INTKODUCTION XXV 



tury, when the civilized nations had about adjusted their 

 territorial disputes, the slaves had attained numerical 

 strength, and from time to time rose in revolt usually to 

 be suppressed with a loss of life most appalling, but in 

 some cases achieving a success that so completely ban- 

 ished European life and influences that civilization asks 

 in wonder if this Eden of nature is not being transformed 

 into an American Africa, with its barbarous rites and 

 superstitions. As a climax to this tumult we have lately 

 seen in Haiti the spectacle of pure negro blood extermi- 

 nating the mulattos. 



These islands were the commercial paradise of the first 

 three centuries of American settlement, and lands now 

 gone back to jungle sold as high as a thousand dollars an 

 acre, "in those booming days when sugar was at 32." 

 Here manufacturers found market for all the weaves and 

 notions of their making. The West India trade enriched 

 the merchants of Barcelona and London, and the products 

 of the plantations established many a fortune in England, 

 France, and Spain. Even now their trade exceeds that of 

 all Mexico and Central America. 



In the era of their prosperity noble families of European 

 descent founded establishments of patriarchal grandeur, 

 luxurious and hospitable beyond description. In these 

 times the islands gave birth to Alexander Hamilton, our 

 first great financier, and Josephine, who became Empress 

 of the French. Here, too, Nelson, then a captain in the 

 British navy, was married to the wife who was faithful to 

 his unfaithfulness. No greater proof can be found of the 

 value of the West Indies at the close of the last century 

 than the fact that to England the loss of the colonies which 

 now constitute our republic seemed of secondary impor- 

 tance to Rodney's great naval victory over the French off 

 Martinique, whereby her supremacy in the West Indies 

 was established. In the light of eighteenth-century values 

 the American colonies were of trivial worth in comparison 

 with the West Indies, and we may perhaps thank our 



