THE FUTURE OF THE WEST INDIES 403 



dozen distinct colonial governments, each responsible to 

 Europe, with no shadow of federation between them, or 

 even cooperation of any kind a condition not only piti- 

 able, bnl absurd. Why should Dominica, whose people 

 are French in Language and institutions, be sandwiched 

 in between Martinique and Guadeloupe, and within easy 

 Bight of both, yet bo cu1 off from them by quarantine and 

 tariff laws thai it is commercially nearer England, some 

 three thousand miles distant, than it is to its neigh hoi-': 



Every product of these islands, were it not for the polit- 

 ical conditions, would as naturally find a market in the 

 United States as the magnetic needle finds the north. 

 Notwithstanding the heavy embargoes of our tariff, an 

 average of sixty per cent, of the West Indian products 

 reaches our shores; but since in this case, at Least, the 

 producer pays the tax, there is no present profit for him, 

 or inducement for further agricultural extension. Fur- 

 thermore, while permitting sugar and coffee to reach us, 

 these tariffs are a barrier to the cultivation of the small 

 fruits for which the AVest Indies are peculiarly adapted. 



Concerning the future of these islands, of whatever 

 nationality, there is but one hope and one end, and that 

 is political or commercial annexation to the United States. 

 As Froude has said, "The Yankee, whether we like it or 

 not, is sovereign of these waters," and we may add that 

 he is fasi acquiring domination of the land. Every Eng- 

 lish statesman of the past fifty years has Been and pre- 

 dicted that such would he the destiny of the Antilles. 

 The writer just quoted once said, 1 describing the harbor 

 of Trinidad: " When we arrived, there were three Ameri- 

 can frigates, old wooden vessels out merely on a cruise, 

 bul heavily sparred, smart and well se1 up, with the stars 

 and Stripes floating carelessly al their sterns, as it* in these 

 Western Beas, be the nominal dominion British, French, 



Or Spanish, the American has a voice also and intends to 

 be heai<l." 



J. a. Froude, "The English in the Wert Imli.-s" (1M 



