301) CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



wealth from sugar-culture, and finally impoverished by the 

 same industry, until all now present pitiful spectacles of 

 decaying civilization, these fair lands being gradually 

 abandoned to the erstwhile African bondmen. 



Here arc remarkable mixtures and contrasts of political 

 condition, and economic conditions especially interesting 

 in these days when the world is attempting similarly to 

 subdivide the Orient. 



Although the largest of these islands hardly exceeds in 

 area an average American county, each assumes the indi- 

 viduality and political importance of an independent 

 empire. By travelers sailing among them they are com- 

 monly spoken of as the French, English, Dutch, Danish, 

 or Spanish islands. The British possessions are primarily 

 segregated at the ends of the chain, constituting several 

 distinct colonial governments, especially the Leeward 

 Islands to the north and the Windward Islands to the 

 south. Besides these the former French islands of Do- 

 minica and St. Lucia, near the center of the chain, are im- 

 portant British possessions. 



The French group includes the two largest islands of 

 the chain, Guadeloupe and Martinique; with these, how- 

 ever, are Dominica and St. Lucia, which passed into British 

 control at the beginning of the present century, although 

 the French language continues to be that of the common 

 people. 



The Dutch possessions are islands near the northern 

 end, attached, for administrative purposes, to Curasao, on 

 the other side of the Caribbean. The two Danish islands 

 are also small affairs near the northern end of the group, 

 almost abandoned by the country that owns them. 



The historic interest of these islands is great. They 

 have been in previous centuries the chief battle-ground of 

 European nations in their attempts to gain supremacy in 

 the New "World. The conflicts between Frenchman, Span- 

 iard, Dane, and Hollander are in themselves enough to fill 

 many volumes, while here the bucaneers flourished beyond 



