Windward_Islands

Windward Islands, a group and colony in the West Indies. They consist of the British island of St Lucia, St Vincent and Grenada, with a chain of small islands, the Grenadines, between the two latter islands. They are not a single colony, but a confederation of three separate colonies with a common governor-in-chief, who resides at St George's, Grenada. Each island retains its own institutions, and they have neither legislature, laws, revenue nor tariff in common. There is, however, a common court of appeal for the group as well as for Barbados, composed of the chief justices of the respective islands, and there is also a common audit system, while the islands unite in maintaining certain institutions of general utility. The Windward Islands, which, as a geographical division, properly include Barbados, derive their name from the fact that they are the most exposed of the Lesser Antilles to the N.E. Trade, the prevailing wind throughout the West Indies.