the reptiles and the insects common to the Carib-
bees, but St. Lucia is the special home of that
hideous and deadly serpent, the “ fer-de-lance,”
or spear-head. He also infests Martinique, and is
said to have been found in Guadeloupe and St.
Vincent and on Bequia at the northern verge of
the Grenadines. A s his original home is Guiana,
and he is never seen in the islands beyond the limits
mentioned, his presence is a standing puzzle to the
scientists. He is sometimes called the rat-tailed
snake, and his make-up is peculiarly repulsive, perhaps
intensified by the known fact that he needs no
provocation to strike, and the stroke of his venomous
fangs is almost instantly fatal. There is a harmless
snake of his own size— sometimes six or seven
feet long— called the cribo, which will fight and kill
the fer-de-lance and eat the slaughtered enemy like
a cannibal Carib.
In the old plantation days sugar was raised on
the slopes of St. Lucia, and to some extent is still
raised; but since the abolition of slavery there has
been languishing and decay, as in so many other
English islands. Of the 45,000 inhabitants, barely
1000 are whites, and the planters’ families have
mostly emigrated. T he negroes have obtained
small allotments of land, and a central “ usine,”
or sugar factory, has been established with government
aid, and there are still some exports of
sugar, coffee, and cacao. T he town of Castries,
named for Marshal de Castries at the time of
the French occupation, capital and chief city, has
5000 or 6000 people, and until lately seemed to be
going to decay in spite of the advantages of its
location and its splendid harbour. When Lord
Rodney urged the retention of St. Lucia rather
than Martinique, he advised making a great naval
station here. His advice was not followed, but in
recent years the harbour has been dredged and lined
with wharves, and Castries has become the British
coaling station in the Windward Islands, having
telegraph connection with all the world. On the
heights of Morne Fortunée, seven hundred and
seventy feet above the sea, is the station for troops,
and Chabot and Chazeau are health resorts. In the
valleys, especially where there are swamps near the
mouths of the many streams, the climate is considered
unhealthy. There are a few stone houses in
the town of Castries, but for the most part it consists
of long rows of small dwellings occupied by negroes.
St. Lucia had its full share in the vicissitudes of
the struggle for control between England and France
in this part of the Antilles. I t is set down among
the discoveries of Columbus on his fourth voyage in
1502, but was left to the native Caribs for more than
a century and a quarter. It was included in the
sweeping grant of Charles I. to the Earl of Carlisle
in 1627, and the English made attempts at settlement,
but were driven off. In 1642, the K in g of
France undertook to sell the island to a couple of
Frenchmen. T h e y were equally unsuccessful in
their attempts to establish a colony, but rival claims
were thus set up to its possession. In 1664, it was
attacked by an English force from Barbados, but
was ceded to France by the treaty of Breda. In all