Saint Lucia

“ The night of St Lucia is greatly feared (the saint loses her sight; the summer, the warm sunny season, comes to an end; the Madonna moon disappears, and then becomes queen of the sky, the guardian of light, as St Lucia) , and conjurings are made against nightmare, devils, and witches. ”

“ Among colonial possessions England took from France the Mauritius, Tobago, and Saint Lucia, but she returned Martinique and the Isle of Bourbon, and forced Sweden and Portugal to restore Guadeloupe and French Guiana. With regard to Holland, England retained Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope, but she restored Java, Curaçao, and the other Dutch possessions. In the West Indies also, she retained, as has been said, the former Spanish island of Trinidad. ”

“ At first the natives were friendly, but they soon treacherously attacked the new settlers. After a truce with the Caribs had been made, Nicholl's party, nineteen in all, rigged and provisioned one of the Carib periaguas, and on 26 Sept. they left Saint Lucia. On 5 Oct. they were wrecked on a barren island about a league from the mainland. Having patched up their canoe, five of the party embarked for the mainland of Venezuela, but Nicholl and his comrades suffered agonies from hunger and thirst on the island for fifteen days. ”

“ Since 1983 the economy has shown an impressive average annual growth rate of almost 5% because of strong agricultural and tourist sectors. Saint Lucia also possesses an expanding industrial base supported by foreign investment in manufacturing and other activities, such as in data processing. The economy, however, remains vulnerable because the important agricultural sector is dominated by banana production. Saint Lucia is subject to periodic droughts and/or tropical storms, and its protected market agreement with the UK for bananas may end in 1992.
_#_GDP: $273 million, per capita $1,830 ”

“ As such, it was hailed by all the villages through which she had passed; and that night she would receive the prayers of the Christians of Gualan.
The Santa Lucia enjoyed a peculiar popularity from her miraculous power over the affections of the young; for any young man who prayed to her for a wife, or any young woman who prayed for a husband, was sure to receive the object of such prayer; and if the person praying indicated to the saint the individual wished for, the prayer would be granted, provided such individual was not already married. ”

“ One sees nothing but a flat stretch of luxuriant greenery dotted with white hamlets, and streaked with snow-white roads. The harbour of the capital is always crowded with shipping, the quays and dockyards are filled with merchandise, and among the wharf sheds a brilliant crowd of natives cheerfully assumes an air of indolent exertion.
St. Lucia is larger than Barbadoes, and its thickly-wooded hills and sugar-loaf mountains offer greater attraction to the artistic visitor. But commercially it has not the value of its smaller neighbour. Though much larger, the population of St. ”

“ It was inhabited by Caribs, who killed the majority of the first white people (Englishmen) who attempted to settle on the island (1605) . For two centuries St Lucia was claimed both by France and by England. In 1627 the famous Carlisle grant included St Lucia among British possessions, while in 1635 the king of France granted it to two of his subjects. In 1638 some 130 English from St Kitts formed a settlement, but in 1641 were killed or driven away by the Caribs. The French in 1650 sent settlers from Martinique who concluded a treaty of peace with the Caribs in 1660. ”

“ We had a fair wind, and by lying well to the westward, saw the fading rays of the setting sun gild the two high and conical hills of St. Lucia—the Pitons—which are covered from the beach to their summits with the greenest foliage; but these darkened and seemed to melt away as the cloudless sun went down beyond the burning sea, while afar off on our larboard quarter a crimson gleam shot at times across the horizon. It came from the flaming crater of La Soufrière in St. Lucia, where clouds of burning alum, sulphur, and cinders are hourly spouted to the sky. ”

“ By the treaty of Amiens St Lucia was anew declared French. Bonaparte intended to make it the capital of the Antilles, but it once more capitulated to the British (June 1803) and was finally ceded to Great Britain in 1814. In 1834, when the slaves were emancipated, there were in St Lucia over 13,000 negro slaves, 2600 free men of colour and 2300 whites. The development of the island—half ruined by the revolutionary war—has been retarded by epidemics of cholera and smallpox, by the decline of the sugarcane industry and other causes, such as the low level of education. ”

“ There is a hill, or rather high rock, at the east end of the city, called St Lucia, from the top of which you have a view of all the city and the country about for many leagues, affording a very delightful landscape. ”

“ Lucia, until then one of the neutral islands, was ceded to France, and was made a dependency of Martinique. The first step adopted by the local authorities on that occasion, was to offer extensive grants of land in St. Lucia to such families in Martinique as might be disposed to settle in the former island; and among those who took advantage of the proposal was M. de Tascher, the father of Josephine. In the course of the year 1763 he came over to St. Lucia, and settled with his family on the crest of a hill called Paix-Bouche, within a few miles of the site now occupied by the principal town. ”

“ In Martinique were white-faced houses like provincial France, and a boiling market full of colored women with kerchiefs ultramarine and scarlet. They passed hot St. Lucia, and Saba that is all one lone volcano. They devoured paw-paws and breadfruit and avocados, bought from coffee-colored natives who came alongside in nervous small boats; they felt the languor of the isles, and panted before they approached Barbados.
Just beyond was St. Hubert. ”

“ Lucia was a martyred maid in the time of Diocletian, and lost her money and her eyes. The island bearing her name has suffered outrage and martyrdom and may well invoke her as the patroness of the poor and blind, for its inhabitants are afflicted with poverty and eye disease.
The land-locked harbor is the military key to the West Indies. Morne and Vigie are striking fortifications, and historic hill-tops in the back-ground have been bathed in the blood of those climbing the Calvary of death. They were drenched in mist and rain when we docked. Coal and not carnage is the leading industry now. ”

“ The 7th August arrived a pinnace from the island of St Lucia, in lat. 24° 30' S. about a mile from the coast of Madagascar, where they were forced to take shelter in the ship which left this on the 4th October, 1606, having been obliged to throw overboard 3000 sacks of pepper, besides other commodities of great value, to lighten the ship and preserve their lives. They found this island an excellent place for refreshment, the natives having no knowledge of money; so that they bought a fat ox for a tin spoon, and a sheep for a small piece of brass. ”

“ In the orders issued in 1829, by the British Government, in St Lucia, placing all freemen of African descent upon the footing of equal rights with their white neighbors, the loyalty and good conduct of that class are distinctly acknowledged, and they are declared 'to have shown, hitherto, readiness and zeal in coming forward for the maintenance of order.' As similar orders have been issued for Trinidad, Berbice, and the Cape of Good Hope, it may be presumed that the conduct of the free blacks and colored persons in those colonies has likewise given satisfaction to Government. ”

“ The average church-attendance is 41 per cent, of the whole population; the average school-attendance, 1,600. Commerce is rapidly advancing. The imports have risen from £50,307 in 1854 to £59,994 in 1856; and the exports from £49,754 to £79,789 in the same time.
In St. Lucia the planters have followed a more wise and liberal policy towards the emancipated slaves. Better wages have been offered; liberal inducements have been held out to the negroes to cultivate the estates; efforts have been put forth to improve the social and moral condition of the laboring class. ”

“ ST LUCIA, the largest of the British Windward Islands, West Indies, in 14° N., 61° W., 24 m. S. of Martinique and 21 m. N.E. of St Vincent. Its area is 233 sq. m., length 42 m., maximum breadth 12 m., and its coast-line is 150 m. long. It is considered one of the loveliest of all the West Indian islands. It is a mass of mountains, rising sheer from the water, their summits bathed in perpetual mist. Impenetrable forests alternate with fertile plains, and deep ravines and frowning precipices with beautiful bays and coves. Everywhere there is luxuriant vegetation. ”

“ Lucia, Trinidad, in almost all these western Edens, nay, even in flourishing Demerara itself, has the image of little unpicturesque Barbadoes, unpromising in show, unfavoured by nature, yet thriving, prosperous, overstocked, and therefore only prosperous because overstocked, recurred to my mind! Improved machinery, coolies, Chinese, are all of them excellent things each in their way, but they cannot make up for the absence of that one great requisite of all progress, material or social, a superabundant native population. ”

“ The capture of Bob had upset the plans of the two aged brigands, and they were a little cautious about proceeding. But for several nights they had made raids on the improvised pantry Ned had constructed.
“Are we to go again to-night?” asked San Lucia, on the evening when Ned made the discovery that led to the posting of the guard.
“It remains to be seen,” replied Murado. “If we have no better luck than last night it is of little use.”
“No; tomatoes are a poor substitute for gold,” [208] agreed San Lucia. “I wonder if they have nothing but things to eat in those cans.” ”

“ Lucia itself is hardly to be called a colony, but rather the nucleus of a colony, which may become hereafter, by energy and good government, a rich and thickly-peopled garden up to the very mountain-tops. ”

“ The French firmly established themselves in the island and made it a centre for operations, St. Lucia was taken, and insurrections of French inhabitants, negroes, and native races were fomented and supported in St. Vincent's, Grenada, and Dominica. An insurrection of the Maroons caused much trouble in Jamaica, and the government of the island imported bloodhounds from Cuba to track the fugitive insurgents. Great indignation was expressed in parliament at this measure, and it was asserted that the dogs tore the natives in pieces. ”

“ When news of the outbreak of the war reached the West Indies, the French governor of Martinique seized Dominica, while Admiral Barrington, in command of a small squadron at Barbadoes, was waiting for orders. As soon as Barrington received the reinforcements sent by Clinton, he attacked St. Lucia. D'Estaing came over from America with a fleet of twice the size, but failed to engage our ships closely, and, after some fighting on the island, in which the French lost heavily, sailed off to Martinique. St. Lucia was surrendered on December 29. ”

“ In Cuba there is a great Spanish population; Martinique and Guadaloupe are parts of France; to us it seems a matter of indifference whether we keep our islands or abandon them, and we leave the remnants of our once precious settlements to float or drown as they can. Australia and Canada take care of themselves; we expect our West Indies to do the same, careless of the difference of circumstance. We no longer talk of cutting our colonies adrift; the tone of public opinion is changed, and no one dares to advocate openly the desertion of the least important of them. ”

“ They come on shore to lay their eggs, which they cover with sand, leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun. Their season of laying eggs is from August to February, remaining all the rest of the year in the sea. They caught every night great numbers of these animals while ashore to lay their eggs, and the sailors found them wholesome and pleasant food, eating more like flesh than fish.
This island is altogether uninhabited, but the people of St Lucia come here once a year to catch tortoises, for the sake of an oil they prepare from them ”

“ They derive their name from being less exposed to the prevailing N.E. trade wind than the adjacent Windward Islands. They are the most northerly of the Lesser Antilles, and form a curved chain stretching S.W. from Puerto Rico to meet St Lucia, the most northerly of the Windward Islands. They consist of the Virgin Islands, with St Kitts, Antigua, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and their various dependencies. The Virgin Islands are owned by Great Britain and Denmark, Holland having St Eustatius, with Saba, and part of St Martin. ”

“ If it was madness for a woman to come alone to the Coast, it was stark-staring madness that almost needed restraining in a strait-waistcoat to think of landing in Liberia, for Liberia of all the countries along the Guinea Coast is the one most disliked by the sailors, most despised, and since I have been there I am inclined to say not without reason. ”

“ Sixty miles from the western end of the island is the mountainous land of German New Guinea; and sometimes, when the air is clear and the south-east trade wind blows, the savages on Berara can see across the deep, wide strait the grey loom of the great range that fringes the north-eastern coast of New Guinea for many hundred miles. Once, indeed, when the writer of this true story lived in New Britain, he saw this sight for a whole week, for there, in those beautiful islands, the air is very clear at certain seasons of the year. ”