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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



the Lesser Antilles. Fredericksted is the 

 seat of business in the island, most of the 

 sugar being exported from there. For 

 scores of years the sugar planters, seeing 

 that the United States is the greatest 

 sugar-consuming community in the world, 

 have hoped that the island might become 

 American, thus providing them with a 

 free market. In latter years the experi- 

 ence of the sugar planters of Porto Rico, 

 who have grown very rich under the pro- 

 tection received by them as a result of 

 American tariff laws, has stimulated this 

 desire upon the part of those of the Dan- 

 ish West Indies. 



The island has suffered, much as our 

 own South has suffered in the past, from 

 a lack of crop diversification ; as every- 

 thing in the South was for so many years 

 cotton, so everything in St. Croix has 

 been sugar, and the putting of all of its 

 eggs in one basket has resulted seriously 

 on many occasions. The Danish Planta- 

 tion Company has sought to overcome 

 this evil by introducing the planting of 

 cotton, cocoa, coffee, and other crops. 



The history of the Danish West Indies 

 is full of interest. Columbus found St. 

 Thomas inhabited by Caribs and Ara- 

 waks in 1493. In 1657 a colony of Dutch 

 settlers occupied the island : but when 

 they heard of New Amsterdam, now New 

 York, they left it to become a part of the 

 new colony with such a remarkable fu- 

 ture ahead of it. The English came to 

 St. Thomas next, but in 1666 it was for- 

 mally taken over by the Danish crown. 

 In 1764 the King of Denmark took the 

 government into his own hands and threw 

 the port of Charlotte Amalie open, duty 

 free, to all nations. In 1801 the British 

 took the island from the Danes, but re- 

 stored it after ten months. Again, in 

 1807, Britain took possession of St. 

 Thomas, but returned it in the readjust- 

 ments growing out of the Napoleonic 

 wars in 181 5. 



AN ISLAND OF MANY FLAGS 



St. Croix was settled by Dutch and 

 English, but they quarreled and the Dutch 

 had to get out in 1650. The English in 

 their turn were driven out by the Span- 

 iards. Then the French from St. Kitts 



took a hand and expelled the Spaniards. 

 France gave the island to the Knights of 

 Malta ; but after a prolonged, but losing, 

 effort to put it on a profitable basis, the 

 Knights, in 1720, demolished their forts, 

 abandoned the island, and removed to 

 Santo Domingo. In 1727 the French cap- 

 tured eight British vessels lying there and 

 took possession of the island again, finally 

 selling it to King Christian of Denmark. 

 The first proposal to buy the Danish 

 West Indies was made by Secretary of 

 State Seward at Washington, in January, 

 1865. July 17, 1866, the United States 

 offered $5,000,000 for the islands. In 

 1867 Denmark declined to sell them for 

 that amount, but offered St. Thomas and 

 St. John for $10,000,000, or $15,000,000 

 for the three. Mr. Seward replied by of- 

 fering $7,500,000 for the group. Den- 

 mark made a counter offer of St. Thomas 

 and St. John for that price. Finally Sec- 

 retary Seward accepted the proposal ; but 

 then Denmark insisted that the consent 

 of the peoples of the islands should be 

 formally given before the sale was con- 

 summated. This was at first objected to 

 by Mr. Seward ; but he finally cabled our 

 minister to concede the question of vote, 

 and on the 24th of October, 1867, the 

 treaty was signed. On January 9, 1868, 

 the election was held, and out of 1,139 

 votes cast there were but 22 against the 

 cession. St. John was unanimous, cast- 

 ing 205 votes in favor and none against. 

 Denmark ratified the treaty, but Senator 

 Sumner, then chairman of the Committee 

 on Foreign Relations, held the bill unre- 

 ported for more than two years. When 

 he did report it, it was adversely. 



Again, in 1902, the United States sug- 

 gested to Denmark that we would like to 

 buy the islands, and although that coun- 

 try had seen one treaty fail of ratification 

 after it had been proposed by the United 

 States and ratified by Denmark, it took 

 up the matter again and signed the treaty 

 providing for the sale of the islands. The 

 treaty agreed to transfer them upon the 

 payment of the sum of $5,000,000. It 

 failed of ratification by Denmark by only 

 one vote. If the present treaty passes, 

 that one vote will have cost the United 

 States the sum of $20,000,000. 



