Had those islands any aborigines when discovered by Europeans? If there were natives, do any of them remain?
The West Indies, or Antilles, consist of many hundreds, or even—reckoning keys or very small islands—several thousand islands varying in area from those which, like Cuba and Jamaica, number their square acres by the million, to the tiny key of half an acre or less. The greater number of these—indeed, all capable of supporting a population, with the exception of Barbados— contained inhabitants when first discovered. Barbados, though containing numerous evidences of former occupation, was uninhabited when taken possession of by its first European settlers, the English...