RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
West Indies
Home Missionary Society; the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.; the Foreign Christian Missionary Society; the Presbyterian Church, South; the Protestant Episcopal Church; the Seventh Day Adventists; and the Universalist Church.
In Porto Rico the Protestant Episcopal Church was already in the field, with a small chapel for the English-speaking residents, and they at once extended their work to reach the other races also. Other organizations are the American Missionary Association; the American Baptist Home Missionary Society; the Presbyterian Church in the U.8.A.;
the United Brethren; the General
14. Porto Council of the Evangelical Lutheran
Rico. Church; the Methodist Episcopal Church; the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions; the Seventh Day Adventists; and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. As the work developed, some plan of cooperation became necessary, and in 1902 representatives of the various missionary organizations met at Cienfuegos in Cuba to consider the question of comity. The Episcopal Church had already made the island a missionary diocese with a resident bishop, but the other communions decided that cities of 6,000 or more inhabitants should be open to all, while the rest of the island was divided among them, each denomination to care for a certain district, so that there should be no overlapping or friction, and give the best result. This division of the field had already been made in Porto Rico, and in both islands there was the most cordial cooperation among the various religious bodies at work. Centuries of Roman Catholic teaching made the task of the Protestant missionaries most difficult. The work was begun vigorously, however, largely along evangelistic lines, though educational and theological institutions for the training of leaders for the churches were at once planned. The multiplication of schools under government and independent auspices; the establishment of hospitals and dispensaries; and, above all, the services of the Christian minister, freely given, not only in solemnizing marriages and in the other sacraments of the Church, but in all lines of Christian activities, are slowly solving the problems of these islands. One happy result of the work of the Protestant missionaries has been to arouse the Roman Catholics to greater activity and new methods, and the once dormant though dominant church is establishing schools and colleges, and doing its share in the uplift of the people.
Bahama Islands: 7 societies; 37 missionaries; 266 helpers and pastors; 10 stations; 134 substations; 2 churches; 19,182 communicants; contributions, $4,622.
Cuba: 16 societies; 142 missionaries; 137 helpers and pastors; 50 stations; 176 substations Gils)
churches; 9,173 communicants; con-
15. Statis- tributions, $22,485.
tical Porto Rico: 15 societies; 167 mis-
Summary. sionaries; 200 helpers and pastors;
52 stations; 274 substations; 120
churches, and 9,692 communicants; contributions, $3,777. :
Haiti and Santo Domingo: 9 societies; 17 missionaries; 139 helpers and pastors; 21 stations; 41
substations; 4 churches; 2,706 communicants;
contributions, $1,635.
Jamaica: 18 societies; 257 missionaries; 1,852 helpers and pastors; 277 stations; 426 substations; 384 churches; 138,333 communicants; contributions, $174,057.
Lesser Antilles: 14 societies; 186 missionaries; 977 helpers and pastors; 54 stations; 189 substations; 104 churches; 80,787 communicants; contributions, $79,193.
Total for the group: 806 missionaries; 3,571 helpers and pastors; 464 stations; 1,240 substations; 732 churches; 259,873 communicants; contributions, $285,769.
THEODORA CrosBy BLIss. BrsuiocrRapHy: Works of a general nature are: J. de Acosta,
Natural and Moral Hist. of the West Indies, London, 1880;
C. H. Eden, The West Indies, ib. 1881; W. Moister, The
West Indies, Enslaved and Free, ib. 1883; J. A. Froude,
The English in the West Indies, ib. 1888; C. E. Taylor,
Leaflets from the Danish West Indies, ib. 1888; A.M. Kol-
lewijn, Geschiedenis van Nederlandsch West-Indié, Amers-
foot, 1887; O. T. Bulkeley, The Lesser Antilles, London,
1889; C. W. Eves, The West Indies, ib. 1889; H. V. P.
Bronkhurst, Geography of the West India Islands, Deme-
rara, 1890; L. Hearn, Two Y ears in the French West Indies,
London, 1890; C. P. Lucas, Historical Geography of the
British Colonies, vol. ii., The West Indies, Oxford, 1894;
J. Rodway, The West Indies, New York, 1896; L. Pey-
trand, L’EHsclavage aux Antilles francaises avant 1789,
Paris, 1897; R. T. Hill, Cuba and Porto Rico, with the
other Islands of the West Indies, New York, 1898; L.
Lloréns Torres, América. Estudios histéricos y filoldgicos,
Madrid, 1898; A. K. Fiske, The West Indies: a Hist. of
the Islands of the West Indian Archipelago, New York,
1899; M. Halstead, Hist. of American Expansion and the
Story of our new Possessions, ib. 1899; M. A. Hamm,
Porto Rico and the West Indies, London, 1899; C. S. Wal-
ton, The Civil Law in Spain and Spanish-America inclu-
ding Puerto Rico, Washington, D. C., 1900; A List of