Such was the disaster which burst upon the hapless people of the island of Martinique, while almost at the same moment a sister isle, St. Vincent, was suffering a kindred fate. Similar in natural conditions, these two little colonies of the West Indies, one French and one English by affiliation, underwent the shock of nature's assault and sank in grief before a horror-stricken world. Transcriber's Note There are some inconsistencies in the chapter subheadings between the Table of Contents and chapters themselves; these have been left as printed. There is some variation in factual information--for example, the amount held in the Mint. These occurrences have all been preserved as printed. There is some variable spelling; this has been repaired where there was an obvious prevalence of one form over the other, but is otherwise left as printed. There is a reference on page 112 to "gambling hells", which seems to be a genuine term, although it could be a typo for "gambling halls". Since there is no way to be certain, it has been preserved as printed. Archaic spelling has been preserved as printed. Typographic errors in punctuation and spelling (omitted or transposed letters, etc.) have been repaired. Hyphenation has been made consistent where there was a prevalence of one form over the other. The following errors have also been repaired: Page 18--John amended to James--"Former Mayor James D. Phelan" Page 47--aids amended to aides--"It was not without a struggle that Mayor Schmitz and his aides let this, ..." Page 93--omitted word 'he' added, for sense--"Kanaka Pete chased the man he had marked ..." Page 160--omitted 0 added to tabular entry for Connecticut. Page 317--damage to the bottom of the page has left one word partially obscured. From the visible letters and available space, the word is most likely 'gradually', which has been used in this e-text. Page 372--Callas amended to Callao--"... producing a new bay at Callao; and in several mountains ..." Page 373--XXXII amended to XXXI--"CHAPTER XXXI." Page 382--XXXI amended to XXXII--"CHAPTER XXXII." Page 401--omitted word 'if' added following 'as'--"It was as if St. Pierre had been just dipped ..." The frontispiece illustrations have been moved to follow the title page. Other illustrations have been moved where necessary so that they are not in the middle of a paragraph.