476 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No, 173 



With one or two exceptions, England's footing 

 in the "West India Islands during the seventeenth 

 and even the eighteenth centuries was exceeding- 

 ly unstable : they were being continually bandied 

 about between England, France, and Spain before 

 the final adjustment at the beginning of the pres- 

 ent century. As stated above, an effective set- 

 tlement was made in Barbadoes in 1625. Two 

 years previously some Englishmen established 

 themselves in St. Christopher's, which, however, 

 was not finally ceded to Great Britain till 1713. 

 Between 1628 and 1650, Nevis and Turk's Island, 

 Antigua, Montserrat, St. Lucia, and Anguilla re- 

 ceived English settlers, though St. Lucia, at least, 

 changed hands several times before finally becom- 

 ing English, in 1803. 



Crossing over to Africa, we find, that, as early 

 as 1588, Queen Elizabeth granted a patent to a 

 company to trade to the Gambia ; but no settle- 

 ment seems to have been established till 1631, and 

 even that can hardly have come to much, since a 

 resettlement was made in 1817. Still there was 

 a very considerable trade between England and 

 West Africa in the seventeenth century, and 

 Gambia and other stations became notorious as 

 centres of the slave-trade. But their value for 

 colonizing and trading purposes soon sank far 

 below that of the West Indies and other annexa- 

 tions. 



St. Helena became hers by capture in 1651 ; 

 and four years later (1655) Jamaica, the largest 

 and richest of her West India possessions, capitu- 

 lated to an expedition sent out by Cromwell. 

 English factories seem to have been established On 

 the Gold Coast in 1661, and her first settlement on 

 the Virgin Islands dates from 1668. A small 

 English colony was planted in New Providence in 

 the Bahamas in 1629, though she had frequently 

 to give up possession before the islands finally be- 

 came hers, in 1783. 



Meantime, England was rapidly extending her 

 sway over the eastern coast of what is now the 

 United States ; and these possessions, even in the 

 seventeenth century, were of far greater impor- 

 tance than all her other acquisitions. 



At the end of the seventeenth century, then, be- 

 sides Newfoundland and Bermudas, and a few 

 factories on the West African ccast and in India, 

 of the present colonial empire England had pos- 

 session, more or less stable, of Jamaica, Barba- 

 does, St. Christopher's, Nevis, Turk's Island, An- 

 tigua, Montserrat, Anguilla, Virgin Islands, Baha- 

 mas, and St. Helena out in the Atlantic. The total 

 area of these did not much exceed sixty thousand 

 square miles, for her African and Indian settle- 

 ments were little more than stations. Even if we 

 added such parts of Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 



wick as were not occupied by France, the total 

 area could scarcely be more than eighty thousand 

 square miles. 



During the first half of the eighteenth century, 

 if we except the confirmation to Great Britain of 

 the ten North American colonies just mentioned, 

 and one or two of the West India islands already 

 included, the only acquisition of importance as a 

 foreign possession was Gibraltar (1704), and that 

 not as a colony, but as a strategical station. 



A period of comparative quiescence prevailed 

 during these fifty years previous to the outbreak 

 of the great and long-continued struggle between 

 England and France for supremacy on the seas, if 

 not on land. During the first half of the eigh- 

 teenth century The East India company's business 

 was steadily extending in India. Comparatively 

 few additions were made to the English possessions 

 on the North American coast. France claimed all 

 Canada, only tolerating the station of the Hudson's 

 Bay company, founded in 1670, and holding the 

 Alleghanies as the western limit of English do- 

 minion. The position in the West Indies remained 

 essentially unaltered, though the development of 

 the English plantations in that region was pro- 

 ceeding w T ith profitable activity. The few facto- 

 ries on the West African coast were of little ac- 

 count, the Dutch were still supreme at the Cape, 

 and Cook was only beginning his career in the 

 Royal navy. 



During the last forty years of the eighteenth 

 century, on the other hand, the broad foundations 

 of England's empire beyond the seas were firmly 

 laid ; subsequent operations have mainly been in 

 the way of development and consolidation. The 

 great struggle between England and France for 

 supremacy beyond Europe may be said to have 

 begun simultaneously in India and Canada. On 

 the latter field it resulted in the capitulation of 

 Quebec in 1759, followed four years later by the 

 cession of the whole of Canada ; so that Eng- 

 land was virtually mistress of the whole of North 

 America. In 1776 the declaration of independence 

 was signed, and in 1783 England had to resign 

 herself to the loss of by far the most valuable half 

 of her dominions in America. 



In the same year as Canada became an English 

 possession, the islands of Dominica, Granada, St. 

 Vincent, and Tobago were added to her W est In- 

 dian possessions, followed in 1797 by the surrender 

 of Trinidad to Abercrombie by the Spaniards. 

 Although Commodore Byron took possession of 

 the Falkland Islands in 1765, no effective estab- 

 lishment was formed there till 1833. In 1783-86 

 British Honduras was acquired by treaties ; in 1787 

 Sierra Leone was ceded by the native chiefs ; 

 while in 1788, not quite a century ago, the not 



