the year following the eruption of Mont Pelé, exports were valued at £604,163.
Martinique, the name of which may be derived from a native form Madiana or Mantinino, was probably discovered by Columbus on the 15th of June 1502; although by some authorities its discovery is placed in 1493. It was at that time inhabited by Caribs who had expelled or incorporated an older stock. It was not until the 25th of June 1635 that possession was taken of the island in the name of the French Compagnie des Îles d’Amérique. Actual settlement was carried out in the same year by Pierre Belain, Sieur d’Esnambuc, captain-general of the island of St Christopher. In 1637 his nephew Dyel Duparquet (d. 1658) became captain-general of the colony, now numbering seven hundred men, and subsequently obtained the seigneurie of the island by purchase from the company under the authority of the king of France. In 1654 welcome was given to three hundred Jews expelled from Brazil, and by 1658 there were at least five thousand people exclusive of the Caribs, who were soon after exterminated. Purchased by the French government from Duparquet’s children for 120,000 livres, Martinique was assigned to the West India Company, but in 1674 it became part of the royal domain. The habitants (French landholders) at first devoted themselves to the cultivation of cotton and tobacco; but in 1650 sugar plantations were begun, and in 1723 the coffee plant was introduced. Slave labour having been introduced at an early period of the occupation, there were 60,000 blacks in the island by 1736. This slavery was abolished in 1860. Martinique had a full share of wars. In early days the Caribs were not brought under subjection without severe struggles. In 1666 and 1667 the island was attacked by the British without success, and hostilities were terminated by the treaty of Breda. The Dutch made similar attempts in 1674, and the British again attacked the island in 1693. Captured by Rodney in 1762, Martinique was next year restored to the French; but after the conquest by Sir John Jervis and Sir Charles Grey in 1793 it was retained for eight years; and, seized again in 1809, it was not surrendered till 1814. The island was the birth-place of the Empress Josephine.
Martinique has suffered from occasional severe storms, as in 1767, when 1600 persons perished, and M. de la Pagerie, father of the Empress Josephine, was practically ruined, and in 1839, 1891 and 1903, when much damage was done to the sugar crop. Earthquakes have also been frequent, but the most terrible natural disaster was the eruption of Mont Pelé in 1902, by which the town of St Pierre, formerly the chief commercial centre of the island, was destroyed. During the earlier months of the year various manifestations of volcanic activity had occurred; on the 25th of April there was a heavy fall of ashes, and on the 2nd and 3rd of May a heavy eruption destroyed extensive sugar plantations north of St Pierre, and caused a loss of some 150 lives. A few days later the news that the Souffrière in St Vincent was in eruption reassured the inhabitants of St Pierre, as it was supposed that this outbreak might relieve the volcano of Pelé. But on the 8th of May the final catastrophe came without warning; a mass of fire, compared to a flaming whirlwind, swept over St Pierre, destroying the ships in the harbour, among which, however, one, the “Roddam” of Scrutton, escaped. A fall of molten lava and ashes followed the flames, accompanied by dense gases which asphyxiated those who had thus far escaped. The total loss of life was estimated at 40,000. Consternation was caused not only in the West Indies, but in France and throughout the world, and at first it was seriously suggested that the island should be evacuated, but no countenance was lent to this proposal by the French government. Relief measures were undertaken and voluntary subscriptions raised. The material losses were estimated at £4,000,000; but, besides St Pierre, only one-tenth of the island had been devastated, and although during July there was further volcanic activity, causing more destruction, the economic situation recovered more rapidly than was expected.
See Annuaire de la Martinique (Fort de France); H. Mouet, La Martinique (Paris, 1892); M. J. Guët, Origines de la Martinique (Vannes, 1893); G. Landes, Notice sur la Martinique (with full bibliography), (Paris, 1900); M. Dumoret, Au pays du sucre (Paris, 1902); and on the eruption of 1902, A. Heilprin, Mont Pelée and the Tragedy of Martinique (Philadelphia and London, 1903); A. Lacroix, La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions (Paris, 1904); and the report of Drs J. S. Flett and T. Anderson (November 20, 1902), who investigated the eruptions on behalf of the Royal Society; cf. T. Anderson, “Recent Volcanic Eruptions in the West Indies,” in Geographical Journal, vol. xxi. (1903).
MARTINSBURG, a town and the county-seat of Berkeley county, West Virginia, U.S.A., about 74 m. W.N.W. of Washington,
D.C. Pop. (1890) 7226; (1900) 7564 (678 negroes);
(1910) 10,698. It is served by the Baltimore & Ohio and the
Cumberland Valley railways; the former has repair shops here.
It lies in the Lower Shenandoah Valley at the foot of Little North
mountain, in the midst of a fruit-growing region, peaches and
apples being the principal crops. Slate and limestone also
abound in the vicinity. The town has a fine Federal Building
and a King’s Daughters’ hospital. There are grain elevators,
and various manufactures, including hosiery, woollen goods,
dressed lumber, &c. Martinsburg owns its waterworks, the
supply being derived from a neighbouring spring. A town was
laid out here a short time before the War of Independence and
was named Martinstown in honour of Colonel Thomas Bryan
Martin, a nephew of Thomas, Lord Fairfax (1692–1782); in
1778 it was incorporated under its present name. During the
Civil War Martinsburg was occupied by several different Union
and Confederate forces.
MARTINS FERRY, a city of Belmont county, Ohio, U.S.A., on the Ohio River, nearly opposite Wheeling, West Virginia. Pop. (1890), 6250; (1900), 7760, including 1033 foreign-born and 252 negroes; (1910), 9133. It is served by the Pennsylvania (Cleveland & Pittsburg Division), the Baltimore & Ohio, and the Wheeling & Lake Erie (Wabash System) railways, and by several steamboat lines. The city is situated on two plateaus; the lower is occupied chiefly by factories, the upper by dwellings. Coal mining and manufacturing are the principal industries; among factory products are iron, steel, tin, stoves, machinery and glassware. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks and an electric-lighting plant. A settlement was attempted here in 1785, but was abandoned on account of trouble with the Indians. In 1795 a town was laid out by Absalom Martin and was called Jefferson, but this, too, was abandoned, on
