Commission also made recommendations for the reduction of the high cable rates between the West Indies and the United Kingdom.
Besides sugar, the principal products of the islands are cocoa, fruits and cotton. Cotton-growing reached importance in a very short time owing largely to the efforts of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, Sea Island seed having been planted in St Vincent only in 1903, and in that island and elsewhere (Antigua, St Kitts, Montserrat) good crops are now obtained. Grenada is almost entirely, and Trinidad, Dominica and St Lucia are largely, dependent upon cocoa. The fruit and spice trade is of growing importance, and there is a demand for bottled fruit in Canada and elsewhere. The variety of fruits grown is great; the bananas and oranges of Jamaica, the limes of Montserrat, Dominica and St Lucia, and the Fine-apples of the Bahamas may he mentioned as characteristic, t must be borne in mind, however, that the islands as a whole cannot be said to possess a community of commercial interests. Even the industries already indicated are by no means equally distributed throughout the islands; moreover there are certain local industries of high importance, such as the manufacture of rum in Jamaica, the production of asphalte and the working of the oilfields (the development of which was first seriously undertaken about 1905) in Trinidad, and the production of arrowroot in St Vincent. Sponges are an important product of the Bahamas, and salt of the Turks Islands. Rubber plantation has been successfully exploited in several islands, such as Trinidad, Dominica and St Lucia. (See further articles on the various islands.)
Religion.—In all the British colonies there is full religious toleration. The Church of England Province of the West Indies is divided into the following bishoprics: Jamaica, Nassau (i.e. Bahamas), Trinidad, (British) Honduras, Antigua (i.e. Leeward Islands), Barbados, Windward Islands, (British) Guiana. With the exception of Barbados and British Guiana, the Church of England is disestablished, disendowment taking place gradually, the churches thus becoming self-supporting. In Barbados the Church is both established and endowed. In the Bahamas and Jamaica disendowment is gradually taking place; in Trinidad and British Guiana the Church of England receives endowment concurrently with other religious bodies. The Windward Islands, Leeward Islands and British Honduras are totally disendowed. In all the islands, except Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada and Dominica, the Church of England, though in all cases in a minority when compared "with the aggregate of other bodies, is the most numerous of any denomination. There are Roman Catholic bishops at Port-of-Spain (Trinidad), Roseau (Dominica— for the Leeward Islands), Jamaica, British Guiana and Barbados (resident at Georgetown), British Honduras, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Haiti (archbishop and four bishops), Santo Domingo (archbishop), Cuba (archbishop and bishop), Porto Rico and Curaçao. Other religious denominations working actively in the West Indies are the Baptists, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Moravians.
History.—The archipelago received the name of the West Indies from Columbus, who hoped that, through the islands, he had found a new route to India. The name of Antilles was derived from the fact that Columbus, on his arrival here, was supposed to have reached the fabled land of Antilia. Columbus first landed on San Salvador, generally identified with Watling Island of the Bahamas, and several voyages to this new land were made in rapid succession by the great discoverer, resulting in the finding of most of the larger islands, and a more intimate knowledge of those already known. The importance of its latest possession was at once recognized by the court of Spain, and, as a first move towards turning the West Indies to profitable account, numbers' of the natives, for the most part a harmless and gentle people, were shipped overseas and sold into slavery, others being employed in forced labour in the mines which the Spaniards had opened throughout the archipelago, and from which large returns were expected. Thus early in its history began that traffic in humanity with which the West India plantations are so widely associated, and which endured for so long a time. Goaded to madness by the wrongs inflicted upon them, the aborigines at last took arms against their masters, but with the result which might have been expected—their almost utter extirpation. Many of the survivors sought release from their sufferings in suicide, and numbers of others perished in the mines, so that the native race soon almost ceased to exist. Spain was not long allowed to retain an undisputed hold upon the islands: British and Dutch seamen soon sought the new region, accounts concerning the fabulous wealth and treasure of which Stirred all Europe, and a desultory warfare began to be waged amongst the various voyagers who flocked to this El Dorado, in consequence of which the Spaniards found themselves gradually but surely forced from many of their vantage grounds, and compelled very materially to reduce the area over which they had held unchecked sway. The first care of the English settlers was to find out the real agricultural capabilities of the islands, and they diligently set about planting tobacco, cotton and indigo. A French West India Company was incorporated in 1625, and a settlement established on the island of St Christopher, where a small English colony was already engaged in clearing and cultivating the ground; these were driven out by the Spaniards in 1630, but only to return and again assume possession. About this time, also, the celebrated buccaneers, Dutch smugglers, and British and French pirates began to infest the neighbouring seas, doing much damage to legitimate traders, and causing commerce to be carried on only under force of arms, and with much difficulty and danger. Indeed, it was not till the beginning of the i8th century—some time after Spain had, in 1670, given up her claim to the exclusive possession of the archipelago—that these rovers were rendered comparatively harmless; and piracy yet lingered off the coasts down to the early years of the 19th century. In 1640 sugar-cane began to be systematically planted, and the marvellous prosperity of the West Indies began; it was not from the gold and precious stones, to which the Spaniards had looked for wealth and power, but from the cane that the fortunes of the West Indies were to spring. The successful propagation of this plant drew to the islands crowds of adventurers, many of them men of considerable wealth. The West Indies were for many years used by the English government as penal settlements, the prisoners working on the plantations as slaves. In 1655 a British force made an unsuccessful attack on Haiti, but a sudden descent on Jamaica was more fortunate in its result, and that rich and beautiful island has since remained in the possession of Great Britain. The Portuguese were the first to import negroes as slaves, and their example was followed by other nations having West-Indian colonies, the traffic existing for about 300 years. In 1660 a division of the islands was arranged between England and France, the remaining aborigines being driven to specified localities, but this treaty did not produce the benefits expected from it, and as wars raged in Europe the islands (see separate articles) frequently changed hands.
Authorities.—Sir C. P. Lucas, A Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vol. ii. (Oxford, revision of 1905); C. Washington Eves, C.M.G., The West Indies (4th edition, London, 1897); A. Caldecott, B.D., The Church in the West Indies (Colonial Church Histories, London, 1898); Robert T. Hill, Cuba and Porto Rico, with the other Islands of the West Indies (London, 1898); Amos Kidder Fiske, History of the West Indies (New York, 1899); H. de R. Walker, The West Indies and the British Empire (London, 1901); J. H. Stark, Guides to the West Indies (London. 1898, &c.); A. E. Aspinall, Guide to the West Indies (London, 1907): J. A. Froude, The English in the West Indies (London, 1888); J. Rodway, The West Indies and the Spanish Main (London, 1896); Sir Harry Johnston, The Negro in the New World (London, 1910); J. W. Root, The British West Indies and the Sugar Industry (1899); Colonial Office Reports; Reports of Royal Commissions, 1897 and 1910.
WESTMACOTT, SIR RICHARD (1775–1856), British sculptor, was born in London, and while yet a boy learned the rudiments of the plastic art in the studio of his father, who was then a sculptor of some reputation. In 1793, at the age of eighteen, he went to Rome and became a pupil of Canova, then at the height of his fame. Under the prevailing influences of Italy at that time, Westmacott devoted all his energies to the study of classical sculpture, and throughout his life his real sympathies were with pagan rather than with Christian art. Within a year of his arrival in Rome he won the first prize for sculpture offered by the Florentine academy of arts, and in the following year (1795) he gained the papal gold medal awarded by the Roman Academy of St Luke with his bas-relief of Joseph and his brethren. In 1798, on the 20th of February, he married Dorothy Margaret, daughter of Dr Wilkinson of Jamaica. On his return to London Westmacott began to exhibit his works yearly at the Royal Academy, the first work so exhibited being
