ST. LUCIA, the largest of the British Windward Islands, West Indies, in 14° N. 61° W., 24 m. S. of Martinique and 21 m. N.E. of St. Vincent. Area 238 sq.m., length 42 m., maximum breadth 12 m. ; coast-line i5o m. long. It is considered one of the loveliest of the West Indian islands. It is a mass of moun tains, rising steeply from the water, their summits bathed in perpetual mist.
The Pitons (2,72o and 2,68o ft.) are the chief natural feature— two immense pyramids of rock rising abruptly from the sea, their slopes, inclined at an angle of 6o°, being clothed on three sides with densest verdure. In the south-west is Soufriere (about 4,000 ft.) a volcano with crater 3 ac. in area strewn with sulphur and cinders. The climate is humid, the rainfall varying from 7o to 120 in. per annum, with an average temperature of 8o° F.
The soil is deep and rich ; the main products exported are sugar, cocoa, logwood, nutmegs, mace, coconuts and copra, limejuice and lime oil. Bananas are an increasing cultivation. Snakes, in cluding the deadly fer de lance, formerly prevalent, have been almost exterminated by the introduction of the mongoose. Only about a third of the island is cultivated, the rest being crown land under virgin forest, abounding in timber suitable for cab inet work. The total value of imports in 1925 was £277,013, of exports, £243,207, including bunker coal L77,399. Imports from British Empire £153,055, from United States £96,045, including coal £39,562. Exports to British empire Education is denominational, assisted by government grants. There are 49 schools, mostly Roman Catholic. Agriculture is taught. St. Lucia is controlled by an administrator (responsible to the governor of the Windward Islands), assisted by an execu tive council. The legislature consists of administrator and coun cil of nominated members. Revenue, 1925, £75,555; expendi ture 185,082. The law of the island preserves modified laws of the French monarchy.
Castries, the capital, on the north-west coast, has an excel lent land-locked harbour, with a concrete wharf 65o ft. in length. It was for a time the principal coaling station of the British fleet in the West Indies, was strongly fortified, and has been the military headquarters. The troops were removed and the military works abandoned in 1905. The tonnage of steamships calling at the port in 1925 was 545,473. Pop. Soufriere, a small town in the south, is the only other centre of any importance.
The bulk of the inhabitants are negroes, speaking a French patois, but English is gradually replacing it. There is a small colony of East Indian coolies, and the white inhabitants are mostly creoles of French descent. Total population (est. 1933) is 62,000.
History.—St. Lucia was probably discovered by Columbus in 1502, and named after the saint on whose day it was sighted. The Dutch are said to have built a fort there; but the first attempt to settle was made by Englishmen in 1605, when most of them were killed by the Carib inhabitants. From this time until the island be
came definitely a British possession in 1814 it was the scene of fiercely recurring struggles between England and France; and 13 British regiments gained the right to inscribe the name "St. Lucia" on their colours. In the first half of the 17th century it was in cluded in royal grants made by the kings of England and France; but English settlers were long deterred by the unlucky reputa tion which St. Lucia gained after a second disastrous attempt at colonization in 1638, frustrated by sickness and native hostility. The French were more successful, sending settlers from Mar tinique in 1650, by whom a treaty was made with the Caribs ten years later. England defeated the French shortly afterwards, and regained the island, but it was restored by the Peace of Breda in 1667. Another British settlement under a grant of 1722 was frustrated by France. In 1748 the two nations agreed to regard St. Lucia as neutral. In 1762 it was captured by Rodney and Monckton, only to be given up once more at the Peace of Paris. In 1778 it again surrendered to the British who used its harbours as a naval base ; and it was from Gros Islet bay that Rodney sailed be fore his famous victory over de Grasse in April 1782. Between 1782 and 1803 the possession of St. Lucia passed six times between England and France, England having to suppress a vigorous Revo lutionist part, aided by insurgent slaves, before gaining possession in 1803, confirmed by a final cession in 1814. From this time the island was administered as a Crown colony—under Barbados from 1838-85 ; but after an unsuccessful petition by some of the inhabitants in 1920-21, for the substitution of representative Government, the revised constitution of 1924 introduced an elec tive element into the legislative council.
French influence on the development of St. Lucia has been very great, and is illustrated by the preponderance of the Roman Cath olic Church and the survival of a French patois. In the years fol lowing 1763 French planters came from St. Vincent and Grenada and formed cotton and sugar plantations. In 1772 the population was said to number 15,00o, mostly slaves. In 1834, when the slaves were emancipated there were in St. Lucia over 13,000 negro slaves, 2,600 free negroes and 2,30o whites. Prosperity was greatly retarded by the frequent wars, by epidemics of chol era and smallpox, and by the decline of the sugar-cane industry. Improvement came with the increase of banana and cocoa cultiva tion, and a wider range of agriculture.