The West Indies: Being a Description of the Islands, Progress of Christianity, Education, and Liberty Among the Colored Population Generally

BEING A DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLANDS,
PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY, EDUCATION, AND LIBERTY
AMONG THE COLORED POPULATION GENERALLY.
BY MRS. NANCY PRINCE.
BOSTON: DOW & JACKSON, PRINTERS, 14 DEVONSHIRE ST. 1841.


A denomination under which is comprehended a large chain of islands, extended in a curve from the Florida shore on the northern peninsula of America, to the Gulf of Venezuela on the southern. These islands belong to five European powers, viz. Great Britain, Spain, France, Holland and Denmark. An inhabitant of New England can form no idea of the climate and the productions of these islands. Many of the particulars that are here mentioned, are peculiar to them all.
The climate in all the West India Islands is nearly the same, allowing for those accidental differences, which the several situations and qualities of the lands themselves produce; as they lie within the tropic of Cancer, and the sun often is almost at the meridian, over their heads, they are continually subjected to a heat that would be intolerable, but for the trade winds, which are so refreshing, as to enable the inhabitants to attend to their concerns, even under a noon-day sun: as the night advances, a breeze begins to be perceived, which blows smartly from the land, as it were, from the centre towards the sea, to all points of the compass at once. The rains make the only distinction of seasons in these islands. The trees are green the year round; they have no cold, or frost; our heaviest rains are but dews, comparatively: with them, floods of water are poured from the clouds. About May, the periodical rains from the South may be expected. After then the tropical summer in all its splendor. The nights are calm and serene, the moon shines more brightly than in New England, as do the planets, and the beautiful galaxy. From the middle of August to the end of September, the heat is most oppressive, the sea breeze is interrupted, and calms warn the inhabitants of the periodical rains; which fall in torrents about the beginning of October.