TOBAGO  , an

island in the British West Indies, 20 M . N.E. of Trinidad, in II° 15' N. and 60° 4o' W . Pop . 18,751 . It is 26 m. long and 71 M. broad, and has an area of 114 sq. m. or 73,313 acres, of which about io,000 are under cultivation . It consists of a single mountain mass (volcanic in origin), 18 m. in length, and rising in the centre to a height of 'Soo ft . A great part of the island is clothed with dense forest, in which many valuable hardwood trees are found . The higher lands form part of what is known as the " Rain Preserve," where, in order to attract and preserve the rainfall, the trees are never allowed to be felled . The average temperature is 81° F. and the yearly rainfall is 66 in . The rainy season lasts from June to December, with a short interval in September . The valleys are particularly adapted to horse- and sheep-farming, which are growing industries . The soil is fertile and produces rubber, cotton, sugar, coffee, cocoa, tobacco and nutmegs, all of which are exported; pimento (allspice) grows wild in the greatest profusion .

The

schools are conducted by various denominations, assisted by government grants . The island is divided into seven parishes . Scarborough (pop . 769), the capital, is on the south coast, 8 m. from its south-western point . It stands at the foot of a hill 425 ft. high, on which is situated Fort King George, now without a garrison . There is a lighthouse at Baedlet Point . Tobago, properly Tobaco, was discovered in 1498 by Columbus, who named it Assumption, and the British flag was first planted in I580 . It afterwards passed into the hands of the Dutch and then of the French, and was finally ceded to the British in 1814 . Until 1889 it formed part of the colony of the Windward Islands, but in that year it was joined to Trinidad, its legal and fiscal arrangements, however, being kept distinct . Ten years later it became one of the wards of Trinidad, under a warden and magistrate; its revenue, expenditure and debt were merged into those of the united colony, and Trinidadian law, with very few exceptions, was made binding in Tobago .