ted by an executive council, a legislative council of 9
nominated members, and a house of assembly of 24 members elected on a
limited franchise. Barbados is the headquarters of the Imperial
Agricultural Department of the West Indies, to which (under Sir Daniel
Morris) the island owes the development of cotton growing, &c. The majority
of the population consists of negroes, passionately attached to the island,
who have a well-marked physiognomy and dialect of their own, and are more
intelligent than the other West Indian negroes. They outnumber the whites
by 9 to 1. Barbados is one of the most densely populated areas in the
world. In 1901 the numbers amounted to 195,588, or 1178 to the sq. m., and
in 1906 they were 196,287. There are no crown lands nor forests.

_Towns._--Bridgetown (pop. 21,000), the capital, situated on the S.W.
coast, is a pretty town nestling at the foot of the hills leading to the
uplands of the interior. It has a cathedral, St Michael's, which also
serves as a parish church. In Trafalgar Square stands the earliest monument
erected to the memory of Nelson. There are a good many buildings, shops,
pleasure grounds, a handsome military parade and exquisite beaches.
Pilgrim, the residence of the governor, is a fine mansion about a mile from
the city. Fontabelle and Hastings are fashionable suburban watering-places
with good sea-bathing. Speighstown (1500) is the only other town of any
size.

_History_.--Opinions differ as to the derivation of the name of the island.
It may be the Spanish word for the hanging branches of a vine which strike
root in the ground, or the name may have been given from a species of
bearded fig-tree. In the 16th-century maps the name is variously rendered
St Bernardo, Bernados, Barbudoso, Barnodos and Barnodo. There are more
numerous traces of the Carib Indians here than in any other of the
Antilles. Barbados is thought to have been first visited by the Portuguese.
Its history has some special features, showing as it does the process of
peaceful colonization, for the island, acquired without conquest, has never
been out of the possession of the British. It was touched in 1605 by the
British ship "Olive Blossom," whose crew, finding it uninhabited, took
possession in the name of James I.; but the first actual settlement was
made in 1625, at the direction of Sir William Courteen under the patent of
Lord Leigh, afterwards earl of Marlborough, to whom the island had been
granted by