Despite their small size, the West Indies received over two-thirds of the English emigrants to the Americas between 1640 and 1660. In 1650 more white colonists lived in the West Indies (44,000) than in the Chesapeake (12,000) and New England colonies (23,000) combined. The great majority of the English West Indians dwelled on a single island, Barbados. Its relatively large population of 30,000 was especially striking because Barbados is only twenty-one miles long and fourteen wide.
