is on the whole salubrious; but strict attention must be paid to cleanliness and sobriety.

The northern isotherm of 80° (M. A. T.) touches the S. coast of Cuba. Yellow fever occasionally occurs, and is always to be found in low or swampy situations. Cholera has at various times made fearful ravages.

2. Vegetable Productions.-As in all volcanic districts, the soil is exceedingly fertile.

The West Indies are included in the region of palms, bananas, and arborescent grasses, such as sugar-cane, bamboo, &c. This is the natural home of most of the spices and aromatic plants. The Bahamas are the region of evergreen trees, treeferns, figs, &c. The mahogany is characteristic of the forest trees; the pine-apple and plaintain of the fruits. Pineapples are sometimes so numerous as to be used by soldiers for cleaning knives, swords, &c. The food-corns are rice and maize. Other productions are arrowroot, various kinds of lilies, the manioc, from which the cassava bread is made, ndigo, &c.

Perhaps the chief crops are sugar-cane and coffee-tree.

3. Animal Productions.-The domestic animals are found as with us. Among distinguishing animals may be mentioned the vampyre-bat, land-crab, humming-bird, rattlesnake.

The seas in the neighbourhood are the principal turtle fishery district of the New World. Pearl is found, as the name implies, round Margarita. Many of the islands are surrounded by coral reefs.

4. Mineral Productions.-The mineral wealth of the islands is not great. Gold has been found in small quantities. Copper is worked by an English Company in the Cobre Mountains. Asphaltum is obtained from the Pitch Lake of Trinidad. Coal has recently been discovered in Trinidad. Salt is mostly obtained from sea-water. Sulphur is widely distributed.

IV. POPULATION AND INDUSTRY.

1. Population.

(1.) The total population of the British West Indies is about a million. In 1861 it was 934,197. It consists partly of English settlers, and partly of persons of mixed descent, viz., English, or other Europeans, and original Caribs, or English and Negroes, or negroes and Indians, and partly of pure negroes, the descendants of the slaves emancipated by the efforts of Clarke and Wilberforce in 1834 at the cost of

£20,000,000. What was done then for our West Indies, the Spanish are now doing for theirs.

(2.) The sudden abolition of slavery was a doubtful advantage, for since then most of the islands have rapidly declined in wealth and importance, and are only just now beginning to recover. It took a very considerable time to inculcate the first principle of civilisation-viz., saving-into men that had been born and bred slaves.

(3.) None of the aboriginal inhabitants remain in the large islands. They were very soon killed off by the hard taskwork in the mines or plantations of the original Spanish holders of the islands, or in the various wars between England and France, or with one another. When Columbus landed at Guanahani, or S. Salvadore, now Watling Island, he found plenty of inhabitants, harmless and industrious Caribs. The population of each island will be given with the political facts, &c., relating to it.

(4.) Since the abolition of slavery, the introduction of coolies from Hindostan, or Chinese, has been encouraged by the Government. They come under labour contracts for a certain term of years. The number has doubled in Trinidad in the last decade-1861, 13,500; 1871, 27,425.

All the islands have very mixed races, and but few whites. 2. Industry. The chief industry in these islands is—

Agriculture, and sugar, coffee, cocoa, &c., the chief objects of cultivation. Owing to the heat, white men cannot work in the plantations, so that coolies, Chinese, &c., have had to be introduced. Since this was permitted by law, these islands have commenced to recover from the more dead-thanalive state into which the slave emancipation threw them. We shall now give a separate account of each important island.

V. POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL.

1. "Xaymaca," the "land of wood and waters," is a beautiful island, gradually rising from the coasts to the interior, where the western peak of the Blue Mountains obtains an elevation of 7335 feet. The mountain slopes are clad with forest trees. No less than seventy streams descend them, but the Black is the only navigable river, and that only for small craft. There are many excellent harbours round the coast. The climate is temperate for such a latitude. Kingston, 80°; minimum in winter on Blue Mountains, 44°. Jamaica is free from hurricanes and earthquakes. Rainy seasons are in May and October, and last three weeks. Rainfall, 50 to 150 inches.

2. It is divided into 3 counties, 14 parishes, and 8 police districts.

3. The Government is administered by-Governors and Privy Council; Legislative Council, consisting of 6 official and 6 unofficial members, appointed by the Crown.

For 200 years the Government was a representative onė, but this Government decreed its own abolition, which was confirmed by Act of Parliament and Order in Council 1866. The original Government consisted of a Governor and Privy Council, a Legislative Council, and an elected Assembly of 47 members. Serious disturbances among the blacks in 1865, severely but wisely repressed by Governor Eyre, led to the abolition of the constitution.

Since 1660, there have been 46 Governors, of whom Eyre Coote (1808), Earl of Elgin (1842), Sir Henry Barkly (1853), and Governor Eyre (1862-4), are well-known names. present Governor is Edward Everard Rushworth, D.C.L., Lieutenant-Governor.

The

The Government includes the Turks and Caicos Islands. They were separated from the Bahama Legislature in 1849. These islands are situated south of Bahamas, W. long., 71°-72° 30'; N. lat., 21°-22°.

Area, 450 sq. miles; population, 4723; revenue, £9518; expenditure, £11,216; imports, £25,285; exports, £21,304. 4. Towns.

KINGSTON, at the mouth of the Cobre, on a large inlet called Kingston Harbour. Its mouth, Port Royal, is guarded by two forts, Fort Charles and Fort Henderson. The Bishop of Jamaica has his headquarters at Kingston.

SPANISH TOWN, the capital, an important town.

5. Trade.

(1.) Exports.-The value of the exports is over £1,000,000 annually, and has been since 1857. Total value exported to United Kingdom-1870, £1,283,096; 1871, £1,196,531.

The articles in order of importance are-SUGAR (above 500,000 cwt.), coffee (nearly 10,000,000 lb.), rum, logwood and other timbers, pimento and other spices (including ginger).

(2.) Imports.-The value of the imports is also over £1,000,000. Total value, 1871, £1,331,185. The chief articles are wheat, flour, dried and wet fish, cotton goods, linen, haberdashery, hardware, beer, bread, butter, coal, maize, pork, rice, and soap.

6. HISTORY.-1494. Discovered by Columbus, and called S. Jago. Remained in the hands of the Spaniards 161 years.

1655. Capitulated to a force under Admirals Penn and Venables, sent by Cromwell. Remained under military government until 1660, when a regular civil government was appointed by Charles II.

1670. England's right to Jamaica recognised by Treaty of Madrid. 1807. SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED. The slave population was 323,827, of whom 86,281 had been imported in eight years. Of the £20,000,000, Jamaica received £6,161,927, or about £19 a head on its slaves.

1863-4. Rebellion of blacks, promptly suppressed by Gov. Eyre. 1866. Representative Government abolished.

The Leeward Islands, comprising the six colonies or presidencies of Antigua, Montserrat, S. Kitts, Nevis, Dominica, and the Virgin Islands, were constituted a single Federal Colony by an Act of the Imperial Parliament, 1871. These islands possessed a common Legislature as far back as the reign of William III.

The Government consists of-Governor; Executive Council nominated by the Queen; General Legislative Council, consisting of 10 elected and 10 non-elected members, appointed by Her Majesty. Of the elected members-4 are taken from the Island Council of Antigua; 3 from S. Kitts ; 2 from Dominica; 1 from Nevis.

There is also in each island an Island Government, composed of President, Executive Council, and Legislative Assembly. The expenses of the General Government are regulated in the following proportions :-Antigua, 5; S, Kitts, 4 ;

Dominica, 3; Nevis, 2; Montserrat and Virgin Islands (Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, &c.), 1 each.

PARTICULARS OF SIX "PRESIDENCIES."

1. ANTIGUA.

W. long. 61° 45'; N. lat. 17° 6'; 54 m. circumference; area, 108 sq. m. (some say 183). Of its 117,120 acres, 60,000 are under cultivation. Population 35,157 (36,412 in 1863; 2556 white, 27,237 black, 6619 coloured); revenue, £43,746; expenditure, £41,578; trade: imports, £175,740; exports, 247,630; debt, £40,493.

(1.) There are no rivers and only few springs in the island, so that it is exposed to constant droughts. Yet the soil is fertile, the chief objects of cultivation being sugar and cotton. The produce for 1870 was

Sugar Plantations-Sugar, hhds. 12,684; molasses, puncheons, 6212; rum, puncheons, 236. (The production for 1862 was much greater.)

Cotton Plantations-163,981 lb. (the least for many years, e.g., 1868, 672,486 lb.)

(2.) There have been 68 Governors of the island since 1668. The Bishop of Antigua has charge of the Windward Islands.

(3.) HISTORY.-1493. Discovered by Columbus, and named after a church in Seville, "S. Maria la Antigua," i.e., the old.

1632. First settled by a few English.

1663. Charles II. made a grant of it to Lord Willoughby, and sent out a large number of emigrants.

1666. Finally declared British at Treaty of Breda.

BARBUDA is directly north of Antigua, and is a dependency of that island.

2. MONTSERRAT.-(12 × 8 m.)

W. long. 61°; N. lat. 16° 45'; population, 8693; revenue, £4194; expenditure, £4555; imports, £27,017; exports, £37,069; debt, £1012.

(1.) This is a very hilly, beautiful, and healthy island. It is fertile in one-third of its area. The staple commodity is sugar. Many of the sugar estates, which had gone out of cultivation, have been bought up, and are now vigorously worked by English capitalists. The productions are cotton, tamarinds, and arrowroot,

(2.) HISTORY.-1493. Discovered by Columbus, and named by him in honour of a mountain in the N.E. of Spain, where Ignatius