St Lucia

St Lucia, the largest of the Windward Islands, in the West Indies, 42 miles long and 15 to 20 wide, with an area of 233 sq. m. Pop. (1896) 46,671—1200 whites and 2600 East Indian coolies. The exports (sugar, cocoa, logwood, &c.) vary from £197,452 (1890) to £93,720 (1896); the imports from £206,693 (1890) to £190,534 (1896). Much of the island is high and rocky land, covered with well-nigh impenetrable forest, and it contains extensive deposits of sulphur. The climate is in the main healthy, a fresh trade-wind blowing almost continually. The island, discovered in 1502, was colonised by the French in 1563; but between that date and 1803, when it definitively became an English possession, it five or six times changed hands between France and England, by capture or treaty. The capital is Castries (pop. 7000). St Lucia suffered severely from the great hurricane, with deluge of rain, of 1898.