Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/242

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GUA—GUA

to rocou or arnatto, 1632 acres ; and to tobacco, 294 acres. Manioc, which forms one of the principal sources of food in the colony, occupied 11,614 acres; and 11,246 acres were assigned to other articles of direct consumption. In the same year (1873) it was calculated that 43,780 people were employed in the sugar plantations, 5160 in the coffee plantations, 504 in the cotton plantations, and 1088 in the rocou plantations. The whole value of the ground is stated at about £200,000, of the buildings and plants at £1,560,000, and of the live stock at £263,2000. The total produce of sugar of all kinds was 679,300 cwts. ; the syrup and molasses amounted to 568,326 gallons, and the tafia or rum to 298,850 gallons. The produce of coffee, cocoa, and rocou was respectively 13,564, 2102, and 10,663 cwts. The manioc or cassava amounted to 282,412 ewts., and the other food substances, such as yams, bananas, arrow-root, &c., to 118,340 ecwts. Tobacco, vanilla, and cloves were also produced in small quantity, as well as 4542 ewts. of campeachy wood. ‘The value of the whole was estimated at £1,134,226, and the net value at £298,437. Administratively the colony is divided into three arrondissements of Basse Terre, Pointe a Pitre, and Marie Galante. The town of Basse Terre, situated in 15° 59’ 30” N. lat. and 66° 24° 31” W. long, with a population of 12,000, is the capital, and the seat of the bishopric, which was founded in 1850 ; and Pointe & Pitre, situated in 16° 14’ 12” N. lat. and 66° 11’ 41” W. long., and containing a population of 16,000, is the principal port. A fine military harbour, popularly known as the Gibraltar of the Antilles, is situated in the group of Les Saintes. There is a militia, origimally constituted in 1832, partly

dissolved in 1851, and re-established in 1870.

During the twenty-five years from 1848 to 1872 the population of the colony remained almost stationary, the mean being only 132,000. Between 1873 and 1875 there was a notable increase, the mean for these years being 141,000. Owing probably to the influence of immigration, the masculine element is on the increase,—there being now 92 men to 100 women instead of 90 as formerly. Married people form only 20 per cent. of the popula- tion. According to Dr Charles Walther, with every 1000 European immigrants in 1864 there were introduced 25 women; for every 1000 Africans, 496 women; for every 100 Indians, 253; and for every 1000 Chinese, 9. Between 1848 and 1872 there have been 30 births to every 1000 of the population, except during the five years from 1863 to 1867 when the ratio was only 27°6. If the non-repro- ductive part of the population be excluded, the births range from 41 to 46 per 1000, while in England the corresponding number is 61. It is estimated that probably 25 per cent. of the births are illegitimate. During the years from 1848 to 1852, immediately after the abolition of slavery, there were a great many marriages, especially among the liberated population—as many indeed as 2000 per annum; but, to use the words of Dr Rey, ‘‘cette belle ardeur matrimoniale” soon came to an end. In 1870, 1871, and 1872 there ware only three marriages to 1000 inhabitants.


History.—Guadeloupe was discovered by Columbus in 1493, and reeeiverl its name in honour of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Estre- madura in Spain. In June 1635 L’Olive and Duplessis took posses- sion of the island in the name of the French Company of the Islands of America, and after Duplessis’s death about six months later L’Olive engaged in a war of extermination against the Carib inhabit- ants. In 1674 Guadeloupe was united to the domains of the crown, and for a long time it remained a dependency of Martinique. Suc- cessful resistance was made to attacks by the English in 1666, 1691, and 1703, but on 27th April 1759 the inhabitants capitulated to Admiral Moore and General Barington, and the island remained in British possession till 1763. On 12th April 1782 the French under Admiral de Grasse were defeated by Rodney in the neighbourhood of the island. In 1775 Guadeloupe was finally separated from Martinique, but it remained under the common authority of the governor-general of the Windward Islands. The English under Sir John Grey and Jchn Jervis obtained possession on 21st April 1794, but they were expelled on the 24 of June by Chretien and Victor Hugues, conunissioners of the National Convention, who were powerfully supported by the native population (see ‘*Délivrance de la Guadeloupe en 1794” in Rev. Mar. et Col., 1870). About this time the island contained about 107,226 inhabitants, and the com- merce was worth £1,274,600. After the peace of Amiens the first consul sent an expedition under General Richepanse for the purpose of re-establishing slavery in Guadeloupe, but the negroes heroically defended their liberty for months. A new period of British posses- sion was begun by the victory of February 3, 1810, and though by the treaty of March 1813 the island was made over to Sweden, and in the course of 1814 the French general Boyer de Peyreleau gained a temporary footing, in terms of the first peace of Paris, it was not till July 1816 that Britain finally withdrew her forces. Between 1816 and 1825 a special code of laws for Guadcloupe was printed. Municipal institutions were introduced into the island in 1837 (November 20).


See Moreau de Jonnes, Histoire Physique des Antilics ; Boyer de Peyreleau, Les Antilles francaises ct particuliérement la Guadeloupe, Paris, 1823, 3 vols; A. Budan, La Guadeloupe Pittoresque, Paris, 1863, folio, a fine series of views with descriptive text ; P.S. Dupuy, Eaux thermo-minerales de la Guadeloupe; ‘‘Guadeloupe et dépendances,” in Rev, Maritime et Coloniale, 1876 (tome 48)3 H. Rey, ‘‘ Etudes sur la colonic de la Guadeloupe, topographie médi- cale, climatologie, démographie,” in Rev. Mar. et Col., 1878; “ La Guadeloupe a Vexposition” in Journal du commerce maritime, 1878; Annuaire de la Guadeloupe, 1868, &c.; Gatlarel, Les Colonies JSrancaises, Paris, 1880.

GUADIX, a city of Spain, in the province of Granada, situated on an elevated plateau on the northern slope of the Sierra Nevada, and above the left bank of the river Guadix. It is surrounded by ancient walls, and was formerly dominated by a Moorish castle, now in ruins. It is said to have been the first episcopal see erected in Spain ; it still is a bishopric, suffragan to Granada, but the cathedral is architecturally unimportant. The town was once famous for its cutlery; but its modern manufactures (chiefly earthenware, hempen goods, and hats) are inconsiderable. It has some trade in wool, cotton, flax, corn, and liqueurs. The population is estimated at 10,150. The warm mineral springs of Graena, much frequented by Spaniards during the summer season, afe situated 4 miles to the westward. Guadix, along with Almeria and other places constituting the domain of El Zagal, was formally surrendered without a siege to Ferdinand the Catholic in December 1489.

GUADUAS, a town of Colombia, South America, state of Cundinamarca, is situated in the beautiful valley of the Magdalena, on the road between Bogota and Honda, 45 miles N.W. of the former town, and more than 8000 feet above sea-level. The name signifies in the original the bamboo cane, a plant which grows in great abundance in the neighbourhood. The town possesses a pretty church, and an old monastery now used asa prison. The staple articles of trade are sugar, coffee, cochineal, and oranges and other fruits. The population is about 8000.

GUAIACUM, a genus of trees of the natural order

Zygophyllee. The guaiacum or lignum vite tree (Germ., Guajakbaum, Franzosenbauum, Pockenholzbaum; Fr., Gayae, Gaiac), G. officinale, L., is a native of the West Indies and the north coast of South America, where it attains a height of 20 to 30 feet. Its branches are numerous, flexuous, and knotted ; the leaves opposite and pinnate, with caducous stipules, and entire, glabrous, obovate or oval leaflets, arranged in 2 or, more rarely, 3 pairs; the flowers are in axillary cymes, and have 5 oval pubescent sepals, 5 distinct pale-blue[1] petals three times the length of the sepals, 10 stemens, and a 2-celled superior ovary; and the fruit is about 2 inch long, with a leathery pericarp, and contains in each of its two cells a single seed. (4. sanctum, L., grows in the Bahamas and Cuba, and at Key West in Florida, Tt may

be distinguished from G. oficinale by its smaller and narrow




  1. The guaiacum tree is described by Garcias Ca Horta (Aromat. et Simpl. Hist.), and by Antonius Gallus (Luisinus, De \orbo Gallico, p- 392, Ven., 1566, fol.), as having yellow flowers,