WEST INDIES

WEST INDIES, THE, comprise five large and about forty smaller islands, besides numerous islets, lying in the Atlantic, and extending from the coast of Florida in North America to that of Venezuela in South America, between 10. and 28. N. Lat., and 59. and 85. W. Long. They are generally divided into three groups, named the Lucayos or Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles or Caribbean islands. The Bahama group comprehends fourteen principal islands, besides innumerable smaller islands and keys. They are chiefly of coral formation, low, flat, and scantily covered with soil. Most of them are uninhabited. The Greater Antilles are Cuba, Hayti or San Domingo sometimes called also Hispaniola, Porto Rico, and Jamaica. The Lesser Antilles consist of a long chain, extending in a curved line from Porto Rico to the Gulf of Paria, and called the Windward Islands; and of a smaller and more scattered group along the coast of Venezuela, called the Leeward Islands. These names, however, are more usually given to the islands of the former chain only, those to the north of Dominica being called Windward, those to the south, Leeward. Most of these islands contain isolated peaks or mountain-ranges, supposed, not improbably, to be the summits of a submarine range of mountains. Several of them are still active volcanoes.

The West Indies, with exception of the more northerly of the Bahamas, lie within the tropics, and are consequently subject to great heat, which, however, is modified by the length of the night, the sea-breezes, and, in some of them, by the elevation of the land. The interior high lands of Cuba, Hayti, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, enjoy throughout the year a mild temperature, as do also several of the smaller islands; but the lowlands, subject to the combined influence of heat and moisture, are generally considered unhealthy. It is this low region that falls under the influence of the frequent scourge of the West Indies, the yellow fever; but above the elevation of 1200 feet the climate is temperate and healthy. Ice sometimes forms in Cuba after a long continuance of north wind; but snow never falls. The year is naturally divided into two seasons, the wet and the dry.

The rich and varied productions of the West Indies give them an important place in the commercial world. To their valuable native plants, art and industry have added others not less valuable. The sugar-cane, coffee, pimento, plantain, banana, pine-apple, anana, yam, sweet potato, maize, cassava, manioc, cocoa, tobacco, cotton; various dyewoods and stuffs, as fustic, logwood, indigo, cochineal; medicinal plants, as liquorice, arrowroot, ginger, jalap, ipecacuanha, mahogany, and lignum-vitæ, are among the vegetable productions. The cattle are generally of a small size; and only a few of the islands contain sheep and goats. Few horses, asses, and mules are reared, and consequently great numbers of these animals are imported from the con-

tinent. Swine are more abundant than other domestic animals. There are few wild animals. Some wild boars are still found; otherwise the quadrupeds are represented by monkeys, rats, and other smaller vermin. The maniti is found at Trinidad and Tobago. The cayman and various other lizards and snakes are common. Fish and turtle are abundant. Parrots, flamingoes, and humming-birds are also common. Mosquitoes, cockroaches, centipedes, scorpions, ants, and chigoes abound in the islands.

The indigenous people of the islands have long been extinct, except a few still existing on the islands of St Vincent and Trinidad. At the time of their discovery the southern islands were inhabited by the fierce and warlike Caribs; the more northern by a gentler race, the Arrows. At present the population is European and African, partly pure and partly mixed. The negroes of pure race form nearly two-thirds of the whole; the whites about one-fifth, and the mixed races one-seventh. In the British and French islands slavery has been abolished, but it still prevails in the Spanish, Dutch, and Danish possessions. The following Table gives a list of the principal islands as politically grouped, with the area, population, and capital of each group. An account of the several islands will be found under their respective heads.