WEST INDIES. 



Cultivated products are coffee, sugar, bananas, 

 and cocoanuts; and articles brought down for 

 export from the neighboring countries are India 

 rubber, coffee, and sarsaparilla. In the upland 

 district cattle are reared. The value of the im- 

 ports in 1897 was $1,422,097; exports, $1,404,387. 

 The export of mahogany w r as 6,777,382 feet. In 

 the year 641 vessels, of 194,144 tons, were en- 

 tered, and 633, of 196,189 tons, cleared. The ship- 

 ping of the colony comprised 220 sailing vessels, 

 of 4,906 tons, and 5 steamers, of 748 tons. The 

 revenue for 1897 was $314,017. Duties on imports 

 yielded $166,618. Other sources are excise, li- 

 censes, a land tax, and sales and leases of public 

 lands. The expenditures amounted to $322,990. 

 The debt was $168,815. 



French Colonies. The French colony of 

 Guadeloupe has an area of 583 square miles, with 

 the dependent islands of Marie Galante, Les 

 Saintes, Desirade, St. Barthelemy, and St. Mar- 

 tin, 688 square miles, with 167,000 inhabitants. 

 It is represented by a Senator and two Deputies 

 in the French Chambers. The sugar estates, 502 

 in number, embrace 25,400 hectares. Coffee plan- 

 tations cover 3,500 hectares, and cacao is grown 

 on 1,634 hectares. Bananas, sweet potatoes, 

 yams, manioc, corn, tobacco, and vegetables are 

 cultivated for domestic consumption. The trade 

 is largely with France, whence 13,085,051 francs 

 of imports were brought in 1897, while exports to 

 France amounted to 11,287,915 francs. On the 

 plantations 15,000 coolies are employed in addi- 

 tion to native labor. The local revenue in 1898 

 was 5,774,564 francs, and expenditure the same. 

 The debt is 1,000,000 francs. The contribution of 

 the French Government in 1899 was 1,627,037 

 francs. The cyclone of August, 1899, ruined the 

 coffee and cacao crops, half demolished the town 

 of Le Mourle, which has 10,000 inhabitants, and 

 blew down several villages. 



Martinique has an area of 381 square miles, 

 with a population in 1895 of 187,692, divided into 

 D0,373 males and 97,319 females. The number of 

 French-born residents was 1,307. The number of 

 marriages in 1895 was 624; of births, 6,026; of 

 deaths, 5,007. St. Pierre, the capital, has 25,382 

 population. The products are sugar, coffee, ca- 

 cao, tobacco, and cotton, besides yams, corn, and 

 other food crops, to which 15,067 hectares were 

 devoted. The exports of sugar in 1896 were 34,- 

 429 tons; of rum and arrack, 3,765,000 gallons. 

 The imports from France in 1896 were valued at 

 1H,!M)7,565 francs, the exports to France at 12,- 

 965,952 francs. The revenue raised in the colony in 



1898 was 5,096,048 francs. The contribution of 

 France for 1899 was 2,581,848 francs. The public 

 debt consists of an annuity of 95,000 francs. 



French Guiana has an area of 46,850, including 

 a zone on which gold has been discovered, which 

 has been in dispute between France and Brazil. 

 The population is 22,714, not including savage 

 tribes in the mountainous districts. Cayenne, the 

 capital, has 12,351 inhabitants. The country has 

 been used as a convict colony, and agriculture 

 and industry are backward. Gold is the chief 

 product, and of this 101,938 ounces were shipped in 

 1896, of which 58 per cent, came from the disputed 

 territory. The imports from France in 1897 

 amounted to 11,648,848 francs; exports to France, 

 10,849.482 francs. The local revenue in 1898 was 

 2.453.261 francs. The expenditure of France in 



1899 was 6,368,139 francs, including 4,915,000 

 f nines for the penal establishment. 



Dutch Colonies. The island colony of Cura- 

 <:<in, with the dependent islands of Bonaire, Aruba, 

 St. Eustache, Saba, and the Dutch part of St. 

 Martin, has an area of 403 square miles, that of 



WEST VIRGINIA. 



861 



Curacao alone being 210 square miles. The total 

 population is 4!),5!M), that of Curacao being 28,- 

 884. The chief products are corn, beans, cattle 

 salt, and lime. The number of vessels entered at 

 the ports in 1890 was 2,f>0<), of 526,148 tons. 



Diitch Guiana has an area of 4(5,000 square 

 miles, with a population of (54,372, exclusive 

 of forest negroes. Paramaribo, the capital 

 has about 30,000 inhabitants. The production 

 of sugar in 1890 was 10,390,747 kilogrammes- of 

 cacao, 3,088,194 kilogramme's; of bananas, 502- 

 949 bunches; of coffee, 280,875 kilogrammes': 

 of rum, 1,000,747 litres. The output of the 

 gold mines was 874,897 grammes, valued at 

 1.198,600 guilders. The total production from 

 the discovery of the gold fields in 1876 was 20,- 

 694,380 guilders. Stamp mills have recently 

 been erected for treating quartz, the mining 

 hitherto having been alluvial. The total value 

 of imports in 1897 was 5,635,161 guilders; of 

 exports, 5,241,671 guilders. The local revenue 

 for 1897 was 2,348,000 guilders, and the expendi- 

 tures were 2,348,000 guilders, the difference being 

 made up by a contribution from the Dutch Gov- 

 ernment. 



Danish Colonies. The islands of Santa Cruz, 

 St. Thomas, and St. John belong to Denmark. 

 Their area is 138 square miles, and their popula- 

 tion 114,229, mostly negroes, who raise sugar and 

 make rum for export. The imports of Denmark 

 from these islands in 1897 were valued at 2,959,- 

 000 kroner, and exports to the islands at 4,139,000 

 kroner. The imports from them into Great Brit- 

 ain were 20,122, mainly sugar, and British ex- 

 ports to them were 55,086. Santa Cruz was 

 visited on Aug. 8 by a cyclone that nearly de- 

 stroyed the town of Fredericksted as well as most 

 of the sugar estates. 



WEST VIRGINIA, a Southern State, ad- 

 mitted to the Union June 19, 1863; area, 24,780 

 square miles. The population, according to each 

 decennial census, was 442,014 in 1870; 618,547 in 

 1880; and 762,749 in 1890. Capital, Charleston. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, G. W. Atkin- 

 son; Secretary of State, William M. O. Dawson; 

 State Superintendent of Free Schools, J. R. Trot- 

 ter; Auditor, L. M. Lafollette; Treasurer, M. A. 

 Kendall; Attorney-General, Edgar P. Rucker; 

 Librarian, P. S. Shirkey; State Bank Examiner, 

 O. B. Wetzel; Adjutant General, J. W. M. Apple- 

 ton; Commissioner of Labor, I. V. Barton: Chief 

 Mine Inspector, J. W. Paul; Game and Fish War- 

 den, Frank Lively all Republicans; Presiding 

 Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Marma- 

 duke H. Dent; Associate Judges, Henry Brannon 

 and H. C. McWhorter; Clerk, J. A. Holley all 

 Democrats except McWhorter, Republican. 



Finances. As an official statement of the 

 finances is issued only once in two years, there is 

 nothing new to report this year. The Annual 

 Cyclopaedia for 1898 contains a statement cover- 

 ing the biennial period ending Sept. 30, 1898. The 

 estimated receipts of the treasury during the fis- 

 cal year ending Sept. 30, 1899, according to the 

 State Auditor's report, included the following 

 items: State tax for 1898, $375,000 from the 

 State and $250,000 from the general school fund; 

 license tax, 1899, $90,000; license tax, 1898 and 

 previous years, $80,000; interest on deposits of 

 public funds, $12,500 from the State and $12,500 

 from the general school fund; tax on gross re- 

 ceipts of insurance, express and telegraph com- 

 panies, $22,000; license tax on charters, $90,000; 

 dividends on stock held by the Board of the 

 School Fund, $11,000. The total estimated re- 

 ceipts for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1899, 



