BRITISH HONDURAS.Hon-doo´ras.
A British Colony in Central America. Area, 7,562 square miles. Population, 27,452. Coast low and swampy; land gradually rises; on the inland boundary are hills of from 800 to 1,000 feet high; mountains 4,000 feet high. Sixteen rivers descend from elevated lands. Climate hot and damp; temperature, 1878-79, 75°; rainfall 105.49 inches, unusually heavy.
Government in the hands of Lieutenant Governor, an executive and a Legislative Council. Capital, Belize; pop., 5,767. Soil fertile. Sugar cane is grown; fruits flourish; the staple products, however, are the natural woods of the colony. Annual export of mahogany, 3,000,000 feet; logwood, 15,000 tons; estimated value of fruit exports, $100,000. Total imports, 1883, $1,344,865; exports, $1,514,345. Large trade with neighboring republics.
JAMAICA.Ja-mā´ka.
An island of the West Indies; formally ceded to Great Britain, in 1670, by the treaty of Madrid; most valuable possession of the British Crown in the West Indies. Area, including the Turks and Caicos Islands, annexed in 1873, 4,362 square miles. Population, 585,536. Surface mountainous. There is a great variety of climate. Temperature in lowlands, 95° at night, 85° in the day; in highlands, 40° to 50°. Produces most of the tropical staples; the rosewood, mahogany and ebony of the island are well known.
Latest reports give 121,457 acres under crops; 120,264 in guinea grass, and 318,549 in pasture. Principal exports: coffee, 9,572,714 lbs.; ginger, 908,603 lbs.; pimento, 6,195,109 lbs.; 29,000 hhds. of sugar; 18,115 puncheons of rum, and 35,157 tons of logwood. Value of fruit exported in same year, $197,255. Total value of imports, 1889, $6,609,810; exports, $7,745,290.
Governor is assisted by a Privy Council and Legislative Council. Kingston, the chief city and port, is the capital; pop., 38,566.
Miles of railway, 25; 60 miles in process of construction. Telegraph stations and post offices in every town and village.
SAN DOMINGO.San Do-meeng´go.