334 OUBA AM> POETO KICO 



From Nevis one can see the summits of Montserrat, 

 about forty miles southeast. This is the first and smallest 

 of the middle islands of the chain the larger heads of the 

 graduated necklace. 



Montserrat was so named by Columbus in 1493, in mem- 

 ory of a mountain in Spain similarly broken in appear- 

 ance. It is small, its length being only eleven miles and 

 its greatest width seven, with a total area of thirty-two 

 and a half square miles. 



From St. Kitts southward the crater-like appearance of 

 the Caribbees ceases, and Montserrat is of the rugged 

 morne type of Martinique, with soufrieres, or secondary 

 craterlets, nestled within the greater mass of old eroded 

 volcanic material. It is a confusion of hills and mountains, 

 the highest reaching three thousand feet. These are richly 

 wooded, and their steeply sloping sides are gullied by deep 

 ravines. The island is called the Montpellier of the West, 

 because of the elasticity of its atmosphere, the pictur- 

 esqueness of its hills, and its lovely scenery. The tem- 

 perature varies according to height, and is generally cool 

 and dry. 



Plymouth, the capital, like all the prominent towns of 

 the Caribbees, is on the west or leeward side. It lies close 

 to the sea-shore, backed by high hills and mountains, and 

 is a collection of closely crowded two-story frame and 

 stone houses with gabled roofs. 



The Englishman will tell you that Montserrat is histori- 

 cally conspicuous from the fact that it has not suffered in 

 the past to the same extent as the other islands from the 

 brunt of the imperial wars, although, like the others, it was 

 a bone of contention between the French and the English. 

 It was settled by the English in 1632, occupied by the 

 French in 1664, became English again in 1668, surrendered 

 to the French in 1782, and returned to the English in 1784, 

 since which it has been an English colony. To an Ameri- 

 can this may appear a complicated history, but in compari- 



