My purpose in writing this book is so fully explained in the book itself that a Preface is unnecessary. I visited the West India Islands in order to increase my acquaintance with the condition of the British Colonies. I have related what I saw and what I heard, with the general impressions which I was led to form.

In a few instances, when opinions were conveyed to me which were important in themselves, but which it might be undesirable to assign to the persons from whom I heard them, I have altered initials and disguised localities and circumstances.

The illustrations are from sketches of my own, which, except so far as they are tolerably like the scenes which they represent, are without value. They have been made producible by the skill and care of the engraver, Mr. Pearson, to whom my warmest thanks are due.

J.A.F.

Onslow Gardens: November 15, 1887.

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ILLUSTRATIONS.

Table of Contents

Mountain Crater, Dominica	Frontispiece
Silk Cotton Tree, Jamaica	Title page
Blue Basin, Trinidad	To face page 72
Morning Walk, Dominica	136
Port Royal, Jamaica	171
Valley in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica	194
Kingston and Harbour, from Cherry Gardens	234
Havana, from the Quarries	258
Port au Prince, Hayti	288

THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.

Table of Contents

Colonial policy—Union or separation—Self-government—Varieties of condition—The Pacific colonies—The West Indies—Proposals for a West Indian federation—Nature of the population—American union and British plantations—Original conquest of the West Indies.

The Colonial Exhibition has come and gone. Delegates from our great self-governed dependencies have met and consulted together, and have determined upon a common course of action for Imperial defence. The British race dispersed over

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