462 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



ledge of hygienics, tlie iiicr?a.'nng facilities of locomotion and frequent shiftings of 

 the population, with the establishment of health resorts at various altitudes, tend 

 to render the acclimatisation of all European residents more and more feasible. 



The actual decrease of the white element, all the more striking when taken 

 in connection with the rapid increase of the blacks, is due rather to economic 

 and moral than to material conditions. During the plantation days the position 

 of the great landowners was that of masters, of superior beings belonging, so to 

 say, to a distinct humanity. But after the emancipation, when many of the 

 negroes acquired comfort and even wealth, when education tended to diminish 

 racial differences, and when the African claimed his place in the council chamber, 

 the heirs of the white aristocracy turned with repugnance from a land where the 

 slaves of yesterday arrogated to themselves equal privileges and political rights. 

 They preferred to withdraw without any intention of returning. 



On the other hand the " little whites," clerks, secretaries, government officials, 

 agents, are now thrust aside, unable to compete with their negro and mulatto 

 rivals. Officials swarm just as much in the English as in the other islands, and 

 in virtue of their very numbers the men of colour get elected to most of the 

 subordinate posts. In certain districts the whites, refusing the administration 

 of the sons of slaves, have completely disappeared. In this struggle for existence 

 probably more than one-fourth of the European element has been eliminated since 

 the middle of the century. 



Their successful rivals are no longer full-blood negroes, but mulattoes or 

 " people of colour." Miscegenation has become universal despite the unfavourable 

 initial conditions and the severe laws formerly interdicting such alliances. At 

 present the insular populations present every conceivable transition from sallow 

 white to glossy black, though the prevalent hue is a brown yellow, a fine bronze 

 tint, ©r even that of pale gold. Certainly this mixed race has not declined, and 

 the half-caste créoles especially of Martinique and Dominica are amongst the finest 

 in the Antilles.* 



Since the emancipation, slave labour has been largely replaced by coolies 

 from India, who, being mostly British subjects, are protected by laws and stipula- 

 tions, which are much better observed than the regulations formerly controlling 

 the power of the slave-owners. A special " protector " is charged to represent 

 the interests of the coolies, to visit them at least every three years, and to see that 

 the terms of the contract be strictly observed. 



But few Hindus are now engaged, and years pass without fresh importations 

 of hired hands. The local population is already sufficiently dense, while the 

 natural classification of the people according to their pursuits enables the planters 

 to procure all the labour they require without introducing strangers. The coolies 

 who have chosen to settle in the islands, about 40,000 altogether, have mostly 

 taken to petty trading, and merge very slowly with the rest of the population. 



Asunder the slave system, the Lesser Antilles continue chiefly to grow those 

 plants which yield the so-called " colonial produce ; " but this produce varies 

 ■••■ L. Heam, Two Tears in the French West Indies. 



