A few of the more important British islands will be noticed separately in a brief manner.
1. Jamaica.—This island was discovered by Columbus in his second voyage in 1494. It was first settled by the Spaniards in 1509. A body of seventy men were sent to it by Diego Columbus, the son of the discoverer. These were blood-thirsty wretches, who made frequent assaults on the natives, for the purpose of robbery or revenge. The progress of settlement was extremely slow—not more than three thousand inhabitants, of whom half were slaves, being found on the island in 1655, when it was taken by a British force, under Penn and Venables.
Soon after this event, Jamaica was colonized by three thousand soldiers, disbanded from the parliamentary army, who were followed by about one thousand five hundred royalists. At the period of its capture by the English, many of the slaves belonging to the Spanish settlers fled to the mountains, where they long lived in a kind of savage independence, and became troublesome to the British colonists. They have been known by the name of Maroons. In 1795 they were overcome by the English, as they descended from their fastnesses for the purpose of assaulting the former, and six hundred of them were sent to Nova Scotia, where they were settled on locations of land provided for them by the government. Since the occupancy of the island in 1655, the English have firmly maintained their authority over it.
2. Trinidad.—This is a fruitful island, producing cotton, sugar, fine tobacco, indigo, ginger, maize, and various fruits. Its area is nearly two thousand square miles, and its population over forty-five thousand. Its climate is unhealthy. This island was taken by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595, and by the French in 1676. It was captured from the Spaniards in 1797, and ceded to England by the treaty of Amiens in 1802.
3. Barbadoes.—This island is situated on the eastern border of the West Indian archipelago. It has a large population for its size, numbering over one hundred thousand souls, on an area of less than two hundred square miles. The climate is hot, but the air is pure, and moderated by the constant trade-winds, which render it salubrious, in comparison with the other islands. The exports from the island are sugar, rum, ginger, cotton, aloes, &c. It is subject to tempests, which at times have occasioned great devastation and loss of life.
Barbadoes is supposed to have been discovered by the Portuguese, and appears never to have had any aboriginal inhabitants. In 1627, some English families settled there, but without any authority from the government. It was soon afterwards supplied with a regular colony by the Earl of Carlisle. The British settlers at length brought this rich, but uncultivated, track into entire subjection by the power of industry.
4. Bahamas.—The Bahama or Lucayos islands consist of about seven hundred very small islands, extending over a large space of the archipelago on its northern border. Their soil is generally light and sandy, and productive only in a few places. The principal products are cotton, salt, turtle, fruits, mahogany, and dye-woods. The group among them called Turk's island, is famous for its salt ponds, which annually yield more than thirty thousand tons of salt for the foreign market.
Guanahani, or Cat island, is celebrated as being the land which Columbus first discovered. He named it San Salvador. The Spaniards first settled on these islands, but at length abandoned them, having shipped off the natives to work in the mines in other places. They remained desolate for more than a century. In 1629, New Providence was taken possession of by the English, who remained there till 1641, when they were driven out by the Spaniards in a cruel and barbarous manner. They, however, changed owners repeatedly, till, in 1783, they were confirmed to the English by treaty. For many years previous to the close of the American war, the Bahamas were the haunts of pirates, buccaniers, and freebooters.
5. St. Christopher's.—This island, with Montserrat, Nevis, Antigua, and the Virgin isles, form one government, the governor generally residing at Antigua. The interior of the country is a rugged mass of precipices and barren mountains, the loftiest rising to three thousand seven hundred and ten feet. The island has a productive soil on the plains.
St. Christopher's is said to have been the nursery of all the English and French colonies in the West Indies. It was first visited by both nations on the same day, in 1625. They shared the island between them, engaging, by treaty, to observe perpetual neutrality and alliance against the Spaniards, the common enemy. The possession of a common property in the productions of the island, led eventually to jealousies and contentions. Whenever war broke out between the mother-countries, the colonists engaged among themselves, and alternately drove each other from the plantations; but the treaty of Utrecht confirmed the British in the possession of the whole island.