from Antigua, four from St. Christopher-Nevis, and
two from Dominica, leaving Montserrat and The V ir gins
without representation. The president of this
colonial legislative council is appointed by the governor
from the members who come from the island
councils, and the body is permitted to choose a vice-
president for itself. How much of self-government
or of popular representation there is in this system
must be obvious ; and, so far as local autonomy in the
separate islands is concerned, it is only necessary to
add that the legislative council of the colony can repeal
or amend any act of an island council or legislate
in its place. Moreover the governor can summon,
prorogue, or dissolve the colonial council at will.
T h e reason for this arbitrary form of government
for these islands no doubt is that the population is
made up chiefly of negroes who were slaves a generation
or two ago, and of their descendants, more
or less mixed with other races. In the English
islands there is less of the mixed blood, or of
“ coloured ” population as distinguished from
“ black,” than in the others, for English sentiment
has been more repugnant to miscegenation, which
has been pretty general in the French and Dutch
islands. This same sentiment, or “ race prejudice,”
left the emancipated slaves in a more abject condition
of ignorance and incapacity for civic duties.
While in servitude they received neither secular nor
religious instruction, and practically nothing was
afterwards done to fit them for the exercise of political
rights. A s they largely outnumbered the whites,
there was no apparent desire to intrust them with
such rights or to prepare them for their exercise.
C H A P T E R X X IX
T H E V I R G I N S A N D T H E D A N I S H I S L A N D S
ON his second voyage in November, 1493» Columbus
came up the Caribbees scattering holy
names among the islands, and when he reached the
last group before turning westward he disposed of
the whole procession by calling them “ T h e V ir gins,”
in honour of St. Ursula and the spotless band
she led through Europe to be slaughtered by the
Huns. A s he departed he bestowed separate names
on St. Thomas and St. John, and saw in the distance
on his left a verdant island which he endowed
with the name of the Holy Cross, Santa Cruz.
These three now belong to Denmark, but the rest
of T h e Virgins are part of the British “ Leeward
Islands Colony .” There are said to be a hundred of
them, but for the most part they are a barren lot,
mere wind-blown islets, with scanty vegetation and
no inhabitants. Though they occupy a watery space
of nearly one hundred miles by twenty, their total
inhabited area is only fifty-seven square miles, and
their population about 5000. On the few peopled
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