest is October, and there are all grada- tions between without a distinct line limiting the wet and dry seasons. Much of the time one needs an umbrella against the sun or against the rain, but there are weeks of breezy and delightful weather. The fauna has been as much modified as the flora. There are no wild animals and few reptiles, and even the insects are comparatively innocuous, as the re- sult of that civilisation which subdues the luxuriance of nature and subjects the soil to the wholesome processes of cultivation. The animals and fowls are mostly domestic, and even the wild birds are not specially tropical, but the surrounding waters abound with fish whose habitat has not been changed. Barbados was isolated even in its discovery and in its history, and the origin of the name is lost in ob- scurity. Columbus knew not of it, and it is not cer- tain that its discoverers were Spanish. It has been assumed that the word “ barbados ” is Portuguese, meaning “ bearded,” and that wandering navigators of Portugal came upon the island first and fixed its la- bel ; but barbado ’ ’ is Spanish as well as Portuguese 358 THE WEST INDIES for “ bearded,” and there is no record of discovery by men of Portugal. Mr. Froude said that he had seen the name upon a Spanish chart of 1525, but other writers declare that there is no mention of the island earlier than 1536. It appeared upon old Spanish charts as San Bernardo, Bernados, Barbu- doso, Baruodos, and Baruodo, which may be varia- tions of an ill-known name and exhibitions of early eccentricities in orthography. Even the meaning of the name is disputed. It is generally explained as referring to a wild fig or banyan tree which sends shoots down to the ground like beards, and which were common in the island when it was discov- ered, giving its landscape a profusion of whiskers. Mr. Froude did not like this derivation, and be- lieved that the Spaniards found bearded Caribs there when they went around capturing wild men to do their work; but there is no evidence of that, and the Spaniards did not succeed in making slaves of the Caribs who were much nearer their base than this island. Besides, we have no record of whiskered Caribs, and it is doubtful whether Spaniards visited Barbados at all ; but as this word is used in their language for shoots growing from trees, without thought of the original figiyative sense, it seems hardly necessary to strain so hard for a derivation. The first thing definitely known is that after this island appeared upon the charts as Barbados, an English skipper on his way to Surinam with the Olive Blossom landed on its shores, set up a cross, and carved upon a tree, “ James, King of England and of this island.” That was in 1605, and it is said that BARBADOS 359 the island was then covered with woods and in- habited only by “ wild hogs,” which may refer to peccaries. There were then, so far as known, no Caribs there to be captured or exterminated. In 1624, Sir William Courteen, a London merchant, trading with Guiana, sent a ship to Barbados to establish a claim for himself, but the next year a patent of proprietorship was granted to the Earl of Marlborough, and two ships went out under his authority, and landed in February, 1625, with thirty colonists. They called their settlement Jamestown, but in 1627 the island was included in the grant to the Earl of Carlisle on condition of a certain pay- ment to Marlborough for his interest. Under authority of the new proprietor, the Society of London Merchants acquired 10,000 acres of land, sent out colonists, and established a government of their own. Their settlement was made in 1628 on the south-west coast, where there was a good road- stead, which they called Carlisle Bay. Where they established their town there was a rude bridge over a creek, and they called the place Bridgetown, and so it is unto this day. The first settlers raised maize — which in our time and country we call simply “ corn,” — yams, sweet potatoes, and plantains, and, after a time, indigo, cotton, tobacco, and ginger; and from the woods they obtained logwood, fustic, and other merchant- able articles, for the time of sugar-cane and slavery was not yet. In time, British fashion, they organ- ised their government on the home model, with executive, judicial, and legislative powers, and es- 360 THE WEST INDIES tablished parishes for local administration. They throve mightily, and it is recorded that there were 50,000 inhabitants twenty years after the first settle- ment. Some of them were Irish contract labourers and others were of the convict class, but the colony was growing so decidedly English that it was called “ Little England.” It became a refuge for cavaliers in the Parliament and Commonwealth time, and was intensely loyal. On hearing of the death of Charles I., the people swore allegiance to Charles II., and Lord Willoughby became governor by authority of that exiled and uncrowned monarch. It caused much contention, and Cromwell sent out Sir George Ayscue with a squadron to settle matters. Lord Willoughby was disposed to resist, and, as Ayscue did not fancy suppressing Englishmen by force, the matter was composed in an amicable way. When Venables and Penn were on their way to seize Span- ish possessions in the West Indies, they took volun- teer reinforcements from Barbados, and these helped to start the Jamaica colony. After the Restoration, Lord Willoughby was gov- ernor again, and in 1663 the proprietary interest was extinguished, the Crown taking direct control and granting a colonial “ constitution,” which has de- veloped with little change since. Lord Willoughby was lost in a hurricane in 1666, while on his way to attack Guadeloupe, and his brother, Lord William, became governor. By this time the slave trade was under way, and Barbados became the chief English market for Africans, next to Kingston in Jamaica, with a rival in the northern islands at St. Kitt’s. BARBADOS 361 The monopoly granted in England to the Royal African Company injured the profits of this busi- ness, but the sugar plantation system developed under slave labour, and Barbados had a long period of increasing wealth. Bridgetown became the great central mart for British trade, and was made the English military and naval headquarters in the West Indies. It acquired the airs of a thriving metro- polis, and Pere Labat was greatly impressed with its magnificence two centuries ago. Barbados is isolated in its history inasmuch as it was never the subject of the conflict for possession that went on so long. It was British from the start, and though sometimes menaced was never attacked. It took part in the British assaults upon other islands, but only as a loyal supporter of the home govern- ment. Its “ constitutional rights ” and its “ repre- sentative institutions” led it to indulge in political controversies, and it fought against trade restrictions and customs duties upon its products, and once de- clared the principle that a colony with representative institutions was not subject to taxation by the home government. One of the stirring incidents in its history was the flying visit of Lord Nelson in 1805, when he was chasing the French fleet and the island colonies were in dread of a combined attack from France and Spain. There was no French fleet there and no present danger of the combined attack, but the Barbadians were so relieved and so proud and grateful that after Nelson’s great victory they named the principal square of Bridgetown Trafalgar, and put a bronze statue of the naval hero in it. 362 THE WEST INDIES The population of Barbados has increased to about 200,000. In 1887 it had reached more than 180,000, and it is the most densely peopled piece of earth of its extent anywhere. When the slave trade was abolished in 1806, there were 60,000 negroes in the island, and in 1834, 83,176 slaves were emanci- pated, the compensation for owners being twenty pounds and fourteen shillings per head. Now, nine tenths of the population are free negroes who work for hire. The planters escaped the labour trouble that followed emancipation in the other English islands because the land was substantially all in the hands of owners and under cultivation. The negroes had to work for them or starve. They could not squat upon little patches and live on yams and fruit or cultivate small crops for sale. There were five hundred great sugar plantations and many small holdings in the hands of white men, practically covering the island, and it was not an easy place for a freed negro to emigrate from. The relations were not greatly changed by freedom, except that those of forced dependence and subjection were severed. The blacks obtained no political rights or social recognition, but had to take care of themselves with their slender earnings. Barbados, like the other sugar-growing islands, has suffered from depression in the price of cane-sugar and the stimulated com- petition of beet root. It has kept up the struggle and done little to vary its industries, though its soil and climate are adapted to a great variety of products. Barbados has always had a certain degree of autonomy as a Crown colony, and prior to 1885 it BARBADOS 363 was the headquarters of the government of the Windward Islands. Since then it has been a colony by itself, with a governor appointed by the Crown, a legislative council of nine members, of whom two are officials and the others appointed on the recom- mendation of the governor. It has long had a “ house of assembly,” consisting of twenty-four elective members, but there is a moderate property qualification for the suffrage and a higher one for eligibility to the house. Formerly there were only about 1200 or 1300 qualified voters, but the suffrage has been extended so as to take in something over 4000 citizens. An executive council, presided over by the governor, and consisting of the commander of the troops, the colonial secretary, the attorney-gen- eral, one appointed member of the legislative coun- cil, and four members of the house of assembly selected by the governor, proposes all measures of legislation and sees to their execution. The gover- nor is himself the commander of the naval forces in the West Indies. Two members of the assembly are elected in each of eleven parishes and two addi- tional in the city of Bridgetown, which is in the parish of St. Michael’s. The parishes have their vestries with local juris- diction, three of them with sixteen members each, and eight of them with ten, all elected. There is a board of thirty-three road commissioners appointed by the governor, and the highways are kept in excellent condition. The governor also appoints a central board of education, and the local control of schools is in the hands of the clergy and of 3^4 THE WEST INDIES committees. In 1712, Sir Christopher Codring- ton bequeathed two valuable estates to found a college, and the first buildings were completed a few years later in an attractive location some four- teen miles from Bridgetown. Codrington College ranks high among colonial institutions of learning. There are four scholarships with an income of £175 each, tenable at either Oxford or Cambridge, under the direction of the board of education. The school system of the island is well supported and efficient. Elementary instruction is quite general, and the people are, as a rule, well ordered. The English Church is partly supported by the government and includes by far the larger proportion of the inhabit- ants, though there are dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews, with places of worship. Barbados is an English bishopric which formerly had a wide juris- diction, but one has since been established at Anti- gua and another at Trinidad. The judiciary includes a court of chancery, a court of admiralty, and one of sessions (with criminal jurisdiction). The annual revenues amount to about $750,000. Nearly all the trade is centred at Bridgetown, and in and about it is gathered a third of the population of the island. It lies along the curved beach of Carlisle Bay for two miles, at the foot of a hill upon whose slopes are many gardens and villas. It is well laid out and substantially built, having been twice nearly destroyed by fire in times past, and has a spacious market-place and a fine public square with shade trees. The government buildings are near the sea, and a short distance away are the TRAFALGAR SQUARE, BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS. BARBADOS 365 spacious barracks and the military hospital. St. Michael’s Cathedral, which is solid but plain, St. Mary’s Church, and the Jewish synagogue are among the notable buildings. There are several hotels, and a newspaper which was established in 1730. The port is an open roadstead, and the inner harbour, or “ carenage,” will not admit vessels of deep draught ; but Bridgetown is the terminus for the transatlantic steamship service, and the centre of dis- tribution for traffic with the other English islands, as well as a port of call between the United States and South America. It is also connected with the ocean telegraph system. Fontabelle is an attractive sub- urban place, and Hastings is a popular resort. Other places along the coast are Spaightstown, Hoisting- town, and Holetown. There are twenty-five or thirty miles of railway on the island, mostly for plantation service. Not only the language and the laws but all the characteristics and traditions of Barbados are dis- tinctively English, — one might say intensely English. It is sometimes called “ Bimshire ” and its people Bims,” but the term has the obscure origin of slang, and is merely expressive to the popular mind without having any clear significance. While the colony has not been flourishing of late and there have been signs of discontent, and though the over- crowded population has been drifting away to some extent, its natural resources and attractions are likely to renew its prosperity as soon as its labour force is applied to a greater variety of industries. It has not suffered from earthquakes or volcanoes of its own, 366 THE WEST INDIES but its position and its comparatively unbroken sur- face expose it to the fury of the hurricane. The most destructive recorded was in 1780, when 4326 persons lost their lives and the damage to property amounted to about .£1,250,000 sterling. There was one of great violence in 1831, when the loss of life was less and the injury to property greater. That which has already been mentioned as devastating St. Lucia and St. Vincent on September 11, 1898, struck Barbados on the evening of Saturday the loth, and raged through the night with dreadful fury. Her Majesty's ship Alert got out of the har- bour of Bridgetown, but a number of merchant vessels were driven upon the reefs and wrecked. Buildings in the city were seriously damaged, many persons lost their lives, and 10,000 habitations of labourers on the island were blown away. Great injury was done to crops, but no such wide-spread destitution and suffering were produced as in St. Vincent. CHAPTER XXXVIII TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD HE narrow island of Tobago lies twenty miles to the north-east of Trinidad, which is the nearest land, fully a hundred miles to the south-east of Grenada at the terminus of the Caribbees, and one hundred and twenty miles south-south-west of Bar- bados. It is surrounded by deep water, growing shallower in the direction of Trinidad, and it is an outpost of the South American land system of which that island is a detached fragment. The mountain range that runs through its length from south-west to north-east is like a deflected continuation of that which crosses northern Trinidad from the Venezuela coast. The length of the island is twenty-six miles, and its greatest width seven and a half, and it has an area of about one hundred and twenty square miles. Its mountains consist of volcanic cones and ridges, and are covered with dense forests. The culminating peak rises 2130 feet above the sea-level. Along the higher steeps the pimento grows and the parrakeets feed upon the aromatic berries which furnish the allspice of commerce. Between the 367 368 THE WEST INDIES mountain forests and the sea there is a belt of palm groves, sugar plantations, and the dwelling-places of a sparse population, numbering less than 20,000 in all. There are several small bays upon the coast, but the only one much used is in the south-west where the port and town of Scarborough lies. This is the capital and chief trading-place, and though it has barely 1200 inhabitants there was formerly an export trade from it of $400,000 yearly value, mostly in sugar. Tobago lies so that the trade-winds sweep both its coasts, and it has a healthy climate. It has a tropi- cal profusion of plants and animals, substantially like those of Trinidad, and belonging in the main to the South American system of flora and fauna, though with a mixture of West Indian varieties. The name in the form Tobaco was a Carib word applied to a kind of pipe in which the dried leaves which the natives called cohiba were smoked. When the island was discovered it was occupied by Caribs, who were afterwards driven out by Arawaks from Trinidad, taking refuge in St. Vincent. It had been desolate and deserted for a long time, when some Dutch traders from Flushing set up a station there. This was broken up and the settlers killed or carried away by Spaniards from Trinidad, but another party of Flushingers, or Fichilingos, as the Spanish called them, took possession in 1654. It is said that in the interval of solitude an English seaman was cast away upon the island, and that his experience furnished the suggestion for the story of Robinson Crusoe, the man Friday being a Carib, TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 369 and the savages who afterwards appeared being Arawaks from Trinidad. Tobago, and not Juan Fernandez, where Alexander Selkirk was cast ashore, is now regarded as the real Crusoe’s island. The Dutch traders had the sagacity to make their island neutral ground in commerce and hold it open to settlers from all quarters, but the result was that the English element gained a preponderance, and the “ powers ” which made the treaty of Versailles in 1763 gave it to Great Britain as a permanent pos- session. There had been a considerable number of French Huguenots among the settlers, but in 1793 all remaining Frenchmen were expelled by act of the colonial assembly. There had been a system of bringing out labourers from Scotland under three- year contracts — the “ thirty-six months’ men ” — but it was superseded by the more profitable use of African slaves, and the cultivated land, not more than an eighth of the area at any time, was occupied chiefly by sugar plantations. The abolition of slav- ery had a depressing effect, and there are but a few hundred white people left in the island. Still, the large plantations have been maintained, and sugar has continued to be the chief product for export, though cacao, coffee, and fruits are raised to a slowly increasing extent. The island has the disadvantage of being off the main lines of trade, and is almost left to the keeping of the native negroes. It is at- tached to the Windward Islands colony, and has an administrator and a legislative council, but the latter consists of six members of whom three are officials and the other three are appointed by the governor. 370 THE WEST INDIES The governor of the colony has absolute control of the affairs of the island. On his third voyage from Spain in 1498, Colum- bus took a more southerly and therefore a longer course than before. He had been two months from San Lucar and nearly a month from the Cape Verde Islands; his vessels had been buffeted and badly shaken, and he was short of water; he was about to turn northward to make for the colony on Espaftola, which he had left two years before, when land was discerned far to the south-west. There seemed to be three peaks blending into one mass, and in de- vout gratefulness he called it La Trinidad. There is a doubtful and unnecessary story that he had vowed to name the first newly found land for the Holy Trinity if he should come safely through his peril and distress. Changing his course southward, the dauntless navigator made his way down the eastern coast of a forest-covered island, turned along its southern shore, passed through a long, narrow passage, beset with currents, which he called La Boca Sierpe (“ Serpent Mouth ”), into an expanse of water to which he gave the name of Golfo de la Bal- ena, or “ Gulf of the Whale." This is now the Gulf of Paria, lying between the west coast of Trinidad and the shores of Venezuela. Turning a long, sharp point that made the entrance so narrow, Columbus followed the coast of the island, and was surprised to find so near the equator a land of forests and palm trees, of luxuriant vegetation and abundant streams and springs of water. Of the people he said that they were " all of good stature, well made, and of TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 371 very graceful bearing, with much and smooth hair. But he could not linger here, his thoughts being with the forlorn colony at Isabella, left so long in the care of his brother and possibly at the mercy of savages. As he made his way northward out of the gulf, to his left stretched the whole vast continent of South America, but he took it to be an insignificant island, and called it Zeta. He found the northern passage studded with rocky islands, like huge fangs, one rising to a height of 1000 feet, dividing it into channels with perilous currents, and he called it the Boca Drago, or “ Dragon Mouth.” Then he went his way across the Caribbean Sea, saw Trinidad no more, and knew not that he had looked slightingly upon the shores of a vast continent, which the Vene- tian Vespucci was to visit at this very spot the next year with Ojeda, one of his own lieutenants, and gain the credit of discovery. It was Amerigo Vespucci that gave the name of Venezuela, or ” Little Venice,” to the land of the Orinoco delta, and from him the designation of both western continents has been unjustly derived. The northern coast-line of Trinidad is fifty-three miles long, the eastern forty-eight, and the southern sixty-five ; and the western side of the island in a di- rect line is about forty-nine miles in extent, but at the north-west and south-west angles there are long projections inclosing the Gulf of Paria, and reaching within a few miles of the Venezuela coast, and these extend the northern and southern coast-lines. There is also a long projection to the north-east. But for 372 THE WEST INDIES these extended corners the island would be nearly rectangular and not far from square. In its actual form the Spaniards likened it to an ox-hide. It has an area of 1754 square miles, which is about half that of Puerto Rico, and nearly three times that of Guade- loupe, the largest of the Caribbees. The northern coast is abrupt and craggy, and parallel to it runs a mountain range with a general altitude of 1500 to 3000 feet, the culminating peak, Tucutche, being 3100 feet high, and the Cerro de Aripo, in the north- east, 2644. This ridge is composed of metamorphic masses of argillaceous schist with steep escarpments toward the sea, and is continued through the islands of the Dragon Mouth into the ranges of the main- land. The principal islands of the north-west angle are Mono (Monkey), Huevos (Eggs), and Navios (Ships). The adjacent channels, or “ bocas,” have the same names as these islands, and the outer and widest one is Boca Grande. The cape at the north- east corner of Trinidad is Point Galera, that at the south-east Galeota, and the long projection of the south-west is Cape Icacos. Some of the outlets of the Orinoco delta fall into the Gulf of Paria, dis- colouring its waters with mud ; and the channels of the Boca Sierpe are shifted and obstructed by alluvial deposits. There are some islets here, and the rock Soldado, white with sea-birds. Besides the rocky mountain range of the north, there is a solitary mass in the interior, Mount Tamana, 1028 feet high, and near the west coast Mount Naparima. Parallel with the southern coast is a low range of dunes and TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 373 wooded elevations, mingled with tertiary rock, while the eastern shore has been filled out with sand and mud deposited from the vast volume of the Orinoco. The mountains of Trinidad are covered with dense forests, and in the interior are wide, grassy plains and savannas, like the llanos of Venezuela, with intervening tracts of woodland like those of Guiana. The land is distinctly South American in its aspect, in the vast variety of its trees, and in its general vegetable and animal life. Many of the trees afford valuable timber, and a large number have bark with poisonous or medicinal qualities. The great ceiba, with its shoots falling to the ground and taking root, and with a profusion of clinging parasites, is held in reverence by the superstitious blacks ; some of the palms, with their smooth columns and great tufts of broad leaves, grow to one hundred and fifty feet in height ; and everywhere the rich soil and warm, humid climate produce a rank luxuriance of vines and plants, some with brilliant flowers, which over- run the face of the earth, save where the vigorous Para grass takes possession and monopolises the ground. A characteristic of Trinidad in its physical aspects is its mud volcanoes, and a unique peculiarity is the asphalt lake in the south-west. There is a mud vol- cano near the middle of the island, one hundred and thirty-five feet high, rising above a morass, locally called the Lagon Bouffe, but those near Cape Icacos and the asphalt lake are low conical hills surrounded by mangrove swamps. While mud gushes out, bringing lumps of bitumen and sulphur, and there is an appearance of boiling, the temperature is not 374 THE WEST INDIES high. The asphalt lake of La Brea (“ The Pitch ”) is in the south-western peninsula, near the coast, and ninety feet above the sea-level. It is reached up a kind of bituminous glacier, has the appearance of an exposed coal-pit, nearly circular, and half a mile across, and is surrounded by woods in which tall palm trees are conspicuous. Even upon its surface are clumps of vegetation, but their existence is pre- carious. The contents of this huge receptacle of un- known depth are of a vegetable origin, like coal, lignite, and peat, and are in a state of instability on account of the warmth and of pressure from below, which causes the substance to rise in the middle and subjects it to a slow movement, breaking it into irregular masses, and producing crevices or channels, which are filled with water. As part of the mass is removed, its place is filled again by the pressure from below upon the plastic material, and the supply seems to be inexhaustible. It is mingled with a good deal of earth, and the soil about contains much of the pitch, which does not affect its fertility. Near by on the coast there are vents from which petroleum flows, and even below the water both oil and asphalt come to the surface. This spot is one of the marvels of the earth, and the pitch from La Brea, or La Braye, as the English call the place, goes to the composition of cement and of paving material in far-off cities. An American corporation has ob- tained a monopoly of the supply for a long term of years at $60,000 a year, and is growing rich in paving streets by the use of “ Trinidad asphalt.’* TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 375 This island is watered by many streams, and some of them are navigable by small craft for a consider- able distance. In the northern part, flowing west into the Gulf of Paria, is the Caroni; and farther south the Gueracuero falls into Naparima Bay, an inlet from the gulf. The Nariva and Guartaro, or Ortoir, reach the eastern coast by a common delta. There is hardly any rain from November to April, but very heavy dews which keep up the vegetation, while from May to October there is much wet weather, with frequent sudden showers and occa- sional violent storms. The island is not subject to hurricanes, but has been shaken by earthquakes. The temperature is very equable, ranging from 750 to 8 50, and rarely reaching 90° in the hottest months ; and the climate is regarded as very healthful. Ani- mal life is as varied and abundant as vegetable, and includes most of the species found in the northern part of South America. Among them are the pec- cary, armadillo, porcupine, and sloth, a tiger cat, several kinds of monkeys, and a gentle variety of deer. Birds are numerous, and some have brilliant plumage, including parrots, parrakeets, and hum- ming-birds; but their ranks have been reduced by the insatiate demands of civilised society for feath- ered adornment. Insects are something too plenti- ful, and some of them are decidedly obnoxious to comfort; but they, too, are sometimes brilliant, even illuminating. Reptiles are many, but mostly in- nocuous. Turtles are less common than in former times, because they have been persistently robbed of their eggs, but the waters abound in fish of many 376 THE WEST INDIES curious kinds, one of which, called the drum fish, makes music wherever it goes. Trinidad, being close to “ the main/’ was not at first so completely neglected by the Spanish discoverers as most of their smaller possessions, and they held it longer. Finding no gold there, the most that they did with it for a long time was to get supplies of wood and water, and capture the poor natives for slaves. As they were Arawaks and not Caribs, their resistance was overcome with- out great difficulty. In 1588, the Spanish made a settlement and founded San Jose de Orufia, still known as San Josef, on the Caroni River, a few miles from the coast. Soon after that the Eng- lish began to make perturbing calls on the way to and from Guiana, and in 1595, Sir Walter Raleigh made the visit during which he professed to be so outraged at the cruel treatment of the natives that he captured San Josef, and considered whether the island was not worth keeping. Lured on by greater attractions, he concluded to leave it to the Spanish governor. Occasionally the corsairs gave the little settlement a scare by prowling into the gulf, but it was left pretty much to itself and must have been a lonesome place for a century or two. In 1783, the native population had been reduced to 2032, and there were only one hundred and twenty- six white persons and six hundred and five negro slaves on the whole island, with its vast wealth of natural resources and attractions. Soon after that a Frenchman from Grenada, named Roume de St. Laurent, got from the Spanish authorities at Cara- TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 377 cas a suspension of the edict which forbade foreign- ers to settle in Spanish possessions, and all “ good Catholics ” were thereafter permitted to dwell in Trinidad and own property. This brought settlers from the French islands, and when trouble came in Haiti after the French Revolution there were many emigrants from there. Then came the good governor, Don Josef Maria Chacon, who would not permit the inquisition or monastic orders to get a foothold, and insisted upon tolerating colonists from all quarters who would people and develop the island. The English came as well as others, the Spanish were soon in a minority, and Chacon had a troublesome time with his mixture of subjects. Immigration had been stimulated by grants of land, thirty-two acres for each person and sixteen more for each slave brought in. In 1796-97, when the difficulty with the French — royalist refugees and cantankerous republicans — was at its worst, and the English were settling mat- ters here and there in the West Indies, Admiral Harvey and General Abercrombie paid a visit to the Gulf of Paria, coming down from Martinique with 7000 troops. There was a Spanish admiral named Apodoca who took refuge with his ships in the deep Bay of Chaguaramas, and Governor Chacon was much dis- traught with the visit of so formidable an enemy. The upshot was surrender to the English, and Apodoca burnt his vessels rather than have them captured, thereby vindicating “ Spanish honour,” though the island was forever lost. Lieutenant- 378 THE WEST INDIES Colonel Picton was left in charge, and had to use severe measures to put down anarchy and secure submission, and by the treaty of Amiens Trinidad was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity. The only stirring incident in its history after that occurred when Lord Nelson came down in 1805 on his chase for a French fleet that had gone the other way. It is reported that a solitary soldier in charge of the defences of the north coast, thinking it was an enemy, pitched his only gun over the cliffs, blew up his watch-tower, and went with all haste to warn the people of their danger. The English occupation began a new era for Trinidad, and pretty nearly all its growth and pro- gress is a matter of the present century. The popu- lation was nearly 40,000 in 1838, and in 1885 it was 171,914, of which about 100,000 consisted of negroes and 50,000 of coolies, chiefly from India. Sugar planting was first introduced in 1787, and extended rapidly, but, the slave trade being abolished early in this century, Chinese coolies were imported in order to keep up with the demand for labour. The first Hindus were brought over in 1839, a^ter the aboli- tion of slavery, under contract to labour seven and a half hours a day, six days in the week, for five years, at thirteen cents a day. Contracts could be renewed for one year or five years, and those who remained ten years in all were entitled to be returned to their own country at the charge of the contractor. The system of coolie contract-labour has been under government regulation and supervision, and is said to have worked well. The Hindus live in commun- TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 379 ities by themselves, and preserve their habits, cus- toms, and traditions, and are undoubtedly better off than they ever were in India. They are an intelli- gent, frugal, and self-respecting people, and a large proportion of them remain as a permanent part of the population. Their women are especially fond of adorning themselves with jewelry, and the cus- tomary way of investing surplus savings is by turn- ing them into gold and silver ornaments, with which the persons of the female members of the family are richly decorated. A large part of the area of the island is still cov- ered with forests and uncultivated plains, hardly more than one eighth of the land being under culti- vation, and that mostly near the west coast, where the only seaports and nearly all the towns are situ- ated. This part of the island is a rolling country, with many sugar plantations, palm groves, cacao and fruit gardens, and provision grounds. The sugar industry has suffered here as in the other islands, but, while it was prosperous, the cotton, coffee, and tobacco for which the soil and climate were equally well adapted fell into neglect. Lat- terly the cultivation of cacao, which affords a spe- cially fine chocolate, has been on the increase, and coffee, tobacco, and fruits have received more atten- tion. It is only a question of adaptation to produce almost anything that belongs to a tropical land with an exceptionally rich soil and genial climate ; but the whites constitute barely one tenth of a population now estimated at 200,000, or more, and the coloured labour force is not altogether tractable in its freedom. 380 THE WEST INDIES The Gulf of Paria affords a spacious harbour, but the only port of importance, and the capital and chief town of the colony, is Port of Spain, in the angle where the west coast turns along the promon- tory to the Boca Drago. There large vessels have to anchor a mile away from the wharves on account of a lack of depth in the water. There is deep water in Chaguaramas Bay, but the landward surroundings are unfavourable, and its beach is mainly a health and pleasure resort, like Mono Island near by. Port of Spain is a thriving city of 35,000 people, built mostly of stone, with broad, thickly shaded streets running up from the shore and intersected at right angles with cross streets. Back of it is a broad savanna called Queen’s Park, having a fine race- track at one end, and beyond that is a large botan- ical garden filled with the trees and plants of the tropics and many exotics from Europe and America. In the midst of this spacious and splendid garden is the governor’s palace. Spreading beyond these public grounds are the plantations, fields, gardens, and groves that furnish the products of the land, amid magnificent palms, great cedars and ceibas, and other trees that ornament the landscape, though in the interior long stretches of road may be found which are wholly unshaded by foliage and exposed to the sweltering tropic sun. Within the city are busy streets, some spacious public squares, and a few fine buildings of stone. The English cathedral stands on Brunswick Square and the Roman Catholic cathedral on Marine Square, with which a popular promenade is connected. There are several other churches, an excellent club, TOBAGO AND TRINIDAD 381 and many comfortable residences. Notwithstand- ing its tropical climate and its Spanish traditions, Port of Spain has much the air of a thriving Eng- lish town, and is on the whole well kept, though keeping the streets clear of unwholesome refuse is left chiefly to the black vultures. These ungainly and repulsive creatures perch upon the roofs, flop down into the roadways, halt gawkily about, pick- ing up garbage, and make themselves so familiar as to startle the stranger ; but they are under the protec- tion of the law, and seem to know it, on account of their useful public service. Near the city is an exten- sive barracks for the soldiers who are quartered here. It is only a few miles to the old Spanish capital, San Josef, which still brings the quaintness of the sixteenth century into the present time. Down the coast about thirty miles is the second city and seaport of the island, San Fernando, but its population hardly reaches 7000. Back of it, sloping up from the coast, is another region of plantations and fruitful groves, and near by is the most char- acteristic Hindu village on the island, a point of special interest to visitors. It is ten miles farther down this western or gulf coast to La Braye, whence the asphalt shipments are made. The largest inland towns are Tacarigua, Arouca, and Arima, in the region of which Port of Spain is the outlet; and Montserrat and Prince’s Town are attractive villages in the fruitful district back of San Fernando. These towns are largely points at which produce is collected to be sent to the seaports, and there is some sixty or seventy miles of railroad making the connections, built by the government. 382 THE WEST INDIES Trinidad is a Crown colony, with very little recog- nition of the representative principle in its govern- ment. The governor is appointed by the sovereign, and chooses an executive council of three for him- self. The legislative council consists of fifteen members, of whom seven are public officials and the others are appointed on the selection of the planters and merchants. There are eight administrative dis- tricts : St. George and St. David in the north, Caroni, St. Andrew, Victoria, and Nariva in the central section, and St. Patrick and Mayaro in the south ; and two municipalities, Port of Spain and San Fernando. Port of Spain has a local council of six- teen members and San Fernando one of ten, elected by landholders worth ,£40 a year or more. The public revenues of the colony, derived chiefly from customs duties, amount to about $2,500,000 a year. There is a public debt of about $3,000,000, incurred mostly in the construction of railroads. The annual value of exports exceeds $10,000,000, and the value of imports is about the same. There is a consider- able trade with Venezuela, and regular and frequent communication with England, with the other West Indies, and through them with the United States. Trinidad has a school system maintained by the government, which also gives aid to the church schools. There are two colleges, Queen’s Royal College and the College of the Immaculate Concep- tion. The possibilities of production and of trade in this island are hardly less than those of Barbados in proportion to size. It has about the same popu- lation and more than ten times the area. PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD. CHAPTER XXXIX OFF THE VENEZUELA COAST OF the islands off the Venezuela coast and be- longing to the continental system of South America, other than Tobago and Trinidad, only the “ Dutch islands ” of Curasao, Buen Aire, and Aruba are commonly spoken of as part of the West Indies; but a passing notice of those which originally be- longed to Spain and passed to the Republic of Vene- zuela when its independence was achieved, seems necessary to make the present account complete. Columbus discovered the island of Margarita when he left Trinidad in 1498. It is only eight miles from the mainland, and has an area of four hundred square miles. It is almost divided into two by a depression in the middle occupied by a lagoon. In the eastern or main part Mount Copei rises to an altitude of 4170 feet, and in the western and smaller section Mount Macanao attains a height of 4484 feet. The name of the island is derived from the pearl banks on the southern shore, which in recent times have been virtually abandoned as no longer profitable. Similar banks exist on the small islands of Cabagua and Coche near by to the south. 383 3&4 THE WEST INDIES Margarita is so largely occupied by rocks, sand dunes, salt marshes, and the reefs that adorn its edges, that its people live chiefly by fishing and the handi- work of the women, who make for the Venezuela mar- ket cheap earthenware, cotton stuffs, and hats of straw and vegetable fibre. The population is less than 40,000, and little more than that if we include Ca- bagua, Tortuga, and all the neighbouring isles. The capital is Asuncion, with a population of about 3000, and is the happy possessor of a “ miraculous virgin adorned with a robe of pearls." The ports of Pam- patar, Pueblo de la Mar, and Pueblo del Norte are in the eastern section. The island was bestowed upon Marceto Villalobos in 1524, ravaged by the freebooter Lopez de Aguirre in 1561, attacked by the Dutch in 1662, and otherwise buffeted in troub- lous times, but Spain held on to it until the revolu- tion of Bolivar, when its fortitude and suffering in the rebel cause earned for it, with the neighbouring islands of Hermanos and Blanquilla, the title of Nueva Esparta, or " New Sparta," as a separate state in the new republic. The group of islets to the north-east, called the Testigos, or " Witnesses," was one of the resorts of Captain Teach, or" Blackbeard," the pirate, where he was long believed to have buried rich treasures, though nobody could find them. Blanquilla was once occupied by a French refugee from Guade- loupe, who set up a cotton industry there; but he was driven out by the Spanish, who left the island to the wild progeny of the cattle and dogs which had been introduced. Tortuga, to the west of Mar- OFF THE VENEZUELA COAST 385 garita, is encircled by reefs called Tortuguillos, and has within its small area a little fishing village. Farther west, and part of what the Spaniards desig- nated as the “ Leeward Islands/' are the three clus- ters of Orchilla, Los Roques, and Aves, belonging to Venezuela. They are composed of rocks and reefs inhabited by lighthouse-keepers, and visited only by a few fishermen. There is another Aves, or Bird Island, in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea, which is the culminating point of a ridge or bank, elsewhere submerged, running parallel with the main range of the Lesser Antilles. It is a lonely spot, occupied by sea-birds, and valuable only for guano deposits, and it lay practically unclaimed until 1856, since which time its possession has been conceded to Venezuela. Curasao is the headquarters of the Dutch colony in the West Indies. Not only the neighbouring islands of Buen Aire and Aruba, but Saba, St. Eustatius, and the Dutch part of St. Martin in the northern Caribbees, are dependencies, administered by deputies of the governor of Curasao. This island is nearly forty miles long, and has an area of two hundred and twenty square miles. Though it has nearly 30,000 inhabitants, about one third of them freed negroes and the rest a mixture of European nationalities with a preponderance of Dutch, its sur- face consists mostly of arid plains, with a few fertile glens and narrow spaces made productive by patient toil. There is a deficiency of water, and the people are dependent upon storing a supply from the rain- fall. They raise some maize, cotton, sugar-cane, 386 THE WEST INDIES tobacco, and fruits and vegetables; but the chief exports of the island are salt, phosphate of lime, and the well known Curasao liqueur, of which the chief ingredient is derived from a peculiar variety of orange, the Citrus aurantium curassuviensis. But the larger business of Curasao is the transit trade of Venezuela and Colombia. It has a deep and well sheltered harbour on the south coast, the bay of Santa Ana, where the capi- tal, Willemstad, is situated. This port furnishes both vessels and crews for a large coasting trade, and also the bankers, many of them Jews, who make the advances and loans that give life to the traffic. Willemstad is distinctively a Dutch town, though its population is greatly mixed. Its houses, though built low and subject to the conditions of a tropical climate and the visitations of earthquakes, have a general resemblance to those of Amsterdam ; and the deep lagoon called the Schottegat, which extends inland from the bay, the passage between the city and the western suburb of “ Oberzijde," with its bridge of boats, and the overflowing swamps that spread through the environs, suggest the watery aspect of Holland. The entrance to the bay is de- fended by Fort Amsterdam and separate batteries; men-of-war often lie at anchor in the Schottegat, while the quays of the port of Curasao are generally crowded with merchant shipping. A peculiar pa- tois, derived from many tongues, is common in its streets. This island was discovered by Ojeda in 1499, an^ called the “ Isle of Giants," whereby hang dubious OFF THE VENEZUELA COAST 38 7 legends of the stature of the original inhabitants. It was settled by Spaniards as early as 1527, but it had the happiness of possessing virtually no annals until it was captured by the Dutch in 1632, when they also took possession of the outlying islands of Buen Aire to the east and of Aruba to the west. The only interruption to their possession was dur- ing the Napoleonic wars, when the English captured Curasao, first in 1798 and again in 1806. It was re- stored to Holland in 1814, when several dislocations in the West Indies were rectified. Buen Aire hardly has an existence independent of that of Curasao. It is some twenty miles off the shore of the latter to the north-east, and has an area of two hundred and fourteen square miles, but there are only about 5000 inhabitants. They cultivate the few productive acres in an arid waste and share in the fishing and seafaring pursuits of the neigh- bour island. Aruba is the westernmost of this group, and lies near the entrance to the Gulf of Maracaybo. Its area is only sixty-six square miles, and its population less than 8000; but it has more cultivated surface than either of the other Dutch islands. It suffers from lack of natural watercourses or springs, and depends upon cisterns and tidal wells. The people consist largely of half-breeds, partly de- scended from the aborigines, and there are some in- teresting relics of antiquity in the island in the form of rock inscriptions and objects wrought from stone or clay. The earthenware is commonly embellished with the heads of owls or frogs, and until recent times there were vestiges of old customs in the burial 388 THE WEST INDIES of the dead in large cone-shaped receptacles. The island was formerly called Azua, from a shrub which grows there. It is said that the Spanish conquerors found a populous city upon it, rich in gold, hence the name Oruba, from “ oro hubo,” ** here is gold ” ; but the derivation is fanciful, and the correct form of the name is “ Aruba.” There are still traces of gold in the rocks, and the natives may have accu- mulated treasures when the Spaniards broke through to appropriate them. This island is said by geolo- gists and naturalists to have been the latest of the group to be separated from the mainland, and it has some animal species, including a variety of frog, a rattlesnake, and a parrakeet, which have disappeared from Buen Aire and Curasao, but are still found on the continent. CHAPTER XL THE WEST INDIAN ENIGMA HE unsubmerged parts of what seems in the remote geological ages to have been a vast bridge connecting the Atlantic side of the two American continents have been for four centuries the scene of one of the most interesting and instruct- ive “ continuous performances” in human history. There are signs that the long drama may be entering upon a new phase with accelerated action. Looking back, we see first the European explorer, dimly convinced of the earth’s rotundity and of the possibility of reaching the ** gorgeous East ” by an easier and safer route, if he will only sail boldly to the westward. He gropes bewildered among tropi- cal islands, unconscious that a continent hitherto unknown to his side of the world and an ocean far wider than that he has crossed lie between him and the object of his quest. Intercepted here, he pre- pares the way for a new empire to be founded by the proud and chivalrous, the ” most Christian,” power of Spain. A dominant purpose, devoutly cherished, is to extend a beneficent sway and a saving faith; 389 390 THE WEST INDIES but that purpose is lost in the conflict of selfish im- pulses and motives aroused in mere human nature placed in new conditions. On this stage one race of men, being, or assuming to be, in an advanced stage of civilisation, comes in contact with an “ inferior,” or more backward race; and, instead of “ converting” it or elevating it, or even attempting to bring it forward to its own state of advancement, it proceeds to rob, to reduce to serv- itude, to slaughter, and finally to exterminate the hapless people who obstruct the pathway of ” pro- gress.” This was not peculiar to the Spaniards. What they did to the mild and unresisting Arawak in the sixteenth century, the English and French did to the fierce and self-asserting Carib a hundred years later. Nor was it peculiar to these islands or to the period of their first occupation by Europeans. The same process of plunder and extirpation went on where the white man and the Indian came in con- tact on the North American continent, and we can- not confidently proclaim that it is ended yet. Is it the necessary consequence of the meeting of su- perior and inferior races of men on the same ground ? An alternative to extermination was long exhibited on this West Indian stage — slavery, or subjection. The Europeans would not, perhaps could not, lift up the aborigines and take them along in the career of human progress, and so, being confined within narrow limits, they ground their life out ; but they had seized possession of a rich tropical land, needing labour inured to the climate to extract the riches which they coveted. They did not hesitate to drag THE WEST INDIAN ENIGMA 39 1 another “ inferior race ” from its native soil in Africa and compel it to do their work. They did not em- ploy it, they did not attempt to improve or elevate it, or prepare it to advance and share their destiny. They simply enslaved it and used it to serve their own ends precisely as they would use cattle. Negro slavery in America was planted in the West Indies and transplanted to the British colonies in North America, to become the heritage of the United States, “ the land of freedom.” How this relation of the races worked is known by experience and observation to a generation still surviving, and there are living Christians who sincerely regret its extinction. It is surely an evidence of progress in the white man that slavery has been extinguished, even where it was so long regarded as essential to the mainte- nance of Christian civilisation ; but how has it left the relation of the “ superior ” and the “inferior” races ? We see the anomaly of this great group of islands, almost connecting the eastern shores of the two Americas, still divided in possession among several nations on the other side of the Atlantic. They were the cradle of all America, and they are and of right ought to be peculiarly American ; but for the most part they are still, or were until the other day, subject to European powers. Is this necessarily to continue on account of the relation of the races and the incompatibility of that relation with the principles of American freedom and of American government ? Cuba has been made independent, and may remain 392 THE WEST INDIES independent; but a majority of the people of Cuba have long been of the white race, and where that race predominates it rules. The people of Cuba may be capable of self-government, or may become so. Puerto Rico has come into the possession of the United States by the fortunes of war, but a still larger proportion of its people are descendants of white settlers. They are mostly of Spanish origin, and are ill-prepared to take a full share in their own government ; but so long as the island remains in a territorial condition, the race question will be less serious in its government than it is in some of the oldest States of the Union. In Jamaica and the other islands, a vast majority of the people are of the coloured race. They are no longer in slavery, but they are distinctly a subject race. In the English colonies, there is no pretence of equality, political or social, and no recognition of a policy of preparation for the exercise of equal rights. Such representation as is permitted is based upon a suffrage so qualified by property-ownership as to exclude nearly all the negroes from its exercise ; but to exclude them effectually from all share in the government only the slightest application is given to the representative principle. Each colony and each island, however populous, is governed by a small number of Englishmen, sent out by the home gov- ernment to exercise the prerogatives of the Crown, with much less restraint than they are subject to in Great Britain. This is because the people of the islands are frankly assumed to be incapable of self- government, and there is no thought of giving them THE WEST INDIAN ENIGMA 393 the right. The principles of representative govern- ment are applied to English colonies which are peopled by Englishmen, or at least by white men, but those which are inhabited by “ inferior races," or in which any inferior race predominates, are " Crown colonies," and are ruled arbitrarily by the home government through appointed agents. The superior race rules, and the position of the inferior race is one of subjection. There is nothing in the English theory of government which demands a recognition of equal rights or requires a policy of giving political power to all the people and fitting them for its exercise. Jamaica may remain a Crown colony indefinitely and be practically governed by a dozen men sent from England, and its race ques- tion will be answered by the military power. Are these islands capable of self-government, or can the American principle of government by the people be safely applied to them ? Haiti has been answering that question nearly all this century, and Santo Domingo has been giving a somewhat differ- ent answer a greater part of the same time. A population almost wholly negro has been left to the experiment of self-government in Haiti. It has been in form a republic, a kingdom, again a republic, an empire, and a republic yet again ; but at no time have the people governed themselves. They have been ruled by a black autocrat or a coloured oli- garchy, distinguished by various degrees of incapac- ity and despotism ; and if there has been progress or improvement, it has been very slow. In Santo Do- mingo, with a larger intermixture of white blood, 394 THE WEST INDIES but still a predominance of the “ inferior race,” there has been a better condition of things, but not a very promising degree of success in the experi- ment. It has been very far from real self-govern- ment by the people, and almost equally far from efficient and progressive government. Here, then, is the West Indian enigma. Is the American soil first occupied and longest held by the white man, to continue subject to alien powers and impervious to what we hold to be the American spirit in the government of men ? Is it to present a permanent spectacle of two races of mankind un- able to live together unless one is master and the other slave, or one ruling and the other subject; or is it to become the theatre for the solution of the race problem by elevating and improving the inferior and reconciling the proud spirit of the superior to a relation of fraternity, a condition of equality, a chance of liberty, through mutual helpfulness ? The old Spanish colonies on the continent have been working out the experiment of self-govern- ment, with many failures but perceptible progress. They are slowly undergoing a process of American- ising, though Latin Americanism is not the same as Anglo-Saxon Americanism, and it will be long be- fore the two blend into one. But the Spanish- American republics are little troubled with the race question. Cuba, with the drawback of recent servi- tude to Spanish power and the traditions of long subjection, has now the negro factor in its problem of free government. The United States is struggling with the race THE WEST INDIA N ENIGMA 395 problem comparatively free from other difficulties; and as a nation it is acting upon the theory that the races can and must live together on a footing of political equality. No edict of a paper constitution can suddenly subdue the determination of the white to rule, or lift the black to an equal capacity for ruling ; and in States where the “ inferior race ” is so strong in numbers as to threaten to gain control, means are found to keep it in subjection in spite of the let- ter and the plain intent of written constitutions. Though the sudden transformation from the help- lessness of abject servitude to a safe exercise of political power, boldly risked as it was by a deliber- ate constitutional change, is made impossible by laws of nature that cannot be amended, the adop- tion of the theory induces the slow and gradual process of adjustment to it in practice. We must educate, elevate, and improve the coloured citizen, and solve the race question in our States by har- mony, and not antagonism or subjection. Can this process be carried into the West Indian islands, where the African race was planted in slav- ery by the white man, where it flourishes physically as the white race does not, and where it seems des- tined to predominate in numbers because the clim- ate is congenial to its blood ? Is the tropical climate a bar to the presence of American energy and enter- prise, and to the diffusion of American ideas and the true American spirit, which might in process of time develop a capacity for popular government and dis- place the bonds of European subjection with the ties of American brotherhood ? It is not a question of 396 THE WEST INDIES equality of capacity or of condition, but of equality of rights and of opportunity, under which the power and influence of superiority would be legitimately exercised in government by the consent and for the benefit of all, and there would be no pretension of a prerogative inherent in the blood of a race, any more than in an inherited caste. The United States has taken possession of the island of Puerto Rico, and on that outpost of the Antilles the genius of America encounters a sphinx which propounds the enigma of the future destiny of all the West Indies. INDEX A Abaco, Great and Little, 3, 119 Abercrombie, Lord, attacks San Juan, 269 Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, recovers St. Lucia, 342 ; takes Trinidad, 377 . Aborigines, general characteris- tics, 25-30 Acadians, 249 Acklin, 4, 122 Adamanay, 227 Aguadilla, 262, 266, 276 Aguado, Juan, 45 Agueynaba, 266, 267 Aguirre, Lopez de, 384 Aix-la-Chapelle, treaty of, 328, 346 Albemarle, Lord, grantee of islands in Bahamas, 77 ; com- mander at capture of Havana, 95 Alexander VI., Pope, bull divid- ing Spanish and Portuguese possessions, 51, 71 American Mediterranean, 2, 259, 343 Andros, position, 3 ; description, 121 Anegada, one of the Virgin Islands, 8, 294, 295 Anguilla, situation and extent, 8 ; part of Leeward Islands Colony, 290 ; description, 302, 303 Anguilletta, 303 Annotto, 200 Antigua, situation and extent, 9 ; origin of name, 41 ; taken by English, 75 ; captured by French, 93 ; part of Leeward Islands Colony, 290 ; descrip- tion and history, 306-309 Antilles, origin of the term, 4 Antonio, Cape, 128, 130, 141 Apodoca, Spanish admiral in Trinidad, 377 Arawaks, origin and character, 25 ; islands inhabited by, 25 ; in Puerto Rico, 282 ; in Toba- go, 368 ; in Trinidad, 376 Archipelago, of Columbus, or American, 2 ; how formed, 13- 16 ; first inhabitants, 24 Arecibo, 262, 275 Ariguanabo, lake in Cuba, 132 Arroyo, 262, 277, 284 Artibonite, river of Haiti, 230 Aruba, situation and extent, 12 ; taken by the Dutch, 73 ; de- scription, 387 Ascension, name given by Colum- bus to Grenada, 46, 351 Asphalt lake, Trinidad, 374 Aux Cayes, 227, 234, 249 Ayscue, Admiral, at Barbados, 93. 36° 397 39§ IXDEX Ayuntamiento, town council, in Cuba, 146 Azua de Compostela, 252 B Baez, Buenaventura, 255, 256 Bahama Channel, 15 Bahamas, extent, 3 ; political connection, 7 ; area and popu- lation, 12 ; general structure, 14 ; connection with continent, 15 ; original inhabitants. 26 ; English occupation, 76 ; de- scription and history, 1 15-127 ; resources and products, 117, 118 ; the different islands, 119- 123 ; first settlements, 125 ; industries and trade, 126; government, 126, 127 Bahia Honda, port of Cuba, 156 Baianet, 227 Balboa, discovers the Pacific, 69 Balcarres, Lord, suppresses ma- roons, 214 Baracoa, first settlement in Cuba, 56 ; the present town, 16 1 ; landing of insurgent chiefs, 183 Barahona, 252 Barbados, position, 6 ; extent, 11 ; first colonised, 75, 78; political revolt, 93 ; slavery in, 105, 1 13; separate colony, 22S ; effect of volcanic eruption in St. Vincent, 344 ; description, 355-357 ; history, 357~36i ; people and government, 362- 364 ; education, 364 ; capital, 364, 365 ; hurricanes, 366 Barbuda, situation and extent, 9 ; first settled, 75 ; part of Lee- ward Islands Colony, 290 ; description and history, 305, 306 Bartholomew, brother of Colum- bus, 45. See also Colon, Bartolome Basin, or Bassin, see Basse End Basle, treaty of, 238, 255 Basse End, 300, 301 Basses-Terres, 304 Basse-Terre, capital of St. Christ- opher. 314 ; section of Guadeloupe, 318 ; capital of Guadeloupe, 321 1 Batabano, port of Cuba, 156 Bayamo, town in Cuba, relics of aborigines, 27 ; caves near, 13 1 ; revolutionary conspiracy, 177 ; battle, 185 Bay am on, town in Puerto Rico, 275 Beauharnais, Marquis de. 337 Behechio, cacique of Xaragua, 52 Bernini Keys, 120 Bequia, 348 Berry Isles, 120 “ Bims,” “ Bimshire,” 365 j “ Blackbeard,” the pirate, 87- 89 ; headquarters in the Bahamas, 125 ; resort off Margarita, 3S4 “ Black Eagle,” 173 I Black River, 203 ' “ Black Warrior,” 175 Blanco, Gen. Ramon, 190-198 Blanquilla, 384 Blockade of Cuban ports, 194 Bluefields Bay, 200 Blue Mountains, 201 Bobadilla, Francisco de, super- sedes Columbus, 47 ; ship- wrecked, 47, 48 Boca Drago, 371 Boca Serpiente, 370 Bohio, native name for a part of Haiti, 39, 231 Borinquen, native name for Puerto Rico, 31, 54, 266 Bottom, town of, 310 ! “ Boucan,” 81 Boyer, General, 241-243, 255 Brazil, Portugal’s title to, 51 Breda, treaty of, 94, 309, 313 Bridgetown, 359, 364 Broa Bay, 142 Brooke, Gen. J. R., 197, 284- 286 INDEX 399 Brooks, Henry, 183 Buccaneers, origin of term, 81, 82 ; character and exploits, 82-86 ; headquarters at Port Royal, 210 ; resort at St. Thomas, 296 Buccaneers’ Fort, 142 Buchanan, President, proposal to purchase Cuba, 178 Buen Aire, situation and extent, 12 ; taken by the Dutch, 73 ; description, 387 Byron, Admiral, 96 C Cabanas, port of Cuba, 156 Cabral, Jose Maria, 256 Cadiz, Columbus arrives at, 45, 48 Caicos, the, relics of aborigines, 27 ; description, 122 ; politi- cal connection, 127 Caimanera, landing United States marines at, 196 Calleja Isasi, captain - general of Cuba, 184 Camaguey, native name of Puerto Principe, Cuba, 152 Campos, General Martinez, gov- ernor-general of Cuba, 178, 181, 184-187 Canary Islands, visited by Co- lumbus, 35 ; emigrants to Cuba, 156 Cannibalism, practised by Caribs, ,32 Canovas del Castillo, 190 Caparra, 267 Cape Beata, 226 Cape Engano, 226 Cape Haitien, 226, 249 Cape Icacos, 372 Cape Rojo, 277 Capesterre, 313, 319 Cape Tiburon, 225 Cape Verde, visited by Colum- bus, 46 Capote, Domingo Mendez, 191, 198 Caracas, earthquake, 343 Caraibe, 219 Cardenas, 157 Cariacu, 349 Caribbean Sea, how formed, 2 ; once a plain, 13 ; depth, 15 ; submarine division, 15 Caribbees, 7 ; visited by English explorers, 72 ; granted to the Earl of Carlisle, 75 ; first French colonists, 78 ; contests for possession, 92-102 ; appli- cation of the term, 287 Caribs, origin and character, 25 ; islands inhabited by, 25 ; de- scription, 31 ; habits and customs, 32-34 ; Columbus first meets, 41 ; attack upon Puerto Rico, 268 ; in Antigua, 308 ; in Dominica, 327 ; in Martinique, 332 ; in St. Vin- cent, 346 ; in Grenada, 351 ; in Tobago, 368 Carib’s Leap, the, 351 Carlisle, Earl of, grant of Caribbees, 75 ; governor of Ja- maica, 215 ; grant of Barba- dos, 359 Carlisle Bay, 359 Cartagena, 68 ; attacked by buc- caneers, 85 Casa Blanca, fort at Havana, 154 ; house of Ponce de Leon, 275 Casa Colon, 55, 253 Cassard, Jacques, 87 Castellanos, Adolfo Jimenez, 198 Castries, 338, 340, 341 Cathay, Cuba thought by Colum- bus to be part of, 44 Catherine Hill, 202 Cat Island, position, 3 ; descrip- tion, 131 Cauto, river in Cuba, 131 Cayey, 277 Caymans, 5, 201 Cayo Romano, 133 Cayos de las Doce Leguas, 134 Central America, as Spanish pos- session, 72 400 INDEX Cerro de Aripo, 372 Cervera, Spanish admiral, 195 Cespedes, Carlos Manuel de, 177, 178 Chacon, Jose Maria, 377 Chaguaramas Bay, 380 Charles I., of England, grants Caribbees to Earl of Carlisle, 75 Charles II., of England, makes grants to Lord Willoughby, 75 ; loyalty of Barbados to, 360 Charlestown, 316 Charlotte Amalia, 295 Charlotte Town, 327 Chorrera, Torre de, 142 Christianstaed, 300 Christophe, Haitian general, 240, 241 Cibao, interior district of Haiti, 29, 39, 227 Ciboneys, or Cebuneys (also Sib- oneys), native tribe in Cuba, 27 Cienfuegos, 158 Cinco Villas, district of Cuba, 141, 152 Cipango, Columbus’s misconcep- tions regarding, 2, 39 Cisneros y Betancourt, Salvador, 178, 185 Cleveland, President, message relating to Cuba, 192 Climate, general character, 21 ; of Bahamas, 1 r 8 ; of Cuba, 138 ; of Jamaica, 206-208 ; of Haiti, 232, 233 ; of Puerto Rico, 264, 265 ; of Barbados, 357 ; of Trinidad, 375 Coamo, 262, 276 Coanabo, cacique of Cibao or Maguana, 42, 52, 228 Cobre, mountains in Cuba, 129 Cobre River, 203 Codrington, 305, 306 Codrington College, 364 Coffee, first cultivation, 105 ; in- troduced into Martinique, 332 Colombo, Cristoforo, Italian name of Columbus, 35 Colon, Bartolome, or Bartolo- meo, brother of Columbus, 45, 46, 253 Colon, Cristobal, Spanish form of name of Columbus, 35 Colon, Diego, son of Columbus, governor of Hispaniola, 55 ; sends out colonising expedi- tions, 55-57 ; burial place, 254 Colon, town in Cuba, 157 Colubanama, cacique of Higuey, 52 Columbus, Christopher, miscon- ception as to the Indies, 1, 2 ; original purpose of voyages, 24 ; first voyage of discovery, 25-40 ; second voyage, 41-45 ; third voyage, 45-47 ; fourth voyage, 47-50 ; extent of ex- plorations, 50 ; error regard- ing Cuba, 147 ; memorials of, 253 ; remains of, 254 ; first landing at Puerto Rico, 266 ; names the Virgins, 293 ; names Antigua, 308 ; lands on Guadeloupe, 322 ; discovers Dominica, 327 ; discovers Mar- tinique, 330 ; discovers St. Lucia, 341 ; discovers St. Vin- cent, 346 ; discovers Grenada, 351 ; discovers Trinidad, 370 ; mistake about South America, 371 ; discovers Margarita, 383 Concepcion de la Vega, 252 Congress, U. S., resolution relat- ing to Cuba, 194 ; declaration of war with Spain, 195 Coolies, in Jamaica, 217 ; in Martinique, 334 ; in St. Vin- cent, 347 ; in Trinidad, 378, 379 Coral polyps, work among the islands, 22 ; in the Bahamas, 1 16; on coast of Barbados, 356 Coral reefs, on Cuban coast, 133-135 ; on the coast of Haiti, 227 ; on coast of Barbados, 356 Corozal, 262 INDEX 401 Corsairs and rovers, 61 , 63-68 Cortez, Hernando, among first colonists in Cuba, 56, 141 Cotton, first cultivation, 104 Courteen, Sir William, 359 Crittenden, Colonel, 175 Cromwell, sends fleet to West Indies, 79 ; suppresses disor- der in Barbados, 360 Crooked Island, position, 4 ; Isa- bella of Columbus, 37 ; de- scription, 122 Crooked Island Passage, 122 Crusoe’s island, 369 Cruz, Cape, 129 Cuba, early misconceptions re- garding, 2 ; position and ex- tent, 5 ; political connection, 7 ; aboriginal inhabitants, 27 ; discovery by Columbus, 38 ; southern coast explored, 44 ; first colony, 56 ; taken by the English, 95 ; slavery in, 108- 112; physical characteristics, 128-140 ; mountains, 129, 130 ; rivers, 131-133 ; reefs and keys, 134 ; ports, 134, 135 ; minerals, 135 ; natural pro- ducts, 136 ; animals, 137 ; cli- mate, 138, 139 ; sections, 140 ; history and government, 14 1- 150 ; early settlements, 141 ; different names, 142 ; first fort- ifications, 143 ; establishment of plantations, 144 ; progress and growth, 144 ; powers of governor-general, 145 ; system of administration under the Spanish, 146-150 ; provinces, 1 5 1, 152 ; judicial districts, 153 ; cities and towns, 153- 162 ; population, 163-165 ; economic conditions, 165-168 ; commerce, 168, 169; education and religion, 169-171 ; revolu- tionary movements, 172-181 ; “ Black Eagle,” 173 ; annexa- tion, 174 ; Lopez expeditions, 174 ; “ Black Warrior,” 175 ; “ Ostend Manifesto,” 176; oppressive government. 177 ; insurrection of 1868-78, 177 ; court-martial of Havana stu- dents, 179 ; barbarities of Valmaseda, 179 ; the Virginius affair, 179, 180; remonstrances of United States Government 180 ; treaty of El Zanjon, 181 ; renewed oppression, 182 ; in- surrection of 1895-98, 183 ; organisation of provisional government, 184 ; military operations, 185, 186 ; policy of Martinez Campos, 186 ; Gen. Weyler’s campaign, 187; Maceo in the west, 188 ; death of Maceo, 189 ; Gomez retires to the east, 189 ; a campaign of devastation, 189, 190 ; the “reconcentrados,” 190; Blanco supersedes Weyler, 190 ; policy of pacification, 190, 191 ; Cu- ban constitution, 191 ; message of President Cleveland, 192 ; message of President McKin- ley, 192, 193 ; the Maine blown up, 193 ; special message of President McKinley, 194 ; res- olution of American Congress, 194 ; declaration of war, 195 ; Spanish fleet at Santiago, 195 ; American troops land near Santiago, 196 ; battles on land and sea, 196, 197 ; surrender of Santiago and terms of peace, 197 ; Spain evacuates island, 197 ; American occupation, 197 ; preparation for independ- ent government, 198 ; end of Spanish sovereignty in West- ern world, 198 Cubitas, caves of, 131 ; capi- tal of Cuban revolutionists, i8.5 Cudjo, chief of maroons, 212 Culebra, 6, 260, 277 Cura£ao, situation and extent, 12 ; first settled, 73 ; taken by the Dutch, 92 ; description, 385, 386 402 INDEX Currents, atmospheric, produc- tion of trade-winds and hurri- canes, 19-21 Currents, oceanic, effect among the islands, 17 ; production of Gulf Stream, 18 Cushing, Caleb, American Min- ister at Madrid, 180 D Daiquiri, 196 Danish Islands, 80, 295-299 Darien, limit of Columbus’s ex- plorations, 48 ; limit of Spanish Main, 60 Denmark, islands belonging to, 8, 80 ; abolishes slave trade, 109 ; emancipates slaves, in ; description of the islands be- longing to, 295-298 Deseada, Spanish name of De- sirade, 41, 321 Desirade, situation and extent, 9 ; discovery, 41, 321 Dessalines, Haitian general, 240, 241 Deux Mamelles, 319 Diamond Rock, 334 Diaz, discoverer of river Ozama, 47 Districts (judicial) of Cuba, 153 “ Dogs, The,” rocks at head of the Caribbees, 8, 302 Dominica, situation and extent, 10; origin of name, 41 ; first attempt to take possession, 77 ; contest for, 92, 94, 97 ; naval battle near, 98 ; part of Lee- ward Islands Colony, 290-292 ; description, 325-327 ; history, 327-329 Dominican Republic, see Santo Domingo, Republic of Don Christopher’s Cove, 49 Dragon Mouth, 371 Drake, Francis, accompanies Hawkins on slave-trading trip, 66 ; privateering expeditions, 66-68 ; attack on Santo Do- mingo, 67, 234 ; attack on San Juan, 268 ; death, 68 Dry River, 203 Duarte, Juan Pablo, 244 Dumas, Alexandre, 249 “Dumb Dog,” 28, 118, 137 Dunmore Town, 120 Duparquet, governor of Mar- tinique, 351 Duplessis, French adventurer, 77, 322 Dutch, the, send trading vessels to islands, 68, 73 ; take pos- session of St. Eustatius and Saba, 75 ; Curagao, 92 ; final share, 102 “ Dutch West Indies,” 6, 11, 73 ; slavery in, m, 112 ; Saba and St. Eustatius, 310, 31 1 ; Curagao, Buen Aire, and Aruba, 383-388 E Earl of Carlisle, receives grant of Caribbees, 75 ; governor of Jamaica, 215 ; grantee of Bar- bados, 359 Earthquakes, at Port Royal, 210, 21 1 ; in Haiti, 233, 248 ; in Antigua, 309 ; in Venezuela, 343 Edwards, Bryan, statement re- garding slave trade, 105 Egmont, 352 El Caney, 161, 196 El Dorado, legend of, 60 ; search for, 69 Eleuthera, position, 3 ; descrip- tion, 120 El Zanjon, treaty of, 181 English Harbour, 307 Equatorial current, cause and effect, 17 Esnambuc, French adventurer, visits St. Kitt’s, 74, 312 ; takes Martinique, 77, 332 Espanola, name given by Colum- bus to island of Haiti, 39, 255 INDEX 403 Esperanza, 192 Esquivel, Juan de, takes posses- sion of Jamaica, 55, 209 Etang du Vieux Bourg, 353 Evangelita, name given by Co- lumbus to the Isle of Pines, 134, I4i “ Ever Faithful Isle,” origin of term, 145 Eyre, Governor, suppresses in- surrection in Jamaica, 218 F Fajardo, 260, 262, 277 Falmouth, 200, 222 Fauna of islands in general, 22 Fer-de-lance, the, 320, 340 Ferdinand, King of Spain, de- sire for conversion of heathen, 53 ; authorises making slaves of Lucayans, 54 Femandina, name given by Co- lumbus to Long Island, 37 ; name of Cuba at one time, 143 Fichilingos, 368 Filibuster, origin of term, 83 Fish, Hamilton, U. S. Secretary of State, 180 Flora of islands in general, 22 Florida, 2 ; as Spanish posses- sion, 72 ; visited by Ponce de Leon, 268 Florida Straits, 15 Flushingers, in Tobago, 368 Formidable , flagship of Admiral Rodney, 98, 333 Fort Amsterdam, 386 Fort-de- France Bay, 330 Fort-de-France, city, 335 Fort Gustave, 305 Fort William, 304 Fortune Island, 122 France, contests title of Spain to islands, 71 ; contends for possession in the Caribbees, 92-102 ; establishes colony on Haiti, 235 ; share in St. Mar- tin, 303 ; takes Guadeloupe, 323 ; Martinique, 332 Freebooter, 83 Froude, J. A., on origin of “ Barbados,” 358 G Galeota, Cape, 372 Garcia, Calixto, 188, 192, 198 Garcia, Manuel, 183 “ Gardens of the King,” 133 “ Gardens of the Queen,” 44, 48, 134 Geffrard, General Fabre, 244 George Town, 352 Gibara, first landing-place of Columbus in Cuba, 38, 161 Gibaros, 282 Golfo de la Balena, 370 Golfo de las Flechas, 40 Gomez, Maximo, 183, 192 Gonaive, Gulf of, 225 Gonzalez, Ignacio, 256 Gordon, leader of insurrection in Jamaica, 218 Gordon, General W. W., 285 Government, of Bahamas, 126 ; of Cuba, 145-149 ; of Jamaica, 215, 219; of Haiti, 246; of Puerto Rico, 170, 271 ; of Windward Islands Colony, 289 ; of Leeward Islands Col- ony, 290-293 ; of Gaudeloupe, 324 ; of Martinique, 336 ; of Barbados, 359-363 ; of Trini- dad, 382 Grand Bay, 304 Grand Etang, 350 Grande-Terre, 319 Grand Khan, misconceptions of Columbus about the, 2, 38, 48 Gran Piedra, La, mountain in Cuba, 130 Grant, President, message on Cuba, 18 1 Grasse, Count de, French ad- miral, battle with Rodney, 96, 98, 333 Great Abaco, 3, 119 Great Bahama, 3, 119 404 INDEX Great Britain, contests title of Spain to islands, 71 ; contends for possessions, 92-102 Great Cayemite, 227 Greater Antilles, what constitute, 4; area and population, 12; connection with continent, 15; separation, 16 Great Exuma, position, 4 ; de- scription, 121 Great River, 203 Green Island, 200 Grenada, situation and extent, 11 ; discovery, 46 ; first settled, 78 ; contests over, 95-99 ; part of Windward Islands Colony, 288, 289 ; description, 349- 354; history, 351, 352; har- bours, 352, 353 ; government and people, 353, 354 Grenadines, situation and extent, 11 ; part of Windward Islands Colony, 288, 289 ; description, ^ 348, 349 Grenville Bay, 352 Grey, Sir John, 323 Gros Islet, 333, 338 Grosse Montagne, 319 Guacanagari, cacique in Haiti, 39- 42 Guadeloupe, situation and extent, 9 ; origin of name, 41 ; first occupation, 77 ; contests for possession, 92, 94, 95, 99 ; description, 318-322 ; history, 322, 323 ; population and gov- ernment, 324 Guaimaro, 178 Guajaibon, Pan de, 130 Guanabacoa, city of Cuba, 156 Guanahani, native name of San Salvador, or Watling Island, 37 Guanahatabibes, aboriginal tribe in Cuba, 25 Guanica, 262, 276, 277, 284 Guantanamo, Velasquez lands near, 56 ; American marines land there, 196 ; General Miles sails from, 2S4 Guarico, Indian village in Haiti, 39. Guarionex, cacique of Samana, 45 Guayama, 276, 284 Guayanilla, 262 Guiana, first colonised, 71 Guichen, Count de, French ad- miral, 96 Guines, town in Cuba, 156 Gulf of Arrows, 40 Gulf of Gonaive, 225 Gulf of Mexico, how formed, 2 ; once a plain, 13 ; depth, 15 Gulf of the Whale, 370 Gulf Stream, origin of, 18 Gustavia, 304 H Haiti, island of, position and extent, 15, 225 ; political di- vision, 7 ; prehistoric relics, 25 ; aboriginal inhabitants, 29; discovery by Columbus, 38 ; original division and chiefs, 52 ; division between Spain and France, 101, 235 ; slavery in, 109, no ; size and contour, 225, 226 ; coast line and har- bours, 226, 227 ; outlying isl- lands, 227 ; mountains, 227- 229 ; rivers, 229, 230 ; lakes, 230, 231 ; minerals, 231, 232 ; vegetation, 232; animals, 232 ; climate, 232, 233 ; earth- quakes, 233 ; first settlements, 233, 234 1 the Spanish and French colonies, 235, 236 ; ef- fect of the French Revolu- tion, 236-238 ; Spanish colony ceded to France, 23S ; under the rule of Toussaint T-’Ouver- ture, 238, 239 ; conflict for independence, 239-242 ; estab- lishment of the Haitian Re- public, 242 Haiti, Republic of, first estab- lished, 242 ; division and popu- lation, 243 ; revolutions and INDEX 405 Haiti, Republic of — Continued . insurrections, 243-245 ; gov- ernment, 246 ; character of the population, 246, 247 ; principal cities, 248, 249 ; for- eign trade, 249, 250 Hamilton, Alexander, 316 Hamilton, Lady, 316 Harbour Island, 120 Havana, destroyed by corsairs, 64 ; captured by English, 95 ; founding of city, 142 ; taken by British, 144 ; description, 153-156 Hawkins, Sir John, as a slave- trader, 60, 65, 66 ; quarrel with Drake and death, 67 Heinrich, Baldwin, 269 Henri I., “ King of the North,” 243 Henry, General GuyV., 285 Herrera, Spanish historian, 303 Heureaux, Ulisses, 256, 257 Hidalgos, Pass of, 43 Hindu coolies in Trinidad, 378, 379 Hippolyte, Louis M o d e s t i n Florvil, president of Haiti, 245 Hispaniola, Latinised form of Espanola, 39, 52 Hobson, Lieutenant, 196 Holguin, caves near, 131 ; the town, 161 Holland, her West Indian pos- sessions, 102, 310, 311, 383- 3S8. See Netherlands Homenage, Tower of, 253 Honduras, Sea of, 15 Honduras visited by Columbus, 48 Hood, Sir Samuel, 95, 98, 333 Hopetown, 119 Huevos, 372 Huguenots, in Tobago, 369 Hugues, Victor, 323 Humacao, 262, 277 Hurricane, how caused, 20 ; ef- fects, 21 ; in Cuba, 140 ; in Puerto Rico, 265 ; in Antigua, 309 ; in St. Lucia, 342 ; in St. Vincent, 345 ; in Barbados, 366 I Ile-4-Vache, 227 Inagua, Great and Little, 4, 122 Indian, why applied in America, 2 Indies, the, origin and applica- tion of term, 1, 2 Inquisition, in Cuba, 148 ; ex- cluded from Trinidad, 377 Insurrections, in Cuba, 177-181, 183-191 ; of maroons in Ja- maica, 2 1 2-2 14 ; of negroes in Jamaica, 218 ; in Haiti, 237-240 ; of slaves in Mar- tinique, 334 Isabela Segunda, 277 Isabella, city of, founded by Columbus, 43, 45, 46 Isabella, name given by Colum- bus to Crooked Island, 37 Isabella, Queen of Spain, dis- approves of making slaves of natives of islands, 45 Islas del Pasaje, 260 “ Isle of Giants,” 386 Isle of Pines, 129, 134, 151 J Jackson, Colonel, plundered Santiago de la Vega, 209 Jacmel, 227 Jamaica, position and extent, 5, 199 ; original inhabitants, 28 ; discovered by Columbus, 44 ; first settlement, 55 ; taken by the English, 79, 210 ; first maroons, 90 ; contemplated attack by De Grasse, 98 ; ab- sentee planters, 106 ; slavery in, 107 ; effect of emancipa- tion, 1 12, 216 ; coast line and bays, 199, 200 ; outlying islands, 201 ; mountains, 201, 202 ; rivers, 202, 203 ; miner- 40 6 INDEX J am ai ca — Conti n tud. als, 203 ; vegetation, 203, 204 ; animals, 205, 206 ; climate, 206-208 ; first settlement, 209; first colonists, 210 ; founding of Port Royal, 210 ; destruc- tion of Port Royal, 21 1 ; founding of Kingston, 211 ; attacked by the French, 21 1 ; insurrections of the maroons, 2 1 2-2 1 5 ; the colonial govern- ment, 215 ; effect of Rodney’s victory, 216 ; result of aboli- tion, 216, 217 ; insurrection of blacks, 217, 218 ; change in the government, 219 ; coun- ties and parishes, 219, 220 ; religion and education, 220, 221 ; judiciary, 221 ; city of Kingston, 221, 222 ; other cities and towns, 222 ; popu- lation and industries, 222, 223 ; material condition, 223, 224 Jatibonico, river in Cuba, 132 Jeremie, 249 Jervis, Sir John. English naval commander, 99, 323 Jimaguayu, meeting - place of Cuban Assembly, 184 Jordan, Gen. Thomas, 178 Josephine, Empress, birthplace, 336 Juana, name given by Columbus to Cuba, 38, 143 Junta, the Cuban, 183 K “Key of the New World” (Havana), 154 Kidd, Captain, 89 Kingston, capital of Jamaica, 199, 221, 222 Kingstown, capital of St. Vin- cent, 345, 347 L La Brea, or La Braye, 374, 381 ] Lacret, Cuban general, 185 ' Lagon Bouffe, 373 La Grange, General, 32S La Playa, 262, 276 ! Las Casas, Bartolome, * ‘ Apostle of the Indies,” 57 ; condemns treatment of natives, 57, 58 ; among first colonists of Cuba, | 141 Las Casas, Don Luis, governor- general of Cuba, 144 I Las Guasimas, 196 I Las Islas de Arenas, 38 j Laws of the Indies, 145 Lee, Gen. Fitzhugh, consul- general at Havana, 194 ; mili- tary commander, 197 Leeward Islands, origin and application of the term, 6, 7 ; 288, 3S5 Leeward Islands Colony. 290-293 Leclerc, General, 239, 240 Legitime, General, 245 Leogane, 248 Leon, Ponce de, lands on Puerto Rico, 54; founds San Juan, 54. 55. 267 ; invades Florida, 26S “ Les Amis des Noirs,” 236 Lesser Antilles, 4 ; their extent, 6 ; area and population, 12 ; geological structure, 16 ; con- tests for possession, 92-102 ; application of the term, 287 Liamuiga, Carib name of St. Kitt’s, 312 Libano, Monte, caves of, in Cuba, 13 1 Liberte, 249 Liguanea, plain of, 203 “ Little Venice,” 371 “ Llave del Nuevo Mundo,” 154 L’Olive, French adventurer, 77, 322 Lolonois, or l’Olonnois, French buccaneer, 84 Long Island, discovery, 4 ; relics of aborigines, 27 ; Femandina of Columbus, 37 ; description, 122 INDEX 40; Lopez, Narciso, 174, 175 Louisiana, as Spanish posses- sion, 72 L’Ouverture, Toussaint, 238-240 Lucayan Islands, see Bahamas Lucayos, or Yucayos, natives of Bahamas, 26 ; kidnapped for slaves, 54 Ludlow, Gen. Wm., 197 Luquillo, 262 M Maceo, Antonio, 183-189 Maceo, Jose, 183-188 Macias, Governor-General, 285 McKinley, President, reference to Cuba in annual message, 192 ; special message on Cuba, 194 Madanino, island of Amazons, 40 Madiana, native name of Mar- tinique, 330 Maine , the, U. S. battle-ship, 193 Maintenon, Madame de, 337 Maisi, Cape, 27, 38 Manigat, General, 245 Manzanillo, bay, 226 Manzanillo, city in Cuba, 161, 178 Margarita, island, discovered, 46 ; description, 383, 384 Margarita, Pedro, 43, 44 Marie Galante, situation and ex- tent, 9 ; origin of name, 41 ; description, 322 Mari el, port of Cuba, 156 Marigot, 304 Mari guana, 4, 122 Marin, Sabas, Spanish general in Cuba, 186, 187 Marlborough, Earl of, 359 Marooning, 90 Maroons, origin in Jamaica, 89, 90, 212 ; insurrections of, 212- 215 Martha Brae River, 203 Marti, Jose, 183, 184 Martinique, situation and extent, 10 ; discovery, 48 ; taken by the French, 77 ; contests over, 92, 95, 99 ; description, 330- 332 ; history, 333, 334 ; indus- trial condition, 334, 335 ; gov- ernment, 336 Martyr d’Anghiera, Peter, 4 Masso, Bartolome, 185, 191, 198 Matanzas, caves, 13 1 Matanzas, city, 156 Matanzas, Pan de, 130 Matanzas, province, 152 ; rav- aged by insurgents, 186 Matthew Town, 122 Mayaguez, 262, 276, 2S5 Mayari, river in Cuba, 132 Mayas, aborigines of Yucatan, 27 Maynard, Lieutenant, captures the pirate “ Blackbeard,” 87 Mendez, Diego, 49 Merrimac, the, U. S. naval ves- sel, 195 Mexico, as Spanish possession, 72 Mexico, Gulf of, 2, 13, 15 Miles, General Nelson A., takes Puerto Rico, 284, 285 Mississippi River, effect in pro- ducing Gulf Stream, 18 Moca, 263 Mole St. Nicholas, 38, 225, 248 Mona, island off Puerto Rico, 44, 260 Mona Passage, 5, 16, 259 Monkey Hill, 314 Mono, island off Trinidad, 372 Montagu, Lord, 346 Montbar, French buccaneer, 84 Monte Cristi, mountain in Haiti, 40, 43 ; mountain range, 228 Monte Cristi, province of, 252 Montego Bay, 200, 222 “ Montpelier of the West,” 317 Montserrat, island of, situation and extent, 9 ; discovery and name, 41 ; taken by English, 75 ; captured by French, 93 ; part of Leeward Islands Col- 408 INDEX Montserrat — Continued. ony, 290-292 ; description, 316, 317 Montserrat, town in Trinidad, 381 Moore, Admiral, 323 Moore, Sir John, 342 Morant Keys, 201 Morgan, Sir Henry, buccaneer, 85 Morne des Sauteurs, 351 Morne du Diamant, 331, 333 Morne Fortunee, 341 Morne Garou, 343 Morro Castle, at Havana, 143 ; at Santiago de Cuba, 160 ; at San Juan, 273 Mountains, of Cuba, 129 ; of Ja- maica, 201, 202 ; of Haiti, 227-229 ; of Puerto Rico, 261 Mount Diablotin, 325 Mount Hillably, 356 Mount Maitland, 350 Mount Misery, 314 Mount Naparima, 372 Mount Pelee, 331 Mount Tamana, 372 N Naguabo, 262, 277 Napoleon, sends expedition to Haiti, 239 ; re-establishes slav- ery in Guadeloupe, 323 Narrows, the, 315 Nassau, 3 ; first settled, 77 ; de- scription, 119; rendezvous of blockade-runners, 125 Natividad, or Navidad, La, founded by Columbus, 39 ; de- stroyed, 42 Navios, 372 Nelson, Lord, hunting the French fleet, 100 ; marriage in Nevis, 316 ; at Barbados, 361 ; at Trinidad, 378 Netherlands, contests title of Spain to islands, 71, 92 ; share in St. Martin, 303 ; Saba and St. Eustatius, 310, 31 1 ; Cura- sao, Buen Aire, and Aruba, 383-388 Nevis, situation and extent, 9 ; first settled, 74 ; part of Lee- ward Islands Colony, 290 ; de- scription, 315, 316 New Providence, 3 ; first settle- ment, 76 ; description, 119 Neyba, Bay of, 226 Nieves, 315 Nina , a caravel of Columbus, 35 ; returns to Spain, 45 Nisbet, Fanny, 316 Nissage-Saget, General, 244 Nombre de Dios, attacked by Drake, 66, 68 Nueva Esparta, 384 Nuevitas, 152, 159 O Oberzijde, 386 Ocampo, explores Cuban coast, 141 Ocoa, Bay of, 226 Oge, Vincent, 237 Ojeda, Don Alonzo de, an offi- cer of Columbus, 44, 45, 47 ; accompanies Vespucci, 371 ; discovers Cura5ao, 386 Old Harbour, 200 Olive Blossom , first English ves- sel to visit Barbados, 78, 358 Orangetown, 31 1 Organos, mountains in Cuba, 130 Orinoco, river, effect upon Trini- dad, 373 Orinoco, valley, abode of Ara- waks and Caribs, 25 ; limit of Spanish Main, 60 “ Ostend Manifesto,” 176 Ovando, Nicolas de, governor of Espanola, 47, 49 Ozama, river in Santo Domingo, 47, 230 P Pacific Ocean, connection with Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean INDEX 4O9 Pacific Ocean — Continued. Sea, 13 ; Drake’s cruise upon, 65 Palma, Tomas Estrada, 185 Palos, Columbus starts from, 35 ; returns to, 40 Panama, burnt by buccaneers, 85 Pando, Spanish general, 182, 186 Paradise Peak, 303 Paria, Gulf of, Columbus enters, 46, 370 ; description, 380 Paris, treaty of, 95, 323 “ Pearl of the Antilles,” origin of the term, 136 Pedro Bank, 201 Penn, Admiral, and Venables, capture Jamaica, 79, 210, 360 “ Peter the Great,” sobriquet of buccaneer, 84 Petion, General, 241 Petit Anse, present site of Co- lumbus’s Navidad, 40 Petit Goave, 234 Philipsburg, 304 Pico Tarquino, mountain in Cuba, 129 Picton, Lieut, -Colonel, governor of Trinidad, 378 Pinar del Rio, city of Cuba, 156 Pinar del Rio, province of Cuba, 15 1 ; occupied by insurgents, 186-188 Pinta, one of Columbus’s cara- vels, 35 Pinzon, Martin Alonzo, com- panion of Columbus on his first voyage, 36, 38, 40 Pinzon, Vicente Yanez, compan- ion of Columbus on his first voyage, 36 Piracy, beginning of, in West Indies, 61, 63-68 ; after the buccaneering period, 87-89 Piton Vauclin, 331 “ Pitons, The,” 339 Pitt’s Town, 122 Plantain Garden River, 203 Plymouth, 317 Pococke, Admiral, lays siege to Havana, 95 Pointe-a-Pitre, 321, 324 Point Galera, 372 Polk, President, proposes to pur- chase Cuba, 174 Ponce, 276 Pope Alexander VI. , bull divid- ing possessions of Spain and Portugal, 51, 71 Port-a-la-Paix, 249 Port Antonio, 200, 222 Port-au-Prince, Bay of, 225 Port-au-Prince, city, 233, 238, 248 Port Maria, 200, 222 ; maroon insurrection near, 213 Port Morant, 200, 222 Port Mula, 277 Porto Bello, or Puerto Bello, attacked by buccaneers, 85 Port of Spain, 380, 381 Port Royal, headquarters of buc- caneers, 83, 200, 210 ; de- stroyed by earthquake, 210, 211 Portsmouth, 327 Portugal, title to eastern lands, 51 ; engages in slave trade, 103 Portuguese, in St. Vincent, 347 Potrerillo, mountain in Cuba, 130 Prevost, Sir George, 328 Prince Rupert’s Bay, 324, 327 Prince’s Town, 381 Privateering, 63-70, 85 Providence Channel, 116, 119 Pueblo Nuevo, 156 Puerta de Tierra, 275 Puerto Bello, or Porto Bello, takes the place of Nombre de Dios, 68 ; attacked by buccaneers, 85 Puerto Plata, city, 226, 255 Puerto Plata, province, 252 Puerto Principe, city of Cuba, x49 Puerto Principe, province of Cuba, 152 Puerto Rico, position and extent, 5 ; political connection, 7 ; ab- 4io INDEX Puerto Rico — Continued. original inhabitants, 30 ; dis- covered by Columbus, 42, 266 ; Ponce de Leon takes posses- sion, 54, 55, 267 ; becomes territory of the United States, 102 ; slavery in, 108, 1 1 3 ; physical characteristics, 259- 265 ; coast line, 260 ; outlying islands, 260, 261 ; character of surface, 261 ; rivers, 261, 262 ; minerals, 262, 263 ; vegetation, 263 ; animals, 263, 264 ; soil and climate, 264, 265 ; first settlement, 267 ; origin of the name, 267 ; fate of the first colony, 268 ; desolate condi- tion, 269 ; rapid development, 269, 270 ; government, 270, 271 ; departments, 271, 272 ; ports and towns, 273-277 ; in- dustrial condition, 278-280 ; railroads and telegraph, 280, 281 ; commercial condition, 281 ; social condition, 281, 282 ; archaeology, 282, 283 ; United States takes possession, 284-286 Puits Bouillants, 319 Punta Brava, 189 Q Quisqueya, native name of part of Haiti, 39 R Ragged Islands, 38, 123 Raleigh, Sir Walter, captures San Josef, Trinidad, 70, 376 “ Reconcentrados " in Cuba, 190 Redonda, 316 Regia, suburb of Havana, 156 Relics of aborigines, 27, 30, 33, 387 Remedios, caves, 131 ; the city, 141, 158 Revolution, attempts at, in Cuba, 172-181; in Haiti, 243-245; in Santo Domingo, 255-257 Rio Cauto, river in Cuba, 131 Rio del Oro, name given by Co- lumbus to the Yaqui River, 40, 43 Rio Grande de Loiza, 283 | ‘ ‘ Road of the Virgins," 294 Roberts, Bartholomew, his rules of piracy, 88 Rochambeau, General, 240 Rodney, Admiral, first in West Indies, 95 ; takes St. Eusta- tius, 96 ; battle with French fleet off Dominica, 98, 333 ; statue at Kingston, 216 Roldan, 46 Roseau, 325, 327 Rovers and corsairs, 61, 63-68 Rum Cay, 4, 37, 122 Ryswick, treaty of, ends bucca- neering, 86 ; effect upon pos- session of islands, 94, 101, 235, 313 S Saba, situation and extent, 9 ; taken by the Dutch, 75 ; de- scription, 310, 311 Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo, 190 Sagua la Grande, city in Cuba, 158 Sagua la Grande, river in Cuba, 131 St. Ann’s Bay, refuge of Colum- bus, 49, 200 St. Bartholomew', or St. Bart, situation and extent, 8 ; first occupied, 76 ; description and history, 305 St. Christopher, or St. Kiti’s, situation and extent, 9 ; origin of name, 41 ; first settlement, 74 ; early contests for, 92, 94 ; part of Leeward IslandsColony, 290-292 ; description and his- tory, 3 1 2-3 1 5 St. Domingue, French colony in Haiti, 235 St. Eustatius, situation and ex- tent, 9 ; taken by the Dutch. INDEX 41 1 St. Eustatius — Continued. 75 ; seized by French and re- stored to Holland, 94 ; cap- tured by Rodney, 96 ; descrip- tion, 31 1 St. George’s, 352 St. John, city, 290, 307, 308 St. John, island, situation and extent, 8 ; description, 293, 298 St. Josef, see San Josef St. Kitt’s, see St. Christopher St. Laurent, Roume de, 376 St. Louis, 227 St. Lucia, situation and extent, 10 ; discovery, 48 ; first settled, 78 ; contests over, 95-99 ; part of the Windward Islands Col- ony, 288, 289 ; description, 338- 340 ; history, 340-342 ; hurri- cane, 342 St. Marc, 248 St. Martin, situation and extent, 8 ; discovery, 42 ; first occu- pied, 76, 93 ; description and history, 303, 304 St. Nicholas, Cape (Mole), 38, 225, 248 St. Pierre, 331, 332, 336 St. Thomas, situation and extent, 8 ; comes into possession of Denmark, 80 ; description, 293-298 St. Ursula, Virgin Islands named for, 7, 42, 293 St, Vincent, situation and extent, 10 ; discovery, 46 : first occu- pied, 78 ; contests over, 95- 99 ; part of the Windward Islands Colony, 288, 289 ; de- scription, 342-345 ; volcanic eruption, 343, 344 ; hurricane of 1898, 345 ; history and peo- ple, 346 ; capital, 347 Saintes, Les, situation and ex- tent, 9 ; description, 322 Salnave, Sylvestre, 244 Salomon, president of Haiti, 244 Salt Key Bank, 123 Sam, General Tiresias Augustin Simon, president of Haiti, 245 Samana, bay, visited by Colum- bus, 40, 226 Samana, province of, 252 Samana, tribe in Haiti, 40 Sampson, W. T., U. S. naval officer, 195 San Antonio, cape, 128, 130, 141 San Antonio, river, 132 San Cristobal, town in Cuba, 142 San Diego, river in Cuba, 133 San Diego, town in Cuba, 156 San Domingo Improvement Com- pany, 258 San Fernando, 381 San German, 276, 285 San Josef, in Trinidad, captured by Sir W. Raleigh, 70, 376 San Juan Bautista, name given by Columbus to Puerto Rico, 42, 266 San Juan, Cuba, battle at, 196 San Juan de los Remedios, see Remedios San Juan de Maguana, 252 San Juan de Puerto Rico, found- ed, 54, 267 ; attacked by Drake, 67, 268 ; taken by Dutch ad- miral, 73, 269 ; attacked by the Duke of Cumberland, 268 ; description, 273, 274 San Lorenzo, 255, 277 San Lucar, Columbus sails from, 46 San Martin, see St. Martin San Nicolas, see St. Nicholas San Pedro, 252 San Salvador, first island dis- covered by Columbus, 37, 122 Santa Ana Bay, 386 Santa Barbara, 252 Santa Clara, city in Cuba, 158 Santa Clara, Count of, governor- general of Cuba, 145 Santa Clara, province of Cuba, 152 Santa Cruz, situation and ex- tent, 7 ; discovery, 42 ; revolt of slaves, hi ; description, 299-301 Santa Cruz del Seybo, 252 412 INDEX Santa Cruz del Sur, Cuban As- [ sembly at, 198 Santa Gloria, name given by Columbus to St. Ann Bay, 49 Santa Maria , one of the vessels of Columbus, 35 ; wrecked, 39 Santa Maria de la Concepcion, name given by Columbus to Rum Cay, 37 Santana, General Pedro, 255 Santiago, name given by Colum- bus to Jamaica, 44; at one time name of Cuba, 143 Santiago de Cuba, city. Cortez sails from, 56 ; corsair enters harbour, 64 ; founding of, 141 ; description of, 159-161 Santiago de Cuba, province, 153 Santiago de la Vega, original name of Spanish Town, 56, 200, 209 ; attacked by Eng- lish, 93 ; plundered by the English, 209 Santiago de los Caballeros, 252 Santocildes, Spanish general, 185 Santo Domingo, city, founded, 46, 47 ; capital of Espanola, 52 ; attacked by Drake, 67, 234 ; Cuban conspirators in, 183 ; description of, 253, 254 Santo Domingo, province of, 252 Santo Domingo, Republic of, area and population, 25 1 ; prov- inces and districts, 252 ; charac- ter of the five provinces, 252, 253 ; the capital city, 253, 254 ; character of the northern dis- tricts, 254, 255 ; history, 255, 256 ; government, 257 ; religion and education, 257 ; industrial and commercial condition, 257, 258 Santo Domingo, Spanish colony in Haiti, 235 Santo Espiritu, 141, 158 Santo Tomas de Vanico, 43 Saona, island, 227 Sargasso Sea, 36 Savana la Mar, 200 Schley, W. S., U. S. naval officer, 195, 285 Schottegat, the, 386 Schwan, General. 284, 285 “Scotland,” in Barbados, 355 Serpent Mouth, 370 “ Seven Years’ War,” effect in West Indies, 94 ; capture of Havana during, 144 Sevilla, in Cuba, 196 Sevilla d’ Oro, first town in Jamaica, 55, 209 Seville, Columbus goes to, 49 Seybo, province of, 254 Shafter, Gen. Wm. R., 196 Shirley, Sir A. , attack upon Jamaica, 209 Siboney, landing-place of Ameri- can troops, 196 Sickles, General, U. S. Minister at Madrid, 180 Sierra Cayey, 261 Sierra de Cibao; 227 Sierra del Cobre, 129 Sierra Maestra, 129 Simpson’s Lagoon, 304 Slavery, first introduced, 59, 60 ; character and history, 103- 114; in Jamaica, 216, 218; in Haiti, 234, 235, 238 : in Puerto Rico, 269 ; in Bar- bados, 361, 362 ; in Tobago, 369 Slave trade, beginning of, 59- 61 ; history of, 103-109 ; in Jamaica, 216; in Barbados, 360 Soles de Bolivar, 173 Sombrero, 8, 302 Soto, Hernando de, 143 Soufriere, or Solfatara, in Mont- serrat, 317 ; in Gaudeloupe, 333. 334 ; in St. Lucia, 339 ; in St. Vincent, 343 Soulouque, General Faustin, 244 South America, islands attached to, 11 ; immigrants from, 25 ; slighted by Columbus, 371 ; observed by Vespucci, 371 INDEX 413 Spain, title to western lands, 51 ; colonies at end of sixteenth century, 69 ; rights in West Indies contested, 71 ; exclu- sive claims abandoned, 92 ; contests with England, France, and Holland, 92-102 ; loss of colonies, 101 ; effect of trade policy in Cuba, 163 ; at war with United States, 195 ; end of sovereignty in western hemisphere, 198 ; evacuates Puerto Rico, 285 “ Spanish Main,” 60, 104 Spanish Town, 222 Sugar-cane, introduced by Co- lumbus, 104 ; effect upon slavery, 105 ; cultivation in Cuba, 144 T Teach, Edward, the pirate “ Blackbeard,” 87, 125, 384 Testigos, 384 Thelemaque, General, 245 Thomas in the Vale, 203 Tierra Adentro, 140 Tison, Thomas, English trader, 63 Tobacco, first cultivation, 105 ; in Cuba, 144 Tobago, position, 6 ; extent, n ; first occupation, 78 ; ceded to Great Britain, 95 ; part of Windward Islands Colony, 288, 289 ; description, 367, 368 ; history, 368, 369 ; Cru- soe’s island, 369 Toledo, Don Frederic de, 313 “Tongue of the Ocean,” 4, 116 Tordesillas, treaty of, 51, 71 Tornado , Spanish cruiser, 179 Tortola, one of Virgin Islands, 8 ; first occupied, 76 ; descrip- tion, 294 Tortuga, near Haiti, seized by refugees, 75 ; headquarters of buccaneers, 82 ; taken by French, 83 ; position and ex- tent, 227 Tortuga, near Margarita, 384 Toussaint L’Ouverture, Fran- cis Dominique, 238-240 Trade-winds, how caused, 19 ; general effect, 20 Trelawney, Governor, treaty with the maroons, 212 Trelawney Reservation, 213 Trelawney Town, 213 Trinidad, city in Cuba, 141, 158 Trinidad, island, position, 6 ; ex- tent, 11 ; discovery and name, 46, 370 ; visited by Raleigh, 70, 376 ; first settled, 79 ; de- scription, 37C-375 ; history, 376-378; people and products, 378, 379 ; ports and towns, 380, 381 ; government, 382 Trocha, crossing Cuba, 130, 152; military line, Jucaro — Moron, 185 ; Mariel — Majana, 187 Trois Islets, 337 Tucutche, mountain in Trinidad, 372 Turks, islands, situation, 4 ; relics of aborigines, 27 ; de- scription, 122, 123 ; political connection, 127 Twelve League Keys, 134 U United States, first possession in West Indies, 101 ; at war with Spain, 195 ; takes possession of Cuba, 198 ; takes posses- sion of Puerto Rico, 286 Utrecht, treaty of, 94, 313 Utuado, 263, 275 V Vale of Bath, 203 Valladolid, church in, 308 Valmaseda, Count, Spanish gen- eral in Cuba, 178 Van Horne, buccaneer, 86 Vega Real, 52, 229 ; description, 254, 255 414 INDEX Velasques, Diego, first colonises Cuba, 56, 141, 161 Venables, Admiral, with Penn, captures Jamaica, 79, 210, 360 Venezuela, earthquake, 343, 344 ; named by Vespucci, 371 ; isl- ands off, 383-388 Vera Cruz, attacked by bucca- neers, 86 Veragua, 48 Versailles, treaty of, 99, 323, 328, 369 Versalles, suburb of Matanzas, 156 Vespucci, Amerigo, 371 Vieques, 6, 260, 272, 277 Villalobos. Marceto, 384 Ville de Paris , flagship of Count de Grasse, 98 Virgin Gorda, one of Virgin Islands, 8, 294 Virgin Islands, situation, 6 ; dis- covery and name, 42 ; resort of buccaneers, 84 ; description 287, 293-295 ; part of Lee- ward Islands Colony, 290-292 “ Virginius affair,” the, 179, 180 Virgin Passage, 277, 287 Volcanic eruption, 343 Volunteers, Cuban, 177 Vuelta Aba jo, 140 Vuelta Arriba, 140 W Walpole, General, 214 War, effect of, upon the posses- sion of islands, 92-102 ; that between the United States and Spain, 194-197 Warner, Sir Thomas, colonises islands, 74, 75. 3°8, 312 Watling Island, position, 3 ; San Salvador of Columbus, 37 ; description, 122 Watts, governor of St. Kitt’s, 313 West End, 300. 301 West Indies, origin of the term, 2; area and population, 12; process of discovery, 35-50 ; first introduction of African slaves, 60 ; first English settle- ment, 74 ; buccaneering and piracy in, 86 ; Spain’s claims contested, 92 ; final division, iot, 102 ; slavery in, 103-114 ; enigma of their future destiny, 389-396 West Mountain, 295 Weyler, General, governor-gen- eral of Cuba, 187-190 Willemstad, 386 Willoughby, Lord, receives grant from Charles II., 75 ; gov- ernor of Barbados, 93, 360 ; grantee of Antigua, 309 Wilson, General, 285 Windward Islands, origin and application of term, 6, 7, 288 Windward Islands Colony, 288, 289 ; connection of Tobago with, 369 Windward Passage, 5, 16 Wood, General Leonard, 197 X Xaragua, 52 Xaymaca, 44 Y Yaqui, river in Haiti, 52, 229 Yara, town in Cuba, 178 Yauco, town in Puerto Rico, 276, 284 Yucatan, 2 ; original inhabitants, 27 ; visited by Columbus, 48 Yucatan Channel, 15 Yucayos, or Lucayos, character- istics, 26 Yumuri, river in Cuba, 156 Yunque, El, de Baracoa, 130 Yunque, El, de Luquillo, 261 Z Zapata, marsh in Cuba, 152 Zatucha, Dr., 189 Zeta, name given by Columbus to South American coast, 371 Zocapa, fortress, 160 Heroes of the Nations. EDITED BY EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work of a number of representative historical characters about whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as types of the several National ideals. With the life of each typical character will be presented a picture of the National conditions surrounding him during his career. The narratives are the work of writers who are recog- nized authorities on their several subjects, and, while thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque and dramatic “ stories ” of the Men and of the events con- nected with them. To the Life of each “ Hero ” will be given one duo- decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro- vided with maps and adequately illustrated according to the special requirements of the several subjects. The volumes will be sold separately as follows : Large 12°, cloth extra $i 50 Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top . . . 1 75 HEROES OF THE NATIONS. Nelson, and the Naval Supremacy of England. By W. Clark Russell, author of “ The Wreck of the Grosvenor,” etc. Gustavus Adolphus, and the Struggle of Protestantism for Existence. By C. R. L. Fletcher, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls’ College. Pericles, and the Golden Age of Athens. By Evelyn Abbott, M.A. Theodoric the Goth, the Barbarian Champion of Civilisation. By Thomas Hodgkin, author of “ Italy and Her Invaders,” etc. Sir Philip Sidney, and the Chivalry of England. By H. R. Fox-Bourne, author of “ The Life of John Locke,” etc. Julius Caesar, and the Organisation of the Roman Empire. By W. Ward Fowler, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. John Wyclif, Last of the Schoolmen, and First of the English Reformers. By Lewis Sergeant, author of “ New Greece,” etc. Napoleon, Warrior and Ruler, and the Military Supremacy of Revolutionary France. By W. O’Connor Morris. Henry of Navarre, and the Huguenots of France. By P. F. Willert, M.A., Fel- low of Exeter College, Oxford. Cicero, and the Fall of the Roman Republic. By J. L. Strachan-Davidson, M.A., Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Abraham Lincoln, and the Downfall of American Slavery. By Noah Brooks. Prince Henry (of Portugal) the Navigator, and the Age of Discovery. By C. R. Beazley, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Julian the Philosopher, and the Last Struggle of Paganism against Christianity. By Alice Gardner. Louis XIV., and the Zenith of the French Monarchy. By Arthur Hassall, M. A., Senior Student of Christ Church College, Oxford. Charles XII., and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire, 1682-1719. By R. Nisbrt Bain. Lorenzo de’ Medici, and Florence in the 15th Century. By Edward Armstrong, M.A., Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford. Jeanne d’Arc. Her Life and Death. By Mrs. Oliphant. Christopher Columbus. His Life and Voyages. By Washington Irving. Robert the Bruce, and the Struggle for Scottish Independence. By Sir Herbert Maxwell, M.P. Hannibal, Soldier, Statesman, Patriot ; and the Crisis of the Struggle between Carthage and Rome. By W. O’Connor Morris, Sometime Scholar of Oriel College, Oxford. Ulysses S. Grant, and the Period of National Preservation and Reconstruction, 1822-1885. By Lieut.-Col. William Con ant Church. Robert E. Lee, and the Southern Confederacy, 1807-1870. By Prof. Henry Alexander White, of the Washington and Lee University. The Cid Campeador, and the Waning of the Crescent in the West. By H Butler Clarke, Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford. Saladin, and the Fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. By Stanley Lane-Poole, author of “ The Moors in Spain,” etc. Bismarck, and the New German Empire. How it Arose and What it Displaced. By W. J. Headlam, M.A., Fellow of King’s College. To be followed by : Moltke, and the Military Supremacy of Germany. By Spencer Wilkinson, London University. Judas Maccabaeus, the Conflict between Hellenism and Hebraism. By Israel Abrahams, author of ** The Jews of the Middle Ages.” G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, New York and London. The Story of the Nations. Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS take pleasure in announcing that they have in course of publication, in co-operation with Mr. T. Fisher Unwin, of London, a series of historical studies, intended to present in a graphic manner the stories of the different nations that have attained prominence in history. In the story form the current of each national life is distinctly indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes are presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to each other as well as to universal history. It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as they actually lived, labored, and struggled — as they studied and wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be over- looked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical authorities have resulted in definite conclusions. The subjects of the different volumes have been planned to cover connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative the chief events in the great Story of the Nations ; but it is, of course, not always practicable to issue the several volumes in their chronological order. THE STORY OF THE NATIONS. The “ Stories” are printed in good readable type, and in handsome nmo form. They are adequately illustrated and furnished with maps and indexes. Price per vol., cloth, $1.50 ; half morocco, gilt top, $1.75. The following are now ready : GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison. ROME. Arthur Gilman. THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer. CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin. GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould. NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen. SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale. HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vdmbery. CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church. THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman. THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole. THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett. PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin. ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Raw- . linson. ALEXANDER’S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy. ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin. THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley. IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless. TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole. MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin. MEDIjEVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gus- tave Masson. HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers. MEXICO. Susan Hale. PHCENICIA. Geo. Rawlinson. THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zim- mern. EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church. THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stan- ley Lane-Pool. RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill. THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison. SCOTLAND. John Mackintosh. SWITZERLAND. R. Stead and Mrs. A. Hug. PORTUGAL. H. Morse-Stephens. THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. C. W. C. Oman. SICILY. E. A. Freeman. THE TUSCAN REPUBLICS. Bella Duffy. POLAND. W. R. Morfill. PARTHIA. Geo. Rawlinson. JAPAN. David Murray. THE CHRISTIAN RECOVERY OF SPAIN. H. E. Watts. AUSTRALASIA. Greville Tregar- then. SOUTHERN AFRICA. Geo. M. Theal. VENICE. Alethea Wiel. THE CRUSADES. T. S. Archer and C. L. Kingsford. VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin. BOHEMIA. C. E. Maurice. CANADA. J. G. Bourinot. THE BALKAN STATES. William Miller. BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. R. W. Frazer. MODERN FRANCE. Andri Le Bon. THE BUILDING OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. Alfred T. Story. Two vols. THE FRANKS. Lewis Sergeant. THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND IN THE 19TH CENTURY. Justin McCarthy, M.P. Two vols. Other volumes in preparation are : THE WEST INDIES. Amos K. Fiske. MODERN SPAIN. Major Martin A. S. Hume. AUSTRIA, THE HOME OF THE HAPSBURG DYNASTY, FROM 1282 TO THE PRESENT DAY. Sydney Whitman. THE UNITED STATES, 1775-1897. A. C. McLaughlin, Professor of American History, University of Michigan. In two vols. BUDDHIST INDIA. Prof. T. W. Rhys-Davids. MOHAMMEDAN INDIA. Stanley Lane-Poole. THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith. WALES AND CORNWALL. Owen M. Edwards. THE ITALIAN KINGDOM. HEROES OF THE REFORMATION I. — Martin Luther (1483-1546). The Hero of the Refor- mation. By Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D., LL.D. (Thiel College, 1877, and 1891, respectively) ; Professor of Sys- tematic Theology, Evangelical Lutheran Seminary, Phila- delphia, Pa.; author of “The Lutheran Movement in England during the Reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., and its Literary Monuments.” With 73 illustrations, 12°, $1.50. II. — Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). The Protestant Preceptor of Germany, By James William Richard, D.D. (Pennsylvania College, 1886) ; Professor of Homi- letics, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pa. With 35 illustrations. 120, $1.50. III. — Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536). The Humanist in the Service of the Reformation. By Ephraim Emer- ton, Ph.D. (Leipzig University, 1876) ; Professor of Eccle- siastical History, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. ; author of “The Middle Ages (375-1300),” The following are in preparation : — IV. — Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556). The English Reform- er. (Author will be announced later.) V. — Huldreich Zwingli (1484-1531). The Reformer of German Switzerland. By Samuel Macaulay Jackson, LL.D., (Washington and Lee University, 1892) ; D.D. (New York University, 1893) ; Professor of Church His- * tory, New York University. Editor of the Series. VI. — John Knox (1505-1572). The Hero of the Scotch Reformation. (Author will be announced later.) VII. — John Calvin (1509-1564). The Founder of Reformed Protestantism. By Williston Walker, Ph.D. (Leipzig University, 1888) ; D.D. (Adelbert College, 1894, Amherst College, 1895) ; Professor of Germanic and Western Church History, Theological Seminary, Hartford, Conn. ; author of “ The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism.” VIII. — Theodore Beza (1519-1605). The Counsellor of the French Reformation. By Henry Martyn Baird, Ph.D. (College of New Jersey, 1867) ; D.D. (Rutgers College, 1877) ; LL.D. (College of New Jersey, 1882) ; L.H.D. (Princeton University, 1896) ; Professor of the Greek Language and Literature, New York University ; author of “ The Huguenots,” 6 vols. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, New York and London - . Date. Due