THE LESSEE ANTILLES ,'JI)< 



the wildest fancy of those who seek pleasure in the reading 

 of piratic atrocities. Some of these islands, like Barbados 

 and the Bahamas, are interesting to the student of early 

 American colonial history because of the close blood- 

 relationship of their early settlers with those of our own 

 country, as well as of a similarity in colonial institutions. 

 The student of slavery and the ethnology of the black 

 race will also find in these islands a fruitful and interest- 

 ing field. The student of political economy will find 

 here instructive lessons growing out of their dependence 

 upon the single industry of sugar, while the student of 

 politics will find the administration of the various colonial 

 governments a subject unique in interest. 



Sugar is everywhere the principal subject of conversa- 

 tion and interest. One is astounded by the apparently 

 unbreakable fetters with which its culture has bound the 

 inhabitants. The dependence of the Indian of the North 

 American plain upon the buffalo, or of the Eskimo upon 

 the seal and walrus, was no greater than that of these 

 people upon sugar. The rise and fall in its price, the revo- 

 lution of methods of its extraction from the cane, or of its 

 refinement, have affected their whole lives, at one time 

 enriching them and at others reducing them to the most 

 pitiful poverty. 



Viewed from the deck of the passing steamer, all the 

 Lesser Antilles are beautiful beyond description. Rising 

 as they mostly do in wooded summits from the azure sea, 

 they appear to be the acme of all that is picturesque, lovely, 

 and restful. Beautiful as these islands are in nature, es- 

 pecially in perspective, their charm is diminished when 

 the traveler steps on shore and conies in contact with the 

 poverty of the inhabitants. This does not impress one by 

 any outward asped of actual wanl and Buffering, bul by 

 the genera] appearance of decay. Everywhere one Bees in 

 the well-constructed buildings and plantations, once in- 

 habited by the wealthy and hospitable Creoles, reminders 

 of the former conditions of prosperity ; yet the-.' no longer 



