The Leeward Islands

The Leeward IslandsAuthor(s): Churchill, J. SpencerSource: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection, (1898)Published by: The University of Manchester, The John Rylands University LibraryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/60231274 .

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/'a. H THE

A LEE WARD ISLANDS

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BY

J. SPENCEE CHUECHILL

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THE

LEEWARD ISLANDS

BY

J. SPENCER CHUECHILL

JkinfcD bjj SPOTTISWOODE & CO., NEW-STREET .SQUARE. LONDON

1898



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4 PREFACE

This essay was written in April 1897, and was sent to the proprietors of the 'West Indian and Com¬ mercial Advertiser,' who had offered prizes for the best essays treating of the '

History of the paet, to¬

gether with a review of the forces tending to the moral and material welfare of the future, in any one of the West Indian colonies.' The Selection Com¬ mittee was composed as follows :

The Eight Hon. Viscount Knutsford, P.C., G.C.M.G-. (Secretary of State for the Colonies 1887 to 1892).

The Eight Hon. the Earl of Stamford, M.A.

Eight Hon. Lord Ampthill, M.A.

Andrew W. Donald, Esq., LL.B., Barrister-at- Law.

Fredk. McDermott, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Editor of the '

Eailway News.' Predk. L. H. Morrice, Esq., J.P., D.L., Barrister-

at-Law.



Vlll PEEFACE

Andrew Whitlie, Esq., banker, 62 Lombard

Street, E.C.

The Committee made their award in December

1897, and the first prize was adjudged unanimously

to the ' Essay on the Leeward Islands,' by Mr. J.

Spencer Churchill, Colonial Secretary of the

Bahamas.

The essay has appeared in consecutive monthly

numbers of the magazine, and is now reprinted by the writer, with the permission of the proprietors of

the magazine, for private circulation only.



A

J

THE

LEEWAED ISLANDS

In the lap of the Caribbean Sea, glowing under the intense rays of a tropical sun, and bathed in an

atmosphere quivering with heat, lie the Leeward Islands. The name, which was equally in use by the French and other nations, is descriptive of their situation with respect to the prevailing winds and to the other islands which lie eastward, or to windward, of them, a matter of great importance when hostile fleets of sailing ships covered the seas.

The islands named Antigua, St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat are grouped within short sailing distance each from the other, and are the natural centre or nucleus of the ' Leeward Islands Colony.'

The colony includes, besides the above-named, the island of Anguilla, lying sixty miles north of St. Kitts, and close to the French island of St. Martin's, and farther north still the Virgin Islands.

All these islands were subjected to one supreme government at a very early date, the governor being

A 3



10 THE LEEWARD ISLANDS

styled ' Governor-in-Chief and Captain-General in ,_

and over all our Leeward Charibee Islands lying to X" the leeward of the islands of Guadeloupe and to the windward of the island of St. John de Porto Eico.'

In some commissions the islands are named, but the geographical description of the colony is always *-

the same. In much later times the colony received a notable

addition in the large island of Dominica, which, by its situation midway between the French islands of

Guadeloupe and Martinique, is geographically one of the Windward Islands, but after it became a British

possession was incorporated with the ' Leeward Islands Colony,' to which it has ever since belonged, and of which it forms a part at the present day.

The constitution of the colony, as it now exists, is

quite modern, dating only from 1871, at which time it was decided to draw these island communities to¬

gether more closely for the administration of law and

government. But it will be convenient to revert to this part of my subject later ; and, firstly, to treat with the utmost brevity of the separate history and condition of each of these islands, in no one of which are the principal factors which affect the social, com¬

mercial, and moral advancement of the people, or the

reverse, exactly similar, neither have they ever been so in the past.

Commencing with the central group of islands,

perhaps those which are most attractive to the eye by their exquisite scenery, and most interesting by their historical record, are the islands of St, Kitts and

V



"1

-i

THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 11

Nevis, which are divided only by a narrow strait, and A which, at some former geological epoch, were twin

volcanoes, towering in majestic beauty 6,000 or 7,000 feet above the sea, and joined by a mountainous

ridge which is now partly hidden under the waters of the strait, and in part appears as a prolongation of the island of St. Kitts in the direction of Nevis, a narrow strip of marshes and salt ponds interspersed with eminences which a slight further subsidence would convert into a chain of little islets. The soil of St. Kitts is of extraordinary fertility, being com¬

posed of volcanic dust, which may be seen, where ex¬

posed by cuttings, to reach a depth of from twenty to thirty feet. In some parts of the island, at a

depth of seven to eight feet, are found thick layers of volcanic scoria?, of the kind called by geologists ' lapilli.'

At Nevis, on the other hand, from the sloping sides of the extinct crater down to the water's edge, the soil contains, and is covered by, rocks and stones, the smaller of which, gathered up from the fields, are formed into the loose stone walls which are rather a distinctive feature of this island. The effect of this

caprice of Nature is that agriculture is less profitable in Nevis than in the sister island, both because the use of the plough is impracticable and because the

soil, though good, is inferior to that of St. Kitts. Hence many sugar estates in Nevis have long been abandoned and are overgrown with the acacia bush, which, together with the guava, forms in this part of the tropics the wild growth which spontaneously

A i




springs up and usurps the land the moment that y < cultivation ceases. Others, again, are worked on the Ax metayer system, a system which gives very bad re¬ sults commercially, but has the merit of keeping both

planter and labourer alive where no money advances are procurable for working expenses, including, as -*

the chief item, the labourers' weekly wages. It must not be supposed that no attempts have been made to

grow for export what are generally called the • minor

tropical products.' Very strenuous efforts were directed towards this end by the late Sir Graham Briggs, a

wealthy planter of Barbados, who bought estates in Nevis of large extent, and spared neither labour nor

money in the development of his property. Tobacco has been grown, and cigars have been manufactured ; but, although the plant thrives luxuriantly, the manufactured product does not find favour with smokers.

The effect of these differences of agricultural con¬ ditions in the sister islands upon the life and habits of the respective labouring populations is very marked and decisive. In Nevis, although poverty is universal, it does not degenerate into pauperism or starvation

amongst the able-bodied. Many labourers own land —all can obtain it cheaply by renting—and the yams and sweet potatoes are a never-failing resource in the

peasants' household to keep the wolf from the door. These people handle very little money, and one may cite, as typical of the general conditions, the case of an aged peasant proprietor owning thirty or forty acres of land and living in a large well-built house,

V



y THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 13

i < but exempted by the Government from the payment '\ of land-tax on account of his absolute inability to

raise even a few shillings. In St. Kitts the population is supported entirely

on wages earned by labour, chiefly agricultural; they neither own land nor can they rent it at any con¬ venient distance from their dwellings ; consequently they are deprived of the resource, when out of work, of tilling the soil and gathering a few of its more humble fruits for themselves.

In good times, when labour is in demand and

fairly well paid, the labourer earns enough to support himself and family in a state of abundance and material comfort, which his confrere in Nevis cannot

aspire to ; but, as the demand for labour decreases, as the wages are reduced to starvation point, having no land of his own on which he can work, and from which he can draw a little sustenance, his case most often becomes quite desperate, in spite of the

large sums spent by the Government on the charitable

/institutions and outdoor relief.

A complete epitome of the wild and troublous "l history of each of these islands would require volumes

to be written, and is, therefore, out of the question within the limits of an essay. It may be interesting, however, to glance for a moment at the course of events

during the earliest colonising period, because St. Kitts was actually the first of all the West Indian islands

upon which the feet of British emigrants ever trod, and because of the extraordinary vicissitudes of for¬ tune which befell the earliest colonists, but few of




whom can have survived to reap the fruits of their (t„ labours, and whose marvellous pluck and endurance A are surely worthy to be held in remembrance.

The earliest settlement by British colonists took

place about the year 1623, and the leader to whom success was due was Sir Thomas Warner, a man of heroic mould, and truly described in the epitaph upon the tombstone which still covers his remains in a

country churchyard in St. Kitts as a ' Comander Greate in Acts of Fame.' The appearance presented by the islands to those approaching from the sea must have been very different from that which now meets the eye. A more sombre hue then took the place of the present bright green colour of the sugar cane, for the land was covered by virgin forests, in the recesses of which many streams, of which the dried-up beds now merely attest the occasional force of destruc¬ tive torrents, then flowed perennially and softly to the sea.

The climate must also have been very different, for the rainfall was regular and continued, and the tropi¬ cal heat tempered by shade and moisture. In such forests the early settlers made their clearings and

planted their tobacco with the musket always within

reach, for they found the island already occupied by the Caribs, a fierce and warlike race of savages, them¬ selves emigrants from the mainland of America, and

quite distinct from the mild and amiable aboriginal _races found and exterminated by the Spaniard in the

Bahamas, Jamaica, Cuba, and St. Domingo. The centre of their national life appears to have

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been fixed in the island of Dominica. In its inacces¬ sible glens and tangled forests they lived, secure from

attack, and from them they sallied forth in their long war canoes, the first pirates and rovers of the western seas. They were an indomitable race, and whilst they survived they met the white invader, in peace or war, on equal terms, and preferred to die fighting rather

"than live enslaved. After the inevitable struggle with the Caribs, entailing terrible loss of life on both sides —which resulted in the final expulsion of the

savages—the Spaniards, who had no use for the island themselves, but were doubtless sincerely shocked by the intrusion of English heretics, came down in overwhelming force and, after picking up a few vessels at Nevis, swept the island of St. Kitts from end to end, carrying off all who were not killed to servitude in the mines and destroying the planta¬ tions. Incredible as it seems, after such terrible

experiences, Sir Thomas Warner, with the aid of his patron, the Earl of Carlisle, found no difficulty in

repeopling St. Kitts and despatching offshoots of colonisation to the neighbouring islands, so that in a few years after the crushing disaster of the

Spanish invasion six thousand colonists were again at work.

To anyone who reads of these thousands of men of British birth swarming across the Atlantic to take

possession of these fertile islands the question is

naturally suggested, could they, if they had been pre¬ served from the curse of negro slavery, have prospered and propagated their race so that these islands might




have become, not mere possessions of the English Crown, but the homes of a kindred race, as in North /v America There is certainly no such fatal blight as that which in the East Indies cuts off the blossoms from the tree of life and renders colonisation by white races impossible. In the West Indies children of

European parents grow up to adolescence in health and strength, and meet with even fewer of the dangers which beset the period of infancy in the Mother

Country. We know also that attempts were made and spasmodically renewed by successive Govern¬ ments to establish a race of yeoman farmers on the soil by free grants of land of from fifteen to twenty acres, but, when once the system of slavery wa« introduced, all such efforts were doomed to failure, for free agricultural labour could not exist in competition with the slave labour which degrades it. The question, therefore, was never fairly put to the test, and is now never likely to be, as the extension of the British

Empire has opened out for emigration whole con¬ tinents peopled by English races.

Continuing our historical sketch of this early period of the history of St. Kitts, it is necessary to mention that before the Spanish raid a small party of French under D'Esnambue had joined the English colonists, by whom they were kindly received and

permitted to settle in the eastern portion of the island. This apparently welcome addition to the forces of civilisation proved to be the seed from which

sprang more than a hundred years of internecine stiife.

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v THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 17

<j The French, who appear to have escaped from the ^\ Spaniards by flying to Antigua, returned with such

additions to their numbers that a regular partition of the island had to be effected. French and English at first lived side by side amicably enough, and even

* agreed to keep the peace in the event of war between their respective nations ; but the hopes of the peace party—if any such party really existed—proved fal¬ lacious, and the further history of this island is one of conquest and reconquest by French and English respectively, until the Treaty of Versailles in 1783, when it passed finally into the possession of the British Crown. For the students of military history, the events of that stirring century (in which the local

history of each little island is, so to speak, included and overlapped) have acquired a new and absorbing interest from their treatment by Captain Mahan, the

great modern exponent of naval strategy. The position which the islands held in relation to

the combined operations of fleets and armies is

;well described by that author in the following

sentences: ^ ' The smaller West Indian islands a 'e singly too

small to be strongly held except by a Power control¬

ling the sea. They had a twofold value in war—one as offering military positions for such a Power ; the other a commercial value, either as adding to one's own resources, or diminishing those of the enemy. War directed against them may be considered as a war upon commerce, and the islands themselves as

ships or convoys loaded with enemy's wealth. They




will be found, therefore, changing hands like counters, and usually restored when peace comes, though the final result was to leave most of them in the hands of

'

England.' It was towards the close of our struggle with

France and the revolted colonies of America, that ' the most brilliant military effort of the whole war '

was conducted in full view of the population of St. Kitts and Nevis. The French Admiral, De Grasse, with twenty-nine ships and six thousand troops, had

planned an attack on Barbados, but, being headed by the wind, turned his armament against the island of St. Kitts, where, after landing his troops to besiege the fortress of Brimstone Hill, he lay with the vessels of his fleet crowded together in the roadstead in front of Basseterre.

Admiral Hood, who was watching the superior fleet with twenty-two ships, determined to attack them at anchor at daybreak of January 24, but was baulked by misadventure, and the French, leaving their anchorage, the hostile fleets manoeuvred southwards. On January 25 ' at noon, when the hill-sides of Nevis were covered with expectant and interested sightseers, the English fleet rapidly ormed its line on the starboard tack and headed

north for Basseterre.' Three hours later after re¬

pulsing the attacks of the French van, headed by the ' Ville de Paris,' the ships anchored one after another each in its appointed position, the van ship about four miles south-cast from Basseterre, extending in a west-north-west direction for a mile and a half, and

XL-

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j then turning to the north ' covering and controlling '

A, the anchorage held by the French admiral the day before. On the next day, January 26, the French fleet twice attacked in single column, ship after ship running along the whole length of the English line,

^ distributing their successive fires in ' gallant but

dreary and ineffectual monotony.' One hardly knows to what extent the ills of subjection to a foreign military Power were felt by non-combatants, but unless they were petrified by anxiety for their own

fate, the ' sightseers ' of St. Kitts, as well as of Nevis,

must have thrilled with the excitement of beholding one of the grandest military spectacles ever exhibited to mortal gaze.

A glimpse of the political life of one of the' Smaller West India Islands ' in the eighteenth century may be gained from the scant remaining records of the island of Nevis. We find the Governor-in-Chief in

supreme control over all affairs civil and military, either directing from Antigua, the head-quarters of

} the Government, or from St. Kitts, or present himself in the island. The President of the Council held the chief executive power in his absence, and a Council and Assembly exercised parliamentary functions, the latter with full power of the purse, and sometimes, it must be admitted, hampering the Government in its endeavours to provide for efficient defence. Thus, in 1775, we find the Governor in Council demanding a colonial allowance for the regiment quartered in Nevis similar to that in Jamaica, which was refused •by the Assembly on account of the ' miserable con- ' A6




dition of the inhabitants, a great part so poor that

they are not able to subsist themselves—the whole A

country in a very low and declining condition—God

Almighty pleased to send a judgment of an ugly vermin upon the island which destroy great part of what we plant.' The vermin must have been rats, from which plague Nevis still occasionally suffers,

partly owing to the loose stone walls, which offer a secure refuge to the animal, close to his food, the

sugar cane.

Again, in 1739 the works upon Saddle Hill were abandoned after an expenditure of 1,200?., and all

attempts of the President and Council to induce the

Assembly to grant funds for their continuance failed.

Thirty years later the Government had the same cause for complaint, for in June 1773 the governor, Sir Ealph Payne, in Council, sends a message to the

newly elected Assembly that their predecessors, not¬

withstanding their repeated assurances, have taken no measures to repair the forts or to pass the Militia Bill. As a sequel to the parsimonious treatment of V the troops in 1735, the regiment quartered in Nevis was withdrawn, and in 1772 the Council and Assembly petitioned the Home Government for a company of

regulars, and promised to provide ' barracks and

other necessary accommodation whatever for their

reception, such as will place them on the same respect¬ able footing with your Majesty's 68th Eegiment at

Antigua.' In 1752 the Governor, Lieutenant-General

Fleming, sent a letter to the Council gravely cen-




J suring the Assembly for exceeding their powers by A the illegal arrest and confinement in gaol of the

Provost-Marshal and other persons on the order of the Speaker; and expects that before his arrival they will have made amends for their illegal acts, in which

'* case it will be only necessary for him to inquire into the ' flagrant injuries and offences daily committed by almost all orders of people, which make Nevis the wonder of the world.' Upon the arrival of the

Governor, the Assembly refused to ' raise any tax this year

' on account of the ' miserable and deplor¬ able conditions of the island.'

It is impossible to acquit this bygone Assembly of a display of bad temper, and not to suspect that the ' miserable condition of the island' was dragged into

many a controversy between themselves and the Government. That it was possible for a governor occasionally to be on good terms with the island Assemblies is proved by the address of Sir Ralph Payne to the Assembly on April 5, 1775, announcing

}f his departure on leave of absence, when he informs that august body that he is absolutely bereft of the

1 power of expression by the ' affecting propinquity of

my departure,' and assures them ' your merits shall receive no diminution from my sensibility,' and much more in the same affectionate, if somewhat

flowery style. A refusal to raise money by taxes did not in

those days and in those places involve all the con¬

sequences which would now follow upon such a course. The Customs duties were levied for the




Imperial Government by a staff of officers, indepen¬ dent of the local government, and headed by Surveyors-General, who by his Majesty's instructions to Sir Ralph Payne in 1772 were made ex officio Councillors Extraordinary, and admitted to sit and vote in the Councils of the several islands during the time of their residence. Four and a half per cent, of these duties was made over to the Imperial Government, and out of the total sum raised in this

way from all the islands the Governor-in-Chief was authorised to deduct his salary of l,200i. per annum, obtaining in addition from the island Assemblies whatever amount they respectively chose to grant. Most of the officials were paid by fees; and roads, such as satisfied mankind in the eighteenth century, were made and repaired by corvees of slaves, so that all that the Assembly really had to provide for would appear to have been the maintenance of the Established Church, pay and subsistence for the

regular troops and militia, and the armament of the forts and batteries. Of the last mentioned there were nine batteries mounting two or three

18-pounders, besides Charles Fort, which mounted ten.

The usual form of tax was a poll-tax on slaves

varying from four shillings up to any higher rate

according to need. As slaves were the chief wealth of the country, this was equivalent to a tax on

property, and must have been easy to collect. A list furnished by the magistrates in 1752 gives the total number of slaves in Nevis at 7,478.

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Like a beleaguered garrison in a fortress, the in-

£. habitants of Nevis seem to have been generally suffering from a scarcity of provisions and gun¬ powder. The colonists of Boston and Rhode Island went on trading with the French and Dutch West

A India Islands and Surinam in spite of remonstrances addressed to the Lords of Trade and Plantations ; and the orders of the President and Council to the Gunner of the Fort to ' bring to every vessel which

may appear to be loaded with provisions and oblige them to anchor,' were naturally still more ineffectual. Prices were fixed, by a committee, at which American

provision ships were to sell their cargoes, but the

ships took particular care to keep at a respectful distance, and the arrangement broke down and was

given up. During the blockade of American ports in 1776 the scarcity became greater, and application was made to Admiral Young, at Antigua, that some of the prizes taken might be sent to Nevis, but the Admiral could not interfere with the disposal of the

prizes, which belonged to the captors. Thirty years before, the Nevis Assembly had refused to bear any ehare of the expense of the maintenance of the

prisoners of war, which were taken to Antigua, and one may infer that there was, generally, no solidarity or desire to mutually assist one another between these contiguous island colonies.

With the conditions of war and slavery combined, it is not surprising to find traces of a certain amount of turbulence in civil life, as denoted (in 1777) by the history of two judgment debtors who fortified

/



*v


Imperial Government by a staff of officers, indepen¬ dent of the local government, and headed by /• Surveyors-General, who by his Majesty's instructions to Sir Ealph Payne in 1772 were made ex officio Councillors Extraordinary, and admitted to sit and vote in the Councils of the several islands during the *

time of their residence. Pour and a half per cent, of these duties was made over to the Imperial Government, and out of the total sum raised in this

way from all the islands the Governor-in-Chief was authorised to deduct his salary of l,200i. per annum, obtaining in addition from the island Assemblies whatever amount they respectively chose to grant. Most of the officials were paid by fees; and roads, such as satisfied mankind in the eighteenth century, were made and repaired by corvees of slaves, so that all that the Assembly really had to provide for would appear to have been the maintenance of the Established Church, pay and subsistence for the

regular troops and militia, and the armament of the forts and batteries. Of the last mentioned 4 there were nine batteries mounting two or three

18-pounders, besides Charles Fort, which mounted ten.

The usual form of tax was a poll-tax on slaves

varying from four shillings up to any higher rate

according to need. As slaves were the chief wealth of the country, this was equivalent to a tax on

property, and must have been easy to collect. A list furnished by the magistrates in 1752 gives the total number of slaves in Nevis at 7,478.

y




i Like a beleaguered garrison in a fortress, the in-

^ habitants of Nevis seem to have been generally suffering from a scarcity of provisions and gun¬ powder. The colonists of Boston and Rhode Island went on trading with the French and Dutch West

K India Islands and Surinam in spite of remonstrances addressed to the Lords of Trade and Plantations ; and the orders of the President and Council to the Gunner of the Fort to ' bring to every vessel which

may appear to be loaded with provisions and oblige them to anchor,' were naturally still more ineffectual. Prices were fixed, by a committee, at which American

provision ships were to sell their cargoes, but the

ships took particular care to keep at a respectful i distance, and the arrangement broke down and was

given up. During the blockade of American ports in 1776 the scarcity became greater, and application was made to Admiral Young, at Antigua, that some of the prizes taken might be sent to Nevis, but the Admiral could not interfere with the disposal of the

A prizes, which belonged to the captors. Thirty years T before, the Nevis Assembly had refused to bear any

"'^ i share of the expense of the maintenance of the

prisoners of war, which were taken to Antigua, and one may infer that there was, generally, no solidarity or desire to mutually assist one another between these contiguous island colonies.

With the conditions of war and slavery combined, it is not surprising to find traces of a certain amount of turbulence in civil life, as denoted (in 1777) by the history of two judgment debtors who fortified




themselves in the hills with a retinue of armed slaves after shooting at and wounding the sheriff and

cutting up his black boy with a cutlass. The

Assembly offered twenty joes for their apprehension, but it could not be effected until the militia had been called out for the purpose. It is not intended to cite, as evidence of a general condition of society, a

single case, which, no doubt, had many parallels at the time in other countries, but it is curious that

negro slaves should have been found willing to face death for masters who were outlaws. That the administration of justice was corrupt was a more serious matter for the people, or, rather, for the small fraction of them who had any civil rights; and that it was so at times is beyond a doubt. A very flagrant case occurred in 1780 which exasperated the not too tender consciences of the grand jury at the Gourt of King's Bench, who thereupon petitioned the Council and Assembly to obtain from the Governor the removal of the Chief Justice, who had

presided for twelve years past in the Court of King's Bench, and of the judges, which petition was ex¬ amined by a Committee of both Houses and met with their entire concurrence.

It would be tedious to pursue further this repre¬ sentation of the political and social status of the small island of Nevis in the eighteenth century. Its

purport has been merely to show how the free insti¬ tutions of a mere oligarchy of slave-holders failed to foster the spirit of self-reliance and united effort for the common weal which is supposed to be the essence

r



THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 25'

j of free institutions hi this more fortunate age. f\ Nevis, in common with Antigua and St. Kitts, was

once the home of many scions of English families who emigrated after the Civil War, whose former presence is attested by their tombstones in the

^ parish churches or fragmentary marble in the churchyards. The only historical name is that of a certain Sir Thomas Pym, in 1743, but whether a descendant of the great parliamentarian does not

appear. In later times Hamilton, the friend of Washington and principal founder of the American Constitution, was born at Nevis ; and the shadow of a still greater name—the name of Nelson—still con¬ secrates the island whose lovely hillsides he often trod, and where he wooed and won his bride. From high land in Nevis may be seen to the east the dim outline of the island of Antigua, and to the south¬ east that of the island of Montserrat.

/ ANTIOUA

is the largest of the four islands forming the central

group, and has always been the headquarters of the Government from the date of the earliest colonial annals. Its town of St. John's is situated at the end of an inlet of the sea which forms a long, though shallow, harbour, and on the other side of the island —fourteen miles across—is the formerly well-known

'English Harbour,' with a dockyard establishment belonging to the Admiralty. The importance of the last named, with its deep and land locked basin and



'.>"*


narrow easily defended entrance, must have been considerable in the times when the harbour of St. .<''* Lucia was in French hands. In later and more

peaceful times the Royal Mail Company used the harbour for their mail steamers, but the fourteen miles of transport to St. John's made it too incon¬

venient, and it was given up. The interior of the island is rich in the varied beauty of the landscape, with broad plains diversified by low ranges of hills, and in the charm of its colouring, and it possesses the treasure of a soil which, though stiff enough to make steam ploughing necessary, is of a good cha¬

racter, and, treated by expert planters, with the aid of chemical analysis, produces first-class sugar cane. In fact, Antigua has long been, and will, no doubt, continue to be, a sugar island. The island is also famous for its dark-coloured pines, which, however, are only consumed locally, Shipments of these pines are occasionally made to London, packed promis- -cuously in casks with a few holes bored in the lids, and with such treatment become absolutely valueless. As the seat of Government and principal residence of the Governor and Federal officials, Antigua has long held a pre-eminent position in relation to the other islands, which was also warranted by the greater mercantile activity of its people.

MONTSEBBAT

The small island of Montserrat is a gem of perfect beauty, whose wooded heights and smiling valleys

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I y, '


excite the admiration of all beholders. Its agricul- iP\ tural industry, based on sugar production, declined

very rapidly when once the fall in prices set in, and was only saved from extinction by the advent of. the Montserrat Company (Messrs. Sturge, of Birming¬ ham), whose first endeavours were rather in the nature of a philanthropic experiment than a com¬ mercial speculation. So much, however, have this

company prospered in their undertakings, and so

wisely have they used their opportunities for doing good, that they have brought renewed life and hope to the people. The heavy deluge of rain which

recently caused a lamentable loss of life and pro¬ perty, is a phenomenon of very infrequent occurrence. A flood of a similar kind at St. Kitts, in 1880, had much more disastrous consequences. These excep¬ tionally heavy rainfalls are converted into torrents ot

mud, owing to the enormous quantity of soil which is taken up by the water and carried out to sea. It the torrents are obstructed by any substantial ob¬

stacle, the soil is immediately deposited, as it hap¬ pened in the public square at Basseterre, St. Kitts, which was filled with soil to a depth of 8 feet, in which bodies were found engulphed in an upright position. As at Dominica and St. Vincent, a soufrierc constantly reminds the inhabitants that their island is of volcanic origin, and the recent atmospheric, disturbances are reported to have been followed oi

accompanied by a display of volcanic phenomena u: the north of the island, which, however, have not- assumed alarming proportions. Close to the western

A 8




shores of Montserrat the pyramidal rock of Redoncla rises from the sea, and on the summit people are

engaged extracting phosphates. Any sketch of the history of this little island

would display a political organisation identical with that of Nevis; it was conquered at least once by the French after hard fighting, and was the scene of a servile insurrection, which was almost successful. The curious feature of the last-named incident is, that the project was to seize the vessels in the road¬ stead and escape to the Spanish island of Porto Rico, which, judging from complaints made to the authori¬

ties, had the reputation of being an asylum for

fugitive slaves. It is difficult to imagine the

Spaniards posing as friends of humanity, and, therefore, easier to come to the conclusion that the

hospitality offered was similar in kind to that offered

by the spider to the fly. It is a fact, perhaps not

generally appreciated, that the population and volume of trade of the smaller islands (excepting only the

Virgin Islands) are greater at the close of the century than they were at the beginning, notwithstanding recent 'hard times.'

Bryan Edwards, in the fifth volume of his history, gives a statement of the trade and population of these islands in the year 1816, and it may interest some readers to compare his statistics with those given in the Blue Book for 1894, which may easily be done by perusing the following tables. It should be remarked that the figures given by the historian deal only with the British and colonial trade; but under the colonial system of the time any other trade was

r




\

¥

contraband, neither could there have been much

temptation to engage in any other, as England offered to the colonists a privileged market for their

produce, and the former trade with America in pro¬ visions and lumber had become illegal and difficult to carry on under the eyes of the naval officers, if

they were determined to enforce the law.

Population.

In 1816 1894

Free Slave

Montserrat Nevis St. Kitts Virgin Islands

1,300 1,000 1,900 1,200

10,000 8,420

20,435 9,000

11,762 13,087 30,876 4,639

Imports.

— Value of Imports from Great Britain til L8M

Value of Imports from all Countries in 1891

Montsenrafc Nevis St. Kitts Virgin Islands

£ 20,868 43,552 1 79,770 J 46,680

£ 24,119

168,928 4,748

Exports.

In 1818 In 1894

Tons of Sugar

Gallons of Rum

Tore of Sugar

Gallons of Rum

Montserrat Nevis St. Kitts Virgin Islands

1,449 3,583 6,317 2,309

2,691 8,583 1

16,852 J 10,218

1,694 16,896

3 41,349




DOMINICA

The island of Dominica lies between Guadeloupe

and Martinique, and nearly aligned with those islands

in a direction trending from north to south. It is

a great mountain range about twenty-nine miles in

length, which, if seen from some point of vantage on

the more accessible summits, displays a succession of

billowy masses surging up tier after tier and cul¬

minating in the high peaks of Morne Anglais and

Morne Diablotin. This mountain range is covered

by forests difficult to penetrate, and traversed by

roads at a few points only. From the deck of the

ocean steamer the traveller sees only its leeward or

western side, whose precipitous spurs running sheer

down to the sea at many points of the coast line

have obliged the engineers to deflect the coast road

from the shore, and, plunging into the interior, to

scale and descend the intervening heights and ravines

until they have once more obtained a footing between

the mountain and the sea. This is the character

common to the coast road throughout the whole

circuit of the island, but on the eastern or windward

side, facing the Atlantic, there are, perhaps, more

open spaces met with where the mountains recede

from the sea, and alluvial flats are of more frequent occurrence. Roseau, the capital of the island, is on

the leeward side near its southern extremity, and on

the same side, but at the north end, is Portsmouth or

Prince Ruperts, and the abandoned fortress of Cabritz,

which once covered its anchorage with a hundred

NX

T



A


guns, and from its position on a projecting point r\ joined to the mainland by a narrow neck was some¬

times called the Gibraltar of the West. It was dreaded by our troops on account of the deadly malaria of its surrounding swamps.

* In their greatest extent these mountain ranges are not traversable, and the inhabitants of the Eastern and Western Coasts are as much divided as if they lived on separate islands.

In fact, the natural highway is the sea, and all

produce of any bulk from the windward coast must be carried round the northern or southern extremity of the island to the ports of shipment, which, as in all the Lesser Antilles having no regular harbours, are open roadsteads on the leeward side, sheltered from the violence of the trade winds by the inter¬

vening land. At the north end of the island the windward coast is joined to the leeward by a road which debouches at Portsmouth, and at the south end there are three points at which the range is

easily traversed by the usual mountain roads, the most important being that which, proceeding from Roseau up the Roseau Valley, culminates at a height of about 1,500 feet, whence the descent immediately commences to Rosalie on the windward coast. It was by this road that Sir George Prevost retreated with his beaten forces after a contest which is still

honourably remembered in the annals of British warfare, the 46th Regiment particularly having there

gained the right to have ' Dominica ' emblazoned on their regimental colours, and the light company of



V


the regiment having long been distinguished from

every other company of the line regiments by a '; special badge. That the retreat was conducted in

safety may perhaps be attributed to the nature of the road, for until the Valley of Rosalie is reached there is no point where the advantage of superior numbers could be used to press an attack either direct or in flank.

All the roads which traverse the ranges and the

greater part of the coast roads are merely bridle-roads with barely width enough for two pack mules to pass in opposite directions. They are therefore of no use for the heavier kinds of traffic, and to convert them into wagon roads would cost not a few thousands, but millions of pounds. For most part they are ledges cut in the mountain sides; above are slopes more or less steep, covered with a thin layer of earth, and trees ever on the point of descending in landslips ; below are ravines with sides similarly covered with trees and vegetation, and at the bottom the mountain stream—sometimes a mere thread of pellucid water* at other times a brawling torrent carrying rocks and

uprooted trees before it on its course to the sea. Mention must also be made of another traversable route across the hills—namely, by ascending the course of the Layou River on the leeward coast, and after crossing the Layou Flats descending to the windward coast at Hatton Garden Estate. There is no road, but for those who do not object to camping out for a week, and being wet through most of the time, there are no great difficulties to be encountered.



THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 33 Y-

The Flats have been often explored by parties, and

^ the late Sir John Gorrie, when he was Chief Justice of the Colony, made a thorough exploration of the route and sent in a careful report of what he had seen to the Government.

* Projects have at sundry times been mooted for the formation of a company with sufficient capital, who in return for the concession and grants of land would undertake to connect the two coasts by a broad road or light railway. The project is understood to be quite feasible, and the Layou River, being a deep and placid stream at its mouth and for some distance

up-stream, offers facilities for the embarkation of pro¬ duce on large lighters, which are not often met with in Dominica ; but it must be confessed that nothing is really known of the value of the Flats for agri¬ cultural purposes. That there is a surface deposit of

vegetable mould is generally reported, but there is much clay in Dominica, and many hundreds of acres which look promising enough are in reality water¬

logged and worthless. There are no signs that the French ever utilised this land for planting, and as the French were, in these parts at least, more

thorough and intelligent colonisers than the British, one would like to know the reason for their neglect.

But, without doubt, there are many thousands of acres of good land in Dominica, fertile valleys, hill

slopes, and plateaux, to be had, without penetrating far into the interior, available for settlement, and suitable for growing oranges, limes, cocoa, coffee, and every kind of tropical produce; and it seems




reasonable to hope that from private enterprises of the kind above mentioned, conducted with fore- A

thought and in good faith, much future improvement will accrue. The extravagant encomiums which have

passed in the last few years from one writer to another of the vast potential wealth and resources of * this island are to be deprecated: they obscure the real conditions, which are quite good enough to attract capital, and when found to be in some degree illusory provoke discontent and repel investors. The chorus was led by the late Professor Froude, whose recent death is still deplored by the nation. He visited Dominica in the course of a West Indian tour, and saw but little of the island, for to ride round the coast of Dominica entails a degree of fatigue and

exposure to weather which, at his advanced age, he did not deem it wise to undergo. Nevertheless, with a wave of his magic pen, he turned sordid earth to

gold and destructive torrents into rivers of Pactolus. He saw a region, rich in possibilities of wealth, but

showing no signs of prosperity, and evoked from the t

fairy realms of his imagination the phantom of a

supine government, the evil genius of stagnation and

decay. Thence followed the invocation of Britannia to the rescue, with, of course, the suggested advent of a superior being able to bend (or break) the bow of

Ulysses. For those of his readers who were doomed

by an unkind nature to dwell in the realms of

practical common sense, all this was beautiful fairy lore, as the author intended it to be. Indeed, .it was not the author of the matchless biography

X



4


of Caesar who would have compared the resources of Dominica with the opimce Sardinia segetes feraees of the Latin poet, nor would he have been

willing to admit, we imagine, that his favourite hero would have spent uhe wealth of the Roman Empire in

developing the pathless wilds of Dominica if it had chanced to be a Mediterranean island. But the fabled

mysteries of El Dorado, the glories of military tradi¬

tions, and the actual historic wealth and power of former days, surround the prosaic poverty of the West Indies of to-day with a halo of romance more attrac¬ tive to an ardent imagination than the sober truth.

As to what concerns the British Empire, it was not for its commercial value as a British colony, which, however, was, and still ought to be, considerable, that we conquered and held Dominica, but rather to bedevil the French in a military sense by cutting their great West Indian colony in two. Dominica was once famous for its coffee plantations, but when the sugar industry took the marvellous proportions, as a source of gain, which once belonged to it, it supplanted all

others, and, although declining for the last twenty years, it is still carried on where the nature of the soil and attendant circumstances are most favourable to the planter. On the windward coast the difficulty and

expense of shipping are serious drawbacks, and many estates have been abandoned. Lime plantations have been tried on an extensive scale, and being favoured by soil and climate, they at one time gave large profits, but the market for concentrated lime juice is now as low as the sugar market. Cocoa also has been planted,




and flourishes exceedingly in some of the moist and sheltered valleys and ravines, but the enormous sup¬ plies put on the market by Venezuela and the equatorial provinces of America have latterly brought down prices to so low a figure that the produce of small estates scarcely pays back the expenses. In fact, it is hard to say to what quarter the smaller West Indian Islands can look to regain a portion of their lost wealth, since they must engage in competition with all the continental territories which lie within the tropical zones, and even the late terra incognita of tropical Africa is now being entered for the race. Probably the industry which offers the best outlook for the future is the supply of oranges, lemons, and grape fruit to the New York and London markets. The distance from the markets, ten to twelve days, is no insuperable obstacle, but such a trade, to be successful, would require a knowledge and skill in growing, packing, and

shipping the fruit which only experience can give, and likewise an expenditure of capital which is not likely to be provided unless some adequately equipped company or syndicate takes up the business.

Some years ago the Government undertook to make some shipments of bananas to New York, as a stimulus to private enterprise, and although the result was a dead loss, it cannot be said to have settled the question adversely to the possibilities of a fruit trade, for the

energetic and skilful direction which only persons with

money at stake would be likely to bring to bear on the

complicated arrangements for buying, transporting, and shipping the fruit was naturally wanting. For

T



i

/


such a comparatively large island as Dominica the

population is very scanty, only 2fi,850—four thousand less than that of the small island of St. Kitts. Settle¬ ments are sparse, and separated often by deep and

rapid rivers, only a few of which have been bridged; some villages, as at Deluc and Boetica in the south¬ east district, occupying most picturesque situations at altitudes of one thousand to fifteen hundred feet, but

mostly, either from choice or necessity, hugging the sea-shore. Midway in the northern half of the wind¬ ward coast is the ' Carib quarter,' a reservation of land on which dwell the last descendants of the former

possessors of the island. About two hundred of them are said to be of pure race, but it would puzzle a

physiognomist to discover in their somewhat placid Chinese cast of countenance any traits inherited from their fierce ancestors.

With the exception of a district called Lasoye in the north-east part of the island, where some emi¬

grants from Antigua settled long ago, whose descen¬ dants have retained the use of the English language and have remained in the Wesleyan communion, the inhabitants generally belong to the Roman Catholic

communion, and speak a French patois identical with that of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada. Govern¬ ment officials are seldom able to acquire any knowledge of the patois, and the necessity for inter¬

pretation in the courts and inability to hold converse with the people at all times interpose an almost

impassable barrier between them and the bulk of the

population.




Expert fishermen and boatmen, the people, especially on the windward coast, were for many years engaged in a petty bartering trade with Mar¬

tinique and Guadeloupe, carrying over live-stock or small quantities of produce and returning with salt fish, oil, and the cheaper kinds of French wines. It was almost of necessity a smuggling trade, as the only ports of entry were at Roseau and Portsmouth on the leeward coast, and to pass round the northern or southern extremities of the island, to enter and clear in the regular way, would have taken up more time and entailed greater risks of navigation than the whole

voyage to Martinique or Guadeloupe and back again. The configuration of the coast gives such facilities for

smuggling that it was seldom possible to make any captures, unless the smugglers quarrelled amongst themselves and gave information to the police in

revenge for private injuries. Possibly the trade might have been developed to their benefit, and rendered

legitimate without loss to the Government by the establishment of two or three small Customs stations at convenient points of the coast, which could have- been done at a very trifling expense ; but the experi¬ ment was never tried, and the trade, such as it was, must have been seriously hampered in recent years by the constantly recurring epidemics to which Martinique has been subjected and the consequent strict quaran¬ tine enforced against it.

All classes are eager to promote education, and

every considerable settlement is endowed with a

school, either denominational or Government, English

>

T



i


being taught in all the elementary schools; but whether the generation now growing up will become

English in speech as well as nationality is a question which time alone can solve. Unable to gain more than a mere subsistence by agricultural labour, the more adventurous spirits among the peasantry have

emigrated by hundreds to the gold mines of French Guiana and Venezuela, and the island population has thus from time to time been drained of its best elements. Those who know by experience the many fine qualities which the labouring classes of this island

possess, are reluctant to admit that they have shown no great aptitude for the plodding labour, assisted by intelligent comprehension of the best methods of

cultivation, without which the natural gifts of soil and climate cannot be utilised to their fullest extent. But even if such views were incorrect, no one can fail to see that the island would support double its present population, and that there is room for the introduction of immigrants without the slightest detriment to the best interests of the native population, but, on the

contrary, very much to their probable advantage. No allusion is intended to Indian coolies or Barbadian labourers, neither of which races of mankind would

improve the situation in the least; but the mind

naturally turns to those islands of the Atlantic under

Spanish and Portuguese dominion, whose teeming natives are born agriculturists, and adapt themselves

easily to life and work in the tropics. An admixture of the natives of the Canary Islands,

for instance, with the present rural population would,




within the space of a few years, change the whole i character of the work done by peasant proprietors, by f *

raising it to a higher level, and, socially, there is no reason to think that such immigrants would constitute a foreign and antagonistic element in the population, for the white Latin races of Europe have always

*

mixed far more freely with the negroes than the Scandinavian or Teutonic races of the North. Several hundreds of the natives of the Canary Islands

migrated to Cuba, previous to the insurrection, and are said on good authority to have done most valuable work on the plantations, and any company taking up the business of planting in Dominica would do well to follow the example of the Cuban planters ; the

wages they require are much higher than the rates common in the West Indies, but so also is the character of their work.

Year by year this beautiful island is becoming better known to tourists of British and American

nationality, the lovely Roseau Valley, with its clear swift river, the valley of Wotton Waven, with its

steaming sulphur springs, offering, all unheeded, their medicinal gifts throughout the centuries, first to the Carib and then to the white man : its silent, gloomy mountain tarn at the summit of the pass; its curious volcanic phenomenon commonly called the ' boiling lake '; these, and a thousand more of the most exqui¬ site of Nature's beauties, are all within easy reach ; and Roseau, the principal town of the island, is clean and pleasant and of good sanitary repute, where the traveller can find accommodation, not luxurious per-

T



V

i \

*


haps, but sufficient for comfort, if he is not too hard to please.

ANGUILLA

This island, with a population of 3,700, lies about

sixty miles due north of St. Kitts, and close to the island of St. Martin's. It was formerly known as one of the '

Virgin or Little Leeward Islands,' but has for

long been a dependency of St. Kitts. The island

possesses little interest for any persons, not the actual •inhabitants, except those engaged in the government of the colony, who have to preserve the islanders from periodical famines, caused by drought, and the

taxpayers of St. Kitts, who have to find the money. All intercourse of the people, and such trade as can be developed by the exchange or barter of fresh fish

against food-stuffs, and perhaps also ruin and tobacco, is with the large island lying close by, rather than with St. Kitts or any other. The islanders are plucky boatmen, and a sailing boat comes over to St. Kitts in all weathers to get the monthly mail and the

monthly subsidy. They have the usual schools and churches of the two denominations which everywhere work side by side in the West Indies, and generally with cordial co-operation—viz. the Anglican and

Wesleyan. Recently land has been purchased by the Govern¬

ment and planted with sisal, a movement which pro¬ mises some satisfactory results in the course of time, for it is a crop which is free from the risk of predial larceny. The fibre is manufactured into hemp with-




out very much difficulty or need for skilled labour. f When converted into fibre, it can be stored without J* fear of deterioration, and, if brought to market

cheaply, the profits to be realised will enable the administration to be carried on without expense to the other islands. *

VIBGIN ISLANDS

About 170 miles north of St. Kitts are the

Virgin Islands, a chain of rugged and mountainous islands, in shape long and narrow, trending eastward from St. Thomas, the well-known Danish island and

harbour, once an important seat of commerce, but now fallen from its high estate. Eastward of St. Thomas lie St. John's (Danish) and the islands of Tortola and Virgin Gorda (formerly called Spanish Town), which with numerous small islets are British

possessions, and form a part of the colony of the 'Leeward Islands.' Further still to the east is the coral island of Anegada, almost level with the surface of the sea, and with submerged reefs stretching far

away on all sides. Wrecks innumerable once gave to its name a fearful notoriety and brought much gain to its inhabitants, but the establishment of the light¬ house at Sombrero and partial diversion of trade routes have completely closed this source of liveli¬ hood. The west end of Tortola overlaps the island of St. John, and between them is a very beautiful

channel, which, however, is but little frequented by sailing boats, the boatmen preferring to keep to sea-

r




-*•"

}

ward of St. John's. Along the whole length of

Tortola, in a parallel line commencing abreast of the east end of St. John's, lies a continuous chain of small islands, and the arm of the sea which flows between is called Drake's Channel, from the tradi¬ tion which says that the famous navigator once sailed down it with his fleet.

Viewed from the ridge or backbone of the island of Tortola, the scene is one of marvellous beauty, which is not to be surpassed throughout the whole of our West Indian possessions, and which, if the

islands were not so thoroughly out of reach of

tourists, would challenge the admiration of all lovers of Nature. At the eastern extremity of Virgin Gorda, on level ground not raised far above the sea, may be seen one of Nature's vagaries, more curious than

beautiful, consisting of a quantity of enormous masses and piles of rocks which strew the ground over an area of several acres, in all shapes and sizes, some

squared as if by the mason's chisel, and with all the

appearance of being the ruins of some antique city of

Cyclopean masonry. So strongly has this appearance appealed to the popular imagination that the place has been named ' Fallen Jerusalem,' after the only ancient city of which the people have any knowledge. Towards the western end of the same island, under the shadow of the mountain, the adventurous yachts¬ man may sail into the fine and spacious harbour called '

Virgin Gorda Sound,' and, in the utter

absence of any signs of life or habitation, may

imagine himself a second Captain Cook, discovering




a new Botany Bay. Nature, however, has not lavished i all her gifts at once upon this group of islands, for -*

the gift of fertility is wanting, and the same character of rugged sterility which pervades them to-day was

just as well known and acknowledged in the eight¬ eenth century, when planters and slaves were doing

*

their utmost to extract wealth from an ungrateful soil. There were, of course, comparatively fertile

spots in so large an area of island territory, where cotton was grown and sugar and tobacco, but there is evidence that the colonists generally were dissatis¬ fied with their adopted country, and eager to change it for one of greater promise. Sixteen years ago the ' oldest inhabitant' was a.ble to recollect and tell the

story of an actual exodus of planters and their slaves who left in companies for Trinidad and the South. This was said to have occurred after a hurricane, which laid low every building in the islands, and was the first cause of the decadence of this colony, which never afterwards regained its former commercial status.

It is true that there have been large exports of

sugar from Tortola, and that many fine ships at times rode at anchor on the waters of Drake's Channel

waiting for their cargoes, and that these facts may seem contradictory to what has been written above, but the apparent contradiction is easily explained when it is understood that the bulk of the exported sugar was brought from the Spanish or other foreign islands to Tortola to be shipped as British colonial

sugar for the sake of the trade advantages which




British colonial produce obtained in the home markets under the colonial system of that day. From the first quarter of the eighteenth century there is evidence of the connection of this colony with the government of the ' Leeward Islands' though, perhaps, owing to distance and dangers of the seas, the control exercised

by the Governor-in-Chief may have been less direct and personal than in St. Kitts or Nevis. The head of the Executive, with the title of Lieutenant-Governor, was resident in Tortola, sometimes a landholder, and he was also Chief Judge of the Courts of Justice.

In the other principal island, now called Virgin Gorda—then Spanish Town—there was a Deputy Governor, who was also Chief Judge of that island; and the Chief Judges were assisted by justices who were all appointed by the Governor-in-Chief. For

arrangements as to the time for holding Court and other like matters, a ' Council of Justice ' was formed

by uniting the Chief Judges and the justices in session for the purpose, and such arrangements were, as much as possible, in conformity with the practice of the Leeward Islands. The two principal islands had also their separate legislative bodies, presided over by the Lieutenant-Governor and Deputy Governor respec¬ tively, which met and passed laws each for its own domain. The only public building was the gaol; meetings of the Legislature and Courts of Justice

being held sometimes in a church and sometimes in a

private house. Service was compulsory in the militia from the

ages of fourteen years to sixty, and upon the alarm of




war with France in 1755 the Deputy Governor of

Spanish Town furnished a return of population for the Lords of Trade and Plantations, which computes the number of ' men that bear arms ' at 127 ; women and children, 269 ; and negroes, 1,204 ; making a total of 1,600 souls.

This same island, under the name of Virgin Gorda, supports at the present day a population of 593. All

grants of land by the Crown were made by the agency of'the Governor-in-Chief, and an incident of the year 1758 in this connection may be interesting to some readers as showing a way in which the intentions of the Government in regard to the establishment of a

peasant proprietary class in the islands might have been sometimes defeated in the earlier and more un¬ settled times of colonisation. By an Act of George II. in that year the Governor-in-Chief was empowered to grant seven hundred acres of land in Spanish Town to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Virgin Islands, to be conveyed by him to the persons having title to such lands in order to establish and confirm their titles. The reason for the Act was, that ' the original grant to Peter Markoe was one hundred acres, the word one

being altered and forged to five, and in greater pro¬ portion than fifteen acres, the number allotted to any one settler in the original grant.' From the successful

land-grabbing of Peter Markoe it may be deduced that the vision of the Supreme Government was not very keen to detect abuses, or its arm very long to punish them.

Passing on to a later period of the eighteenth

S.

-y



THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 47 r '

i century, we find this colony endowed with a Council

^y and an Assembly of the usual type, with a Speaker, serjeant-at-arms, and other functionaries. In 1839 an Act was passed repealing the militia laws on account of the ' changed and improved state of society

* in these islands,' a euphemism for the emancipation of the slaves; and, the convenient resource of the poll- tax on slaves being for ever lost, a taxing Act was

passed which for comprehensiveness may be said to have eclipsed any subsequent efforts in that direction. It comprised, besides heavy import duties on flour and most articles of consumption and merchandise, taxes on incomes, houses, and cultivated lands, and on horses and cattle, besides export duties on the last named, stamp duties on all kinds of documents, and licenses on several trades, concluding with directions to the Treasurer to advertise for rent the pews in the church. The appropriation was stated to be for the laudable

objects of paying off debts contracted since 1832 and

providing for salaries, the list of which is headed by If the rector with 6001. per annum, and continued with

i the senior king's counsel at 200L per annum, and vl other officers of minor degree at lower rates of

remuneration. With reference to the important subject of the

Judicial Establishment, it may not be out of place to mention that by an Act of the Assembly of the Virgin Islands in 1838 a sum of 250L was made annually payable as their share of the expenses of the Supreme Court of the ' Leeward Caribbee Islands,' in accord¬

ance with an Act of the Imperial Parliament of June




1836, entitled ' An Act to make Provision for the better Administration of Justice in certain of His

Majesty's WTest Indian Colonies.' By the Imperial Act the West Indian Islands were divided iuto two

separate and distinct judicial districts, but its pro¬ visions seem never to have been carried out, as it was not until the Federal Constitution of 1871 was

inaugurated that the Colony of the Leeward Islands received its present judicial system. The British

Virgin Islands are now the home of about 4,600 people, who are engaged in tilling the soil or fishing. Fish are abundant and good, and the harvest of the ea is more productive than that of the land, but the

market which St. Thomas once offered is now much restricted.

The port of St. Thomas is free, but the fee of two dollars for a health permit, though nothing for a

steamer, is a serious tax upon a small boat which carries over a calf for sale or a basket of vegetables. The principal town or village is Roadtown ; it occupies a strip of land at the foot of the Tortola mountain

range, hemmed in between the mountain and the sea, and consists of one street a mile long with a few shops of retail dealers in the simple necessaries of food and

clothing. There are marshes near at hand, and malarial fever is rife. It is possible to get about on horseback, but the roads have become mere tracks ; for even in the days when the planters had to find the. labour, the statute width was only fifteen feet on the level and ten feet on the hill-sides, and such roads are

rapidly obliterated by the vegetable growth of a moist

^

y



THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 4tf r

J tropical climate. The only class which of late years v enjoyed leisure without fear of want was a small

village community of' liberated Africans,' who received a dole of clothing and food from the Imperial Govern-

\ ment; and possibly, some remain to this day, for the " African under favouring conditions can live to the most

extreme old age. The phrase ' liberated African' means

liberated at sea instead of on land, which some people might think to be a distinction without a difference, but the difference for the happy man who was taken from a slave ship was very considerable, inasmuch as he got a provision for life. To follow the fortunes of this colonial dependency through its forty or fifty years of

gradual decline would be a bootless task. It never had very great hold on the sources of wealth, and as

capital was withdrawn, and the white inhabitants died out or emigrated, its ultimate fate was inevitable, and could not have been averted by any measures within the scope of governmental activity. Neither would there be any occasion to regret the change of condition, if these islands now supported a rural popu¬ lation amongst whom riches or extreme poverty were alike unknown. Unfortunately this is not the case ; extreme poverty is only too common, and the Govern¬ ment cannot raise by taxation any revenue sufficient to cope with it. There is, however, a bright side to this rather gloomy picture, for by the aid of the

missionary societies, Wesleyan and Anglican, of the Mother Country, the people are well supplied with the ministrations of religion and with elementary schools for their children, so that no relapse into barbarism needs to be feared.

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60 THE LEEWARD ISLANDS'

As far as possible within narrow limits an attempt ^ has been made to present to the reader some account *

of each of the islands or island groups which are the

component parts of the colony of the ' Leeward Islands,' and it will now be convenient to enter upon u the consideration of the Colony under its federal constitution.

THE FEDEBAL COLONY

Previous to the year 1871 the islands had formed

separate colonial establishments under Lieutenant- Governors, united only by the fact of their common subordination to a Governor-in-Chief; but in that

year a scheme of federation was introduced and

brought into operation with the assent of the local

Legislatures. The Governor who had the honour of

effecting this change in the political constitution of the Leeward Islands was the late Sir Benjamin Pine, and so vehement was the opposition with which the scheme was met that the talented author jettisoned much of his cargo by the way in order to save the

rest, so that the federal constitution finally evolved was of rather a hybrid character—a compromise between extreme principles, on the one side, of union, on the other, of isolation.

Thus, instead of complete amalgamation, financial, legislative, and administrative, a Legislature was created for the whole Colony, but the class of subjects with which it could deal was limited by the Constitu- .tion, all others being reserved for the local legislative

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bodies, which were retained. Administration was

centralised, but only partially so, administrative

officers, under the name of Presidents, taking the

place of the former Lieutenant-Governors, and the

separate financial system was left intact, subject only to a fixed contribution from each Presidency, as the local governments are now called, to the Federal Government to defray its expenses.

Complete amalgamation has been recommended

by very high authorities, notably by the Royal Com¬ missioners in 1883, who propounded a scheme for

carrying it out. But since the year 1893 admini¬ strators have been again appointed to the Presidencies of Dominica and St. Kitts-Nevis, which implies that a return towards the principle of decentralisation has been found advisable. Apart from the official autho¬ rities above mentioned, whose opinions are not here in question, no detailed account has ever been

published of the advantages which any or each of the islands might be expected to derive from union ; and on the part of the people there are no aspirations after it.

It is, no doubt, clearly seen that with a common

Treasury to dip into Anguilla, Barbuda, and the

Virgin Islands might be provided with much that

they now lack, but this is not a bait which attracts the colonists, and the solid benefits of a single Supreme Court, common laws, common tariff, and inter-insular free trade are already gained and may be perfected under the existing system of Federation.

Against the system of amalgamation there are some



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few arguments which cannot be altogether set aside, as, for instance, the difficulty of uniform taxation as *

exemplified in the land tax, first imposed in Dominica in 1886, which, after a checkered existence of ten

years, productive of much evil, has been abandoned, presumably as being unsuitable to the circumstances of the time and country in which it was sought to naturalise it. One distinct advantage, however, \Vhich a Federal Government would possess which had a common Treasury and was supreme in financial as in all other matters, should not be overlooked, and that consists in the restraint imposed by such a

system upon the enthusiastic adoption of proposals for loan expenditure, and the larger the number of communities united in such a bond, the more powerful would the restraint become, so that it may be safely asserted that nothing of the kind would be proposed' unless upon positive proof of imperative necessity. Small separate communities are specially liable to

extravagance in this form, and the liability is not in the least diminished by the most extreme democratic ^ franchise.

An American author, writing on ' The Principles of Taxation,' has recently brought this fact so con¬

vincingly forward that he may almost be said to have demonstrated a natural social law.

Commenting upon the mistake made by the Con¬ vention in framing the American Constitution, in

that, whilst taking every possible precaution to limit the power of taxation on the part of the new Federal Government which it was proposed to create, they

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left the State Governments absolutely free to impose taxation without limit, and to delegate the same

power to local municipal corporations, he writes : ' Not a few of the Governments of the earth are

now insolvent because of excessive expenditure upon public works. In South America and Australia ex¬ travagant undertakings of this kind have caused

widespread ruin and distress, and the poor of several other nations are likely to find out eventually that the alleviation of temporary distress by Government

expenditure of capital is like keeping off the cold by burning down the house.'

It is conceivable that, some forty years ago, before

any debt had been contracted or heavy obligations incurred in the matter of education and charitable institutions, the Imperial Government might have

imposed upon the disjointed island colonies a consti¬ tutional union with a cheap but tolerably effective

government. Free of debt, as they then were, and with churches, schools, and hospitals supported by voluntary contributions, a small revenue would have sufficed for the needs of government ; ports might have been made free, and the large staff now required in each island to collect the revenue dispensed with ; municipal bodies under strict control might have raised funds for ordinary local needs, whilst the funds

required for the General Government would have been raised by direct taxation on property and incomes. Such ideas are, however, merely matter for speculation in the abstract, and, as such, may perhaps be con¬ sidered out of place in an essay which is intended to




deal with present conditions and tendencies. Before

quitting the subject of the colonial form of govern¬ ment, it is well to note that the present constitution, although it has never received the stamp of approval generally throughout the islands, has nevertheless been loyally accepted, and any return to fomer condi¬ tions is felt to be impossible.

But the question of the day in this colony, as in most of the British West Indian Islands, is not the

greater or less perfection of political institutions, but the means to be adopted for the restoration of some measure of commercial prosperity, which is also the measure of their capacity to uphold the institutions of civilised life. The population of the colony is about 127,000, very unevenly distributed, for whilst St. Kiits, with its 30,876 inhabitants, may be con¬ sidered over-populated, Dominica would certainly support double its present numbers. In 1894 the value of imports was 380,595Z., and of the exports 439,548Z., and the revenue raised in one way or another from taxation of this trade was 115.792L, and from other multifarious sources of ll,122i. The

charge upon this revenue for hospitals and medical relief to the poor was 25,982Z., for education 14,060Z., and for pensions and police 15,928L The large pro¬ portion (40,000L), nearly one-third of the entire

revenue, devoted to the education and assistance of the poor is significant, as showing to what an extent the

people are dependent upon the Government, and yet there is always a residue of distressing poverty which cannot be reached. The total funded debt of the




colony is 300,62U., and the interest, calculated at Xv four per cent., would scarcely amount to an annual

charge of two shillings per capita, an insignificant charge as compared with that of any European State, and only comparable with that of the United States,

ts which is said to be about one shilling and ninepence. If the colony regained its former prosperity such an amount of indebtedness would not greatly hamper its resources, and, under any circumstances, there can be no doubt that the credit of the colony will be maintained, the interest on the Public Debt being always the first charge on the revenue. Compara¬ tive tables of statistics to show the falling off in the trade of the colony are unnecessary. The facts are so well known that Royal Commissioners have been appointed to investigate its causes and deliberate upon the remedies which may be applied. The victims of a total revolution in the trade affecting their staple product, the people have neither been slow to see its approach nor wanting in their endeavours to mitigate disaster by the application of all that skill and science could devise to increase their output of

sugar per acre, and so hold their own against the

competition of the Protected Continental Sugar Pro¬ ducers. Up to the present time success has not been achieved, and in forecasting the immediate future of this colony the all-important question is: To what extent are these islands independent of the now fail¬

ing sugar industry The answer would probably be that in Dominica,

although the rehabilitation of sugar as a marketable




product would be of immense advantage to the people, yet in their limes, oranges, bananas, and coffee, and in the large opportunities for increasing the area under cultivation with these minor tropical products, they possess resources which raise them above the fear of absolute want and the extinction of the com¬

munity as a civilised entity. It does not seem probable that so much could be

said in favour of any other island ; and in St. Kitts,

especially, the exceeding fertility of the soil of that

splendid island has led to its being cultivated like a

garden; every tree near the fields is cut down, no belts of trees have been left for protection against the wind, and there is no plant except the sugar cane which could exist and thrive exposed to the desiccat¬

ing blasts of the trade wind blowing for weeks and

months, and under the pitiless glare of a tropical sun. When the periods of drought are unusually

prolonged the leaves of the cane will turn yellow, but the plant is ready to revive with a good rain, and total loss of the crop is of the rarest occurrence.

•What kind of fruit tree or plant can the highly trained scientists of Kew recommend to be grown in

the open under such conditions If the necessity for continuing the cultivation of

sugar cane, as the only alternative to abandonment, be proved, let us go a step further and see what may be expected to follow the abandonment of the sugar estates.

In the first instance, no doubt, some of the aban¬

doned fields, hitherto too valuable to be given up for



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J the growing of yams and sweet potatoes, will be

eagerly seized upon for this kind of cultivation ; and so the labourers would obtain some little compensation for the stoppage of the wages on which they have hitherto depended for a living.

But those persons who admire, perhaps justly, the system of peasant proprietary and petite culture which exists so largely in parts of Europe, will be

greatly mistaken if they think that under such a

system our West India Islands can continue pro¬ sperous and self-sufficing for all the needs of civilised life.

It is to be feared that if the sugar business is ruined the trade which depends upon it will also cease, and five-sixths or some very large proportion of the colonial revenue will go with it; and that entails the

closing of hospitals, asylums, schools, and institutions for the maintenance of which the Government has assumed the entire responsibility.

There are many good people, no doubt, who, whilst

wishing no harm to any class of their fellow men, will console themselves with the belief that, if capital is withdrawn, and the sugar estates abandoned, from the depths of financial ruin will spring up a new

society in which the peasant, in a state of Arcadian innocence and virtue, will play the principal role.

There are others who would be well pleased to hold the same belief, but experience and knowledge of West Indian life and character compel them to anticipate social conditions under which some few may rise to the position of peasant farmers, but poverty will still

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be the lot of the masses, conditions which are sure to be detrimental to the interests of morality and religion.

The West Indian Governments and people, con¬ fronted with prohibitive duties in America, as well as the continent of Europe, and bound by their allegiance to the only free-trade country of the world, are debarred from any treaties with the United States which would involve the imposition of discriminating duties against Great Britain, precisely the only course by which they could hope to make such treaties effective.

It must also be acknowledged that even if they obtained such treaties their good effects would very possibly be nullified by the operations of one of those gigantic monopolies for which the United States are now famous, which has, in the past, by eliminating the factor of competition from the market, kept down prices to an unremunerative level.

Hitherto our colonies have not asked for protec¬ tion in British markets, but they assert that, as regards sugar, Great Britain is not the free-trade

country which it is supposed to be, and the cry is now for the abolition of the continental bounties, or a

countervailing duty to put our colonial produce on an equal footing with the beet sugar imported from the Continent.

But if the careful report on the continental excise and bounty system, published in the Times of Febru¬ ary 24, 1897, is correct in its facts, and in the con¬ clusions to be drawn from them, it is to be feared that

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the abolition of the bounties would afford little relief to our West Indian colonies.

For, according to the writer, the bounty is merely a refund of excise duty previously paid, and that which really keeps up the over-stimulated beet sugar industry is the drastic system of protection under which the continental consumer pays 3|cZ. per lb. more for his sugar than is paid by the consumer in Great Britain.

Thus the sugar producers of Germany, Austria, and France pay twenty millions in excise duty to the revenue, and receive back five millions on the sugar which they export, because their home markets cannot absorb it, and having a monopoly of their home markets are enabled to force their fellow-

countrymen to pay forty-seven millions of extra price over and above what sugar would cost them at free- trade prices.

If they could also force up consumption to the level which has now become normal in Great Britain —viz. 80 lb. per head of population—it is evident, as the writer shows, that they would export no sugar at all.

It is a little difficult to understand why the export of two million tons from the Continent should con¬ tinue year by year if the bounty, which the writer estimates at 28s., is, in reality, no bounty at all; and the only inference which could be drawn, if the writer is correct, would be that the producers of beet sugar on the Continent can really place their cheap inferior

produce on the market at a lower rate than the pro-



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ducers of cane sugar, a fact which the latter strenu

ously deny. *

Vicious as the system appears to be in all its

aspects, Germany, France, and Austria derive a revenue of fifteen millions from the excise on sugar after deducting the so-called bounties, and are not *l

likely to give it up by opening their markets at the

request of a Power which has confessedly thrown

away all its commercial weapons, and is reduced to the enunciation of free-trade platitudes.

Of the smaller West Indian colonies, such as the Leeward Islands, it may be said that their present precarious position is largely due to their devotion to the cause of human progress, in sustaining which

they have been impelled during the past quarter of a

century to mortgage their slender resources, to enable them to advance pari passu with other countries in the onward march of nineteenth-century civilisation, until now, like overburdened camels in the desert,

they are on the point of dropping out of the proces¬ sion altogether.

What remedies, if any, there may be for the ' present discontents' will soon be known from the

Royal Commissioners, and the people of the West Indies must be anxiously awaiting their report.

Without presumption, one may conjecture that

they will not recommend protection for the produce of one section only of the British Empire, and the much talked-of Imperial Commercial Union seems as far distant as ever.

That the day may soon dawn which shall see its

HI



Y THE LEEWARD ISLANDS 61

< approach, and finally its full accomplishment, must be the desire of many patriotic Englishmen who, whilst ready to admit that our uncompromising free- trade system may possibly continue for some time

longer yet to hold its own against a protectionist world, cannot believe that in the feverish quest after new markets it is necessary or wise to abandon those which, by a slightly heretical relapse from the ex¬ treme dogma of free-trade fanaticism, might still be retained to our advantage.

May it not be that we are standing even now at the parting of the ways Canada is drawing closer to us owing to the policy of the United States, which refuses her reciprocity; and the Australian colonies, if the proposed Federal Union is soon to become a

reality, as seems probable, may be expected to follow in after-years the bent which they then take; and these and other considerations are full of sugges¬ tions of opportunities now offering for the con¬ solidation of our mercantile connections with all our colonies.

That small portion of our colonial empire which has been the subject of this essay has a threefold title to our regard, as the seat of our earliest colonial

expansion, as the scene of that secular struggle for

dominion, in which our sailors and soldiers upheld with constancy the honour of our flag, and as the

region of the world where England first entered upon that crusade against slavery in which she has never since wavered, and which will be her title to the

gratitude of future generations of mankind when the




fading glories of her military exploits have passed out of remembrance.

Therefore, although no longer important to our

commerce, we cannot regard these beautiful islands of the West as the mere shreds and tatters of an

unwieldy empire, to be disregarded when ceasing to be profitable, or to be left in cold oblivion and

neglect; and the present active solicitude of the home Government on their behalf is doubtless the reflex and the guide of that instinctive patriotism of the nation which sees in the welfare and progress of each branch of her empire the surest guarantee for the welfare and stability of Great Britain.

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ttUNTjSD 6¥ SfO'l'TKWOObE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQttiilB

LONDON



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Documents

The Leeward Islands