836 



WEST AFRICA. 



WEST INDIES. 



experimental station. The natives barter rub- 

 ber, ivory, and palm-oil. The northwest Came- 

 roons Company has undertaken to develop 34,000 

 square miles in the interior. The revenue and 

 expenditure for 1903 balance at 4,23(5,600 marks. 

 The imperial contribution is 2,205,100 marks. 

 The imports in 1899 amounted to 11,133,200 

 marks; exports to 4,840,800 marks, including rub- 

 ber for 1,898,000 marks, palm-kernels for 1,266,- 

 000 marks, palm-oil for 850,000 marks, ivory for 

 604,000 marks, and cacao for 192,000 marks. Ihe 

 ports were visited by 66 vessels, of 81,891 tons. 

 The German Government is carrying on experi- 

 ments in the cultivation of cotton in both East 

 and West Africa, and has engaged American 

 negroes as expert instructors to teach- the na- 

 tives. The traders who bartered European goods 

 for palm-oil, palm-kernels, and rubber used to 

 set an enormous price on the former, and thereby 

 made much money. The planters when they 

 came gave their laborers 8 marks a month and 

 a dwelling. When German money got into cir- 

 culation the wages would buy little clothing and 

 other European articles, and therefore they estab- 

 lished stores to furnish their laborers with what 

 they needed at prices corresponding to those pre- 

 vailing in Europe. Some of the trading firms es- 

 tablished plantations, and through this circum- 

 stance there was a degree of accommodation. 

 Still there has been much antagonism between 

 the traders and the planters. The missionaries, 

 who also carry on trade, have revived the attacks 

 on the planters, whose enterprises they think 

 ought to be replaced by independent cultivation 

 by the natives. Wages have risen to 12 or 15 

 marks a month, but still the lot of the laborers 

 is considered as unsatisfactory and the colonial 

 officials are accused of favoring the owners of the 

 great plantations on the slopes of the Cameroon 

 mountains and countenancing the oppression of 

 the indigenous population. Domestic slavery in 

 Togoland and Cameroons is being gradually abol- 

 ished, children of slaves being free in the former 

 protectorate and children of half free in the lat- 

 ter, and children of half free persons entirely 

 free, while bondage for debt and the sale or ex- 

 change of house slaves are prohibited. The Ger- 

 man planters have been most successful in rais- 

 ing cacao. The planters have colonies of negroes 

 settled on their land that they succeed in making 

 work without any further rise in wages by meth- 

 ods described as patriarchal, though the friends 

 of the blacks consider it a kind of slavery. A 

 new region will be opened up by the railroad from 

 Victoria to Lisoka. The Germans in the winter 

 of 1901 undertook an expedition into Adamawa. 

 They encountered the resistance of the inhab- 

 itants, and in consequence of this Lieut.-Col. 

 Pavel, commanding the colonial troops, marched 

 against the Bangwa, Bandeng, and Bafut tribes 

 and reduced them to submission. Military sta- 

 tions were established at Buea and Banyo and at 

 Garva on the Benue. In the capture of the Sul- 

 tan of Banyo Lieut.-Col. Nolte was mortally 

 wounded. Prom here an exploratory expedition 

 was undertaken to Lake Chad. Hostilities again 

 resulted, and in the end the whole of German 

 Adamawa up to Lake Chad was brought under 

 German rule. A new expedition to promote the 

 commercial development of the country started 

 in the summer from the mouth of the Niger, 

 where the Germans established a base of supplies. 

 The jealousy of German and French enterprises 

 in the interior that the English formerly displayed 

 has disappeared since the boundaries of the dif- 

 ferent spheres of interest have been sufficiently 

 established, and each nation helps the others in 



extending commerce and civilization to Lake 

 Chad. The French defeated and killed Rabah in 

 German territory before German authority was 

 established there, and they crossed German ter- 

 ritory to attack Fadlullah in British Bornu. A 

 French post was established in the German sphere 

 until the Germans occupied the country. 



WEST INDIES. The important islands of the 

 West Indies, now freed from European rule, are 

 described elsewhere (see CUBA, HAYTI, PORTO 

 Rico, SANTO DOMINGO). The British colonies re- 

 main intact, but the right of self-government has 

 been curtailed in several of them. Denmark is 

 negotiating for the transfer of the Danish Antilles 

 to the United States. The French colonies have 

 suffered from a volcanic eruption which destroyed 

 the chief town of Martinique. 



British Colonies. The island of Jamaica has 

 an area of 4,200 square miles and Turks and Cai- 

 cos and smaller islands attached to Jamaica have 

 an area of 224 square miles. The population of Ja- 

 maica is 745,104, of whom only 14,692 are white. 

 Kingston, the capital, has 46,542 inhabitants. 

 There were 14,656 East Indians in the colony in 



1899, of whom 1,683 were under indentures. The 

 number of marriages in 1900 was 3,767; of births, 

 31,259; of deaths, 16,880. There were 746 Gov- 

 ernment schools with 98,598 pupils on the rolls in 



1900. There were 178,667 acres tilled in 1900 and 

 379,380 acres in pasture. Sugar-cane covered 25,- 

 616 acres; coffee, 24,865 acres; bananas, 27,543 

 acres; coconut-palms, 12,382 acres; corn, 430 

 acres; cacao, 1,815 acres; ground pro visions, 85 ,4 17 

 acres; guinea-grass, 124,193 acres; plain pasture, 

 353,588 acres; pasture and pimento, 25,620 acres; 

 pimento, 172 acres. The Governor is Sir Augustus 

 Hemming. The Legislative Council consists of the 

 Governor, 5 official members, 10 nominated mem- 

 bers, and 14 members elected for five years. The 

 revenue for the year ending March 31, 1900, was 

 906,037, and expenditure 917,653. Of the rev- 

 enue 340,679 came from customs. The principal 

 expenditures were 111,700 for debt charges and 

 53,720 for police. The regular forces in Jamaica 

 in 1900 numbered 1,739 officers and men. There 

 were 13 ships of the British navy on the North 

 American and West Indian station. The public 

 debt of the colony, including guaranteed debts, 

 amounted in 1900 to 3,824,782. The value of 

 imports in the year ending March 31, 1900, was 

 1,722,069; exports, 1,797,077. The imports of 

 textiles were 167,302; of flour, 133,936; of 

 rice, 44,745; exports of sugar, 165,941; of rum, 

 152,144; of coffee, 157,485; of bananas, 618,- 

 636; of oranges, 115,473; of spices, 110,602; 

 of woods, 117,099. The tonnage entered and 

 cleared was 1,742,224 tons in 1900. The registered 

 shipping of the colony comprised 142 sailing ves- 

 sels, of 9,211 tons. There are 9 railroads having a 

 total length of 185 miles; receipts in 1901 were 

 109,130, and expenses 86.482; the number of 

 passengers carried was 381,408. There are 643 

 miles of telegraph-lines and 154 miles of tele- 

 phones. The number of telegrams sent in the y cm- 

 ending March 31, 1901, was 85,052; receipts, 

 4,715; expenses, 7,426. The post-office trans- 

 mitted 5,239,083 letters and postal cards. 



Previous to 1899 the 14 elected members of the 

 Legislative Council exceeded in number the oflicinl 

 and nominated members. Sir David Barbour, 

 who examined into the financial condition of the 

 colony, recommended the appointment of addition- 

 al members so as to give the Government a major- 

 ity. When this was done the elected members re- 

 fused to act, but the Government carried through 

 the measures deemed necessary for restoring the 

 financial equilibrium, and then the additional 



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