ABCFM WEST INDIES

[s. 799] : This group of islands extends in a rude bow-like form from the coast of Florida, AVcsleyan Methodist West Iiidles U. S. A., to the coast of Venezuela in South America. The larger and more important islands belong to one or other of the great European nations, with the exception of Haiti, and this political division will be followed in the more detailed account of the islands, while some fact a which are true of all will serve as a preface to the specii description of them as English, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, or French po e ions. The population of these islands is composed of Europe ans and Americans, together with negroea and other Africans, Hindus and Chinese. Diversity of tongue, of character, and of life is consequently so great that there is little attempt at cohesion or federation, even where the islands are under the same flag. In the years ju.st subsequent to their discovery, evil of the most pro’ nounced character was the busine of the men who invaded these shores, and all that selfish greed and fiendish cruelty could suggest was done Hardly a to exterminate the mild aborigines. trace of them is now to be found. Then the islands became the battlefields of the rival powers of Europe. Piracy was rife, and the commerce of Europe suffered from the marauding buccaneers, who smarted from the wrongs they suffered and retaliated on the innocent as well as the guilty. The slave trade had its origin here, and the hardly le cruel importation The of coolies lias left its curse on the lands. occupation of the West Indies has afforded the material for a black chapter in the history of the Harmle conquests of European nations. savages were put to death in the name of Christ. Into this moral sewer was swept the refuse of Europe. Hundreds of Hindus and Chinese were The lured to this region of faithle promises. No African was dragged here to die of pestilence. wonder that the burden of debt which weighs down the different administrations is the despair of statesmen. Patient and heroic hands early planted the Gospel in this miry soil. From the earliest time when Christians saw the image of God in the sable body, to the present day, the conflict between the forces of good and the powers of evil Prejudices of the has been fierce and bitter. white and superstitions of the black races united The to render the work exce ively difficult. faithful preacher of Christ was never free from all the persecutions that malignity and hatred could devise or ignorance and superstition suggest. Even his own lace insulted, beat, and imprisoned the mi ionary, and the people he came to succor Ijetrayed him into the hands of his enemies. The results now seen in the islands are but additional proof that the Gospel is suited alike to the moral and the immoral, to the wise and the foolish, to the black as well as to the white man. Porto Rico: This island lies at the Eastern extremity of the chain of the Greater Antilles. It was ceded to the United States by Spain in It has an area of about 3,668 square miles 1998 and its population (1899) is 953,243. Cuba is the largest and one of the richest of the islands in its natural resources. The island of Haiti is divided between the two The republics of Santo Domingo and Haiti. republic of Santo Domingo was founded in 1844, and includes the eastern portion of the island. The religion of the state is Roman Catholic, but other forms of worship are permitted. West Indies Wliltiuan Haiti became a republic in 1867. It occupies the western portion of the island, with an area of are miles. inhabitants square The 10,204 negroes and mulattoes. The capital. Port au Prince, has a fine harbor. The religion is nominally Roman Catholic. British West Indies. — The Bahamas: These are twenty inhabited and many uninhabited The islands off the southeast coast of Florida. The principal total area is 5,450 square miles. islands are New Providence, which has been notorious as the home of buccaneers, pirates, and blockade-runners, and San Salvador, supposed to be the island first discovered by Columbus. On the west side of the island are quite a number Eleuthera is over 200 of intelligent Africans. Great Abaco is the most northerly miles long. Andros is the largest of the group, with island. a length of 90 miles and a breadth of 40 miles at part. widest The remaining islands are: its Great Bahama, Harbor Island, Long Island, May a guana, Great Inagua, Ragged Island, Rum Cay, Fortijne Island, Exuma, Crooked Island, The population Bimini, Acklin’s, and Berry. The government is in the hands is (1901) 54,358. of a governor a isted by an Executive Council of 9, a Legislative Council of 9, and an A embly of 29 representatives. Jamaica: The island of Jamaica is about 150 miles long, with an average width of 50 miles. On account of its mountainous character the scenery is beautiful, and there is abundance of The sagacity of Oliver Cromwell fresh water. saw the future value of this island, and secured Its area is 4,200 it to the British Government. square miles, with a population (1902) of 770,242, The capital is of whom 500,000 were blacks. Kingston (46,542), and some of the other principal towns are Spanish Town, Montego Bay, and Port Maria. Attached to Jamaica for administrative purposes are the following smaller islands: Turk’s and Caicos Islands, area 224 square miles, population 5,000; Cayman Islands — Little Cayman, and Cayman total population of 3,500, the Grand Cayman, Brae — with a Morant Cays and Pedro Cays. Barbados lies to the east of the Windward and has an area of 166 square miles. abounds in varied and beautiful scenery, and almost the entire island is under cultivation. Islands, It Population (1901) 195,000, of whom 115,000 were blacks. Bridge town, the capital, has a population of 30,000, and is beautifully situated on the shores of the bay. The English began to exercise authority here in 1645. Since 1885 it has been separated from the Windward Islands, to which administration it formerly belonged, and has now a government of its own. Leeward Islands lie to the north of the Windward Group and southeast of Porto Rico. The islands are: Antigua, 170 square miles; Barbuda and Redonda, 62 square miles; Virgin Islands, 58 square miles; Dominica, 291 square miles; St. Kitt’s or St. Christopher, 65 square miles; Nevis, 50 square miles; Anguilla, 35 square miles; Montserrat, 32 square miles. Population (1901) 127,434. Windward Islands: These islands, with their area and population,.are: Grenada, 120 square miles, 64,288; St. Vincent (q. v.), 122 square miles, 41,000; and the Grenadines. The principal cities are: Kingston, the capital of St. Vincent; 78» the chief town of St. Lucia, and St. George, the capital of Grenada. Trinidad lies immediately north of the mouth It is an island of extreme beauty of the Orinoco. and great fertility. In 1802 it was finally handed over to British rule by the peace of Amiens. Ita area is 1,754 square miles, with a population of Port-of-Spain is the capital (1901) 255,148. Tobago was annexed to Trinidad on (54,100). January 1, 1889. It has an area of 114 square miles, with a population of 18,750. The chain of the Le er Antilles includes, besides the British Islands already mentioned, St. Thomas and its dependencies, belonging to Denmark, Guadaloupe and Martin i que, with several smaller These islands col islands, belonging to France. lectively have an area of 1,207 square miles, and Like the other a population (1901) of 416,420. islands of this chain these are of volcanic origin. terrible scene of the eruption Martin i que was the of Mt. Pelge in May, 1902. In addition to the lines of mi ionary work actively prosecuted by the Moravians and British and American societies among the three races on the islands, those of European birth or descent are The Wesley ans and the not being neglected. Jamaica Church of England Home and Foreign Mi ionary Society are especially interested in this growing cla ; and the latter is largely doing this work through the agency of catechists, superintended by about 100 clergy, who are one-third English men-born and two-thirds Jamaica-born. The past and present influence of Romanism among the peoples of these islands is one of the greatest hindrances to the spread of evangelical truth; but as in Protestant Jamaica, we may hope that ere long the Bible may be the book most commonly found throughout the islands. Castres, WHATELY, Mary L.: Born at Hales worth, Suffolk, England, the second daughter of Archbishop Whately. Died March 9, 1889. After the father’s appointment to the See of Dublin the family removed thither. She was given the high mental, moral, and est educational training, religious, by her parents, and from her childhood was distinguished for uncommon activity, energy, and intelligence. She early gave herself to the service of Christ in works of kindne to the After the Irish famine, she and her needy. mother and sisters spent most of their time in the Subsequently, havragged schools in Dublin. ing acquired Italian, she was much occupied with teaching and visiting the poor Italians, who were numerous in that city. In 1858 she visited Cairo and the Holy Land, and in 1860 was ordered by her physician for her health to a southern climate. In Cairo she opened a school for neglected Muslim girls, the first attempt of _ Taking with her a Syrian the kind in Egypt. Protestant matron, she went into the streets and lanes near her home, and, persuading the mothers to let their girls come to learn to read and sew, she gathered nine little ones into her school. Later, home duties required her return, and while at home she read to her father the pro of sheets of her second volume of Ragged Life in Egypt. Her father having died, she returned to Cairo. She soon opened a boys’ school also. In 1869, at the suggestion of the Prince of Wales, Is mail Pasha gave her a site just outside the city walls, and friends in England aided her in the erection of a spacious building. The school increased to six hundred, half the boys and two- 783 West Indies thirds of the girls being Muslims, the rest Copts, Syrians, and Jews. All were taught to read and write Arabic, and all learned the Scriptures and Christian doctrine. In addition the boys received an excellent secular education, and the girls were taught plain and fancy needlework. Two branch schools have also been established. Pupils of the boys’ school are found all over the country, filling important positions in the railway and telegraph offices, mercantile houses, places under government, and in other situations In 1879 a medical mi ion was added of trust. to the schools, and with her own private means Mi Whately built a dispensary and patients’ waiting-room, where several you sands of siclc and suffering poor have been treated gratuitously and where she herself daily read and expounded the Scriptures to such as were willing to listen. Mi Whately’s schools are now carried on bv the CMS. Whitman. paring himself a variety of text-books in both English and Armenian for the schools. As Dr. Creegan well says of his work for Harpoot: “He found chaos and disorder; he left a fairly well organized Christian school system for both boys and girls; a group of self-supporting, self governing, self-propagating Christian churches; a strong Home Mi ionary Society among the native churches for work in Kurdistan, and a college that is deeply entrenched in the confidence and affection of all cla es, crowded with students, and yet unable to meet the demands that come from all sides for teachers in the lower schools.” Creegan (C. C), Pioneer Mi ionaries, New York, 1903. ch153.xhtml w 801