476 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



Dominica is one of the poorest and most sparsely- peopled islands of all the 

 Antilles. Despairing of its prosperity if left to itself, certain political economists 

 have proposed to hand it over to a syndicate of capitalists, who under another 

 system might revive the flourishing plantations of the old. régime. 



Dominica is administered by a nominated executive council and a legislative 

 council of seven nominated and seven elected members. 



Martinique. 



This is the only large French island which has preserved its old Carib name 

 of Matinina or Madiana under the modified form of Martinique. It is the second 

 of the Lesser Antilles in size, and is also the most irregular in its contour- lines, 

 which deviate most from the normal elongated oval. 



Although entirely mountainous, Martinique is clothed with verdure even to the 

 summit of its culminating point, the volcanic Mount Pelée, in the north-west 

 extremity (4,450 feet). Though generally quiescent, Pelée was the scene of an 

 eruption in 1851. It is followed along the main axis by other cones, with inter- 

 vening lavas and scoriae, terminating southwards in a peak 3,950 feet high. 

 The three-crested Carbet, midway between the northern extremity and the capital, 

 nearly rivals Pelée itself in altitude. 



South of Carbet and the neighbouring crests the island is nearly divided into 

 two sections by inlets penetrating far into the interior, and forming the Fort~de- 

 France Bay on the west, and the harbours of Le Robert and Le François on the 

 east side. The intervening isthmus is scarcely 6 miles wide. The southern is 

 far less elevated, but more irregular than the northern section. It is traversed by 

 two ridges, one continuing the main axis south-eastwards and culminating in 

 Mount Vauclin (1,665 feet), the other ramifying westward south of Fort-de-France 

 Bay, and indicated far seawards by the Caraïbe, Constant, and other summits. 



South of the Caravelle, on the east side, the outer chain of fringing reefs 

 extends for some miles from the coast, but is interrupted at intervals by channels 

 giving access to vessels of light draught. 



The Carib natives remained in undisturbed possession of the island till 1665, 

 when it was occupied by Esnambuc in the name of France, though not formally 

 annexed till 1675. The Caribs, rapidly exterminated or transported, were replaced 

 by blacks on the petun (tobacco) and sugar plantations. Coffee also found here 

 a favourable home, and the planters acquired great wealth despite the wars with 

 England. 



Seized by the English in 1794, Martinique was not restored to France till 

 1816. Excited by the events occurring in Haiti, the blacks had more than once 

 conspired against their masters, and broke into open revolt in 1831. To avoid 

 pending ruin 3,000 were manumitted, and soon after political rights were 

 accorded to the whole free population irrespective of colour. In 1853, five years 

 after the emancipation, Indian coolies began to replace the blacks, who had them- 

 selves become small landowners. Since then contract labour has been abolished on 

 the principle that " labour should be fiee in a free land." 



