cruise in 1762, and held it after the peace, and
though the French captured it in 1779, it was recovered
by Rodney’s great victory of 1782, and has
been in English hands ever since.
I t had its era of prosperity in the days of great
sugar plantations, when most of its cultivated soil
was devoted to cane-fields, though equally adapted
to cotton, tobacco, indigo, and all manner of fruits
and spices. With the abolition of slavery and the
depression in sugar came languor and decay. Old
planters gave it up and went home; there was a
general emigration of whites, and the land fell into
the hands of the negroes in small parcels, until the
Europeans numbered a few hundred among a population
of near 50,000. I t is a populous island in
proportion to habitable area, and though it no longer
exports much of the old colonial produce,” it has
been more prosperous for the actual inhabitants than
in the slavery days. T h e y raise little cotton, sugar,
and coffee, but cacao has become a staple, and ginger,
nutmegs, cloves, and other spices, and even
tea, are grown, and show the capabilities of the
land. On the different levels the capacity for varied
production is such that a systematic industry would
make this a source of all tropical luxuries.
There were once several good harbours on this
island, Egmont in the south, Grenville Bay in the
east, and Charlotteville in the north; but of late
even the chief port is not much used— St. George
in the south-west, where the capital, St. George’s,
or George Town, is situated, headquarters of the
Windward Islands government. This is called the
“ finest harbour in the A n tille s .” A long peninsula
stretches into the bay, ending with a headland,
formerly strongly fortified, but latterly fallen into
neglect. On the right of this, looking inward from
the sea, is the deep H carénage,” where large vessels
can come close in shore and be safe. Within the
fortified headland along the slope of the peninsula
for nearly a mile straggles the white town with its
red roofs and its church spires, pretty at a distance
but shabby and out of repair within. The long
street leads to suburban villas and gardens on
the semicircular slope at the head of the lagoon,
which heighten the beauty of the picture, while
farther back rise the verdant hills even to that central
volcanic peak. Across the bay is the “ Etang
du V ieu x Bourg,” a pond with surroundings suggestive
of volcanic eruption and of earthquake, and
said by vague tradition to be the site of an old
French town. It seems to be an ancient crater, and
the broken and dilapidated end of the island near
here marks the termination of the volcanic ridge
that cuts the sea with a curve of a thousand miles
and sticks its jagged edges in the air. Between it
and the South American coast is a space of s ix ty
miles of deep water.
Grenada is divided into six parishes for purposes
of administration, and it has a legislative assembly
of seventeen elective members, but qualified voters
are few. There is a fine government house and a
few stately mansions at or near St. George’s, and
there are several English Protestant and French
Catholic churches, some with schools for the blacks,