840 



WEST INDIES. 



WEST VIRGINIA. 



to $208,750. The revenue in 1886 was $271,- 

 810 ; the expenditure, $302,775. In the for- 

 ests and wilds are found the cedar, rose-wood, 

 bullet -tree, faustic, lignum - vitaa, sapodilla, 

 Santa Maria, iron-wood, red and white pine, 

 India-rubber, and gutta-percha trees. The co- 

 coanut flourishes, as do also the cahoon-pbint 

 and the ground-nut. The cultivation of fruit 

 (bananas and plantains) and its shipment to 

 New Orleans, are extending and proving re- 

 munerative. Arrangements are being made to 

 ship fruit to the European markets, in steamers 

 fitted with refrigerating apparatus. The chief 

 industry is wood-cutting, now 200 years old ; 

 3,000,000 feet of mahogany and 17,000 tons of 

 logwood are on an average exported annually. 

 There are 61 sugar-mills and large fruit-planta- 

 tions. The chief exports are logwood, mahog- 

 any, sugar, fruit, India-rubber, tortoise-shell, 

 and sarsaparilla. The imports in 1886 were 

 valued at $1,179,813 ; the exports at $1,400,- 

 234. The shipping entered and cleared in 1886 

 was 237,254 tons. 



French. Guadeloupe and its dependencies 

 have an area of 1,870 square kilometres; the 

 population numbering 182,619. The Governor 

 is M. Le Boucher. The public indebtedness is 

 1,001,000 francs; the budget for 1886 esti- 

 mated the income at 4,158,000 francs, and the 

 outlay at the same sum. The home Govern- 

 ment spent on the colony, in the same yettr, 

 2,118,000 francs. The imports of merchandise 

 in 1886 amounted to 17,500,000 francs; the 

 exports to 16,300,000. There entered the har- 

 bors 417 sea-going vessels. During the fiscal 

 year 1887 the colony exported 45,646 tons of 

 sugar in crystals, and 2,269 tons of brown 

 sugar; during 1888 the amounts were respect- 

 ively 40,878 and 1,690 tons. The rum expor- 

 tation was 2,904,166 litres in 1887, declining 

 to 2,636,322 in 1888. The molasses importa- 

 tion declined from 832,280 litres in 1887 to 

 184,926 in 1888. In January, 1889, the Gen- 

 eral Council of Guadeloupe passed a law favor- 

 ing importation into the colony of certain 

 manufactures of the mother-country, by fixing 

 higher duties on articles made outside of 

 France. Thus the duty on foreign cotton 

 goods is doubled, the duties on shoe-leather 

 and hoots and shoes are materially raised, as 

 are also those on butter, wines, and codfish. 

 By way of reciprocity, the home Government 

 is urged to reduce the duties now levied in 

 France on coffee, cocoa, vanilla-beans, and pi- 

 mento, of colonial growth. 



Martinique covers 988 square kilometres, 

 and the population is 175,755. The Governor 

 is Albert Grodet. The island chiefly produces 

 sugar, the yield of which in 1888 was 50,000 

 tons. The public debt does not exceed 435,000 

 francs; the budget for 1886 showed expendi- 

 tures to the amount of 4,584,000 francs. The 

 home Government, in 1886, spent on the colony 

 2,187,000 francs. The import of merchandise 

 reached 23,700,000 francs in 1886, while the 

 export amounted to 20,400,000 francs. The 



number of sea-going vessels entering in the 

 same year was 897. 



French Guiana is still a penal colony. The 

 climate being considered unhealtbf ul, it attracts 

 but little immigration, in spite of its exuber- 

 antly fertile soil and manifold resources, among 

 which placer and quartz gold are prominent. 

 The population (exclusive of the wild Indians) 

 is only 26,905. The Governor is M. Gerville- 

 Keache. The colony has no public debt. The 

 budget for 1886 showed an outlay of 2,123,000 

 francs, the home Government at the same time 

 spending on the colony 3,266,000 francs. The 

 import of merchandise was 7,200,000 francs; 

 the export, 4,700,000 francs. There entered, 

 in the same year, the port of Cayenne, 86 sea- 

 going vessels. 



Spanish. Porto Rico is the lesser of the 

 Spanish Antilles. (For area and population, 

 see "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1885.) The 

 Governor and Captain-General is L. Taban. 

 The American Consul at St. Johns is Edward 

 Conroy. The island is in a remarkably pros- 

 perous condition, and continually attracts im- 

 migration from Spain, the Canary Islands, and 

 the other West Indies. The population of 

 the leading cities is as follows: Ponce, 37,- 

 545; San German, 30,146; Mayaguez, 26,446; 

 Arecibo, 25,457 ; Naguabo, 24,912; St. Johns 

 (the capital), 23,414. A railroad is to be built 

 to connect the above-named ports and thus 

 encircle the entire island. It will measure 546 

 kilometres. The cost is estimated at 50,000,- 

 000 francs, on which the Government guaran- 

 tees an annual interest of 8 per cent. In 1888 

 there were in operation 833 kilometres of tele- 

 graph, the number of offices being 35. The 

 colonial budget for 1888-'89 fixes the expendi- 

 ture at $3,973,491, and the revenue at $3,863,- 

 100. The peninsula and foreign trade move- 

 ment in 1886 was: Imports, $11,116,543; ex- 

 ports, $10,293,544. The chief articles exported 

 were: Sugar, 59,333 tons ; coffee, 16,761 tons; 

 molasses, 20,086 tons; tobacco, 2,053 tons. 

 In 1887 the export of sugar increased to 81,- 

 355 tons. The number of vessels entered Por- 

 torican ports in 1886 was 1,374, with a ton- 

 nage of 96,855. The American trade with 

 Porto Rico has been as follows : 





The Spanish Transatlantic Steamship Com- 

 pany began on Oct. 30, 1888, a new steamship 

 service between New York and Porto Rico. 



WEST VIRGINIA. State Government.- The fol- 

 lowing were the State officers during the 

 year : Governor, E. Willis Wilson, Democrat ; 

 Secretary of State, Henry S. Walker ; Treas- 

 urer, William T. Thompson ; Auditor, Patrick 

 F. Duffey; Attorney-General, Alfred Cald- 

 well ; Superintendent of Free Schools, Benja- 

 min S. Morgan; President of the Supreme 



