by no means wonderful. So rapidly did they disappear that in Porto Rico, for example, which at the time of the advent of the Europeans had a dense native population, the natives were forty years afterwards all dead. Repeated reports from governors of that island written between 1530 and 1536 state that no Indians then survived. The Arawak race is now quite extinct, but the Caribs, though extinct on the West Indies, still form a considerable section of the population in Guiana.

At the present day the white or European population (not all pure) may amount to about one-third of the whole, and of this part of the population about 89 per cent is of Spanish, and about 6 per cent of English origin. The Negroes (including mulattoes) far exceed in number all the other inhabitants, but the proportion of Eastern Asiatics is steadily increasing. The Negro element was introduced by the slave-trade, which began within a few years after the discovery of the islands and continued down to the early part of the present century. Slavery continued on the British islands till 1834, when the slaves were declared free, although they were still bound to work for their former masters for a limited term as "apprentices." Since then it has been abolished on all the other islands except Cuba, and there too, under a law recently passed it is now in process of extinction. The results of the abolition of slavery have not been in every respect satisfactory. The immediate consequence has been in fact in almost every case to inflict a severe blow on the industry of the islands, for as soon as the Negro found himself no longer compelled to work he refused to do so. Wherever he could find untenanted forest land to which he could retreat, and where, owing to the exuberant fertility of the soil, he could satisfy his wants almost without labour, he mostly preferred to do so. He would settle himself on some small patch of unoccupied ground, build a rude cane hut, and set his wife to cultivate a few yams, maniocs, and sweet-potatoes, while he himself caught a few fish in the streams, drank rum, and smoked tobacco. Many of the planters were ruined, and on some of the islands the white population greatly diminished. On the British island of Dominica the export of coffee sank from an average of about 4,000,000 lbs. annually before the abolition of slavery to less than 20,000 lbs. in 1861. On the French island of Guadeloupe the production of sugar sank from 76,000,000 lbs. in 1847, the year before the law for the abolition of slavery was passed by the French assembly, to 27,000,000 lbs. in 1850, although several years were allowed for the masters to get quit of their slaves. A similar diminution of production took place on nearly all the other islands on which the slaves were freed, only those escaping on which (as on Barbados, for example) all the forest land had been cleared and laid out in plantations, so that the Negroes were compelled by circumstances either to work or starve. It was to remedy this evil that the Asiatic population was introduced in the form of Indian and Chinese coolies, and the results of this step have been so far satisfactory. Production has revived, and has already in some cases exceeded its former amount. On Dominica the export of coffee has risen to upwards of 800,000 lbs. in good years, and on Guadeloupe the annual production of sugar is already between 80,000,000 and 90,000,000 lbs., or greater

than it was in 1847. Even Cuba has imported coolie labourers with beneficial results, for it is found that that species of labour is better than the forced labour of the Negro slaves. It may be expected, too, that the importation of these Asiatic labourers will have an indirect as well as a direct effect in the revival of production, for as their number increases the Negroes will find themselves compelled to work if they are to live at all. An improvement in this respect may also be looked for from the efforts that are now being generally made to educate the people. In the British colonies there are numerous schools carried on by the Church of England and other ecclesiastical bodies, and all of them receive government assistance. The Negroes are for the most part nominally Christianized, but on the Spanish islands they are still practically heathens (fetishworshippers), and only so far Christians in that they have been baptized.

GOVERNMENT, &c.-Like the Eastern Archipelago the West Indies are for the most part in the possession of European states. If the islands belonging to Venezuela be left out of account, all the West Indies except Hayti belong to five powers:-Spain, Britain, France, Holland, and Denmark. The Spanish possessions comprise Cuba and Porto Rico with the adjacent islands, including Culebra and Vieque or Crab Island belonging to the Virgin Islands; total area, about 49,500 square miles; population, about 2,060,000. The British possessions comprise the Bahamas; Jamaica with the Turks and Caicos Islands belonging to the Bahama group, and the Great and Little Cayman; the Leeward Islands, consisting of the British Virgin Islands (Tortola, Anegada, Virgin Gorda, &c.), St. Kitts with Anguilla, Nevis with Redonda, Antigua with Barbuda, Montserrat, and Dominica; the Windward Islands, consisting of St. Lucia, Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Tobago, and Barbados; and Trinidad; total area, about 13,350 square miles; population, 1,131,500. The French possessions comprise the colony of Guadeloupe, consisting of the two adjacent islands of Guadeloupe proper and Grande Terre, besides Mariegalante, Désirade, Petite Terre, St. Bartholomew, and part of St. Martin, and the colony of Martinique; total area, about 1100 square miles; population, 345,000. The Dutch possessions comprise, besides the islands designated in the table as the Coast Islands (Curaçao, Oruba, Buen Ayre, and some smaller islands), also the minute islands of St. Eustatius and Saba and part of St. Martin lying among the Leeward Islands of the British; total area, about 520 square miles; population, 42,600. The Danish possessions consist of St. Thomas, St. John, and Santa Cruz, all belonging to the Virgin Islands; total area about 140 square miles; population, about 37,600. The island of Hayti is divided between the two Negro and Mulatto republics of Hayti (in the west) and San Domingo (in the east), the former with an area of about 9230 square miles and a population of about 550,000; the latter with an area of about 20,600 square miles and a population of about 250,000. The governors of all the colonies are appointed. by the mother country. The islands of Cuba and Porto Rico have the right of sending representatives to both houses of the Spanish Cortes, and each of the two French colonies has the right of sending one senator and one deputy to the French National Assembly. In the British colonies representative assemblies

have certain legislative functions in the Bahamas, the Leeward, and the Windward Islands, but the executive officers are under the control of the crown, and in the case of Jamaica and Trinidad (crown colonies) the crown has the entire control both of the legislation and the administration. The Leeward and Windward groups have each a general legislative assembly, but all the more important islands belonging to each of them have also separate legislative bodies.

SPANISH POSSESSIONS.

CUBA, the largest and most westerly of the Antilles, has a length from Cape St. Antonio to Havana, and thence to Cape Maysi, of 750 miles, and a breadth from north to south varying from under 20 to over 120 miles. The navigation of the coast is very unsafe, on account of the rocks and shoals which encompass it almost without interruption, and often extend from two to three miles into the The broken outline of this vast extent of coast, however, affords a great many ports and anchoring places, which are equally safe and easy of access.

sea.

A ridge of mountains traverses the whole of the island from the west to the east, expanding in the east so as almost to fill the eastern extremity, and attaining its highest elevation (between 7000 and 8000 feet) where it overlooks that part of the coast which runs nearly due east and west. At the foot of the mountains the country opens into extensive savannahs. The streams which descend from the mountains on both sides abound in fish of different kinds, and are said to bring down considerable quantities of gold.

The mineral riches of Cuba have not yet been fully explored, but it is known to be not deficient in this respect. Only copper is worked to any extent, and the production of this metal too is on the decline. On the north coast are extensive lagoons, which, in dry years, produce immense quantities of marine salt. A beginning has been made with the working of the beds of guano that have long been known to exist on the Jardinillos off the south coast of the island.

The vegetation of Cuba is exceedingly luxuriant. Two crops of maize are obtained in the year. Rice is also produced in considerable quantities in many districts. But the principal crops are sugar and tobacco, and their produce makes up about 99 per cent in value of the total exports of the island, about 83 per cent representing the value of the sugar produce, and 16 per cent that of the tobacco. Since 1847 the sugar-cane has been largely cultivated by means of coolies imported from China. In 1873, however, the Chinese government, finding that the coolies were virtually reduced to the condition of slaves, stopped the emigration of its subjects to Cuba, and great difficulty is consequently felt by the planters in obtaining a sufficient supply of labour. The difficulty of procuring labour is increased by the fact that the Negro and Chinese population already on the island is diminishing in numbers, the Negro on account of the fearful infant mortality that prevails, and the Chinese, because that part of the population consists entirely of males. Strenuous efforts were made in consequence to induce the Chinese again to permit the emigration of Chinese subjects to Cuba, and on the 17th of November, 1877, a treaty was concluded at Peking, allowing

the resumption of this emigration, but not the emigration of labourers under contract, that is, coolie emigration, and making various provisions for seeing that the interests of the emigrant are properly looked after. The treaty has not yet, however, led to the introduction of many new Chinese labourers, the Chinese authorities not being satisfied with the arrangements made by the companies and private speculators seeking to promote that immigration. Slave labour, too, is on the eve of extinction under a law which provides for the liberation of the

slaves after a period of "patronage" of eight years, during which the slaves are to be paid a small wage besides being maintained by their masters. Besides the deficiency of labour, the sugar industry, along with all the other industries of Cuba, suffered greatly from the ten years' civil war of 1868-78, and to crown all a blow was inflicted on the sugar production of Cuba in 1876 by the mother country, which, in order to protect her own sugar production (which only meets about one fifth of the home demand), imposed a duty on all imported sugars. The market of the Cuban sugar planters is now almost confined to the United States (Great Britain receiving her supplies of sugar from her own West Indian colonies at a price with which Cuba cannot compete), and the industry now seems to depend for its very existence on the maintenance of that market. The

best tobacco is grown in Vuelta de Abajo, a district a little to the west of Havana, about 84 miles in length and 21 in breadth, and here the mildest and finest flavoured is produced on the banks of the San Sebastian. Most of it is made into cigars, celebrated under the name of Havana cigars, reckoned the best made anywhere. Down to 1820 the cultivation and sale of tobacco formed a monopoly, but in that year they were thrown open. Formerly coffee was an important product on the north side of the island, but most of the coffee plantations have been devoted to the production of sugar, and almost the whole coffee production is now required for home consumption.

The roads in Cuba, formerly in a most wretched condition, have been much improved; and the internal traffic of the island is now facilitated by the railways, the first of which from Havana to Guines, a distance of 46 miles by railway, was opened in 1837.

Unlike most of the other West Indian Islands Cuba has a majority of whites among its inhabitants. At the census of the 31st of December, 1877, they formed 63 per cent of the whole population, while the coloured population (Negroes and mulattoes) amounted to less than 33 per cent (19 per cent free coloured, and 14 per cent slaves), and the Chinese to about 3 per cent. In all sections of the population there was an unusual disparity between the numbers of males and females. The average number of females to 100 males in the whole population was 755; among the whites it was 73.5, a consequence of the fact that the Spanish emigrants to Cuba are almost entirely males, and even among the coloured people it was only 95 5. The Chinese females did not number a hundred.

Cuba was discovered by Columbus on the 28th of October 1492, and has been in the possession of the Spaniards ever since, though from 1868 to 1878 the Cubans were in insurrection against the mother country. Since that insurrection a more liberal form of government has been granted to the island.

The capital of the island is Havana (in Spanish, La Habana, "the haven "), on the north coast in lon. 82° 22′ W., one of the principal seats of commerce in the New World. Its harbour, formed by the bay on which the town stands, nowhere exceeds a mile and a half in width, and is one of the best to be seen anywhere. The principal building in the town is the cathedral, which is worthy of note from being believed to contain the remains of Columbus. The most important industry is the manufacture of cigars. The population amounts to 206,000, of whom 139,000 are whites, 38,000 free coloured, and 29,000 slaves. Matanzas (36,000) on the north coast, about 50 miles east of Havana, ranks next after that town in commercial importance. Puerto Principe (31,000), about lon. 78° w., is the principal inland town.

PORTO RICO (Spanish, Puerto Rico), the fourth in size of the Antilles, lies between Hayti and the Virgin Islands. A range of mountains, averaging about 1500 feet in height, and attaining in its loftiest peak about 3680 feet, runs through the island, east to west. On their lower slopes are extensive savannahs, on which numerous herds depasture; and along the coasts tracts of level, fertile land, varying in some places from 5 miles to 10 miles wide, but in others the mountains approach much closer to the sea. Nearly the whole