Page:The British Empire in the nineteenth century Volume VI.djvu/13



____________ BOOK VI.— Continued. BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. ________ CHAPTER XI.—Continued. WEST INDIES. The Windward Islands : Grenada, its Government, Climate, and Industry - Grenadines - St. Vincent, its great Volcanic Eruption St. Lucia, Picturesque Beauty, Coaling Station - Trinidad, "The Land of the Humming-bird", Picton's Firm Administration, Coolie Immigration, Unsurpassed Scenery, Varied and Increasing Population, Agricultural Products - Tobago. The in the official sense, as an administrative group, now consist of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines (half under St. Vincent, half under Grenada) and Grenada, lying in this order, from north to south-west, between Martinique and Trinidad, and in from 12 to 14 north latitude. Geographically, Barbados and Tobago belong to the group, but the former, as we have seen, became a separate colony in 1885, and Tobago, four years later, was politically annexed to Trinidad. The total area of the present political group is about 525 sq. miles, with a population (1898) of about 154,000, of whom only about one-twentieth are whites. The rest are blacks or coloured people, except a few Caribs in St. Vincent, and a few thousands of Indian coolies in the various chief islands. Ruled by one Governor, the islands have their separate institutions, laws, revenue, and tariff, but share in the benefits of the Court of Appeal (the chief justices of the several islands and of Barbados) and of a common audit-system, with occasional combination of funds and efforts for pur-