6 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were mere corsairs, scouring the high seas 

 and occupying islets, such as Tortuga at the north-west angle of Haiti. These 

 islands became the undisputed possessions of the buccaneers, as they were called, 

 from the Carib word houcan, smoked fish or flesh, doubtless in allusion to their 

 ordinary fare. With the exception of Portugal, which already possessed the vast 

 territory of Brazil besides the East Indies, all the European powers Avere anxious 

 to secure a portion of the Castillan world either by conquest, purchase or treaty. 



Of her original American possessions, Spain now retains nothing but the two 

 islands of Cuba, the pearl of the Antilles, and Puerto E-ico. All the rest has 

 been forcibly wrested from her, and even her hold on these has often been impe- 

 rilled by revolts or foreign wars. 



England, an heretical nation in whose eyes the Papal Bull had no value. 



rig. 3. — Political States of Cexteal America. 

 Scale 1 : fi2,000,CK:tO. 



30 



Independent 

 Bepublics. 



E. Spanish. A. Enarlish. F. French. 

 H. Dutch, i). Danish. 



1,240 Miles. 



became the mistress of the large island of Jamaica, of all the Bahamas, the Ber- 

 mudas and most of the Lesser Antilles, beside a small district of the mainland on 

 the south-east coast of Yucatan. To the share of France, Holland, and Den- 

 mark have fallen some of the Lesser Antilles, and even Sweden till lately held 

 the islet of St. Bartholomew. All were anxious to have their sugar and coffee 

 plantations, and an independent insular depot for their colonial produce. 



"When the American Republic was controlled in its foreign policy by the southern 

 slave party, the Washington Government made repeuted attempts to increase its 

 territory by the acquisition of Cuba, most valuable as well as largest of all the 

 Antilles. It also sought to establish a large naval station at the St. Domingan 



