BARBUDA, ANTIGUA. 465 



where its sheltered harbour gives access to vessels drawing from 8 to ] feet. 

 The inhabitants, mainly of French descent, speak English, and are exempt from 

 most of the burdens imposed on the people of Guadeloupe, of which St. Bartholo- 

 mew is an administrative dependency. 



Barbuda. 



This low island lies somewhat beyond the normal course of the Antilles chain, 

 and in deeper water, the surrounding straits having over 500 fathoms everywhere 

 except on the south side towards Antigua. Both islands stand on the same 

 plateau, which has a depth of not more than 15 or 20 fathoms. Although of 

 average relative size, Barbuda is of less economic value than mere islets such as 

 Nevis or Deseuda. Yet its salubrity and fertile soil might have attracted settlers, 

 despite its isolation, and the absence of good harbours. 



There is room in Barbuda for 100,000 peasantry ; but it was never colonised, 

 because for two centuries it has belonged entirelj' to one English family, so that 

 nobody could acquire land. The owner so effectually made or kept it a solitude 

 that it is often omitted from the very list of British possessions. To the old 

 vassal of the Crown have now succeeded two capitalists, officially bound, as he had 

 been, to send a fat sheep once a year to the Governor of Antigua. They have 

 now substituted a deer, an animal which they introduced from Europe, and which 

 inhabits the forests that cover the island. 



Barbuda is the only member of the Lesser Antilles in which the whites out- 

 number the blacks ; but the whole population is less than a thousand. 



Antigua. 



Antigua has relatively thirty times the population of its "Silent Sister," 

 Barbuda. It was so named by Columbus in honour of Santa Maria la Antigua, 

 a church in Valladolid. Like the other members of the outer chain, it is a low 

 calcareous island, its highest crest not exceeding 900 feet. Nevertheless, the 

 south-western hills with their steep cliffs form a sort of natural stronghold where 

 the inhabitants might take refuge in case of invasion. Here are evidences of 

 former igneous action, English Harbour being a group of craters invaded by the 

 marine waters. 



But elsewhere Antigua forms a plateau of calcareous strata, with alternating 

 layers of marine and freshwater deposits, and with the greatest variety of fossil 

 corals, and of animal and vegetable organisms transformed to agates. Like the 

 other limestone islands Antigua is destitute of running waters, and in 1779 and 

 again in 1789 the cisterns remained empty for months together, while the cattle 

 perished in thousands. At present the capital is furnished with a reservoir 

 containing 600,000 gallons of water. Antigua is supposed to be indebted for its 

 healthy climate to the perfectly natural system of drainage, leaving no stagnant 

 waters anywhere. 



Antigua was first occupied in 1632 by English settlers ; these were succeeded 



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