Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz (also spelt Sainte Croix), (1) one of the Virgin Islands, belonging to Denmark, with an area of 74 sq. m. and a pop. (1890) of 19,783. Sugar, rum, and cotton are the chief products; the capital is Christianstadt (pop. 5500). Discovered by Columbus on his first voyage, the island was held by Dutch, English, Spanish, French, and the Knights of Malta at various dates, and was bought by Denmark in 1733.—(2) The largest of a group of Melanesian islands, sometimes called Queen Charlotte Islands, east of the Solomon archipelago and 100 miles N. of the New Hebrides. The largest is also called Nitendi (area, 216 sq. m.). The kidnapping of natives for service in Australia embittered the islanders, so that when Bishop Patteson landed on Nukapu, one of the smaller isles, he was murdered. Then some villages were bombarded in retribution; and in 1875 Commodore Goodenough was murdered.—(3) Santa Cruz, called also Teneriffe, the capital of the Canary Islands (q.v.), and the chief seaport of the group, stands on the north-east side of the island of Teneriffe. Its port, recently enlarged and improved, is protected by moles, and affords excellent anchorage. It is a clean, well-built little town, with houses of the Spanish style, flat-roofed and with square court-yards, and is defended by forts and redoubts. It is the seat of a bishop and the headquarters of the Spanish governor. This port is entered every year by an average of 1585 vessels of 1,019,400 tons. The exports, chiefly potatoes, tomatoes, and other garden produce, cochineal, wine and spirits, tobacco, sugar, and grain, increase steadily in value (£248,774 in 1887 and £302,175 in 1889); the imports, embracing coal, cotton and woollen goods, hardware, and provisions, are also increasing gradually (£428,680 in 1887 and £517,918 in 1889). The greater part of the trade is to and from England, which supplies one-third of the imports and takes more than one-half of the exports. Santa Cruz is being much resorted to by steamers for re-coaling. See BLAKE, ROBERT (under date 1657), and NELSON (1797).—(4) Santa Cruz de la Palma is the capital of Palma, another of the Canary Islands (q.v.); it stands on the east coast, on a spacious bay. Pop. 6617.—(5) Santa Cruz, a southern territory of the Argentine Republic, between 46° S. lat. and Cape Dungeness, and stretching from the Atlantic to the watershed of the Andes. Area, 106,890 sq. m. It is, so far as known, a land of desolate plateaus, with little water and scanty pasturage, where, however, thousands of wild horses range.