eruption which seriously disfigured the landscape,
and in 1843 it went into convulsions which shook
the whole island and did considerable damage,almost
destroying the city of Pointe-à-Pitre.
T h e latest authentic statistics of the population
of Guadeloupe as a colony place it at 135,650, including
13,850 for Marie Galante, and 1400 for
Désirade. About three fourths of the people are
classed as “ blacks,” and there are all shades of
colour, though the white element has never been
sufficiently large to reduce the African predominance
noticeably. The aspect of life in the towns
is extremely picturesque, with light costumes and
turbans of gay colours, and a cheerful appearance
of thrift and comfort. While the foreign trade is
chiefly in sugar and coffee, the local traffic in fish,
vegetables, and fruits, mostly carried on by women,
gives life and colour to the market-places. A t first
Guadeloupe was attached to the colony of Martinique,
but it has had a separate administration
since 1775» and in 1837 the French municipal system
was introduced. It is a department represented by
one senator and two deputies in the French Corps
Législatif, and is divided into three arrondissements :
Basse-Terre, Pointe-à-Pitre, and Marie Galante.
There is a governor and council appointed by the
home authorities, and a general council of thirty-six
members elected from the communes to represent
local interests and sentiment. T he annual revenues
of the colony amount to about $1,000,000. The
aggregate of foreign trade is about 45,000,000 francs
or $9,000,000 per year, divided almost equally between
imports and exports.
C H A P T E R X X X I I I
DOMINICA
TH E culminating height of the volcanic ridge
whose peaks constitute the main line of the
Caribbees is Mount Diablotin, 5340 feet high, in
the northern part of the island of Dominica. That
central island of the range is about twenty-five miles
south of Guadeloupe and a little more than that
north of Martinique. Its entire length from north
to south is twenty-nine miles, and its width from
twelve to sixteen, the greatest length being on the
west side. A large part of its area is covered with
mountains, which are clothed with dense forests and
tropical vegetation of rank luxuriance ; its shores
are rocky and precipitous, with few indentations
that can be used as landing-places. The only available
anchorages are on the west side at Prince
Rupert’s Bay in the north, where the town of Portsmouth
is situated, and at Roseau, the capital,
farther south, where there is a practicable “ caréna
g e .” T h e mountains are cleft with wild gorges
and ravines, and there are many streams, which
often fall in beautiful cascades over the precipices,
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