sugar in the United States. Relief has been sought
through British legislation and governmental
changes. T he confederation of the British colonies
in the West Indies has been proposed, political connection
with Canada has been advocated, and even
annexation to the United States has been agitated.
I t is a question whether the real difficulty is not a
lack of white colonisation, a mistaken treatment of
the freed negroes, and a want of enterprise in varying
the industries of the island since great plantations
of sugar and coffee have become unprofitable.
Whether there are conditions of climate and race
which make the difficulty insuperable is not an
appropriate subject of discussion here, but is an
interesting question for those whom it most concerns.
C H A P T E R X X
THE ISLAND OF HAITI
TH E submarine ridge from which the island of
Jamaica rises stretches eastward in the ocean
depths about one hundred and thirty miles and then
comes to the surface directly south of the eastern
point of Cuba in the long and mountainous peninsula
which constitutes the south-western prong of the
island of Haiti. In like manner the ridge of which
the whole length of Cuba forms a part continues
under the Windward Passage for s ix ty miles and
comes to light in the shorter north-western prong of
Haiti. T he deep trough between these great ridges
runs in between the lofty peninsulas to form the
Gulf of Gonaive, ending in the triangular Bay of
Port-au-Prince. T h e southern peninsula, terminating
in Cape Tiburon, is one hundred and fifty miles
long, and varies from twenty to forty miles in w id th ;
and the northern, which ends with that great natural
embankment called Mole St. Nicholas, is fifty miles
long and about forty wide. T h e gulf between is
eighty miles across, and is divided near the entrance
to Port-au-Prince Bay by Gonaive Island, which is
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