Edwards, in his history of the British West Indies, says that the 'state of the population' in the islands which he described in 1791 was as follows: Whites, 65,305, and blacks, 455,684. The proportion of Caucasians has decreased owing to causes mentioned in the articles Jam /kw..., etc. The principal attraction of these islands for immigrants from Great Britain iind white residents (what there was left of it after the manumission of the slaves which was com pleted in 1838) ceased when the cane-sugar in. dustry became unprofitable. To speak of this as a new or temporary crisis is absurd: it is IV old story. Anthony Trollope, when he wrote of 'The West Indies and the Spanish Main) in 1859, said: 'That Jamaica was a land of wealth, rivaling the East in its means of riches, nay, exceeding it as a market for capital, as a place in which money might be turned; and that it now is a spot on the earth almost more pov erty-stricken than any other—so much is known almost to all men." Now, such distress, long-endured and notorious, has more or less discouraged immigration, commerce and other influences that make for uniformity in popula tion, manners and usages. Mr. Hill's assertion that 'each of these islands is breeding a dif ferent species of mankind° may seem at first view rather extravagant; but when we reflect that geography, politics and poverty combine to isolate and segregate those communities, we shall regard the following statements as decid edly moderate: 'The West Indian people rep resent many original stocks, which have de veloped variations of habits and customs in their New World environment. They are prac tically divisible into three great races, the white. colored and black, modified by Spanish, and French civilizations.* The influence of aboriginal stock should by no means be over looked (see CARIB, Poem Rico, Cus*, etc.), nor can we regard that of the Dutch and Dams as a negligible quantity. Mr. Hill writes: 'In the countries in which the French race habit has been implanted, Haiti, Martinique and Guade loupe, there has resulted a more complete elim ination of the Caucasian than in either the English or (until 1898) Spanish islands. . . . The black races of the West Indies and their habits are most interesting studies. Gathered as they were from numerous tribes of Africa. and settled upon the different islands, they naturally show not only differences in inherited qualities, but in those habits acquired from dif ferent masters for which the African is noted_ Thus there are English, French, Spanish, Irish. Scotch and Dutch negroes in the various islands.' Again, differences in t soils, flora and climate, which, as require separate studies, have been summarized most intelligently by Mr. Hill, who writes: 'These islands, far from being alike in natural features and economic possibilities-, present great extremes. Some are low, fiat rocks barely peeping above the sea; others gigantic peaks rising straight to the clouds, which per petually envelop their summits; others are com binations of flat and rugose types. Some pre sent every feature of relief configuration that can be found within a continental area — imam tains, plains, valleys, lakes; some are made up entirely of glaring white coral sand or reef rock; others are entirely composed of black volcanic rock, and still others are a combination of many kinds of rocks. Many are as and as a western desert and void of running streams. and others have a most fertile soil, cut by a hundred picturesque streams of living water, and bathed in perpetual mist and daily rainfall Some are bordered only with the fringing salt water plants or covered with thorny coriaceens vegetation; others are a tangled mass of ferns and thousands of delicate, moisture= plants which overwhelm the beholder with their luxuriance and color. Some are without human habitants; others are among the most 'ensely populated portions of the world* (for example. Barbados: 1,12(l to the square mile). 'The diverse configuration produces climatic differences, and each kind of rock weathers into its peculiar soil. . . . Some of these islands, droner possibilities of a diversified agriculture and hyspenic condition, arc adapted to higher mill/anon. and others, either through sterility or raggedness of relief, are capable of support ing only inferior races.* The total number of inhabitants is approximately 6,000,000.
Volcanic eruptions are fortunately confined to Martinique and Saint Vincent, although we ice nearly everywhere in the Lesser Antilles evidences of 1, forces in times ;tut remote, sicologically speaking— for the %til.merged Antillean con tinent is fairly r(lend \%ith these much later cones that form the eastern volcanic chain.
The climate is not only very agreeable in the sinter months but also .., ,,t«Ily hful, and in many parts of the archipelago, especially reward the northern paii, .; com
mendation at all seasons. The rainy half-year begins, as a rule, in June and (with an interval of clearing weather about August or Septem ber) extends to the cud of December. From January to June, then, almost ideal conditions of sunshine and cool breezes prevail in the siuthern and central islands as well as the us rthern. The northeast trade-winds arc most constant in their ministrations to comfort and health during January, February and March; in September and October, on the other hand, there arc occasional hurricanes— sometimes of great violence.
History.— The history of the West Indies opens 12 October 1492. The ru).il standard of Spain was then unfurled on an island known to the natives as Guanahani, but named by Columbus, very gratefully, San Salvador. Sir Henry Blake and others have succeeded in sdenufsing the scene of this first landfall as Watling's, the only West Indian island which in every •minute particular' answers the de scription (by the discoverer himself) of San Salvador or Guanahani. Greatest periods and events in West Indian history arc these and such as these: The period of Elizabethan ad ientnrous seamen whose achievements in these waters helped to immortalize the names of Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh and John Hawkins; the period of the buccaneers and of Henry Morgan; that most important, decisive triumph for British naval and colonial enti r prise, Rodney's brilliant success in the engage matt with the French fleet under de Grasse in 1782; the period or episode, of Nelson, 'who chose his bride in Nevis." writes Aspinall,*and, it. the Victory, the very ship that now lies peacefully in Portsmouth harbor, pursued Ville neuve to the West Indies and hack, u fitting prelude to the battle of Trafalgar': the period of the manumission of the slaves, which was followed, in the British West Indies, by long Years of financial distress bravely met (about 1834-38 to the end of the century); and finally the period characterized by that radical im proserne-nt in the conditions of agricultural in dustries and foreign trade which we observe aid, satisfaction to-day. The author of *Ca nlibeals Interests of the United States' (see Bifluigrophy) says: European colonies in the West Indies, the development of our trade relations is hampered by a number of causes. . . • Lack of transportation lines hinders exchange with some of the colonies. The subsidized steamship line between the Brit ish West Indian ports and Canada drains off some of their trade in that direction. The preferential tariff in force since 1913 affects our trade adversely. The policy of France, i also, is to shape her tariffs in the West Indies to shut out the sending of colonial goods to foreign countries and to insure the home mar ket a monopoly of imports where possible. Banking houses, especially when they have government connections, may be used to make the trade run on national lines. The banks in the French West Indies, it is reported, charge 3 per cent in addition to the regular rate of exchange on all payments made through New York. In some of the colonies branches of commercial houses in the home country are es tablished. They buy only for their principals. Furthermore there is a French reciprocity treaty with Haiti which operates to their ad vantage. Beside these efforts on the part of other governments or their nationals to pro mote their foreign commerce, our foreign trade is, of course, affected by our tariff.* In causes such as these must be sought the explanation of the circumstance that the commerce of the United States expands less readily in the Euro pean dependencies than in the Latin American republics of the \Vest Indies. The increase noted in exports from the United States to the British West Indies during the period 1902-14 was 36 per cent; to the Dutch West Indies 43 per cent,' to the French West Indies 23 per cent. The Increases in the imports into the United States during the same period were: From the British West Indies 27 per cent; from the Dutch West Indies 147 per cent; from the French West Indies 175 per cent. A fact not to be overlooked in this connection is that the British West Indies are as a reward of per severance, with courage and enterprise, in the face of adverse circumstances, recovering from the long period of depression to which we have referred. Sir Charles Lucas, head of the West Indian Department of the British Colonial Office, has said that while the 19th century had witnessed their distress the 20th would be the century of their regeneration; and Mr. Asquith has given high authority to the statement that they have grown to be independent of financial assistance from Imperial funds. The financial situation, the natural resources, foreign com merce, etc., of the Greater Antilles are sub iects of special studies in the articles Cunt,