Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/540

Rh 510 WEST INDIES &quot;West Indies to profitable account, numbers of the natives, for the most part a harmless and gentle people, were shipped beyond seas and sold into slavery, others being employed in forced labour in the mines which the Spaniards had opened throughout the archipelago, and from which large returns were expected. Thus early in its history began that traffic in humanity with which the West-India plantations are so widely associated, and which endured for so long a time. Goaded to madness by the wrongs inflicted upon them, the aborigines at last took arms against their masters, but with the result which might have been expected their almost utter extirpation. Many of the survivors sought release from their sufferings in suicide, and numbers of others perished in the mines, so that the native race soon almost ceased to exist. Spain was not long allowed to retain an undisputed hold upon the islands : British and Dutch seamen soon sought the new region, accounts concerning the fabulous wealth and treasure of which stirred all Europe, and a desultory warfare began to be waged amongst the various voyagers who flocked to this El Dorado, in consequence of which the Spaniards found themselves gradually but surely forced from many of their vantage grounds, and compelled very materially to reduce the area over which they had held unchecked sway. The first care of the English settlers was to find out the real agricultural capabilities of the islands, and they diligently set about planting tobacco, cotton, and indigo. A French West India Company was incorporated in 1625, and a settlement established on the island of St Christopher, where a small English colony was already engaged in clearing and cultivating the ground ; these were driven out by the Spaniards in 1G30, but only to return and again assume possession. About this time, also, the celebrated buccaneers, Dutch smugglers, and British and French pirates began to infest the neigh bouring seas, doing much damage to legitimate traders, and causing commerce to be carried on only under force of arms, and with much difficulty and danger. Indeed, it was not till the beginning of last century some time after Spain had, in 1670, given up her claim to the exclusive possession of the archipelago that these rovers were rendered comparatively harmless ; and piracy yet lingered off the coasts down to the early years of the present century. In 1640 sugar-cane began to be systematically planted, and the marvellous prosperity of the West Indies commenced; it was not from the gold and precious stones, to which the Spaniards had looked for wealth and power, but from the cane that the fortunes of the West Indies were to spring. The successful propagation of this plant drew to the islands crowds of adventurers, many of them men of considerable wealth. In Barbados alone, it is said that 50,000 British subjects arrived in one year about this period. The West Indies were for many years used by the English Government as penal settlements, the prisoners working on the plantations as slaves. In 1655 a British force made an unsuccessful attack on Hayti, but a sudden descent on Jamaica was more fortunate in its result, and that rich and beautiful island has since remained in the possession of Great Britain. The Portu guese were the first to import Negroes as slaves, and their example was followed by other nations having West-Indian colonies, the traffic existing for about 300 years. In 1660 a division of the islands was arranged between England and France, the remaining aborigines being driven to specified localities, but this treaty did not produce the benefits expected from it, and as wars raged in Europe the islands frequently changed hands. Hayti, now divided into two republics, has suffered much from internal broils and revolutions. The West Indies are situated in about 20 K lat. and 75 W. long., and form a broken, but upon the whole, con tinuous barrier, shutting out as it were the Atlantic Ocean, with its contents of 34,804,000 cubic miles of water, and its mean depth of 2135 fathoms, from the lesser basins of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, containing respectively 1,675,000 cubic miles and 628,000 cubic miles, and with mean depths of 1269 fathoms and 772 fathoms. These two seas are separated by the island of Cuba and the isthmus of Yucatan, with the great Campeche Bank surrounding three sides of the latter. Spring tides do not rise above 4 feet, nor neaps above 2^- feet. Complicated currents and dangerous shoals, especially in the neighbour hood of the Bahamas, necessitate the exercise of consider able skill and care when navigating this region. The equa torial current sweeps around Trinidad and the Antilles into the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf Stream passes from the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Florida Channel. The well- known Sargasso Sea lies to the north-east of the islands. The physical features of the region are clearly shown on the accompanying map (Plate XI.), the orographical and bathymetrical data being reproduced from a yet unpublished chart intended to illustrate one of the &quot; Challenger &quot; Reports, and inserted here by permission of Dr Murray, Director of the &quot;Challenger&quot; Expedition Commission. In the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean S~a there are 394,850 square miles covered by depths of 100 fathoms and less, 363,950 square miles with from 100 to 500 fathoms, 263,250 square miles by from 500 to 1000 fathoms, 572,950 square miles by from 1000 to 2000 fathoms, 274,850 square miles by from 2000 to 3000 fathoms, and 7750 square miles by over 3000 fathoms. The average surface temperature of the sea in the neighbourhood of the islands is from 75 to 78 F. in February, from 79 to 80 in May, and from 82 to 84&quot; in August. The mean annual temperature of the Gulf Stream in the Florida Channel is 80 F. The various groups which go to form the West Indies have in some cases more than one name, but the follow ing classification is that usually adopted. To the north lie the Bahamas, situated upon the Great Bahama Bank, south from which is Cuba ; Jamaica, again, lies to the south of the latter, and to the east of Jamaica are Hayti and Porto Rico. Still farther to the east lie the Virgin Islands, south of which are the Caribbee Islands, or Antilles proper, divided by mariners into the Leeward and Windward groups. Trinidad lies close to the coast of South America. Thus the whole archipelago stretches, in the form of a rude arc, from Florida and Yucatan in North America to Venezuela in South America. Area and Population of the Inlands according to the latest Ectimis. Square Wiles. Popula tion. Square Miles. Popula tion. SPANISH Cuba 49.479 45 883 2,275.997 1 521 C84 INDEPENDENT... Hayti 29,000 9,000 20,000 1,103 714 8 381 434 212 129 G2 8 23 223 13.5 68 35 1,150,000 800,000 350,000 352,400 180,800 2,370 169,230 44,734 25,080 4,008 (5,407 2,286 fi,347 33,7 6 3 18,430 14,389 944 Porto Rico BRITISH Bahamas 3,596 12,031 4,400 109 4,193 238 133 1C6 133 114 65 50 170 754,313 1,213,144 43,521 4,732 5SO,S04 38,551 40,548 171,800 42,403 18,051 5,287 29,m 11,804 34,904 San Domingo Guadeloupe, &c St Hartholoniew Turks and Caicos.. Windward Islands. St Lucia St Vincent DUTCH Bonaire Grenada, &amp;lt;fec Aruba Si Kiistatius Leeward Islands... Virgin Elands .. St Christopher .. Nevis St Martin and Saba DANISH St Thomas Antigua, &c St John Montserrat Dominica Trinidad 291 1,754 10,083 28,211 153,128 Total 92,270 5,070,038 The principal rivers are the Cauto, the Sagua la Grande, and the Sagua le Chica in Cuba, the Rio Grande and Plantain Garden in Jamaica, and the Gran Yacui, the