204  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

portunities  from  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico,  to
get  to  St.  Thomas.
These  people  buy  from  us  coal,  food  stuffs,
flour,  dried  fish,  candles,  oil,  rice,  onions,
beans,  shoes,  clothing,  boots,  medicines,  soaps
and  other  staples.
The  French  islands  in  the  Caribbean  Sea
are  Martinique  and  Guadeloupe,  and  they  import ­
  their  requirements  from  the  mother  country, ­
  owing  to  the  fact  that  such  goods  pay  no
duties.  The  town  of  St.  Pierre,  Martinique,
with  its  entire  population  of  70,000  inhabitants ­
  was  totally  destroyed  by  an  eruption
from  the  extinct  volcanoe  of  Mt.  Pelee,  May
8,  1902.  Josephine,  the  first  wife  of  the  Great
Napoleon,  was  born  at  Fort  de  France,  Martinique. ­

We  sell  these  colonies  some  food  stuffs,  oils
and  necessities,  our  yearly  sales  to  Martinique
being  about  $700,000  and  to  Guadeloupe
about  $900,000.
Martinique  raises  sugar  and  manufactures
rum,  her  sugar  production  being  about  $3,-000,000
  yearly,  and  her  rum  export  equalling