Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/559

 TRISTAN DA CUNHA — WEST AFRICAN COLONIES 215

St. Helena in 1897 (Board of Trade Returns) amounted to 746Z. ; exports to St Helena, 14,900Z. The total and British tonnage entered and cleared :—

Tonnage

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

Total. British.

81,161 73,418

87,346 86,262

73,888 71,549

89,137 87,023

81,948 81,156

The Post OtUce traflic Irom St. Helena in 1896 : 20,052 letters, 2,526 books, papers, parcels, and 480 post cards. There are 13 miles of telegraph wire.

St. Helena is an Admiralty coaling station, and is largely resorted to by the Cape of Good Hope and West African Squadron. Battery of Royal Artillery, 1 company of infantry ; 4 heavy guns on height over port.

Colonial Report. Annual. Loudon.

Brooke's History of St. Helena.

Ellis (A. B.), West African Islands. 8. London, 1885.

Morris (D.), Agricultural Resources of St. Helena.

Melliss's Physical and Topographical Description of St. ••Helena.

Sierra Leone. See West African Colonies. Sokotra. Somali Coast. See Aden.

TRISTAN DA CUNHA.

A small group of islands in the Atlantic, half-way between the Cape and S. America, in 37° 6' S. lat. 12° 1' W. Ion. Until the death of Napoleon I. they were occupied by a garrison. Besides Tristan da Cunha and Gough's Island, there are Inaccessible and Nightingale Islands, the former two and the latter one mile long, and a number of rocks. The population consists mainly of the families of shipwrecked sailors and wives from St. Helena, and numbered about 64 in December, 1897. There are about 800 head of cattle and about 500 sheep on the island, and both beef and mutton are excellent. Pigs and geese are plentiful. Beans, potatoes, and apples are grown. The only dwellings are a few cottages on one side of the mountain. An annual visit is jiaid to the island by one of Her Majesty's ships.

References. — Correspondence and Further Correspondence Relating to the Island of Tristan da Cunha. London, 1887 and 1897.

WEST AFRICAN COLONIES.

These are four in number, all Crown colonies : Gold Coast, Lagos, Gambia, and Sierra Leone.

The Gold Coast stretches for 350 miles along the Gulf of Guinea, between 5° W. long., and 2^ E. long. Goveriwr, F. M. Hodgson, CM. G. (3,500Z.). There are an Executive and Legislative Council, both nominated, with three unofficial members in latter. Area estimated at 15,000 square miles, including protectorate, 46,600. Estimated population, 1,473,882; of whom about 500 are Europeans. Chief towns : Accra, 16,267 ; Elmina, 10,530 ; Cape Coast Castle, 11,614 ; Kwitta, Saltpond, and Winneba. Government elementary schools at Accra and Cape Coast, but education mainly in the hands of the various religious bodies, Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, and Gqrman Missions ; an attendance, 1897, 8,499 scholars ; Government contributed in 1896-97, JCdfOSl 7s. 5d. Staple products and exports, palm oil, palm kernels, and