302 CUBA AND PORTO ItICO 



habitants, is on the southwest side, the town stretching 

 along a lovely bay, with mountains gradually rising behind 

 in the form of an amphitheater. Its red-roofed houses and 

 a few tine stone structures show picturesquely through the 

 palm-groves. Behind these are the governor's house and 

 botanical buildings, overlooking the town. Three streets, 

 broad and lined with good houses, front the water. On 

 these are stone buildings occupied as a police station and 

 government stores. There are many other intersecting 

 highways, some of which lead back to the foot-hills, from 

 which good roads ascend the mountains. 



In St. Vincent we meet the same story of the decay of 

 the sugar industry ; here it is on the verge of extinction. 

 No improvements have been introduced in the manufacture, 

 and the canes have in recent years suffered severely from 

 disease. No industry has taken its place. Arrowroot is 

 next in importance to sugar, but its price has also declined, 

 adding to the depression. It is grown in fields which are 

 planted like Indian corn when sown for fodder. When 

 matured it is dug up and taken to a mill, where the roots 

 are broken off, ground, washed, and strained, and the mass 

 allowed to settle for a few days. The product is then 

 placed on wire frames with different-sized meshes to dry. 

 It gradually sifts down through these, and is then barreled 

 for shipment. In recent years it has brought about five 

 dollars a barrel, or eight cents per pound; formerly it 

 brought from forty to sixty cents. 



Wages are very low and constantly being reduced, and 

 there is a lamentable want of employment even at the 

 price of less than a shilling a day for able-bodied men, 

 who are constantly emigrating, leaving the women and 

 children to shift for themselves. There are few Caribs 

 remaining in St. Vincent, the remnant of a large number 

 that lived here until 1796, when Great Britain deported 

 five thousand of them to the coast of Honduras. 



Between St. Vincent and Grenada, instead of open water, 

 we find several hundred little rocky islands, all disposed 



