A.-4.

17

is about 1,254 square miles. They are mountainous, well watered, and wooded; among the trees : are the bread-fruit, banana, the cocoanut; fruitful in rice, maize, cotton, and indigo. European domestic animals are now very common. At the time when they were discovered the population was reckoned at 100,000, but the present population is only about 5,500. The inhabitants, who are docile, religious, kind, and hospitable, resemble in physiognomy those of the Philippine Islands. The islands are very important to the Spaniards in a commercial point of view. The largest island in Guajan, ninety miles in circumference ; on it is the capital, San Ignacio de Agamea, the seat of the Spanish Governor. Galapagos Islands. . The Galapagos Islands are a group lying on the equator, extending IJ° on each side of it, and about 600 miles from the west coast of the Bepublic of Ecuador, to which they belong. There are six principal islands, nine smaller, and many islets, scarcely deserving to be distinguished from mere rocks. The largest island, Albemarle, is sixty miles in length and about fifteen miles broad, the highest point being 4,700 feet above the level of the sea. The constitution of the whole is volcanic. With the exception of some ejected fragments of granite, which have been most curiously glazed and altered by the heat, every part consists of lava, or of sandstone resulting from the attrition of such materials. The higher islands generally have one or more principal craters towards their centre, and in their flanks smaller orifices. Mr. Darwin affirms that there must be, in all the islands of the archipelago, at least 2,000 craters. Considering that these islands are placed directly under the equator, the climate is far from being excessively hot—a circumstance which, perhaps, is chiefly owing to the singularly low temperature of the surrounding sea.

West Indies (1871).

I.—The Islands generally: Mr. Seed.

Java. Area of Java, including Madura, is 51,336 English square miles. Population, according to census of 1871, 16,452,168, or 320 per square mile. The population has nearly quadrupled since the year 1816. Imports in 1870, merchandise ... ... ... ... ... £3,704,929 specie ... ... ... ... ... 197,413 £3,902,341 Exports in 1870, merchandise ... ... ... ... ... £5,102,353 specie ... ... ... ... ... 361,830 £5,464,183 The principles articles of export from Java are sugar, coffee, rice, indigo, and tobacco. With the exception of rice, about one-half of which is shipped from Borneo and China, nearly four-fifths of these exports go to the Netherlands. The exports from Java to the United Kingdom in 1871 consisted principally of rice, of the value of £383,757. The chief articles of British home produce imported into Java in 1871 was cottons, including cotton yarns, of the value of £600,866. The exports from Java to the United Kingdom have increased enormously during the past few years, having risen from the value of £13,773 in 1867 to £470,235 in 1871. The total exports from Java to the United Kingdom in 1871 were valued at £470,234. The total value of British home produce into Java in 1871 was £826,476. Shipping. —There are 420 vessels of all sizes registered in Netherlands India. Cinchona cultivation in Java, under the special care of the Government, is increasing yearly. Ceylon. Area, 24,454 square miles. The total population, according to the census of March, 1872, was 2,405,287. Of the total population in 1870, 2,128,884, including 2,847 military, 4,732 were British, 14,201 other whites of European descent, and the rest coloured. Total value of imports in 1871, £4,797,952. 3—A. 4.

Name. Area: Square Miles. Population. Total Imports. Total Exports. Bahamas Turk Islands ... Jamaica Leeward Islands St. Lucia St. Vincent Barbadoes Grenada Tobago Trinidad British Guiana... ... 3,021 420 6,400 731 250 131 166 133 97 1,754 76,000 39,162 4,723 441,264 117,732 31,811 35,688 162,042 37,795 17,054 109;638 193,491 £ 283,970 35,345 1,300,212 506,149 196,286 137,474 1,069,861 104,475 61,448 1,042,678 1,572,275 £ 190,253 18,855 1,283,036 670,457 147,172 221,140 973,020 127,184 82,616 1,277,574 2,383,422 Total West Indies 89,103 1,190,400 6,310,173 7,374,729