THE VOLCANIC CAKIBBEES ."DJj 



son with the vicissitudes of the other islands its career as 

 a whole has been delightfully quiescent. Montserrat has 

 also passed through all of the various changes leading to 

 an English crown colony. It 1ms a president, or, as he is 

 now called, a commissioner, with the usual executive coun- 

 cil. Legislative council, etc., under the supervision of the 

 general government of the Leeward Islands. 



It was peopled at the lasi census by 11,762 souls, hut 

 the number is now estimated at 12,500, and it is one of the 

 most densely populated of the British Lesser Antilles. In 

 former centuries the island had a large European popula- 

 tion, but it is now mostly inhabited by negroes, who, 

 strange to say, speak to this day with an Irish brogue, 

 owing to the fact that the earlier settlers were of that race. 

 A story is told of an Irishman who, on arriving at the 

 island, was hailed in vernacular Irish by a negro from 

 one of the boats that came alongside. kk Thunder and turf ! " 

 exclaimed the Irishman, "how long have yez been here."' 

 "Thray months," the black man answered. "Thray 

 months! and so black already! Be the powers, I '11 not 

 stay among yez!" And the visitor returned, a sadder and 

 wiser man, to his own Emerald Isle. 



Most of the negro peasants possess some land, and, while 

 there is poverty, there is no distress. Between the years 

 1882 and 1896 the value of its chief crop, sugar, fell off 

 one half. The sugar-estates produce muscovado sugar 

 only, and this is no longer in demand. But the British in 

 the West Indies will tell you that Montserrat is distin- 

 guished by the fact that it has largely survived the sugar 

 desolation and branched out into new lines of agriculture, 

 particularly the cultivation of limes. Arrowrool is also 

 exported in small quantities, as well as essential oils. To 

 my eyes, however, there was no sign of what we call pros- 

 perity in this country, where i ndition similar to thai of 



Montserral would suggesl only the "abandoned farms"' of 

 New England. The revenue, as elsewhere, is constantly 



