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from the port with which it is connected by
street-ears, and at an altitude of 400 feet.
Tobago, properly Tabaco, twenty miles from
Trinidad, much resembles that and Barbados in
geological formation. It was politically united
to Trinidad in 1899. Said to be the island of
Robinson Crusoe. Chief town, Scarborough.
FRENCH
POSSESSIONS
Guadeloupe and Martinique, with the lesser
islands of Deseada, Marie Galante, St. Bart'I,
and half of St. Martin, occupy a commanding
and central position in the West Indies. The
decline in economic conditions, due to the abolition of slave labor, has not been entirely relieved
by the introduction of coolies, but the single
crop system is now augmented by tobacco and
fruits, and people look hopeful and thrifty.
Guadeloupe, with an area of 1160 square miles,
has a population of 190,000, and is rated as a
department of France, and has therefore a representative in the French House of Deputies.
(This is the case also with Martinique, these two
forming the only portion of the foreign West
Indies not being governed as territorial possessions.] The capital is Pointe a Pitre on a fine
harbor. Martinique, area, 880 square miles,
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population, 208,780, is, like its neighbor, completely mountainous and volcanic, culminating
in M01It Pelee, of recent dreadful activity. The
vegetation is prodigious, the animal life vigorous; the only good harbor is at Fort de France,
which is a French garrison and naval station.
The Empress Josephine was born here. Visited
by French, British, and German steamship lines.
Interior connection over fine coach roads. The
other islands are dependencies; St. Bart's was
acquired from Sweden in 1887. One half of St.
Martin's is Dutch.
DANISH
POSSESSIONS
St. Thoma" formerly the commercial metropolis of the West Indies, now ranks after Barbsdoes and Trinidad.
Its prosperity declined
after the abolition of slavery in 1848. St.
John', is within gunshot, and St. Croix is due
south (near Porto Rico), the largest island but
not the most important.
The trade with Denmark is small, being mostly with the United
States, and English is the language spoken.
The seat of government is at Charlotte Amalia,
more commonly known as St. Thomas, built
upon hillsides with picturesque and many colored architecture.
The harbor is a circular
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basin with floating dock and coaling station,
visited by many lines of steamers.
DUTCH POSSESSIONS
CurtJfao. - Area, 210 square miles; 1770
miles from New York, 50 miles from the coast
of Venezuela, although it is an all-night's run
to La Guayra. Population, 80,000. Some of
the inhabitants are farmers, but most of them
are engaged in commerce - not to say smug~
gling. This is a free port and is used as an exchange depot for all the West Indies. All languages spoken. The famous orange-peel liqueur
is not made here but in Holland, although it is
a favorite beverage in Curacao, The capital is
WiUem,tad, a charming old Dutch town on a
fine harbor, residence of the governor of the
Dutch West Indies possessions, which further
include the small islands of Saba, St. Eultache,
Oruba, Bonaire, and half of St. Martin'" 800
miles away.
THE
GUlANAS
Guiana or Guayano is a name in various forms
found everywhere in the Orinoco and Amazon
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basins. This vast tract came to be called the
Island of Guiana, out of which the imagination
of Sir Walter Raleigh carved the Kingdom of
Guaya. At the breaking up of the Spanish
colonial dominions this tract was vaguely divided between Brazil and Venezuela, but piratical expeditions by English, French, and Dutch
from Antillean harbors to the mainland resulted
in claims by their respective mother-countries
to the territories now known as British, Dutch,
and French Guiana. The boundaries are gradually becoming demarked, as that between the
British portion and Venezuela settled in 1899,
and between France and Brazil settled in 1900.
The whole region, however, is uniform in physical features, natural history, ethnography, and
climate.
Britilh
Area, 90,277 square miles;
population, 295,000. Includes the settlements
of Demerara, E"equiho. and Berbice, named
from three rivers. There are over 100,000 East
Indian coolies and 4000 Chinese employed in
the production of sugar and in gold-mining.
There are 94 miles of railway and considerable
river and canal navigation.
The capital is
Georgetown (population, 54,000), 2194 miles
from New York.
Dutch Guiana, or Surinam. - At the Peace
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of Breda, 1667, between England and the
Netherlands, this region was assured to the
Netherlands in exchange for the New Netherlands in North America. It has an area of
46,000 square miles, divided into sixteen districts, with a population of 76,000. Paramaribo
is the capital (population, 35,000), 2409 miles
from New York.
French Guiana, ~r Caye'Mfe. - Area, 80,500
square miles; population, 12,600. There are
few settlements in the interior, few roads, and
little agriculture, only about 9000 acres being
under cultivation. Gold-mining is becoming
more important. The capital, Cayenne (lt6U
miles (rom New York, population, Ilt,SOO), on
an island at the mouth of Cayenne River, contains a local college, museum, and library, and
has a steamer once a month from Martinique.
A penal settlement was established here in 1855
and now contains 7000 convicts. Devil', bland,
the prison of Captain Dreyf'U8, lies off this coast,
about thirty miles from the capital. The colony
has a deputy in the French Parliament.
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Area, 7MI eq_
mi...
AMERICA
HONDURAS
Sir.e 01 CclonectieuL PopuI·tion.
85,000.
This territory wal ceded to England by Spain
in 1760, but the Spaniards have made subsequent raids from Guatemala. The first British
inhabitants were CAstaways, perhaps buccaneers,
wrecked on the coast in 1681, but by 1671
Belize was a thriving town. This name was
once applied to the whole country and was probably derived from WaUace, a famous freebooter.
The territory has a seaboard of 180 miles with
a dozen rivers affording natural highways into
the interior. Chief of these is the Belize, rising
in Guatemala, 150 miles from the sea with the
present capital at its mouth; its breadth at
Orange Walk, ninety miles from the sea, is 187
feet, while at the haulover or outlet it is 600 feet;
it divides the country into two fairly equal parts,
the northern a dead level of an unhealthy character, the southern a higher table-land crossed
by the Coecomb Mountains (highest peak, Victoria, 3700 feet). A railroad is projected from
Belize to the Peten province of Guatemala.
This colony was subordinate to the government
of Jamaica until 1884, when it was made an in160
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dependent province. There are four ports of
entry, chief of which is
Population, 10,000. 8in mil....from New 0rI8.Ils.
Seat of the goveruor. A clean, healthy. wooden
town. BU1'I'Ouodedby .. It marsbes, For two bundred yeal'l
the eeater of the mahogany trade. but fruit is becoming a great
article of producboo and export, Coonection with the interior is by tram or road .. sucb as tbe W....tern. to the Guatemalan frontier. and the Northern, to Coro«Jl at the eltreme
north. aDd ODe of tbe four ports of entry of the province.
S/amt Cm, SS miles south of Belize, is tbe third. and Pun14
Gorda the fourth. St. Geurge'. Cay. aD Island eight miles (rom
the ClOUt, is a favorite resort.
BELIZE.
Public lands are open to purchase and settlement south of the Belize River. Immigration
is encouraged and desired. All but about five
hundred of the present population are colored.
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