St. Thomas (Portuguese Sao Thomé) constitutes with the island of Principé a Portuguese colony. It lies in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Africa. Its area is 360 square miles, its fertile valleys unhealthy, its windswept peaks salubrious. In 1900 it had a population of 37,776. The exports are largely cacao, coffee and cinchona. The population is almost wholly composed of negroes. It was discovered by the Portuguese on St. Thomas’s day in 1471, and colonized by them in 1493. From 1641 to 1844 the Dutch occupied it.
