FRENCH WEST INDIES. THE FRENCH WEST INDIES include the islands of Martinique, Guadeloupe, and a portion of St. Martin, with several smaller islands. The French islands have a total area of over 1,000 square miles, and a population of 370,000, of whom only 25,000 are whites. The island of MARTINIQUE lies between St. Lucia and Dominica, and has an area of 380 square miles, and a population of 190,000. A tropical vegetation and delicious fruits wou'd make this island a little Eden were it not for a stifling climate and frequent earthquakes. The island is almost entirely volcanic, and was devastated by the eruptions of Mt. Pelée in May and August of 1902, when the capital, St. Pierre, was entirely destroyed, and some 32,000 people lost their lives. The island is thickly peopled (500 per square mile, but only two-fiths of its area is cultivated. The sugar-cane, banana, manioc, and sweet potato, are extensively cultivated, and cotton, coffee, cacao, and tobacco are also grown. FORT DE FRANCE (17) is the capital, but St. Pierre, previous to its destruction in 1902, was the principal town. GUADELOUPE is north of Dominica. It consists of two portions, connected by a narrow isthmus. The eastern peninsula is called Grande Terre and the western portion-which is volcanic,-Basse Terre, probably from the town of BASSE TERRE (10), the capital of the island. Both portions are well cultivated, and produce large quantities of sugar, coffee, cacao, &c., and all kinds of tropical fruits, while the forests are rich in excellent timber. POINTE-APITRE, in Grand Terre, is the chief port and largest town. The smaller islands -Marie Galante, Desirade, &c.-which surround Guadeloupe, are also French. ST. BARTHOLOMEW, a small island lying south-east of St. Martin, formerly belonged to Sweden, but was restored to France in 1877. The larger half of ST. MARTIN also belongs to France-the rest is a Dutch possession. DANISH WEST INDIES.1 THE DANISH WEST INDIES, though including only three small Islands St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John-are of some commercial importance, ST. THOMAS being a port of call for steamers, and an entrepôt for the products of the surrounding islands. ST. CROIX, or Santa Cruz, lies to the east of Porto Rico and a few miles south of the Virgin Islands. Its chief town is CHRISTIANSTADT. The island of ST. THOMAS is one of the Virgin group-the town of ST. THOMAS is on a fine natural harbour, and is most favourably situated for commerce. The adjacent island of ST. JOHN is unhealthy and unimportant. The Negro and other inhabitants of these islands speak English, not Danish. DUTCH WEST INDIES. The DUTCH WEST INDIES embrace two groups-St. Eustache, Saba, and the southern part of St. Martin, in the Leeward Islands; and Curaçao, Buen Ayre, and Oruba, off the coast of Venezuelaall of them included in the "Colony of Curaçao." The Colony has a total area of 400 square miles, and a population of about 50,000. WILLEMSTADT, the chief town of Curaçao, the largest island (famous for its liqueur), is the seat of government. Oruba is to the west, and Buen Ayre to the east, of Curaçao. The northern islands are smaller and less populous. 1. Negotiations are now in progress for the purchase of the Danish West Indies by the United States. INDEPENDENT STATES. The large island of HAITI or SAN DOMINGO, inferior only to Cuba in magnitude, is divided between the two Negro Republics of Haiti and San Domingo. The former embraces the western, the latter the eastern, division of this important island, which measures 400 miles in length and 160 miles in greatest breadth, and has an area of 30,000 square miles, with a population of perhaps 11⁄2 mil lions, nearly all Negroes or Mulattoes. This island is naturally one of the finest in the world, and was long one of the most productive. But since the closing years of the last century, prior to which time it had been divided between France and Spain, it has been the frequent theatre of anarchy and bloodshed, and its commercial produce has dwindled to a comparatively insignificant amount. HAITI. The Republic of Haiti includes the western and French-speaking portion of the island, and was formerly a French colony. The area of the republic is about 10,000 square miles, and the population about three-quarters of a million, nine-tenths of whom are Negroes. There are very few Europeans or people of European descent. No whites can own land or become citizens of this negro State, in which, with the most fertile land in the West Indies and great mineral and other resources, "there are no manufactures and the Government is bankrupt; the towns are in ruins, and the men spend their time in idleness, living on the industry of the women." The entire trade is less than 3 millions a year-coffee, logwood, cocoa, cotton, hides, sugar, honey and gums, are the chief exports from PORT AU-PRINCE (50), the capital and principal seaport. CAPE HAITI (29) and LES CAVES (25) are the other chief towns. SAN DOMINGO. The Republic of San Domingo embraces the central and eastern part of the island. It has an area of 20,000 square miles and a population of 600,000. Caribs, and speak Spanish. Unlike the sister republic of Haiti, where nine-tenths of the people are black and speak French, or rather a Franco-Negro patois, the San Domingo people are mainly a mixed race of the original Spanish settlers and the aboriginal The whites, or people of European descent, are comparatively numerous, and are not, as in Haiti, disfranchised. Five-sixths of this portion of the island are cultivable, but, with the exception of the sugar plantations in the south and west, the fertile plains are almost untilled, the forests scarcely touched, and the rich mines practically unworked. The chief industries, such as they are, are connected with agriculture and forestry, but the commerce is small and the Customs duties are high. The tobacco, coffee, republic, are exported principally through PUERTA PLATA, an important port mahogany, cacao, hides and skins, logwood, sugar, and other products of the on the north coast, and SAN DOMINGO (16), the capital, on the south coast. island. There is a railway from SAMANA to SANTIAGO in the interior, Samana Bay is a magnificent natural harbour on the north-eastern coast of the |