The West India Islands [pp. 455-500]

EXPORITS FROM ANTIGUA DURING THE YEAR 1832.
it did not long remain. The climate of Antigua is healthy. From
1817 to 1836, the average annual mortality was not more than half
that of the West Indies generally. Iuring the same period, the births
among the slave population more than compensated, by seven hundred,
the decrease by deaths. In Louisiana, far different results are apparent.
The products of the island are sugar, molasses, rum, and small
quantities of arrow root and tobacco.
QUANTITIES SHIPPED IN 1836.
Sugar..............................15.739.180 lbs.
Molasses........................... 522.050 gallons.
Rum............................... 11.362 "
Arrow root......................... 25.290 lbs.
Tobacco............................. 21.000 "
The rum is of excellent quality. Value of exports in 1836, ~175.808;
imports, ~191.817. Sugar has for a long time been the staple production of the island. The cane is said to have been introduced by Col.
Codrington, who settled on the island in 1674. The quality was at first
black, harsh and coarse, but these obstacles were at length overcome,
and a grade of sugar produced equal to any shipped to the European
markets.
Mr. Coleridge thus describes the island as approached from the harbor of St. Johns:
" The heart of the island is verdant with an abundant pasturage of grassy down,
and the numerous houses of the planters, embosomed in trees, have more of the
appearance of country mansions in England than almost any other in the West
Indies. The shores are indented in every direction with creeks, and bays, and
coves-some of them running into the center of the plantations like canals-some
swelling into estuaries, and others forming spacious harbors. Beyond these, an infinite variety of islands and islets stud the bosom of the blue sea, and stand out,
like so many advanced posts of defense, against the invading waves. They are of
all shapes and sizes, and are given up to the rearing of provisions and the maintenance of a great number of cattle. From the same hill (Monk's Hill), when the
western sky is clear, Guadaloupe, Montserrat, Nevis and St. Kitts, may all be distinguished by the naked eye.".
QUANTITY AND VALUE OF VARIOUS ARTICLES OF MERCHANDISE
EXPORTED FROM ANTIGUA DURING THE YEAR 1832.
Value in
Description of Goods. Quantity. sterling money.
Arrow root................................lbs. 8.354 ~ 342
Coffee, colonial..............................lbs. 31.284 781
Copper, old........... lbs. 25.066 999
Corn, viz., Wheat Flour.....................bbls. 7 14
Dye and hard woods, colonial................tons. 6 20
Fruits...................................value. 2
Hides..........................number. 312 107
Iron and Steel manufacture, British..........value. 25
Lime Juice........................... gallons. 90 3
Linens, entered by the yard, Br.............yards. 140 4
Molasses................................ gallons. 678.500 26.652
Spirits. Rum............................gallons. 115.420 7.023
Shrub...........................gallons. 390 32
Succades..............................value. 8
Sugar................................ lbs. 17.165.610 126.403
Tobacco..........................lbs. 400 4
Tortoise Shell.............................. lbs. 56 84
477