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M(/@RL5)'S FAIR, 
 
 -(Sv— 
 
 II!' 
 
 JapFiaiea a 
 
 eaR® 
 
 -@- 
 
 AN ACCOUNT DESCRIPTIVE OF THE 
 COLONY OF JAMAICA, 
 
 WITH HIStOf^lCAL AND OThiER /t\PPENDICES. 
 
 Compiled uqder the direction of 
 
 Lt, Col. the HoH' C. J, WARD, C, Iv]' G. 
 
 Hoqorary Commissioqer for Janqaica 
 
 ' New York: 
 Wm. J. Pell, Printer, 92 John Street. 
 
 1IJ93. 
 
A. 107^5- 
 
 COPYRIGHT BY 
 
 CHAHLES J. WARD, 
 1893. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
 
 
f^espeetfally ©edicated 
 
 to 
 
 piis ExeellencY §ir ?ienry A. Slai^e, }^. Q. M. ©., 
 
 ©overnor of Jamaica. 
 
C^iS)#g&!a 
 
 ■8t- 
 
 ^^#(5^ 
 
So Kis SxcdUncy Sir K. 6€. Make,, K. ^. M. S., 
 
 Sir : 
 
 zfn ashing you to permit me to associate your name with this 
 
 little hand=booTc which J- have had prepared for free distribution at the 
 
 Chicago Sxhiiition^ c/ am prompted iy the recollection of whM you have 
 
 donCj so zealously and at the same time so unassumingly^ in giving promi= 
 
 nence to Jamaica as a possibly uneq^ualled health resort and as a profitable 
 
 field of settlement for would=be British 'Colonists or "United States citizens. 
 
 seeking a home under the British flag. 
 
 With politics J^ as Commissioner for J'amaica^ have nothing to do. 
 
 but J think c/ am justified in availing myself on behalf of my fellow^ 
 
 colonists^ of this opportunity of expressing to "^our Sxcellency the gratification 
 
 felt by all Jamaicans at the sincere and hearty manner in which you 
 
 have interested yourself in all that interests us^ in which you have cordially 
 
 thrown yourself into our lives and become one of us in your endeavours^ 
 
 since your assumption of the government of this colony, to do all in your 
 
 power to promote^ socially^ morally and commercially^ the best and highest 
 
 interests of this ancient and loyal colony. 
 
 c/ amj Sirj 
 
 Charles J. Ward. 
 
 TCingston^ ^amaica^ 
 
 ■h, 1893. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Descriptive Account of the Parishes of Jamaica, ... 7 
 
 Columbus and Jamaica, 43 
 
 Later History, 52 
 
 Sport in Jamaica, 66 
 
 The Blue Mountains of Jamaica, 74 
 
 The Climate of Jamaica, 80 
 
 Statistical Information About Jamaica, go 
 
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNT OF THE PARISHES 
 OF JAMAICA. 
 
 'T^HE Island of Jamaica is essentially the most important of the British West Indian 
 ■'■ Islands, not only on account of its greater size, but also by reason of the varied 
 beauty of its , scenery, the capabilities of its soil and the healthiness of its climate. 
 Less than a century ago, large fortunes were made in Jamaica and money was spent 
 wildly, lavishly and often riotously. Subsequently, after the emancipation of the 
 slaves, it settled down into quietude, and there were those who spoke of its palmy 
 days as past, never to return. Lately, however, Jamaica has undoubtedly experienced 
 a revival of popularity and of prosperity, a result largely due to intelligent enterprise 
 and industry. It is not intended that these pages shall be filled to any extent with 
 statistics, but, as evidence .of the truth of the statement made in the previous sentence, 
 it may be noted that the value of the fruit exported in 1879 was ^£40,166, and in 1892 
 it had risen to ^315,000. So, too, with the educational and social condition of the 
 people, much as there is still to be done and to be undone, to be learned and to be 
 unlearned, there are on all sides, plainly visible, signs of progress and advancement, 
 healthy signs, too, of a progress which has only just begun, but which will not stop 
 until it reaches permanent prosperity. Another change, too, has come over Jamaica. 
 It has long since ceased to be a yellow-fever bed and the favoured camping-ground of 
 malaria. The growth of medical knowledge, and of sanitary science, and the appli- 
 cation of common sense, and the lessons of daily experience have proved that life may 
 be lived healthily, usefully, actively, enjoyably in Jamaica as well as in any other part 
 of the world. There is work that can be done by those who can, or must work. 
 There is enough sport to attract the sportsman, who is not ambitious after big game. 
 There is a wealth of flowers, ferns and foliage, of tropical and sub-tropical vegetable 
 life. If art has done little, nature has done much to allure arid attract those 
 who seek ease and enjoyment. The genial warmth of the plains will prolong 
 the life of the consumptive, while on the hills can be found air as bracing and 
 breezes as invigorating as any that can be found in more well-known health 
 resorts. 
 
 The visitor to Jamaica sees much that is externally beautiful and historically 
 interesting before the ship which brings him to this fair Island is anchored 
 alongside one of the wharves, which line the northern shore of Kingston harbour. 
 From the time when the Blue Mountain range comes into view and the steamer 
 passes the Morant Point Lighthouse, the traveller, within one or two weeks of 
 snow and damp, and warm overcoats and fur-lined glov^es, can lounge on deck 
 and feast his eyes on a succession of scenes as picturesque and as dazzling in 
 
8 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 their beauty and vairied charms as are to be seen anywhere in or out of the 
 tropics. There are the rock-bound shore, the level beach, plains running down 
 to the sea, gloomy lagoons and thick jungles of vegetable growth, broken here 
 and there by river courses or dry ravines, while in the back-ground are to be 
 seen mountains and hills differing in height from the modest hillock by the 
 beach to the stately Blue Mountain Peak in the distant centre of the Island, 
 the whole covered either with careful cultivation or with the reckless luxuriance 
 of tropical life. Passing Morant Bay, the scene of the unhappy disturbances in 
 1865, he catches a glimpse of sugar estates, notable among which' is that of 
 Albion, with its waving sugar-canes, its»h feathery palms, its little Coolie colony; 
 
 A BIT OF KINGSTON HARBOUR. 
 
 of the quaintly-shaped Sugar-Loaf Hill, whence a pilot is wont to come on 
 board ; of the remains of an old Spanish fortification, after which he soon 
 reaches the narrow neck of land which runs for some four or five miles parallel to 
 the shore oh which stands the City of Kingston and which makes the Kingston 
 harbour "one of the safest and most splendid in the world. About midway on 
 this neck of land — called the Palisades or Palisadoes — is Plumb Point Lighthouse 
 and at the western extremity is situated the town of Port Royal. Rounding Port 
 Royal the steamer sails across the harbour and pulls up alongside its wharf in 
 Kingston. 
 
 The City of Kingston has had an exciting and eventful history. Many of 
 the survivors of the 1692 earthquake at Port Royal settled on the sea-board of the 
 Liguanea plain, and Kingston is the gradual out-growth of that settlement. Its 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 9 
 
 progress, though slow at first, was accelerated in 1703 by a fire which completely- 
 destroyed the revived Port Royal and which drove many of the unfortunate 
 inhabitants of the latter town to try their fortunes in Kingston. 
 
 If, however, Kingston owed its origin to the misfortunes of Port Royal, it has 
 not been without its own share of troubles. Earthquake and hurricane have 
 done their dire work at times, but fire has been Kingston's most persistent foe, 
 the years 1780, 1843, 1862 and 1882 being the most calamitous. Bearing in mind 
 then that for more than half a century — we may almost say for more than a 
 century — no generation of Kingstonians has been without its recollection of 
 devastating, destructive fire, it is not to be wondered at that the city, as it now 
 stands, presents few features of architectural interest and contains few buildings 
 of magnificent proportions. The city is constructed after the chess-board fashion 
 of modern cities, the streets and lanes being parallel, or at right angles, 
 to each other. In the centre of the city is the Kingston Parade Garden, a 
 square of ten acres, neatly, but somewhat profusely, laid out with shade-giving 
 and ornamental trees, many of which are interesting to botanists, and novel and 
 curious to visitors from colder climes. The Gardens contain fountains and tanks 
 where may be seen choice specimens of water lilies and other aquatic plants, and 
 •they are tolerably supplied with lounging seats. 
 
 Architecturally, the most striking building in Kingston is the Mico Institution. 
 The story of the foundation of this Institution takes us back into the regions of 
 romance two hundred years ago. There lived at that time a widow lady, whose 
 husband, Sir Samuel Mico, had been Lord Mayor of London. A niece of Lady 
 Mico lived with her as companion and was engaged to be married to a nephew 
 of Lady Mico, who had promised to settle ;^2,ooo on the couple when they were 
 married. The marriage, however, did not take place, the lady preferring to run 
 away with a military officer, and the _^2,ooo remaining in Lady Mico's posses- 
 sion. While these events were going on and some years afterwards, a good deal 
 of excitement and indignation prevailed in England at the treatment which Christian 
 captives received at the hands of Algerian pirates who kidnapped them and made 
 them work as slaves. Among the sympathisers with these unhappy persons was 
 Lady Mico, in whose will may be read the following words — " Whare as I gave 
 Samuel Mico two thousand pounde when he had married one of my neeces but 
 not performeing it I give one of the said thousand pounde to redeeme poor slaves 
 which I would have put out as my executrix think be the best for a yearly 
 levenew to redeem some yearly." Before this bequest was available by Lady 
 Mico's death, Algerian piracy had been suppressed and its victims had been 
 released. The money was invested by Order of the Court of Chancery in free- 
 hold property in London which so increased in value that in 1834 the Trust 
 was worth more than ^^i 20,000. Suggestions as to the appropriation of this 
 money had been made from time to time, but nothing was done until in the 
 year above-mentioned (1834,) at the instigation of Sir Thomas Powell Buxton, it 
 was decided that it might be legitimately devoted to the Christian undenomi- 
 national education of West Indian children. The Mico Institution in Hanover 
 Street, Kingston, is one of the consequences of this decision. It consists of a 
 
lO . PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 handsome and substantial block of buildings, containing a Training College for 
 upwards of fifty resident students in preparation for the profession of school- 
 master and a day-school for 300 pupils. 
 
 The Kingston Markets are well worth a visit. Here may be seen turtle, meat, 
 poultry, fish, many of which are remarkable for the startling beauty of their colour, 
 together with heaps of tropical fruits and vegetables, brought down overnight, 
 mainly on women's heads, from distant parts of the Island. The noise, the 
 bustle, the clatter of tongues, the seeming confusion, the spontaneous out-flow of 
 good nature all combine to make a visit to a Kingston market, especially on 
 Saturday morning, a sight and a scene \^hich will not readily be forgotten. Of 
 the two Kingston markets the Victoria Market is situated at the southern end 
 
 STREET VIEW, KINGSTON. 
 
 of King Street, and may be reached by tram from almost any part of the city. 
 It is a handsome and spacious building, conveniently arranged both for purchasers 
 and for sellers, within a few yards of the public landing-place on the North- 
 shore of the harbour, and therefore exposed to the refreshing sea-breeze which 
 cools the heated town. The other market is to the west of the Parade Gardens 
 and was built in 1887, and called the Jubilee Market in commemoration of the 
 fiftieth year of the Queen's Accession. 
 
 The Court House in Harbour Street, though externally unlovely, is not without 
 its points of interest. Persons accustomed to the small and badly-ventilated English 
 Courts will be pleasantly surprised at the dimensions of the Jamaica Court-room. On 
 the walls of the Court House are two striking and well-executed paintings of Sir Joshua 
 Rowe and Sir Bryan Edwards, two former dispensers of justice in the colony. 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. II 
 
 In the same building are situated the offices of the Registrar and the Supreme 
 Court Library, together with the offices assigned to other officials connected with the 
 administration of the law. The Library, in addition to a valuable collection of law 
 reports, contains several documents of more than ordinary interest. Many ancient 
 documents were destroyed by the earthquake of 1692, after which date the higher 
 Courts were held either at Spanish Town or at Kingston. There is, however, at the 
 Court House the register of the Chancellor's Court at Port Royal containing an entry 
 to the effect that news having reached Port Royal announcing the death of His Majesty, 
 Charles IL, and the accession to the throne of His Royal Highness the Duke of York 
 and Albany under the name of James IL, the Court would adjourn for two weeks. But 
 the greatest curiosity of all is a bundle of papers which have a history stranger than the 
 most far-fetched conception of the most imaginative writer of fiction. In the year 1799 
 the brig "Nancy" was captured by the British cutter "Sparrow" and brought into 
 Port Royal, the officers and crew being on trial in the Kingston Vice-Admiralty Court 
 for piracy. No papers were found on the " Nancy," and for want of evidence which 
 they would have supplied, the prosecution was on the point of breaking down. About 
 this time the man-of-war "Abergavenny" was anchored off Jacmel, in Haiti, and the 
 officers were serving their country by fishing for sharks. One of these sharks being 
 caught, the sailors cut it open and in its belly was found a bundle of papers. Sailing 
 for Kingston soon after, the bundle of papers was sent on shore by the captain who 
 knew nothing of the capture of the "Nancy." They arrived while the trial for 
 piracy was going on, and on investigation, were found to be the missing papers 
 of the "Nancy," which had been thrown overboard to prevent their being used, 
 and which were presented in Court in time to be used for securing the convic- 
 tion and subsequent hanging of the crew of pirates. 
 
 The Institute of Jamaica in East Street is both a Museum and a Library. 
 Unfortunately, it is too small for its purposes, and consequently its usefulness 
 is somewhat interfered with. The Library is well stocked with standard books 
 and contains a really valuable collection of books and pamphlets bearing on 
 the history and natural productions of the West Indies. A Portrait Gallery 
 of Jamaican celebrities is being gradually made complete, and lectures on 
 literary and scientific subjects are frequently given. Like the Library, the 
 Museum suffers from its insufficient size. It contains, however, many objects of 
 much interest which well repay inspection. Among these is a collection illustra- 
 tive of the geology of the Island, made by the officers of the Geological Survey 
 between the years i860 and x866. A collection of specimens of Jamaica woods 
 fills one small room. The herbarium contains complete sets of the ferns, the 
 grasses, the sedges, and the orchids of Jamaica. There are also well-preserved 
 specimens of the shells, fishes, birds, reptiles and insects of the island. The 
 archseological section contains curious relics of the Indian population disturbed by 
 Columbus and exterminated by the Spaniards, the bell of the old Port Royal 
 Church submerged by the 1692 earthquake and subsequently rescued by divers, 
 and also one of the old iron cages in which in days gone by criminals were 
 enclosed and suspended on trees to die of exposure and starvation. 
 
 The Women's Self-help Society, apart from the philanthropic purposes for 
 
12 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 ■which it was founded and which it serves, is well stocked with fans, d'oyleys 
 and other articles gracefully designed and carefully executed. Its premises in 
 Church are conveniently situated and may reasonably be considered a small 
 museum of works of art and taste. 
 
 Various religious sects have their places of worship in Kingston, but none 
 of them claim to be grand or great specimens of ecclesiastical architecture. 
 The Presbyterian Kirk in East Queen Street and the Wesleyan Chapel adjoin- 
 ing it, and known as the Coke Chapel, in memory of Dr. Coke, an eminent 
 and honored Methodist missionary a hundred years ago, are perhaps the best 
 and most complete to look at. The Btoman Catholic Church, or pro-cathedral, 
 is undergoing enlargement and, when finished, will be a handsome structure. 
 
 KINGSTON FROM HARBOUR. 
 
 Almost opposite to this last-named building is a striking and ornate Jewish 
 Synagogue. The first place, however, must be given to the old Kingston 
 Parish Church, the bright and cheerful interior of which atones for its some- 
 -what sombre exterior. Within the walls of the Parish Church and near the 
 communion rails, are buried all that could perish of Admiral Benbow, who 
 ■died in Kingston in the year 1702. 
 
 Until within the last few years, the insufficiency of hotel and boarding 
 accommodation was a great drawback in Kingston. Any ground for complaint 
 of this sort has to a great extent been removed. In addition to numerous 
 boarding-houses, most of which are clean and comfortable, and the most promi- 
 nent of which is at Park Lodge and at Streadwick's Marine Gardens, there 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 1 3 
 
 are substantially-built and fully-equipped hotels at Myrtle Bank, on the northern 
 shore of the Harbour, in Heywood Street in the centre of the city, and at 
 Constant Spring in the neighbouring parish of St. Andrew, about six miles 
 from Kingston, with which it is connected by tram-lines. Both Myrtle Bank 
 and Constant Spring hotels are spacious and well-conducted establishments. The 
 former is almost in the centre of the business portion of Kingston, while the 
 latter is removed from the heat and glare of the streets of a tropical town. 
 In addition to the ordinary conveniences of hotels, both Myrtle Bank and. 
 Constant Spring are provided with large swimming baths. 
 
 Kingston also possesses its theatre, its race course, its clubs, some con- 
 nected with sport, others existing for social purposes. The Jamaica Club in. 
 Hanover Street always welcomes strangers heartily ; the Royal Jamaica Yacht 
 Club has commodious quarters in the east of the city ; the Society of Agricul- 
 ture and Commerce has its home in Harbour Street, and its table is well, 
 supplied with the latest English and American papers. 
 
 The small, but once wealthy and important town of Port Royal stands at 
 the Western extremity of the narrow peninsula, called the Palisades which, 
 separates Kingston Harbour from the open sea. Looking at Port Royal at the- 
 present day it is difficult to understand how it could once have deserved the 
 description of being ' ' the finest town in the West Indies and at that time 
 the richest spot in the universe." Earthquake, fire and storm have done their 
 work on the town and more peaceful ways and customs have put a stop to- 
 buccaneering and other means of acquiring unlawful wealth. The greatest calami ty 
 which has ever befallen Port Royal was the earthquake on the 17th of June, 
 1692, which submerged the greater part of the town. This dreadful event has. 
 often been described, or perhaps we should say that a description of it written 
 by the clergyman at Port Royal, who was among the survivors of the earth- 
 quake, has often been quoted and adapted by subsequent historians and writers; 
 The following extract from the Hand-book of Jamaica summarises the terrible 
 catastrophe : — 
 
 ' ' Whole streets with their inhabitants were swallowed up by the opening- 
 of the earth, which when shut upon them squeezed the people to death, and 
 in that manner several were left with their heads above ground and others- 
 covered with dust and earth by the people who remained in the place. It 
 was a sad sight to see the harbour covered with dead bodies of people of all 
 conditions, floating up and down without burial, for the burying place was- 
 destroyed by the earthquake, which dashed to pieces tombs and the sea washed 
 the carcases of those who had been buried out of their graves." At Green 
 Bay there is still the tomb of Lewis Galdy, "who was swallowed up by the- 
 earthquake and by the Providence of God was, by another shock, thrown into 
 the sea and miraculously saved by swimming until a boat took him up. He 
 lived many years after in great reputation, beloved by all who knew him and 
 much lamented at his death." The ruins of old Port Royal are even yet 
 visible in clear weather from ' the surface- of the waters under which they lier 
 and relics are often procured by divers on exploring the ruins. 
 
14 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 The greater part of the present town of Port Royal is occupied by the 
 quarters of the naval and military troops, and by batteries and other means of 
 defence. It is reached from Kingston by steam launch OJ by other boats. 
 
 To the North of Kingston is the Parish of 
 
 ST. ANDREW, 
 the lower portion of which may be regarded as a suburb of Kingston, for 
 here, within easy reach of office or store, are the homes of many of the 
 leading commercial and professional men. 
 
 The tram-car from the Victoria Market terminus runs in a northerly direc- 
 tion about seven and one-half miles from Kingston, passing through the pretty 
 
 CONSTANT SPRING HOTEL, KINGSTON. 
 
 village of Halfway-Tree and stopping at Constant Spring. Halfway-Tree has 
 its Court House and Market and a beautifully restored Parish Church, which 
 is quite worth seeing as a model of what can be done by good taste and 
 religious devotion. The central East window of the Church is a memorial of 
 Dr. Aubrey Spencer, second Bishop of Jamaic?,. In the middle is a repre- 
 sentation of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, on either side of which are side 
 lights, that on the right depicting tropical scenery suggestive of the Bishop's 
 connection with Jamaica, and that on the left showing an Arctic scene 
 commemorative of his occupancy of the See of Newfoundland from which he 
 was translated to Jamaica. To the North of this middle window, and also 
 at the East end, is a window in memory of Dr. Charles Campbell, a late 
 doctor in Kingston, equally renowned for his philanthropy and his professional 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 15 
 
 skill; this window appropriately contains representations of St. Luke, the 
 Medico-Evangelist, the Healing of the Paralytic and the Good Samaritan. The 
 corresponding window on the South perpetuates the memory of the piety and 
 good works of the Doctor's brother, the late Venerable Archdeacon Campbell, 
 and represents the Adoration of the Magi, the Resurrection and the Washing 
 the Disciples' Feet. Monuments and memorial tablets of departed Governors 
 and local celebrities are to be found both in the, Church and in the church- 
 yard. Passing the Constant Spring Hotel which has already been mentioned, 
 we come to the foot of Stony Hill. At the top of Stony Hill we are 1,425 
 feet above the level of the sea, and the difference of climate between it and 
 the lowlands is very perceptible, though the distance between the summit of 
 the hill and Kingston is only nine miles. Here is the private residence of 
 the present Bishop of Jamaica and a block of buildings which were formerly 
 the military encampment for white troops, but which are now the premises of 
 the Government Reformatory for boys. Beyond Stony Hill to the left hand 
 side of the road, we soon reach a wide stretch of land, devoted to the culti- 
 vation of tobacco and largely inhabited by Cubans ; this tobacco has a very 
 high reputation, and there are not wanting connoisseurs who prefer it to the 
 choicest brands of Cuban growth. On certain days, and under atmospheric 
 conditions, during the curing season the traveller, journeying from Kingston 
 across the Island, may inhale for some considerable time the unadulterated 
 flavour of the finest tobacco. The road — which is known as the Junction 
 Road — then continues down hill till it reaches the confines of the Parish of 
 St. Mary and terminates at the little sea-port town of Annotto Bay. On this 
 road, nineteen miles from Kingston and eleven miles from Annotto Bay, are 
 the Castleton Gardens. Castleton is in St. Mary's Parish, but on account of 
 its accessibility to Kingston and St. Andrew is more properly mentioned here. 
 A double buggy from Kingston to the Gardens and back can be hired for 
 30s. These Gardens contain a large collection of native and tropical plants, 
 and no one ought to leave Jamaica without visiting them. Their chief features 
 are the palmetum, a collection of economic, spice and fruit trees, a fine collec- 
 tion of East Indian and West Indian orchids, an experimental ground for new 
 industrial plants, and large nurseries containing cacao, rubber plants, nutmeg, 
 clove, peppers, mango, vanilla, cardamum, sarsaparilla, Liberian coffee, etc., etc. 
 Apart from industrial plants, Castleton Gardens contain such interesting Botanical 
 specimens as, among others, the splendid Victoria Regia (the Water Lily of 
 the Amazon), the Amherstia Nobilis, the most magnificent of ornamental 
 flowering trees, the Java Upas Tree, the Ravenalia Madagascariense, commonly 
 known as the Traveller's Tree of Madagascar, a tree from which a cold drink 
 can be extracted at any minute the whole year round. Alongside the Eastern 
 boundary of the Gardens flows the Wag Water River, on the Western bank of 
 which is a grotto, convenient for picnic parties, shaded by the foliage of trees 
 and protected by overhanging rocks. The average annual rainfall at Castleton is 
 more than 108 inches and therefore, on the occasion of a visit there, it is wise to 
 be provided with umbrellas and waterproofs. 
 
i6 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 Another road from Kingston is that which leads through Gordon Town to 
 Newcastle and the St. Andrew's Hills. Passing the Jamaica High School for 
 boys, the University College and the Hope Gardens, a newly founded Government 
 Institution, the road plunges into a gorge that is thoroughly characteristic of 
 Jamaica mountain scenery. On the one hand a precipitous bank of ferns and 
 wild-flowers and patches of guinea grass, now and then a boulder of dark grey 
 rock cropping out, with sheltering clumps of moss and fern in its niches and 
 hollows. On the other hand, a hundred feet below, the Hope River roars 
 along over its bed of smooth boulders and brown gravel. The road winds sharply 
 in and out, following the contour ^f the hills, and guarded at nearly every 
 
 PORT ROYAL. 
 
 turn by strong retaining walls from the dangers of the precipice that overhangs 
 the river. Higher and higher it mounts; cottages dot the hillside; ferns and 
 begonias, cluster thicker ; the air is fresher and more bracing and our spirits rise 
 involuntarily. Then after an hour's brisk drive from Kingston the village of 
 Gordon Town is reached, where there is just enough room for a straggling row of 
 houses between the mountain at the back and the river at the foot of the 
 precipice in front. 
 
 Beyond Gordon Town progress must be made either on foot or on horseback, 
 the mountain track being too narrow and too steep for buggy or carriage. 
 
 Reaching Newcastle and looking southward the visitor will be rewarded for 
 his climb with a magnificent view of the Liguanea Plain, the Town and Harbour 
 of Kingston, and the sea beyond to a far horizon ; while to the north, east 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 1 7 
 
 and west, tower the slopes and crests of the Bhie Mountains. A walk along 
 any of the numerous paths across the slopes and leading to the ridges above will 
 repay him with an endless wealth of ferns, orchids and wild flowers, and he will 
 be reminded of home by the wild strawberries nestling in the hollows along 
 the banks. 
 
 The highest point of this range is the Blue Mountain Peak, y,t;oo feet above 
 sea level, the journey to which should be a two days' trip, spending the night 
 in the hut on the top of the Peak. Provisions will have to be laid in, and guides 
 can be procured who will also act as porters. 
 
 The road mounts ridge after ridge, winding down steep mountain sides, crossing 
 the streams that rush down every gorge, skirting along the slopes and mounting 
 over the tops of the intervening hills, and now and then leaving one valley' 
 and following the course of another. j 
 
 An easy ride of about four hours brings us to Farm Hill Coffee Plantation, 
 where the keys of the hut on the Summit of the Peak and useful information 
 about the road, or the weather, or the water supply may be obtained. 
 
 Leaving Farm Hill the road winds along past Whitfield Hall to Abbey 
 Green, whose houses and terraces of solid masonry are perched on slopes of such 
 surpassing steepness that they appear in imminent danger of tumbling headlong 
 into the abyss that lies beneath them. 
 
 Behind this the road zig-zags up the steep side of the mountain, threading 
 its course between fields of coffee, some of them of such venerable age that 
 many of the coffee bushes have assumed the appearance of dwarfed trees from 
 the constant lopping and priming, with trunks from six to nine inches in diameter, 
 and a height of only four feet or thereabout. 
 
 The leaves of the Cinchona , blotched with scarlet, now add their quota of 
 colour to the scene ; for we are leaving the coffee region behind and entering 
 upon the elevation at which this useful febrifuge best flourishes. Hundreds of 
 acres were planted here some fifteen years ago, and should have been a mine of 
 wealth to the growers ; but, now that artificial cuinine can be produced sol 
 cheaply, the Cinchona plant runs wild and self-sown, growing in rank thickets on! 
 many a misty slope of the Blue Mountain. 
 
 On reaching the top, about two hours after leaving Farm Hill, we find a 
 small open space covered with short springy turf and fringed with stunted trees. 
 At one side of it stands a little hut of two rooms, where accommodations for the 
 night may be had. There is a stove and a supply of firewood, which you may 
 use, provided you replace the latter on leaving — a most rigidly observed point of 
 Peak etiquette. To the south of the hut there is a narrow track leading down 
 a precipitous ravine, near which is a small pool of water sufficient for one's 
 absolute needs. Should the weather however have been abnormally dry this may 
 fail, and in such seasons the wise traveller will bring drinking water with him. 
 
 The thermometer at early morning is frequently down to forty degrees Fahren- 
 heit; on a recent occasion, during the cold wave of February, 1886, solid ice was 
 found there. 
 
 The weather should of course be carefully considered, as on that depends 
 
i8 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 entirely the success of the expedition ; and it should be remembered that the 
 annual rainfall at the Peak amounts to about 130 inches. The calm, clear 
 weather prevailing about the time of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes will be 
 found the most favourable for the ascent. 
 
 Other places of interest in the Parish of St. Andrew are the King's House, 
 the official residence of the Governor, the grounds of which are beautifully laid 
 out, and the Up-Park Camp Barracks, about one and one-half miles north of 
 Kingston, the head -quarters of the West Indian Regiment. The military band 
 plays once a week' in the evening and occasionally in the afternoon, and the Camp 
 is a favourite resort for lovers of music. * 
 
 KING'S HOUSE, SPANISH TOWN. 
 
 To the east of Kingston is the Parish of 
 
 ST. THOMAS. 
 
 For any one who has time to drive round the Island and to see what of Jamaica 
 can be seen in a flying visit, a leisurely journey along the main coast road of 
 the Island is an enjoyable experience. There are varieties of scenery, life, char- 
 acter ; there are good roads and entertainments varying from good to moderate. 
 To take this tour is perhaps the best way of seeing Jamaica, to follow its track 
 may be the best way of illustrating and describing Jamaica. Let us start in 
 an easterly direction from Kingston and drive in turn through the country 
 parishes. 
 
 Kingston is soon left behind, the road passing between rows of detached 
 villas, each with its garden bright with roses, and crotons and tropical flowers 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 19 
 
 which bloom so brightly and luxuriantly that one can almost fancy they enjoy 
 the pleasure of existence. Soon we are by the shore of the harbour and pass 
 Rock Fort and Brighton Beach and the Head of the Harbour. Rock Fort is 
 picturesque to look at, but obsolete and useless as a means of defence against 
 modern artillery. 
 
 After about an hour's drive the Falls River is reached. There is, however, 
 no river to be seen, but the dry bed of a water-course fringed with unsightly 
 bush, mostly of a thorny description. But those who are equal to the task of 
 leaving their buggy and walking a mile or so up the ravine to where it emerges 
 from those volcanic rocks that frown down upon it, will find a stream of crystal 
 water. Following the rocky path cut along one side of it they arrive at the foot 
 of a romantic looking waterfall, roaring down a canon whose adamant walls tower 
 hundreds of feet above. 
 
 K m. s. URGENT." 
 
 This spot and its neighbourhood are historically interesting as having been 
 the haunt, about one hundred and twenty years ago, of Three-Fingered Jack, whose 
 exploits have found their way into English melodrama. He was a notorious 
 negro highwayman, for dread of whom travellers refrained from passing along this 
 road after dark. A price was set by the Government upon his head, and the 
 reward was earned by a Maroon, who killed him and brought into Head-quarters 
 the deformed hand that gave the robber his appellation, as proof positive of his 
 achievement. 
 
 Leaving the Falls River the road crosses the spurs of the Blue Mountain 
 Range that here fall abruptly into the sea. From the summits of some of these, 
 as the road swings sharply round the head of a ravine, exquisite little glimpses 
 are obtained between the hills of Port Royal, the Palisades, Kingston Harbour, 
 and the distant heights beyond, with deep blue water in the foreground studded 
 with the white sails of coasting vessels or fishing canoes. 
 
20 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 And so on down the steep Four Mile Wood Hill and along the edge of a 
 mangrove swamp, until Albion Estate is reached, the bright green of whose rust- 
 ling cane fields forms a pleasing contrast to the sombre tone . of the forest 
 vegetation. A few miles beyond Albion is the village of Yal-lahs, the principal 
 object of interest in which is the old church, the first erected on the Island after 
 its occupation by the English. It is solidly "built, but simple and unpretentious 
 in architecture. 
 
 About a mile and a half beyond Yallahs the Salt Ponds are reached, sheets 
 of stagnant brackish water, teeming with fish and swarming with alligators, of 
 which latter the traveller is sure to see Sne or two floating with snout and tail 
 
 CASTLETON GARDENS. 
 
 projecting above the surface of the water at almost any time of the day. Passing 
 these, the scenery, which, but for the bold and ever changing outline of the hills 
 on the north, is rather monotonous, begins to improve. 
 
 We pass through one or two villages, with tall and graceful cocoanut palms 
 and fruit trees overshading the thatched huts, and knots of happy little 
 urchins playing by the roadside. Crimson poinsettia and flowering hybiscus 
 brighten the hedges ; and soon we approach the sea-shore again, along which 
 we skirt for nearly four miles, while on the left springs of fresh water gush 
 out of the rocks, and at one spot a waterfall comes tumbling into the road. 
 
 Now, the laughter of women and children rings out, bathing or washing 
 clothes in the stream, or filling their cans and calabashes with water. Then a 
 stretch of wide common opens-up dotted with browsing sheep and cattle, houses 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 21 
 
 and estates ; buildings stand out against the background of the beautiful hills, and 
 Belvidere Estate is passed, the original owner of which was Robert Freeman, the 
 iiTst Speaker of the first House of Assembly in Jamaica. 
 
 Passing through a forest of bananas, we come out into the course of the 
 Morant River, where the many tracks that the water has torn up are bordered by 
 beds' of wild cane waving their silken plumes. Here and there a massive trunk, 
 torn from the forest higher up, lies prostrate, witness of the fury of the swollen 
 torrent. Looking up Northwards are to be seen the encircling sweep of the hills, 
 and the Peaks of the Blue Mountains towering over all. 
 
 A mile beyond this is the town of Morant Bay, which has an unenviable 
 notoriety as being the seat of the disturbances of 1865. Here one's attention is 
 attracted by the sign of American enterprise in the wharf and buildings of the 
 Boston Fruit Co., whose business has an important branch here. The Court 
 House and the Square are objects of melancholy interest, the ' former being built 
 upon the foundations of the old building- destroyed by the rioters in 1865, while 
 the square was the scene of much of the punishment that accompanied the 
 retribution. 
 
 A visit to Morant Bay will not be complete without a run up the Blue 
 Mountain Valley, one of the most charfning bits of scenery to be found in the 
 -whole Island of Jamaica, as far as Serge Island Estate. This place will be found 
 to combine the highest class of cane cultivation with the most improved methods 
 of sugar manufacture ; while its red-roofed ' ' great house " is a fine specimen of 
 •old Jamaica architecture. Add to these a beautiful and tastefully laid out garden, 
 -where tropical plants and those of more temperate regions are made to grow side 
 by side in bewildering variety, surrounded by a wealth of ferns and orchids, and 
 you have a perfectly ideal tropical demesne, even without the incomparable back- 
 ground of bold forest-clad mountain range and towering peaks- in which it nestles. 
 
 Seven miles beyond Morant Bay is situated the shipping place of Port Morant. 
 Town, properly speaking, there is none, in spite of the safe and almost land- 
 locked harbour. But considerable business is done here in the fruit trade, this 
 being the head -quarters on the sojath side of the Island of the Boston Fruit Co. 
 Their wharves and offices are at the east side of the harbour, where the depth is 
 great enough for steamers of 2,000 tons to moor alongside in perfectly smooth 
 -water. Along the road hither, if it be the day of the arrival of a fruit steamer, 
 -will be met spring carts and wagons, all laden with the luscious banana. 
 
 The road now leaves the coast and turns toward the little town of Bath. 
 'The scenery becomes more and more tropical and the vegetation richer and 
 licher. Gorgeous shrubs line the roadside, the ever frequent stream is crossed, 
 now by bridge, now by ford, now small, now large, until ' we reach the 
 Plantain Garden River, which, rising far away in the recesses of the Blue 
 Mountains, flows from west to east, and discharges itself into the sea at Holland 
 Bay to the north of the Morant Point Lighthouse. It traverses in its course 
 a plain bounded on the north by the precipitous slope of the Blake Moun- 
 tains — until recently known as the John Crow Mountains — and on the south by 
 a range of low hills which divide it from the sea on that side. This plain 
 
2 2 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 it covers, when in flood, with alluvial deposit from the hills above, thus 
 making the Plantain Garden River district one of the most fertile spots oa 
 the Island. 
 
 About a quarter of a mile further, after fording a tributary of the Plan- 
 tain Garden River, we find ourselves at a sudden turn of the road in the 
 town of Bath, the approach to which is by an avenue in which Otaheite 
 apple trees predominate, interspersed with ackees, mangoes and cotton trees. 
 
 The glory has departed from Bath, as from many another Jamaica town. But 
 the mineral waters, to which it owes its existence, are still there. They are worth. 
 visiting on account of the natural beauty of their situation, and the sufferer from 
 
 ON THE WAG WATER AT CASTLETON. 
 
 rheumatism, or any ailment of a cutaneous nature, will here find relief, if not; 
 ultimate cure. 
 
 The way to them lies along a narrow gorge bordered with. fern and moss and. 
 creepers covering the dark grey rock and almost hiding from view the river rush- 
 ing along below. Tree ferns spread abroad their arching fronds, and the air is 
 fragrant and heavy with moisture, for it is a veritable hot-house of nature. Sudden, 
 showers of rain are apt to come pelting down, a danger which has been provided, 
 against by the erection, at intervals of half a mile, of zinc -roofed sheds over the 
 road. From out the rocks above, tiny streamlets trickle across into the river 
 beneath, some hot, some cold, and high over all nods the graceful bamboo with, 
 its whispering leaves. A mile and a half of this enchanted road brings us to the 
 .Baths, which are wedged in between the hillside and the river bank. The springs 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 23 
 
 that supply them with hot and cold water bubble out of the rocks higher up 
 within a few feet of each other, the hot one at a temperature of 130 degrees 
 Fahrenheit. The following is the analysis of the water : 
 
 Chloride of Sodium, - - 13-84 
 
 Chloride of Potassium, ----- 0.32 
 
 Sulphate of Calcium, - - - - 5.01 
 
 Sulphate of Soda, - - 6.37 
 
 Carbonate of Soda, - 1.69 
 
 Silica, - 2.72 
 
 Oxide of sodium, combined with silica, - i.oo 
 
 Organic rnatter, . °-99 
 
 The above being the proportion to one gallon of water. 
 
 There is accommodation for visitors at Bath, but much requires to be done 
 in the way of increasing and improving the accommodation, before the virtues of 
 the mineral springs are as widely used and appreciated as they ought to be. 
 
 In the river, above the baths, are deep pools and foaming cascades of 
 most exquisite beauty. The curative properties of the springs are said to have 
 been accidentally discovered by a slave in the early part of the last century. 
 
 In the year 1774 a botanic garden was established at Bath, of which now 
 only about an acre remains ; sadly neglected, but containing some magnificent 
 specimens of ornamental and economic trees transported hither from other lands. 
 Here flourishes and flowers, although almost uprooted by hurricane, a solitary 
 Amherstia nobilis. Great tangles of knotted vine, vanilla among them, clasp 
 the branches of the Spathodea and Barringtonia in their embrace, forming a 
 canopy under which palms, rattans, dracsenas, irises and a legion of others 
 rankly grow. But chief of all is the .gigantic coco de mer, the palm that 
 takes seventy years to arrive at maturity, and under any one leaf of which a 
 dozen men could find perfect shelter from the heaviest shower of rain. 
 
 Leaving Bath we drive along a level road through the Plantain Garden 
 River Plain, where banana cultivation is largely carried on. 
 
 It is a noble view that unfolds itself to the gaze, as, after a drive of 
 six miles, the traveller begins the ascent of the Quaw Hill, and turning round 
 sees this fruitful land stretched out below, banana fields alternating with pasture 
 land, the tall chimneys and white works, relics of the by-gone sugar industry 
 still standing among the broad leaves, teams of cattle toiling along before the 
 plough, and the river here and there .gleaming- out from its fringe of rustling 
 bamboos. 
 
 But this soon fades from sight, and, reaching the top of the hill we are 
 presently on a breezy upland where the road is scarcely discernible, and the 
 telegraph posts are almost the only guide across the short, crisp turf, sweetened 
 by the spray flung over it by the incoming breakers from the open sea. 
 
 Passing the clean little town of Manchioneal, scene of some of the exploits 
 recorded in "Tom Cringle's Log," embowered in cocoanut palms that grow 
 down to the very edge of the land-locked little harbour, after a few miles of 
 
24 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 romantic scenery, a turn of the road reveals the east harbour of Port Antonio, 
 the chief town in the Parish of 
 
 PORTLAND. 
 
 An outjutting promontory of coral rock, carpeted with green turf, divides 
 the bay into two harbours. On this spit of land stands the picturesque 
 remains of an ancient Fort, and behind it the old barracks. From the further 
 margin of each harbour the hills rise step by step, profusely covered with 
 tropical vegetation and plumed with many a tall cocoanut, among which the 
 white walls and the green windows ant? the red roofs of the houses look out 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO CASTLETON. 
 
 seawards. Behind these again mount ridge upon ridge of the Blue Mountain 
 Range right up into the clouds that hang round the Peaks. Outside the mouth 
 of the harbour white-crested waves break .against the iron rock on which the red 
 lighthouse is perched. The vessel comes bounding in on the swell, rushing 
 apparently to certain destruction, when, suddenly swinging under the lee of the 
 Island that guards the mouth of the west harbour, she glides along on even keel 
 over the unruffled surface of this harbour till she anchors alongside one of the 
 wharves, where two or three steamers are generally to be seen taking in fruit for 
 the American market. 
 
 For here are the head-quarters of the Boston Fruit Co .. whose enterprise has 
 it may almost be said, saved the two most easterly parishes of the Island from 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 25 
 
 reverting, sugar being extinct, to the condition of primeval forest. The American 
 visitor might well fancy himself in some town in the Southern States in his 
 native land — American vessels in the harbour, American boats scudding about the 
 bay, and American wagons rattling along the street. 
 
 The head offices of the Boston Fruit Co. are at Long Wharf, Boston, Mass., 
 and they despatch two steamers weekly thence and from Baltimore. Their 
 vessels being primarily intended for the fruit trade, the passenger accomm.odation is 
 necessarily limited ; but eight or ten can be carried conveniently at the very rea- 
 sonable rates of J60.00 for a return ticket from Boston, and ^50.00 from Baltimore. 
 The passage is made in five and a half or six days. 
 
 If the tourist should choose this means of reaching Jamaica he will never 
 forget the entrance to Port Antonio Harbour, especially if he should chance to 
 arrive at early morning or towards sunset. 
 
 Among the places of interest to be visited in the neighbourhood the mag- 
 nificent banana plantations at Golden Vale and Seaman's Valley are the chief. The 
 effect of many hundred acres of broad shining leaves glistening in the sun, row 
 upon row, with the virgin forest of the mountain ridges for a background, and 
 the broad bosom of the Rio Grande, the second largest river in the Island, gleam- 
 ing in front, cannot be surpassed anywhere. 
 
 From , Port Antonio the route lies westward along the north coast of 
 the Island, passing the little towns of Hope Bay and Buff Bay. Still roars 
 the sea on the right, open bay giving place to quiet cove, and occasion- 
 ally a bit of mangrove swamp, where the tall trees' .stand up on stilts of 
 arched roots between which oozes sluggish black water. Myriads of queerly 
 shaped crabs scurry across the road. They appear to have concentrated 
 all their energies on the development of one enormous claw, which, carried. 
 defiantly across the face, wide open, is in absurd disproportion to the 
 rest of the structure. These breaks in the chain only give one greater zest 
 for the enjoyment of the next bit of coral beach and cocoanut-fringed emerald 
 water. 
 
 And wherever cultivation is practicable there grow bananas. We pass also 
 through two or three of the largest cocoanut plantations in the Island, and wit- 
 ness abundant signs of the importance of the banana and the cocoanut in the 
 ■welfare of the population of this neighbourhood. If the tourist should happen to 
 be thirsty by the way, he may do a great deal worse than try a water cocoanut. 
 That means an unripe cocoanut, in which the meat is of such texture that it may 
 be scooped out and eaten with a spoon — and the water of which has a 
 most pleasingly palatable flavour. If it be early in the day, the temperature of 
 this is sure to be several degrees lower than that of any other fluid that he is 
 likely to be able to procure along the road. 
 
 The contemplated extension of the^ Jamaica railway as far as Port Antonio 
 will, when effected, make the towns along this road independent of the weather, 
 •which now, during the "northern" season, often interferes very seriously with the 
 fruit trade on account of the unprotected state of the harbours facing the 
 north. 
 
26 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 About eight miles beyond Buff Bay, the western boundary of the Parish of 
 Portland is passed, and we enter the classic ground of 
 
 ST. MARY, 
 
 around which cluster a hundred memories of Columbus and the Spanish occupa- 
 tion. 
 
 The first town reached is Annotto Bay, the situation of which is suggestive 
 of moisture and malaria, owing to the fact that three or four rivers here find 
 their way into the sea. Judging, however, from official statistics, Annotto Bay is 
 by no means so unhealthy as might be <>expected. It is a prosperous little town 
 and a growing centre of the fruit trade. 
 
 ON THE ROAD TO GORDON TOWN. 
 
 Proceeding westward along the coast. Port Maria is reached — Port Maria, 
 the probable Santa Gloria of Columbus. This is a flourishing town, with its 
 Church, Court House and Hospital all in good order and in creditable condition. 
 It has a fairly good harbour and has not been without its share of the banana 
 prosperity. Near the Church is the Victoria Market, built in 1887, in commem- 
 oration of the Jubilee of the Queen's Accession. On a promontory, overlooking 
 the harbour, is a building formerly known as Fort Haldane, from which a wide- 
 reaching view on either side may be obtained, a view including the town and 
 harbour, neighbouring estates with their varied cultivation together with Cabrietta 
 Island, a reef which acts as a breakwater and protection to the harbour. The 
 Fort is now devoted to more peaceful uses than its name implies, being the home 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 27 
 
 of Gray's Charity, an almshouse where shelter and means of living are provided 
 for a certain number of the poor of the Parish of St. Mary. 
 
 Some miles to the west of Port Maria is Oracabessa Bay, on the shores 
 of which Christopher Columbus probably first landed in Jamaica on the iifth day 
 of May, 1494. This interesting little place bears a good character as a health- 
 resort and bananas are shipped from its safe little harbour. Beyond Oracabessa 
 is Rio Nuevo, another place of note in the history of the Colony. It was here 
 that the Spaniards, taking advantage of the distress and disorganization of the 
 British troops, attempted to regain possession of the Island. On a rocky eminence 
 near the sea at Rio Nuevo, Don Christopher Sasia, with upwards of i,ooo men, 
 occupied what he considered an impregnable fortress. Here the Spaniards were 
 attacked by the British and after a desperate fight were defeated with terrible 
 loss of life. 
 
 At the north of this parish is Scott's Hall, one of the Maroon towns, not far 
 from which is Job's Hill, where some valuable copper ore was found in 1852. An 
 unsuccessful attempt to work a copper mine was made — the failure being due 
 not to the absence of the mineral so much as to the employment of a wrong 
 method of working. 
 
 The Parish of St. Mary is memorable in the history of Jamaica as having 
 been the scene of a formidable outbreak among the slaves in the year 1760. The 
 insurgents were under the command of two Africans, named Tackey and Jamaica, 
 through whose veins ran the fierce Cormantyn blood, and the former of whom 
 had held high rank in his native country before being exiled into slavery. On the 
 evening of Easter Sunday a party of slaves marched into Port Maria and seized 
 the almost unprotected fort and magazine, thereby obtaining possession of arms 
 and ammunition. On the following day they were joined by bands of fellow- 
 conspirators from neighbouring estates and marched towards the interior of the 
 Island, plundering Heywood Hall, Esher and other estates and killing the white 
 inhabitants. They retired for rest and safety to Ballard's Valley, where they began 
 to enjoy, in wild revellings and reckless carousals, the fruits of a victory which 
 was not as yet within their grasp. For their plot was revealed by one Yankee, 
 who has been called "a faithful slave," a term which, while including faithfulness 
 to his owner, certainly involves treachery to his comrades and fellow countrymen. 
 The regular troops, the militia and hurriedly-enrolled volunteers were quickly 
 on the track of the rebels who, after a desperate struggle, were defeated with 
 much loss of life. Tackey himself was shot by a Maroon ; of the other ring- 
 leaders one was burnt and two were hung in chains, and a large number of the 
 rank and file were transported to the Bay of Honduras. 
 
 Leaving Oracabessa, the road crosses the White River, and we enter the 
 Parish of 
 
 ST. ANN, 
 
 the " Garden of Jamaica," the loveliness and charm of which have, time after 
 time, proved to be beyond the power of the pen of historians, travellers and 
 descriptive writers. Let us quote some of these : 
 
a8 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 First of all Peter Martyr, to whom we are indebted for so much informa- 
 tion relative to the early settlement of these regions, and who is said to have 
 resided in the Abbey of Sevilla Nueva in St. Ann, speaks of sending a household 
 servant to ' ' looke into ye affaires of my Paradisian Jamaica. ' ' Then -Bryan 
 Edwards says: — "When Columbus iirst discovered Jamaica he approached it on 
 ■" the northside, and beholding that part of the country which now constitutes 
 ■"the Parish of St. Ann, he was filled with delight and admiration at the 
 ^' novelty, variety and beauty of the prospect." 
 
 But Hill, in his " Lights and Shadows of Jamaica History," rises above them 
 all to the height of positive rhapsody. *" Earth, "he says, " has .nothing more 
 
 GORDON TOWN. 
 
 " lovely than the pastures and pimento groves of St. Ann, nothing more enchant- 
 ■" ing than its hills and vales, delicious in . verdure and redolent with the 
 *' fragrance of spices. Embellished with wood and water, from the deep forests, 
 ■" from whence the streams descend to the ocean in falls, the blue haze of the air 
 *' blends and harmonizes all into beauty." 
 
 And truly it is ,a fair country. Here is the home of the fragrant pimento, 
 more generally known as allspice, Jamaica's unique and indigenous product. Silver 
 stems, crowned with dark leaves of glossy green, they stand in groups on the gentle 
 slopes, shading the velvety common or the breast-high luscious guinea grass, where 
 browse the sleek cattle, or, satiated and recumbent, chew the cud. The scent of 
 the ripe berries fills the drowsy air, lulled by the hum of the bee and the roar 
 of the waterfall. Graceful clumps of woodland, spreading ceibas, scarlet-blotched 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 29 
 
 broad-leaf, crown the crests of the undulating hills, where from one, steeper than its 
 fellows, the limestone crags crop out. 
 
 White roads bounded by grey stone walls wind along the hollows, dipping into 
 the crystal rivulets where the water-lily floats, and sweep up the hill-sides to the 
 white mansions glancing through their curtains of trailing creeper. The bright 
 magenta of the Bougainvillea, the creamy whiteness of the stephanotis, the pale pink. 
 of the coralina enfold these lovingly, and with many another, fling broadcast their 
 brightness and their fragrance. 
 
 For a background to our view we have hitherto always had the rugged outline 
 of some ridge or peak of the Blue' Mountains clad in virgin forest ; but now we 
 exchange these for rounded hills and swelling pastures. The broad estuaries of 
 sluggish rivers, the mangrove swamps, the stony beds of mountain torrents give 
 place to babbling streams of a purity that looks as though the flood could never 
 defile it, now sweeping in a clear steady current right out to the bar in which 
 the white breakers tumble, now shooting out over the cliff sheer down to the beach 
 in a silvery cascade. 
 
 There is something weird and mysterious about the origin of these streams. 
 They are cradled in the bosom of the earth, in the limestone strata far 
 beneath the surface, fed by many a "sink-hole;" now coming out to 
 bask in the light of day for a mile or two, then disappearing again 
 until they emerge for the final plunge into the sea. One of these, the 
 Roaring River, has created for itself a veritable fairy-land in its course 
 which we cross on the road to St. Ann's Bay, after passing the village 
 of Ocho Rios. The noise which warns us of our approach to it amply justi- 
 fies the name of the stream. It finds its way into the sea by a score of 
 different channels, each overhung by vegetation in such a way that your first 
 impression is that it is only a temporary flow of water escaping from some 
 dam above, and will presently cease. The main stream is spanned by a strong 
 stone bridge, from which we look down upon a scene which makes us rub our 
 eyes and look and look again. There is a clear pool, calm of surface, but 
 flowing nevertheless with a strong current seaward, out of which apparently 
 grow cabbage palms, banyans, ferns, vines, and other trees and plants innumer- 
 able. Looking upward, if we scramble out upon the projecting roots that form, 
 a rough bridge, the stream mounts terrace upon terrace, each curtained with 
 an irridescent veil of falling water, which almost seems to drip from the 
 branches of the trees that form the foreground, growing up in mid-stream. 
 
 Leaving the buggy and walking along the path-way about a mile from the 
 road, we are rewarded by the sight of the great Fall, one of the loveliest 
 objects in a land of beautiful things. 
 
 St. Ann's Bay, the principal town in the parish, is a clean little town, 
 with a harbour open to the north, outjutting wharves, a street parallel to the 
 harbour connected by cross streets with another further away, in which lie the 
 principal dry goods and hardware stores. There is a neat little church, and 
 the public offices are striking buildings. Cocoanut palms wave everywhere, and 
 vegetation crops out in every corner that is not constantly trodden by passing feet. 
 
3° 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 About a mile to the west of St. Ann's Bay was the site of the first Capital 
 of the Island, Sevilla Nueva, or Sevilla d'Oro, founded by Don Juan d'Esquivel, 
 the first Spanish Governor of Jamaica. It was of large extent, and contained 
 a Cathedral, a Monastery, a Theatre, and many Palaces. Owing to some cause 
 of which no record has been left, it was abandoned and allowed to decay till 
 scarcely a trace remains of the ancient city. 
 
 To the East of St. Ann's Bay is Don Christopher's Cove, so called from 
 the fact that Columbus is reported, on the occasion of his last voyage to the 
 West Indies, to have there stranded his two last crippled ships. Another place of 
 interest to students of the early history* of Jamaica is Runaway Bay, about ten 
 
 SAVANNA-LA-MAR. 
 
 miles from St. Ann's Bay on the Northern coast of the Parish of St. Ann. 
 Hence it was that Don Arnoldi Sasi, the last of the Spanish Governors, after 
 a desperate struggle with Cromwell's troops, managed , to make his escape to 
 Cuba. Dry Harbour, the Puerto Bueno of the Spaniards, is reached by road 
 or by water from St. Ann's Bay. It is mainly interesting for its historic 
 associations and for its j)roximity to a remarkable cavern at a place called 
 Cave Hall Pen. This Cave is very long and contains two galleries which 
 branch into grottoes and side aisles, from which there are stalagmites and 
 stalactites of strange .beauty. 
 
 South-east of St. Ann's Bay is the inland village of Moneague where, at an 
 elevation of 950 feet above the sea-level, is a small hotel. The charges at the 
 Moneague are not excessive, the climate is fairly good, and lovers of picturesque 
 scenery will not be disappointed if they spend a few days there. 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 3 1 
 
 The mountains of this district of St. Ann have, like so many other parts oi 
 Jamaica, their bloody legends of bygone days, which may be related here. 
 
 About the year 1770, there lived at Pedro Vale in this district, Louis Hutch- 
 inson, a notorious murderer. Hutchinson was a Scotchman by birth, whose 
 feelings had been hardened and disposition brutalised by the sad fate of his father 
 and sister. His father had been murdered by a military officer who afterwards 
 first outraged, and then murdered, his sister. Hutchinson lived at a house called 
 "Edinburgh Castle," which overlooked a narrow pass leading from the North to 
 the South of the Island. Here, assisted by his slaves, and under cover of a thick 
 logwood fence, he waylaid the unwary traveller, and for many years few persons 
 escaped his unerring aim. His victims were often mutilated and dismembered 
 before being cast into a gully to decay, or be washed to the sea by the mountain 
 torrents. His last victim was a man named Callendar, the manager of a neigh- 
 
 MARTHA BRAE, FALMOUTH. 
 
 bouring estate. The story goes that Hutchinson would imprison infirm or sick 
 persons- in order to fatten them for the sacrifice, and that one unhappy creature 
 so imprisoned was a witness of the murder of Callendar, contrived to escape and 
 reported what he had seen to the authorities. Hutchinson, now that concealment 
 was no longer possible, fled to Old Harbour and put out to sea in a small, open 
 boat, but was arrested by a vessel sent in search of him by Admiral Lord Rodney. 
 The number of his victims is unknown, but as many as forty -seven watches were 
 found in his house. He was hung in Spanish Town on the i6th of March, 1773. 
 Brown's Town is an important inland town in this parish. It is a great 
 centre of the produce trade, and at all hours of the day and night in certain 
 seasons, drays and carts may be met loaded with the fragrant pimento and the 
 aromatic coffee, toiling up towards the town, or returning laden with the various 
 commodities and necessaries of life with which the stores there are so well supplied. 
 A bright, clean, smart-looking little place is this. None of those squalid tumble- 
 
32 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 down shanties, that so often offend the eye in the coast towns, meet the gaze. It 
 carries in its face an air of prosperity that is no mere pretence. 
 To the West of St. Ann's Parish is that of 
 
 TRELAWNY, 
 
 which derives its name from Governor Sir William Trelawny, who died in Jamaica 
 in the year 1772, and its chief town, Falmouth, is the second in size in the whole 
 Island. The most interesting way by which to approach Falmouth is by road from 
 Brown's Town. It is not merely that the scenery through which the road passes 
 equals in picturesqueness that' of other paSs of Jamaica, but the social conditions 
 
 ROARING RIVER. 
 
 which prevail differ from those of other districts. On the left is a district which 
 some fifty years ago was made the scene of a curious experiment, namely, an 
 attempt to introduce European immigrants into Jamaica. If in one sense the 
 experiment was a failure, in another it was a success. For if on the one hand 
 it showed that, as a general rule, the European constitution cannot stand prolonged 
 out-door labour on the hot plains of Jamaica, on the other hand it proved that such 
 labour was quite possible in the cool and healthy mountain districts. Unfortunately 
 the experiment was mismanaged and ended disastrously. Many of these immigrants 
 were German by nationality and were located in this part of Trelawny. Their 
 descendents may be found in the neighbouring Ulster Spring district, where the 
 percentage of crime and illegitimacy is less than in most other districts, and where 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 33 
 
 the general condition is that of a happy and contented people. Falmouth , itself 
 is a neat, well-kept town, with broad streets and several handsome and substantial 
 buildings. Foremost among these is the Court House. Trelawny has always been 
 famed for the lavish hospitality of its inhabitants, and the receptions given to 
 successive Governors at Falmouth are characteristic of this hospitality. On the 
 walls of the Court' House, are, mementoes of past Governors. One of these is a 
 full length portrait of General Sir John Keene, who was Lieutenant Governor of 
 the Colony from 1827-1829 and who, at a critical time, administered the Govern- 
 ment with mingled firmness and conciliation. Another portrait here is that of 
 Sir Charles Metcalfe, who was Governor from 1839 to 1842 and whose conduct, 
 under circumstances of considerable difficulty, deservedly earned for him the respect 
 and admiration of the colonists. The Episcopal Church at Falmouth is a fairly 
 substantial building which is now being internally repaired and decorated ; but the 
 most interesting ecclesiastical building is the Baptist Chapel, a spacious structure 
 erected through the instrumentality of the Rev. William Knibb, the energetic and 
 enthusiastic missionary who suffered much hardship and persecution on account of 
 his labours among the slaves pnor to emancipation. 
 
 Just outside Falmouth we cross the Martha Brae River, near which there is a 
 tradition that a gold mine exists. It is said that the Spanish Governor, Don 
 Pedro d'Esquivel, giving audience once to a cacique of the aboriginal tribes, was 
 struck by the profusion of golden ornaments with which he had adorned his per- 
 son, and demanded of him the secret of the mine. The Indian refused, to com- 
 municate this and was put to torture. If the secret was ever discovered, it was 
 most effectually buried again, for no one has ever come across the mine since, and 
 "the secret gold mine" it remains, and probably will ever remain. 
 
 Leaving Trelawny, to the East we enter the Parish of 
 
 ST. JAMES, 
 
 of which the chief town is Montego Bay, which ranks next to Kingston in point 
 of commercial importance, as gauged by the amount of export and import duties 
 collected. The Court House in Montego Bay is a fine building, dating from the 
 year 1803. There is a handsome and extensive market, built some few years ago. 
 Different religious denominations have their places of worship in the town, the 
 most striking being the old Parish Church, which contains within its walls records 
 of past generations of North-side celebrities, including one beautiful piece of sculp- 
 ture by Chantrey. One monument in this Church has a strange story attached to 
 it, a story which we may charitably hope to be apocryphal. This is the statue of 
 a lady, by name Palmer, who lived at Rose Hill, an estate in the Parish of Tre- 
 lawny. It is reported of this lady that she had murdered no less than five 
 husbands, and that she herself died a violent death by strangulation. It appears 
 strange that the memory of this female fiend should be perpetuated by a monu- 
 ment in church, but it is still more strange that, after the statue had been erected, 
 there appeared round its marble neck a mark such as would be made by a hang- 
 man's rope, and that this mark had not been visible before the erection of the 
 statue. 
 
34 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 Montego Bay is in direct communication weekly with New York, by means 
 of the fruit steamers of Messrs. J. E. Kerr & Co., which also carry passengers. 
 
 In the Parish of St. James there is an observatory at Kempshot in the hills, 
 about ten miles from Montego Bay, at an elevation of 1,770 feet, which was built 
 on his own property by Mr. Maxwell Hall, a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical 
 Society, who now occupies the position of Resident Magistrate for the parish. 
 Mr. Hall's scientific knowledge and the use of his observatory are at the disposal 
 of the Government, and he has contributed many valuable additions to the 
 meteorology of Jamaica and the West Indies generally. 
 
 The mountains among which this jdace lies were the scene of a long and 
 
 AT DRY HARBOUR. 
 
 bloody struggle between the Maroons and the Government during the last years of 
 the eighteenth century. Exasperated by a gross breach of their, treaty privileges 
 on the part of the authorities, these rough mountaineers rebelled, and were 
 eventually only subdued by the importation of bloodhounds from Cuba to hunt 
 them down. 
 
 Ruins of fine old barracks in a delightfully healthy situation are still to be seen 
 at Maroon Town, about fourteen miles from Montego Bay. The empty window 
 frames and crumbling walls surrounding the level green parade-ground that once 
 resounded to the clatter of hoofs, the clash and jingle of accoutrements and the 
 hoarse word of command, all call up the, ghastly tragedies which were enacted 
 among the defiles of these hills, now so silent and peaceful. 
 
 A great impetus has lately been given to the commerce of Montego Bay, 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 35 
 
 and its neighbourhood, by the operations of the Railway Company, which has 
 tegun an extension line which in a few month's time will connect Kingston with 
 Montego Bay. 
 
 The Great River marks the boundary between St. James and 
 
 HANOVER, 
 
 the most westerly parish on the North-side. Crossing this on an iron bridge, the 
 load takes us on and on through a repetition of tropical scenery, changing and 
 lechanging at every turn, to the cliff where we suddenly come upon the land-locked 
 harbour of Lucea, which in some respects resembles that of Port Antonio, but is of 
 much greater size. At the end of the harbour is a bold promontory from which 
 rise the grey walls and spire of the old church, and the square, solid buildings 
 of the barracks with only the sky for a background, while at its extremity the 
 battlements and embrasures of the ancient fort frown upon the waters which it 
 once guarded. Cannon, too useless with age and rust, are still there. White 
 sails flit across the blue water and tiny dug-outs dart to and fro. An amphi- 
 theatre of hills frames this loveliness on three sides, on the slopes of which, green 
 "ftith patches of guinea grass and cane, comfortable looking houses are perched. 
 The whole picture is eloquent of peace, of prosperity, and, above all, of health. 
 Tor the livelong day the pure fresh sea-breeze sweeps across the harbour, untainted 
 ty dust, or other impurity ; and there are no malarious swamps to poison, the 
 "breath of the land-wind that nightly brings refreshing coolness from the Dolphin 
 Head, looming up yonder to the South. 
 
 The yam , which is largely cultivated in Hanover, enjoys a great reputation in. 
 the other parts of the Island and on the Isthmus of Panama. 
 
 in travelling through the interior of Hanover, especially in the immediate 
 vicinity of Lucea, yam greets the eye at every step — that is the outward and 
 visible sign of the yam in the shape of heavy dark green creepers growing on 
 sticks planted in the ground. The yam itself is the root from which this 
 creeper springs. 
 
 To the South of the Parish of Hanover is that of 
 
 WESTMORELAND. 
 
 We may reach this from Montego Bay without including Lucea in the route ; we 
 may also go from Lucea direct, or round by way of Green Island. The first is a 
 teautiful road leading through the finest grazing country in the Island. But for 
 the great clumps of bamboo that constantly throw their graceful shade over the 
 ponds and the profusion of water lilies that deck their surfaces, and remind us 
 that we are still in the tropics, the sleek Herefords and the Shorthorns grazing 
 contentedly on fat, clean pastures, bounded by grey stone walls, might delude us 
 into the belief that we had suddenly been transported into some more temperate 
 region. 
 
 There are six "pens" — as these grazing farms are called in Jamaica — in this 
 district, namely Shettlewood, Ramble, Knockalva, Haughton Grove, Burnt Ground 
 and Cacoon Castle, each of whose acreage runs into the thousands, and which 
 
36 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 can show stock that would not disgrace any English Cattle show. At Shettle- 
 wood may be seen the silver-grey hides and quaint shapes of Zebu and Mysore 
 Cattle imported from India, whose offspring, when crossed with the native animal, 
 make about the most useful stock for draft purposes that can be desired. 
 
 The chief town of Westmoreland is Savanna-la-Mar, a shipping port of some 
 importance in the country, and does the export trade of a large number of sugar 
 estates on the plains in the interior, the produce of which is floated down the 
 Cabaritta River, one of the two navigable streams of the Island. Savanna-la-Mar 
 also carries on a large business in logwood, which grows abundantly there. 
 
 Savanna-la-Mar was the scene of one of the most fearful of those frequent 
 
 . MONTEGO BAY. 
 
 episodes of death and disaster that occurred in the early history of Jamaica. On 
 the 2oth of October, 1744, during a fierce hurricane, accompanied by an earth- 
 qua,ke, which wrought havoc throughout the whole Island, a huge tidal wave 
 engulfed the entire town at one fell swoop, "leaving not a vestige of man, beast, 
 or habitation behind." A more sudden and complete catastrophe, this, than even 
 the destruction of Port Royal. 
 
 There is in Savanna-la-Mar an excellent school, which was endowed in the 
 year 17 10 by Thomas Manning, who left for that purpose by his will an estate 
 called Burn Savannah, together with ' ' thirteen negro slaves, one Indian slave, and 
 a hundred head of cattle." 
 
 Some ten miles east of Savanna-la-Mar, lies the township of Bluefields, for- 
 merly the site of the Spanish Oristan, of which, however, now no trace remains. It was 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 37 
 
 also for some time the residence of Mr. Gosse, the naturalist, and is situated on 
 the road leading to the adjoining Parish of 
 
 ST. ELIZABETH, 
 
 ■which is in area the largest, and in population the second largest in the Colony. 
 The productions and natural conditions of St. Elizabeth vary very greatly with its 
 varied elevation. Its principal town, Black River, is a sea-port town with a fairly 
 flourishing trade. Black River, which is built at the mouth of a river of the same 
 name, known, however, in Spanish times as the Rio Caobana, is a neat, well-kept 
 little place with some creditable public buildings, the most note-worthy of which 
 are the Court House and the Episcopal Church. The river is spanned near 
 its mouth by an iron bridge and is navigable for some miles inland, bringing 
 down to the harbour quantities of logwood which is largely exported from the 
 town. Good alligator shooting may be got in the Black River and fairly good 
 fishing in some of its tributaries. 
 
 The town of Black River does not give the visitor a correct idea of the 
 teautiful and healthy climate of the northern and central parts of this parish. 
 The Santa Cruz Mountains bisect the parish from north to south, termin- 
 ating at the southern extremity in a precipitous cliff known as the ' ' Lover's 
 Leap." There are several villages on these mountains and the salubrity 
 of the climate is more than proverbial. The most popular resort is Malvern 
 and the obliging Post Officer there will supply complete information. Dr. 
 J. H. Clark, a medical man of some distinction, who can speak of the 
 Santa Cruz Mountains from the experience gathered from twenty years' observ- 
 ation, has written a very able and appreciative article describing the salutary 
 influences of a visit to these mountains. In reply to the question " What 
 can I see?" put by a supposed invalid. Dr. Clark replies "There are few 
 spots on earth where natural beauties so combine with those of man's creation 
 to please and interest him. The beauties of nature abound on every side 
 and to persons who sketch, or paint, there is plenty to amuse and edify^ 
 but invalids must not be encouraged to undergo fatigue or excitement ' in 
 sight seeing ; crowded and heated rooms, late hours, all operate injuriously 
 and destroy entirely the beneficial influences of climate." In fact it is 
 lather dull work having little but scenery to live on. External circumstances 
 and conditions may produce a sensation of pleasure but happiness is of internal 
 growth, and the visitor to, or resident in the Santa Cruz Mountains, or any- 
 -svhere else, will be dull enough unless he carries within himself the sources of 
 true happiness. 
 
 On the eastern side of these mountains the road passes through a series 
 of large paddocks or grazing pens, ending in the precipitous hills which lead to 
 the Parish of Manchester. 
 
 In the Santa Cruz Mountains are Schools — for boys at Potsdam, and for 
 girls at Malvern — established by means of bequests more than a hundred years 
 ago, by Mr. Munro and Mr. Dickenson, both of whom are commemorated 
 by memorial tablets in Black River Church. Jamaica is peculiarly rich in educa- 
 
38 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 tional endowments and there are few English speaking countries where a good 
 education can be obtained at so small a cost. 
 
 Other places of interest in St. Elizabeth's parish are the Pedro Bluff where 
 are a number of caves supposed to have formerly been Indian burying places ; 
 Mexico, where is a cave more than a mile in length, through which flows the 
 river Black River ; and Accompong, a Maroon settlement overlooking and adjoin- 
 ing the parishes of St. James and Trelawny. 
 
 MANCHESTER. 
 
 The Parish of Manchester is larg^ a mountain parish, with a healthy. 
 
 SANTA CRUZ. 
 
 bracing climate and a contented, prosperous population. Its western boundary- 
 overlooks the plains of St. Elizabeth from which it is reached by steep climb- 
 ing roads. Its principal town is Mandeville, with its old-fashioned village green, 
 flanked by the Church, Schools, Court House and general stores. The railway- 
 extension has brought Mandeville within a few hours of Kingston, the nearest 
 railway-station being at Williamsfield. Mandeville is much resorted to by 
 persons wishing a change of air from the heated streets of Kingston, and pos- 
 sesses one hotel and several boarding-houses, one of which, presided over by- 
 Miss Roy, has been immortalised by Professor Froude. The hotel at Mandeville 
 — now known as the " Waverley," but until recently known as Brooks's Hotel — - 
 is a comfortable, well-conducted institution and can be recommended without 
 reservation. 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 39 
 
 The scenery, in and around Mandeville, is of a less wild and romantic 
 type than that on the north side of the Island. Undulating plains alternate 
 with steep ascents ; and tropical trees, cedars, mangoes, almonds, gum-trees, silk- 
 cotton trees are to be seen in magnificent luxuriance. No mention of 
 Manchester is complete without drawing attention to the oranges which grow in 
 this parish as possibly they grow nowhere else in the world. 
 
 The only other town of any note in Manchester is Porus, a small town 
 some ten miles from Mandeville, situated on the plains at the foot of the 
 Manchester hills. Travelling east from Porus, either by road or by rail, the 
 Parish of 
 
 CLARENDON 
 
 is reached. The northern and mountainous portions of this parish are populated 
 by a prosperous negro peasantry, cultivating coffee, ginger and other vegetable 
 products ; in the southern districts are large sugar estates. The railway crosses 
 the parish from east to west and there are three railway stations, namely those 
 at May Pen, Four Paths and Clarendon Park. The principal town is Chapel- 
 ton, a healthy place, with substantial public buildings, commanding beautiful 
 views of the valleys through which flow the rivers Minho and Thomas. 
 Lodging accommodation is very deficient at Chapelton, which is a matter for 
 regret, seeing that, by reason of its easy access to and from Kingston and the 
 undoubted salubrity of its climate, it is in every way suited to become one of 
 the most popular health resorts in the Island. Other towns, or villages, besides 
 Chapelton, are Rock River in the north, May Pen and Four Paths in the 
 centre and The Alley and Milk River in the south. The most important of these 
 small centres of population is Milk River, where is a bath the waters of which are 
 possessed of valuable curative properties, especially for gout, rheumatism and 
 liver complaints. 
 
 The waters of the Bath come from a small spring which flows from out 
 the side of a hill about a hundred yards from the bank. The officially pub- 
 lished analysis of these waters gives the following mineral constituents in i,ooo 
 parts of water : — 
 
 Chloride of Sodium, - 20.77 
 
 Sulphate of Soda, - - = - - 3.10 
 
 Chloride of Magnesium, - - - - - 4.12 
 
 Chloride of Potassium, - - - .16 
 
 Chloride of Calcium, - - 1.50 
 
 with traces of lithia, bromine and silica. Unfortunately the accommodation and 
 conveniences for the reception of guests are not proportionate to the curative 
 qualities of the waters. In a generally healthy climate like that of Jamaica, 
 where comparatively few people suffer from the ailments for which the Milk 
 River Bath is a remedy, there is no chance of any large expenditure on bath- 
 ing or lodging accommodation being remunerative. The charges, however, are 
 extremely reasonalle and the relief, if not the cure, is almost certain. For 
 
40 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 occupation there are fishing and rowing with now and then a shot at an alli- 
 gator. 
 
 Several places in Clarendon have an interest of their own to the student of 
 Jamaica history. At Carlisle Bay in 1694 the local militia gallantly repulsed 
 a strong force of French invaders who had previously devastated a large tract 
 of richly-cultivated land in what is now the Parish of St. Thomas. At Sutton's 
 about a mile south of Chapelton, occurred in 1690 the first really formidable 
 outbreak among the slaves in Jamaica. Morgan's Valley serves to recall the 
 name of Sir Henry Morgan, the redoubtable buccaneer, who was Lieutenant- 
 Governor of the Island in the latter part %f the seventeenth century. 
 
 The last of the country parishes, taking the circuit of the Island in the order 
 adopted in these pages, is 
 
 ST. CATHERINE. 
 
 The tourists in this parish will undoubtedly be centred in Spanish Town, 
 founded by the Spaniards and known to them by the name St. Jago de la 
 Vega, St. James of the Plain, so called to distinguish it from other places named 
 after the Patron Saint of Spain. Spanish Town is between twelve and thirteen 
 miles from Kingston, and is reached either by road or rail. From the time 
 of the English conquest of Jarnaica until 1872, this interesting little city was 
 the capital town of the colony. In the centre of it is the Square, flanked on 
 the side by "The King's House," built in 1762-, for many years the official 
 
PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 4 1 
 
 residence of the Governor and probably the finest building of its kind in the 
 West Indies. Opposite the King's House is the former Legislative Hall, where 
 for 200 years the House of Assembly held its meetings. On the north side of 
 the square, in a handsome temple, is a magnificent statue of Rodney by Bacon, 
 which was erected to commemorate the great victory, in 1 781, of that Admiral 
 over the French fleet under Count deGrasse, which saved the British West 
 Indies from possible conquest ; on either side of the statue are two long brass 
 guns which were captured from the French Admiral's ship in the same battle. 
 One of the most unpopular acts of Sir John Peter Grant, when Governor, was 
 the removal of this statue to Kingston, when the seat of Government and 
 most of the public offices were transferred thither from Spanish Town in 1872. 
 This act caused a feeling of dissatisfaction for seventeen years, until in 1889, 
 the statue was restored to its former position, under its old cupola in the 
 Public Square of Spanish Town, amid great rejoicings. It is said that the 
 Mango, now so commoaa fruit in the West Indies, is another trophy of this 
 victory, some young trees, found in one of the French ships, having been 
 planted in Jamaica. It is even said that some large trees growing at Berk- 
 shire Hall, not far from Linstead, are " original trees." This seems hardly likely, 
 'but it may be that they are closely descended from the trees brought by Lord 
 "!Rodney. 
 
 \ Opposite the Temple of Rodney and forming the quadrangle with a pretty 
 jpublic garden in the centre are the Town Hall, the Court House arid the 
 iGoverhment Savings. Bank; 
 
 J The Cathedral dedicated to Saint Catherine is a building of some preten- 
 tions and by no means devoid of interest on many accounts. It is supposed 
 1to stand on the foundation of the Spanish Red Cross Church of St. Peter, 
 'which was wantonly destroyed by the English troops, on their first entry into 
 Saint Jago de la Vega. The present building takes the place of the earlier 
 one, built in the reign of Queen Anne, which was irreparably injured in the 
 hurricane of 1712. Some of the monuments, tablets and slabs are older, and 
 are extremely interesting. The church is paved with grave-stones, amongst- 
 which are those of persons who were eminent in their own times, and whose", 
 names are still remembered by posterity. Some of the grave-stones are specially 
 interesting to Archeologists. There is one to the memory of three of a family 
 named Assam, who had for their crest three asses engraven on the stone. 
 Another makes it appear that an eminent man (Colbeck of St. Dorothy) died 
 ' ' amid great applause. ' ' A recent re-seating of the Cathedral has hidden many 
 of these slabs, but this obscurity is compensated for by the preservation of the 
 inscriptions, which were being obliterated by rough treatment and the tramp 
 of feet. 
 
 The Cathedral has a beautiful east window, some fine oak carvings and 
 several admirably executed pieces of Sculpture, the most striking of these being 
 those erected to the memory of the Earl and Countess of Effingham, Sir 
 Basil Kerth, Major-General Selwyn and the Countess of Elgin. 
 
 Among other places of interest in St. Catherine are the Vale of Guanaboa ; 
 
42 
 
 PARISHES OF JAMAICA. 
 
 Port Henderson, with its Mineral Springs and Bath, a favourite holiday resort of 
 the people of Kingston and Spanish Town ; on the hill at Port Henderson is 
 Rodney's "Lookout" from which the Admiral "watched the adjacent sea"; 
 Apostles' Battery ; Green Bay, Fort Augusta ; Passage Fort, where the English 
 conquerors first landed ; the Great Salt Pond ; Old Harbour, which was a 
 thriving port in the days of Spanish occupation, and which, after being closed 
 for many years, has been reopened to the great advantage of the Island ; and 
 Linstead, an inland town, the centre of rich and fertile districts. Between Linstead 
 and Spanish Town, through a lovely gorge, known as the Bog Walk, flows the Rio 
 Cobre. Few parts of Jamaica are more *beautiful, and few will better repay a 
 
 visit than the Bog Walk. It has been the theme of much descriptive writing, 
 but there is a richness and a subtle delicacy about it which defy the power 
 of the pen properly to portray them. 
 
 An exceedingly comfortable and well-conducted hotel has recently been 
 built at Spanish Town on the banks of the Rio Cobre, from which it takes 
 its name. There are also private boarding-houses ; living at Spanish Town is 
 cheap and good, the temperature is not excessively hot, whilst all the year 
 round the nights are cool. Spanish Town, in short, replete with historic associ- 
 ations and surrounded by natural charms in endless variety, quite justifies all 
 that has been said, or written, in its praise. 
 
COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 
 
 ' I ''HE main events in the life of Columbus have recently been made familiar to 
 all readers of current literature, and will only be summarised here for the 
 purpose of connecting Jamaica with the celebration of the fourth centenary of the 
 discovery of the Western continent. Born in Genoa in 1436, Columbus — we use 
 the anglicised form of his name by which he is most widely known — early 
 embraced the life of a sailor, having previously studied at the University of Pavia 
 "geography, cosmography, geometry, astronomy and the nautical sciences." In 
 1470 he married the daughter of Palestrello, a Portuguese navigator, and settled at 
 Porto Santo, an island off the Western coast of Spain. Starting from his island 
 home, expeditions were made from time to time to the Mediterranean and to the 
 coast of Guinea, and were followed in 1477 by a voyage round Iceland. 
 
 Meanwhile the invention of printing by Gutenberg had given wide circulation 
 to the ancient speculations as to the existence of a vast continent beyond the 
 Pillars of Hercules, and to the conjectures of Greek students as to the shape of the 
 earth. Reminiscences of the voyages and travels of Marco Polo, which were first 
 told during his imprisonment at Genoa, together with theories about the remains 
 of vegetable matter, unknown on the Eastern continent, which were at times 
 washed ashore at Porto Santo, combined to arouse both the curiosity and the 
 enthusiasm of Columbus, and to create in his mind a belief that the shores of 
 Asia, with its fabulous stores of wealth, its ivory, its gold, its spices, could be 
 reached by navigating to the West. 
 
 The idea once entertained was never abandoned, in spite of difficulties and 
 opposition which would have effectually checked the ardour of many an intrepid 
 man. There is something almost ludicrous in the picture of Columbus, going from 
 monarch to monarch and from court to court, begging assistance to discover a 
 new and mighty continent. His fellow-countrymen in Genoa declined the honour ; 
 King John, of Portugal, patiently listened to his plans and carefully investigated 
 his charts and then, with a meanness which is scarcely credible, privately 
 despatched a fleet of his own, hoping to gain for himself and his country the 
 credit of a discovery, to the belief in the possibility of which he was Columbus's 
 first royal convert. But the stars in their courses fought against the king; the elements, 
 as though in disgust with treachery and dishonour, drove back the Portuguese 
 fleet, crippled, panic-stricken and determined never again to seek the shores of 
 India by sailing towards the setting sun. From Portugal Columbus turned to 
 Spain, to France, to England, for help. At last, after repeated disappointments 
 and rebuffs, the Spanish Sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, espoused his cause. 
 
44 
 
 COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 
 
 and on Friday the 3d of August, 1492, at the age of fifty-six, a time of life when 
 many men think their best work is done, Columbus sailed for the West, with a 
 fleet of three small vessels and a crew of one hundred and twenty men. 
 
 The details of this memorable voyage are beyond the intention of these pages. 
 But, if we are constrained to admire the persistent determination with which 
 Columbus urged the adoption of plans which appeared to be little else than the 
 wild dreams of a visionary, still more must we admire the indomitable energy and 
 the constant faith which brought himself within sight of the land of promise and 
 expectation, himself alone calm and confident, his companions on the verge of 
 mutiny, annoyed and disgusted at being So often deceived by the false appearance 
 of approaching land. But it was land, not indeed the Eastern extremity of an 
 old continent, but the out-port of a new. On the 8th of October, singing birds 
 fluttered amidst and around the sails of the ships, and the atmosphere was redolent 
 
 
 Mfei» 
 
 
 with the odours of the shore ; three days later, in the green rush of sea-weed 
 which floated past their ships, the sailors picked up a stick, quaihtly-carved and 
 plainly the work of intelligent men, and a thorn branch covered with the red 
 and ripe berries which seemed a proof positive that bountiful nature was making 
 some neighbouring land bring forth her increase. On that same night Columbus, 
 keeping lonely watch and eagerly peering through the dim . darkness which was 
 ahead of him, discerned in the distance the faint gleams of a moving light. At 
 two o'clock on the following morning, the 12th of October, 1492, doubt and 
 uncertainty ceased as a gun from the Pinta fired the welcome signal that land was 
 in sight. Then, soon after the dawn of day, in the bright, bracing purity of a 
 tropical morning, followed the landing, the solemn act of thanksgiving to God as 
 Columbus and his companions knelt on the long-looked-for beach. The natives 
 called the island on which they landed Guanihani ; Columbus called it San 
 Salvador ; it is now known as Watling's Island, one of the Bahama group, in lat. 24° 
 
COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 45 
 
 N. and long. 74° W. Later on in this same voyage, Columbus sighted Cuba and 
 Haiti, on the latter of which he left a small garrison, and then returned to 
 Europe in triumph, taking with him Indians and curiosities and various specimens 
 of Western produce. On the isth of March, 1493, Columbus anchored in the 
 harbour of Palos, from which six months before he had sailed, full of hope and 
 confidence, though amidst the gloom and despondency of the little village, the 
 people of which saw nothing but calamity or death in some hideous shape as the 
 fate of their friends and relatives, who formed no inconsiderable part of the 
 expedition. The return was the signal for royal attentions and honours, for the 
 congratulations of the people, for boundless admiration, for unlimited adulation, 
 for all that wealth and the world could give in tribute to hard-earned success and 
 well-merited triumph. It is pleasing to note this bright oasis in a life of storm 
 and toil, where ambition was for a time at ease, where success was recognised and 
 rewarded, a life which envy, jealousy and detraction had hardly begun to blight 
 and embitter. Those who had once been his enemies now posed as his friends, 
 but only for a time, for he had soon to learn by sad experience, that sometimes 
 it is wise to reflect on the truth which underlies the aphorism of the philosopher 
 who used to say, "Look upon your friends with the thought that they may 
 one day become your enemies." 
 
 On the 25th of September, 1493, Columbus left the Bay of Cadiz on his 
 second voyage of discovery, and on the 3d of May, 1494, while sailing in a 
 southerly direction from Cuba, he came in sight of " the blue summit of a vast 
 and lofty island at a great distance, which began to arise like clouds above the 
 horizon." Two days later — or possibly on the following day — he anchored in the 
 harbour off the town, now known as Port Maria, on the northern coast of 
 Jamaica. Some slight resistance was threatened by the native Indians who flocked 
 in their canoes around the strange Spanish ship, but they were soon appeased and 
 Columbus anchored in the harbour, which he thought the most beautiful of all he 
 had seen and to which he gave the name of Santa Gloria, a name which can 
 hardly be said to have survived its bestowal. Leaving his anchorage to seek more 
 sheltered waters, Columbus put out to sea and sailed a few miles in a westerly 
 direction to Ora Cabecca, now written Oracabessa.* The landing was not effected 
 without opposition and protest on the part of the natives, who were treated to a 
 shower of arrows from the Spanish cross-bows, and terrified into confused flight by a 
 huge bloodhound, keen to scent human blood. On reaching the shore, Columbus, 
 in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella, took formal possession of his new discov- 
 ery, which he called Santiago, though it has always been known by its Indian 
 name of Xaymaca, modernised in spelling and pronunciation into Jamaica. A 
 few days sufficed to repair his ships and to establish friendly intercourse with the 
 Indians, and again the voyage was continued as far as Montego Bay, called by 
 Columbus Buentiempo (i. e. Fair Weather) Bay, because the wind was favourable 
 for his return to Cuba. Two months later he sailed leisurely along the southern 
 
 * There is some discrepancy of opinion as to the exact places of anchoring and landing. Some 
 authorities substitute St. Ann's Bay and Puerto Bueno (the modem village of Rio Bueno) for Port Maria 
 and Oracabessa. 
 
46 
 
 COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 
 
 coast of Jamaica, receiving kindness and hospitality, but making no attempt to 
 explore the country. At Old Harbour Bay the chief, or cacique, boarded his ship 
 accompanied by many members of his family and staff, and, in the course of an 
 interesting interview, proposed that he himself and all his family should return 
 with Columbus to Spain. The offer was courteously declined, and the journey was 
 continued till on the 19th of August, 1494, Columbus passed out of sight of 
 Jamaica, to the/ south-eastern extremity of which, now known as Morant Point, 
 he gave the name of Cape Farol. 
 
 Thus ended the first visit of Columbus to Jamaica; his second visit was 
 paid under very different circumstances^ 
 
 RIO COBRE RIVER. 
 
 Leaving Jamaica in 1494, Columbus did not revisit it till 1503. During 
 the interval between these years, his position in royal and popular favour had 
 greatly changed. In a third expedition, commenced in 1498, he had discov- 
 ered Trinidad and explored the Gulf of Paria. Returning to Hispaniola (Haiti) 
 and Cuba, he found that the Spanish settlers, to whom had fallen the original 
 colonisation of those islands, had employed harsh measures for the enslavement 
 of the Indians, and we're quarrelling for supremacy among themselves. Colum- 
 bus on the one hand protested against this action, while on the other hand 
 his followers brought charges of incompetence and cruelty against him. Too 
 much credence was given to these latter reports. People thought that Colum- 
 bus's work for Spain was finished. It was little likely that, at upwards of 
 sixty years of age, he would be physically capable of crossing any more 
 
COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 47 
 
 unknown seas, or of setting foot on any more untrodden shores. The Spanish 
 Court began to regret that it had showered privileges, powers, dignities, on a 
 man of foreign, obscure origin and uncultured manners. Thus calumnies were 
 eagerly listened to and readily believed. By Royal authority an investigation 
 ■was ordered, which was entrusted to Don Francisco de Bobadilla, a self-opinionated 
 and ambitious man. On reaching Hispaniola, Bobadilla seized on the Government, 
 gave a free pardon to all rebels, convicts and criminals who had been imprisoned 
 by order of Columbus and finally, without going through the form of a trial, sent 
 Columbus and his brother back to Spain in chains. 
 
 The history of this period is almost too dramatic and exciting to bear summar- 
 ising. We have the order given that the chains should be put on, the shrinking, 
 born alike of pity and of reverence, from carrying out such an order, the final 
 adjustment of the irons by a "graceless and shameless" criminal. "I knew the 
 rascal," says Las Casas, "and I think his name was Espinosa. " Then the return 
 to Spain in charge of Alonzo de Villajo, an honest, kindly fellow, who did his 
 unpleasant duty in a pleasant way. He would have struck off the irons, but his 
 prisoner forbade him. It was under the authority of the Spanish sovereigns that 
 the fetters were there, and by no other authority should they be removed. Home 
 again in Spain, there occurred a re-action in his favour. His enemies had gone 
 so far in their persecution that a strongly-felt sympathy was stirred up in his 
 favour. The voice of the people dictated the action of the throne. Columbus was 
 liberated and Bobadilla was dismissed and recalled, perishing in a storm at sea on 
 his way back to Spain. Columbus, however, in spite of royal promises, was not 
 reinstated in the privileges and dignities of which he had been deprived. Boba- 
 dilla was superseded in the government by Don Nicholas de Ovando, and Colum- 
 bus, though otherwise fairly treated, had to be satisfied with a vague promise that 
 at some not distant date, he should resume supreme command of the lands he had 
 discovered. 
 
 But, though shelved and condemned to temporary inactivity, the mind of the 
 great discoverer was busily at work. Vasco de Gama had rounded the Cape of 
 Good Hope and had opened the long-wished-for route to India, so that the wealth 
 and treasures of the East were pouring into the hands of the adventurous Portu- 
 guese. The old enthusiastic spirit was again on fire, and Columbus was full of 
 the idea that, somewhere in the far West of the Caribbean Sea, somewhere 
 amongst these new lands of his, he could find a strait which would be a western 
 path to the Indian Seas. 
 
 Preparations being completed, Columbus started on his fourth and last voyage, 
 with a fleet of four ships and crews of 150 men in all, on the 9th of May, 1502. 
 He was then sixty-six years of age, and bore in his body traces of the toil and 
 trouble of a hard life. But more trouble was to come, and Jamaica was to be the 
 scene of its patient endurance. With the details of the earlier portion of the voyage we 
 are not here concerned, and pass on to the 23d of June, 1503, when, as he him- 
 self wrote, with "his people dismayed and down-hearted, almost all his anchors 
 lost and his vessels bored as full of holes as a honey-comb," driven by opposing 
 -winds and currents, Columbus put into Puerto Bueno (Dry Harbour). On the 
 
4« 
 
 COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 
 
 following day, failing to find either sufficient food or fresh water, he sailed east- 
 ward to another harbour, since known as Don Christopher's Cove. His forlorn 
 and desperate condition is thus described by his greatest historian: "His ships, 
 reduced to mere wrecks, could no longer keep the sea, and were ready to sink 
 even in port. He ordered them, therefore, to be run aground within a bow-shot 
 
 IN BOG WALK, RIO COBRE RIVER. 
 
 of the shore, and fastened together, side by side. They soon filled with water to 
 the decks. Thatched cabins were then erected at the prow and stern for the 
 accommodation of the crews, and the wreck was placed in the best possible state 
 of defence. Thus castled in the sea, he wished to be able to repel any sudden 
 attack of the natives, and at the same time to keep his men from roving about 
 the neighbourhood and indulging in their usual excesses. No one was allowed to 
 go on shore without especial license, and the utmost precaution was taken to pre- 
 
COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 49 
 
 vent any offence being given to the Indians. Any exasperation of them might be 
 fatal to the Spaniards in the present forlorn situation. A firebrand thrown into 
 their wooden fortress might wrap it in flames and leave them defenceless amidst 
 hostile thousands." 
 
 Fortunately the natives turned out ,to be well-disposed to their visitors, and 
 for a time there was little difficulty in obtaining, by exchange of ornaments and 
 other trifles of European manufacture, sufficient food to support the shipwrecked 
 crews. But the supply was not inexhaustible. The country indeed was fertile, but 
 on the other hand, the population was large, and Columbus's men were both 
 hungry and fastidious. Dreading the time when the supplies of the district should 
 be exhausted and his followers reduced to ■ famine, Columbus determined on what 
 we may consider the first exploration of Jamaica. Diego Mendez, one of the 
 Taravest and most loyal of his officers, was sent on a foraging expedition with three 
 other men. They travelled along the coast and a few miles inland through the 
 present parishes of St. Ann, Trelawny, St. James and Hanover. Friendly terms 
 were made with different chiefs — the names of two of these, Huarco and Ameyro, 
 are preserved — and a regular supply of food was guaranteed, in exchange for fish- 
 hooks, knives, beads, combs and such-like articles. The food to be obtained would 
 largely consist of cassava bread, fish, birds and small animals somewhat resembling 
 rabbits. 
 
 Mendez returned from his mission, only to be called upon for more import- 
 ant services. The supply of provisions was of course an immediate necessity, 
 but the greatest need was that of means to get back to Spain, or at any rate 
 to get into communication with Spaniards who could send ships to the rescue of 
 the wrecked mariners. Accordingly, with a small mixed crew of Spaniards and 
 Indians, Mendez was sent in a canoe to Hispaniola to seek assistance from Ovando 
 and to continue his journey to Spain with despatches from Columbus. The firsti 
 attempt to accomplish this hazardous undertaking was a failure. Mendez was 
 captured by Indians and barely escaped with his life, his companions being put 
 to death. The second attempt was successful, but many weary weeks elapsed 
 before Columbus heard of its success. In the meantime his troubles rapidly 
 increased. In addition to the ordinary infirmities of old age and the effects of a 
 life of perils and exposure, he lay helplessly crippled with gout on board his 
 stranded ship. His men lost faith in him. He had been banished, they said, 
 from Spain. His ships had been forbidden to anchor in the harbours of 
 Hispaniola. Mendez, it was true, had gone, but he had been sent on a secret 
 mission to procure pardon for Columbus, who was otherwise exiled for life to 
 Jamaica. If he were willing to attempt to escape his age and sickness 
 incapacitated him from risking a voyage in an Indian canoe, the only available 
 vessel of transport. They must take the matters into their own hands and at 
 any rate secure their own personal safety. They were beyond doubt ungratefiil 
 and unreasonable, but men contemplating mutiny take little account either of 
 gratitude or of reason. The mutiny was headed by two brothers, Francisco and 
 Diego de Porras, the former of whom was captain of one of the caravels and the 
 latter occupied the position of bursar and accountant-general of the expedition. 
 
s° 
 
 COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 
 
 It is useless to argue with determined men. Columbus, was for a moment in per- 
 sonal danger but his life was saved by the intervention of his brother. The 
 mutineers were permitted to embark in ten canoes, which had been purchased 
 from the Indians. They coasted the north of Jamaica, sailing in a westerly 
 direction, landing here and there, pillaging, outraging, representing themselves as 
 acting under the orders of Columbus. Two attempts to cross to Hispaniola 
 failed and the mutineers ' ' wandered from village to village, a dissolute and law- 
 less gang, supporting themselves by fair means or foul, according as they met 
 with kindness or hostility, and passing like a pestilence through the Island." To 
 return to Columbus, the weight of his %roubles was daily increasing. No news 
 
 BLACK RIVER. 
 
 came of, or from, Mendez ; the supplies of provisions began gradually to decrease, 
 until actual starvation was within easy reach. Under these circumstances it was 
 that Columbus had resort to what has since become, in iiction if not in fact, a 
 hackneyed and familiar trick. His knowledge of astronomy enabled him to pre- 
 dict that an eclipse of the moon would take place at a certain hour ; this 
 eclipse, he represented, was to be a sign that his great Deity was angry with the 
 people for not continuing to supply him with food. The eclipse came ; the 
 Indians were amazed, alarmed, terrified. Later on, apparently in reply to the 
 prayers of Columbus, the moon resumed her wonted functions and a plentiful 
 supply of provisions was secured for the future. 
 
 Months passed before news came from Mendez. At last a ship anchored 
 some distance from the shore and put ofif a boat. It promised badly for 
 
COLUMBUS AND JAMAICA. 51 
 
 Columbus when, as the boat approached his wreck, he caught sight of the ill- 
 omened features of Diego de Escobar, whom years ago he had condemned to death, 
 "who had been pardoned by Bobadilla and partly in consequence of whose false 
 and vindictive evidence Columbus had been displaced from his command in 
 1500. The ill-omen proved true ; for Escobar's relief consisted of a cask of wine, 
 a flitch of bacon, and a letter containing vague promises of future succour. The 
 Tvine and the bacon were finished long before the promises were kept. Escobar's 
 functions, in fact, had been those of a spy, not of a friend. 
 
 Columbus took advantage of this re-opening of communications with the 
 outer world to bring back into allegiance his rebel followers who were dis- 
 heartened and worn out by the miseries and toils of a lawless and predatory life. 
 Most of them would long before have willingly returned but they were prevented 
 from doing so by the elder Porras. A sort of conference was held at the Indian 
 "Village of Maima — now known as Mammee Bay — a conference which ended in a free 
 fight in which the rebels were defeated and Francisco de Porras was taken prisoner. 
 
 At last suspense was at an end, as two vessels were seen entering the 
 harbour, one sent from Spain by the faithful Mendez, the other from His- 
 paniola by the treacherous Ovando, whose neglect of Columbus had so roused 
 public feeling against him that he was driven to assume a virtue, if he had it 
 not, and to send genuine help to the unfortunate discoverer. 
 
 Thus on the 28th of June, 1504, after a visit, which was almost an imprison- 
 ment of upwards of twelve months, Columbus left Jamaica. There is much that 
 is pathetic about this twelve months' stay in Jamaica. It is extremely doubtful 
 "whether Columbus ever left the shelter of his stranded ships. He was an old man 
 "when he came ; toil, injustice, anxiety, disappointment had intensified the natural 
 infirmities of old age ; gout kept him crippled in his cabin, and leaving Jamaica, 
 he went home to die. 
 
 Coldly received by the people for the pride of whose nationality he had 
 ■done so much, almost friendless, poverty-stricken, his health ruined and his spirits 
 -crushed, he lingered for two years before death mercifully set him free to 
 •embark on the last and greatest of all voyages. 
 
 Oh strong soul, by what shore 
 Tarriest thou now? For that force, 
 Surely, has not been left vain ! 
 Somewhere, surely, afar. 
 In the sounding labour-house vast 
 Of being, is practised that strength 
 Zealous, beneficent, firm. 
 
 Columbus died at Seville on the 20th of May, 1506, in the seventieth 
 year of his age, not knowing, even to the last, that he was the discoverer of a 
 new and vast continent, which was to take its name not from him but from one 
 of his companions. 
 
 Beyond allusions and references in ^ooks and pamphlets, Jamaica contained 
 no memorial of Columbus. Next year will see the four hundredth anniversary 
 of its discovery, possibly the year will not be allowed to pass without some- 
 thing tangible being done to commemorate the person of the discoverer. 
 
Missing Page 
 
Missing Page 
 
54 LATER HISTORY. 
 
 by their countrymen in Cuba or Hayti, or by those who settled in the mining- 
 districts of Mexico and South America, at any rate they were satisfied to live 
 a lazy, luxurious, lotus-eating existence, far away from home troubles and tur- 
 moils, looking on Jamaica rather as their actual, than as their adopted home. 
 
 To inquire minutely into all the causes which lead to the acquisition of 
 Jamaica by Great Britain, would necessitate a close review of the relations, 
 between England and Spain during the first half century of the Stuart dynasty. 
 It is enough here to state that James I. and Charles I. had both given way 
 too tamely and too timidly to Spanish claims and pretensions, and that the- 
 honour of England, the protection of ^er commerce and the safety of her sub- 
 jects made it imperative on Cromwell's Government to protect British interests 
 
 MONTEGO BAY. (mOONLIGHT.) 
 
 and lives in the West Indies. Accordingly an expedition was equipped and 
 armed, and left England in the Fall of 1654. The general instructions given 
 to the leaders of this Expedition were "to obtain establishment in that part of 
 the West Indies which is possessed by the Spaniards." Admiral Penn, the 
 father of Penn the Pennsylvania Quaker, was in command of the fleet, and 
 General Venables of the land forces. The history of this Expedition is a. 
 record of incompetence and vacillation, of bad generalship and disgraceful man- 
 agement, and the only wonder seems to be that the British troops were not 
 ignomi-niously driven out of Jamaica, as they had previously been expelled froiu 
 S. Domingo. Any sort of organised resistance on the part of the Spaniards 
 would have routed and annihilated the demoralised forces of the invaders. This 
 
LATER HISTORY. 55 
 
 resistance was, not forthcoming. After a miserable pretence of war, discreditable 
 alike to victor and to vanquished, Articles of Capitulation were signed on the 
 nth of May, 1655. These Articles laid down that any one who wished to 
 leave the island might do so under certain humiliating conditions, while those 
 who remained were promised their lives and the benefit and protection of the 
 laws of England. While considering the terms of this Treaty, the Spaniards 
 took the opportunity of removing from the Capital as much of their property 
 and stock as possible, so that when the British troops entered St. Jago de la 
 Vega, they entered a deserted and half-ruined city. Then followed distress, 
 hardships, insurbordination, famine and pestilence among the troops, while the 
 fugitive Spaniards were attempting to re-organise themselves in the North of 
 the Island and in mountains in the centre. Although, then, the Expedition, 
 taken as a whole, was a signal failure, and although Penn and Venables were 
 rightly committed to the Tower on their return home, ' ' for having deserted 
 the forces committed to their charge," yet Jamaica was taken and added to 
 the British possessions. Cromwell, disappointed and disgusted at the meagre 
 result of his efforts to break the Spanish power in the West Indies, neverthe- 
 less determined to make the best of the newly-acquired colony. Venables was 
 succeeded by General Fortescue, who soon fell a victim to a prevailing epidemic. 
 The troops seem to have lost heart and pluck, and, though strongly re-inforced 
 in the following year, the British power was held by so slight a thread, that 
 the old Spanish Governor, Don Arnoldi Sasi, felt justified in attempting to 
 regain the island. The attempt was made and failed, for the British troops 
 under General D'Oyley, Fortescue's successor, inflicted a severe defeat on Don 
 Sasi's forces in October, 1658, at Rio Nueva, in St. Mary's Parish. After 
 some months of desultory kind of guerilla warfare, Sasi and his few remaining 
 followers managed to make their escape for Cuba from a Bay on the North- 
 ern Coast, which has since been known as Runaway Bay. Cromwell died some 
 six weeks before the victory at Rio Nueva, and D'Oyley seems to have been 
 left by the Home Authorities to act on his own responsibility. Richard Crom- 
 well indeed, during his short Protectorate, declined to restore Jamaica to Spain 
 in return for a large sum of money which was offered him, and Charles II., 
 soon after his accession to the Throne, was proof against the plausible request 
 that Jamaica should be given back to Spain, on the ground that it had been 
 taken by the rebel subjects of the King of England, contrary to the treaty of 
 peace between the two Crowns. This, however, happened in England, and the 
 second Charles had been twelve months on the throne before he took any 
 official notice of Jamaica. In the interim D'Oyley had not been idle; he had 
 had a few skirmishes with the remnant of Spanish slaves who had fortified 
 themselves in the mountain forests in the centre of the island, and who were 
 for years (under the name of Maroons,) independent of British rule, and a 
 constant source of trouble to successive administrations. D'Oyley had also sup- 
 pressed a mutiny in the ranks of his army, caused by some of the officers 
 and men wishing to establish a civil, instead of a military. Government, and 
 to devote themselves to an agricultural career. This period of Jamaica history 
 
56 LATER HISTORY. 
 
 fitly closes with the proclamation of Charles II. as King, and with the appoint- 
 ment of General D'Oyley as First Governor of the Colony. The documents 
 announcing these events were read at Caguaya, which has since, in commemor- 
 ation thereof, been called Port Royal. By royal authority it was decreed that 
 a Council of twelve, to be nominated by the Governor, should be appointed 
 with power to legislate for the colony. This Council accordingly was nominated, 
 Courts of Justice were established, magistrates and judges were appointed, 
 English rule and English customs were established, although the island was not 
 formally ceded to the British Crown until 1670. 
 
 The conquest, or re-conquest, of Jamaica being thus complete, its history 
 for many years is mainly a record of the various steps which, in spite of fre- 
 
 SPANISH TOWN CATHEDRAL. 
 
 quent interruptions and of constant dissensions, raised it to the position it held, 
 at the beginning of this century, of a prosperous and wealthy Agricultural 
 Colony. Gradually land was appropriated to soldiers who were willing to settle 
 down to peaceful pursuits, while numbers were induced, and in some instances 
 compelled by political necessities, to come from Great Britain, from Ireland 
 and from other West Indian Islands. A remarkably rapid change soon came 
 over the local industries. At the time when the English first occupied Jamaica 
 the principal articles of Export consisted of Hides, and of Hog's-butter, 80 000 
 hogs being killed every year for the sake of their lard, which, under the name 
 of Hog's-butter, was sold at Carthageha. A thriving trade was done in salt 
 there being large salt ponds on the Eastern parts of the Southern coast. The 
 
LATER HISTORY. 57 
 
 Spaniards had devoted much attention to Cocoa, and almost every species of 
 tropical fruit and vegetable grew profusely; the waters swarmed with fish, and 
 the forests abounded in various kinds of dye-woods. In fact there seemed 
 at the time a possibility of Jamaica being the scene of a varied and extended 
 cultivation. In the early days, however, of this occupation it was found that 
 both soil and climate were more adapted for the growth of sugar than those 
 of other West India colonies, and almost every other form of cultivation had 
 to give way to sugar. The rise and rapid growth of the sugar industry affected 
 Jamaica socially as well materially and agriculturally ; for, while English or 
 Irish settlers could carry on agricultural pursuits in the cool, bracing, mountain 
 districts, they were incapable of hard manual labour in the cane-growing districts 
 in the lowlands. Hence it came to pass that the traffic in slaves and the 
 system of slavery increased step by step with the extension of sugar culti- 
 vation. From this time dates a long period of material prosperity on the part 
 of the owners, whether resident or non-resident, of property, and of almost 
 equal misery on the part of the unfortunate labourers. At the same time the 
 political Constitution of the Colony was being built up and strengthened. The 
 Crown-nominated Council has been mentioned, and in 1664 an Assembly, con- 
 sisting of thirty members elected by the people, was constituted, with power to 
 pass laws, which, unless confirmed by the King, were only in operation for two 
 years. This institution, notwithstanding many impediments and difficulties and in 
 spite of constant wranglings and frequent irregularities, continued in existence for 
 202 years. The brighter side of the history of the Jamaica Assembly is a 
 history of the struggle between popular rights and arbitrary power ; questions 
 of privilege were constantly turning up and were discussed and disputed with 
 a keenness and a bitterness worthy of the English House of Commons at the 
 present day ; the relations between the Council and Assembly were often 
 strained to the utmost limits of tension ; on one occasion indeed a member of 
 the Council seized the opportunity offered by a state dinner to kill a member 
 of the Assembly. Governors, good, bad and indifferent, followed each other in 
 quick succession, some such as Lord Windsor, only staying a few months, and 
 others, like Sir Thomas Modyford, ruling for more than six years. These were 
 rough days and there is reason to believe that Governors were not chosen out 
 of any particular regard for their moral character and virtuous living, for we 
 find one of them described by a contemporary as being ' ' the most profest 
 immoral liver in the world," and another by a friend of Pepys, who was not 
 troubled by over-squeamishness, as being "one of the lewdest fellows of the 
 age." Taking the early Governors as a whole it would probably be correct 
 to say that Jamaica prospered in spite, quite as much as in consequence, of any 
 particularly brilliant genius representing the Sovereign power. The agriculturists, 
 as a body, the merchants, the buccaneers, rather looked on at, than participated 
 in the game of politics. Fortunes were being made on land and on sea, and 
 so long as money was pouring in, it mattered little to planter or merchant 
 whether an Assembly had been illegally dismissed or a Governor been guilty of 
 a breach of privilege. 
 
S8 
 
 LATER HISTORY. 
 
 The closing years of the seventeenth century were full of critical events 
 in the island story. In 1689 the first, but by no means the last, destructive 
 hurricane since the British occupation inflicted much damage on house property 
 and growing crops, while in the following year occurred the first really serious 
 outbreak, or rebellion, of the slaves. The number of slaves had largely increased 
 about this time, as the first Parliament of William and Mary had opened the 
 trade to private enterprise. Many men of rank, position and power in their 
 native land were captured and condemned to slavery, and, naturally enough, 
 resented the compulsory toil and the cruel treatment of the plantations. The 
 scene of the outbreak was at Suttons. an estate about a mile from Chapelton, 
 and it was only suppressed after considerable bloodshed and loss of property. 
 
 ROARING RIVER. 
 
 Two years later, in 1692, there happened the greatest calamity (elsewhere 
 alluded to in these pages), which has ever befallen Jamaica, namely the earth- 
 quake in which the then-wealthy town of Port Royal was almost entirely swal- 
 lowed up. This terrible catastrophe has been often described, and no fresh 
 description can add to its horrors. The earth was shaken with such violence 
 that on all sides were seen and heard the din and confusion caused by falling 
 walls and buildings. Wharves, laden with valuable merchandise, private houses 
 of wealthy men, merchants' stores together with the Church of the town and 
 Government fortifications were all overwhelmed in one common ruin • as the 
 earth opened, and closed again, receiving into • its bosom whole streets of houses 
 and hundreds of terrified people, so did the sea rise in huge waves, and 
 
LATER HISTORY. 
 
 59 
 
 sweeping over the ruined and sunken town, complete the devastation. But this 
 was not the end ; for many days after, mutilated corpses floated up and down the 
 harbour, or lay unburied on the shore, and the pestilence, which generated from 
 these putrefying corpses, claimed almost as many victims as had the earthquake 
 shocks. Nor was the destruction confined to Port Royal, for nearly every dis- 
 trict in the Island suffered, some more seriously than others, but all to an 
 extent which seems incredible. One familiar, and we believe fully-substantiated, 
 case of extraordinary escape must not be omitted from any record of this 
 dreadful visitation. At Gfeen Bay, on the opposite shore to Port Royal, is the 
 tomb of Lewis Galdy who died in 1739. The inscription on the tomb records 
 that Galdy was swallowed down by one earthquake shock, and that, before life was 
 extinct, a second shock cast him up again into the sea, whence he escaped by 
 swimming to a boat. He lived for nearly a half a century after this 
 adventure, was a member of Assembly and a respected merchant in Port 
 Royal. 
 
 PORT ROYAL FROM CLOCK TOWER. 
 
 In the century succeeding the earthquake there is a wonderful sameness, 
 though by no means a monotony or an absence of excitement, in the history of 
 Jamaica. The political and legislative record is one of constant squabbling, 
 impeachments, breaches of privilege and abrupt dismissals of Assemblies. The 
 placidity and repose of tropical life were in turn and often disturbed by hurri- 
 cane, earthquake, fire, pestilence and famine. There were military and naval 
 troubles with the French and the Spaniards, the most notable perhaps being in 
 1702, when Benbow lost his life, and in 1784 when Rodney, by a brilliant 
 victory over De Grasse, scattered the Fleet containing the French troops intended 
 for the invasion of Jamaica. The Maroons, still unconquered, carried on their 
 guerilla warfare and plundered the settlers' plantations, there were numerous in- 
 surrections, some more formidable than others, of slaves in various parishes of 
 
6o 
 
 LATER HISTORY. 
 
 the island, while the exciting life of the pirate, or privateer, increased the 
 wealth of Kingston and of Port Royal. Existence, amid the stirring scenes and 
 thrilling incidents of this sort, could surely be neither dull nor uneventful. The 
 space, however, at our disposal compels us to hurry over this period thus briefly 
 and to pass on to the great event which influenced Jamaica more even than 
 war, hurricane or legislative squabbling could do ; we refer to the Agitation 
 
 
 ■ft ■": ■ ^ ■■' . ■ ' ■■ .A ■ 
 
 ^■:*:-.:^'l.^ 
 
 <«'.- ''■i* ' . .:^Mt. . ' S^:- -s:^'..*^" 
 
 ^^" '-'k 
 
 J^^2HH 
 
 ROADWAY, CANE RIVER. 
 
 which culminated in the Abolition of the vile system of slavery. It is impos- 
 sible to fix the exact date when this struggle commenced, for, during the 
 earliest days when the traffic in human flesh was recognised as legal, there were 
 not wanting men in England, and elsewhere, who were found to protest against 
 it. The day is happily past when it is necessary to denounce so hideous a 
 traffic, and happily, too, bitter feelings, inherited from a bitter past, are rapidly- 
 
LATER HISTORY. 6 1 
 
 dying away. A few figures will show the magnitude of this Trade, as far as 
 Jamaica is concerned. Between the years 1700 and 1786 no less than 610,000 
 slaves were landed in Jamaica, of whom 160,000 were re-exported to other 
 parts of the West Indies or to America. Thus more than 5,000 were added every 
 year to the existing number. The reason for this large and constant increase 
 may partly be that the amount of land under cultivation was being greatly 
 extended, but it was certainly partly due to the hard labour and harsh treat- 
 ment which retarded the natural increase of the population and to the fact that 
 the number of male slaves imported was much in excess of the number of 
 female. Added to this must not be forgotten the heavy mortality among the 
 slave population on the not infrequent occasions of famine, pestilence or hurri- 
 cane. That the treatment was cruel goes without saying. A cruel system can 
 only be worked by cruel means and enforced by cruel laws, and the ridicu- 
 lous fallacies by which its upholders endeavoured to defend it may fitly be taken 
 as illustrations of the depth of absurdity and of groundless, or false, statements to 
 which the champions of a wicked cause are bound to be driven in fighting against 
 truth and light. 
 
 Perhaps the first definite step in the direction of Emancipation was a 
 decision, in the reign of William and Mary, of the Chief Justice (Holt) of 
 England to the effect that " one may not be a slave in England." However, 
 this and similar decisions failed to arouse Englishmen to a sense of the iniquities 
 which were being prepetrated under the protection of the British Flag. In 1765, 
 Granville Sharpe was led to take up the subject, and in 1772, by his efforts, he 
 gained the judicial decision that "as soon as any slave sets his foot on English 
 ground he is free." One cannot help wondering how this decision did not at 
 once, and permanently, settle the question, for it seems natural to draw the con- 
 clusion that if the possession of slaves was wrong and illegal in England, it was 
 theoretically equally wrong and illegal in other parts of the British Empire, 
 that, if the putting the foot on British soil in Kent or Devonshire could bestow 
 freedom, the same privilege belonged to British soil in Jamaica or Trinidad. But 
 the day of Justice was still far distant. Reports of cruelty and of revolting ill- 
 treatment roused indeed the heart of philanthropic England, but the West Indian 
 interest was in those days, politically, commercially and socially, far more powerful 
 than any sentiment however philanthrophic, or any sense of justice however 
 deeply -rooted. Other causes too combined to impede the progress of the 
 agitation. The French Revolution, with its indirect, but terrible, consequences 
 in Hayti, was not the least among these, while Royal influence was not wanting 
 against the cause of Right, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV., having 
 been in Jamaica, and retaining a strong feeling of regard for the slave-holders. 
 Resolutions were moved from time to time in both Houses of Parliament, but only to 
 be lost, although the number of adherents to the cause was daily increasing in the 
 country. At length in 1807 a measure was passed abolishing the Trade in 
 slaves from the ist of March, 1808. This measure, while preventing further 
 importations, did not affect the condition of the existing slaves. Meanwhile 
 'the Jamaica Legislature had seen the necessity of action of some sort, and several 
 
62 
 
 LATER HISTORY. 
 
 Acts were passed with the professed object of ameliorating and modifying the 
 conditions of slavery. The first important step, after the suppression of the 
 Trade, was the compulsory Registration of slaves, the intention of which was 
 to make it impossible to secretly revive the slave Trade by clandestine impor- 
 tations. Amid much opposition and a good deal of undignified protest on the 
 part of the Assembly, this Act was passed, care being taken on the part of 
 the Government to assure the Assembly that the measure was not meant to be 
 a step towards Emancipation. Whether intended or not, it was such a step. 
 Although the actual Emancipation was opposed point by point, and step by step, 
 by the planting body in Jamaica and in England, yet every one knew that it 
 vas merely a matter of time, the length or shortness of which depended 
 
 RODNEV MONUMENT, SPANISH TOWN. 
 
 entirely on circumstances. Some of these circumstances have been referred to 
 above ; they might be strong enough to delay, but were powerless to prevent, 
 for when the Trade was suppressed, the System was doomed. 
 
 In 1823 Canning got the House of Commons to pass Resolutions recom- 
 mending such reforms in the Code as might prepare the slaves for a participation 
 in those civil rights and privileges which were enjoyed by other classes of His 
 Majesty's subjects. These Resolutions having been passed, the West Indian 
 Governors were directed to carry their provisions into effect. This the Jamaica 
 Assembly refused to do, representing that the Slave Code was complete and 
 that the slave population was as happy and comfortable as the labouring classes 
 in any part of the world. In other slave-holding colonies the Resolutions of 
 
LATER HISTORY. 63 
 
 the House of Commons were loyally carried out and, in all likelihood, it was 
 the obstinate and perverse resistance of the Jamaica Assembly which hastened 
 the day of Freedom. Allowance must perhaps be made for the conduct of 
 gentlemen whose interests were, in their own judgment, wrapped up in the 
 continuance of slavery, and who foresaw in Emancipation nothing but Ruin 
 and Disaster both to themselves and to the colony at large, but it must be 
 conceded that an Assembly, so constituted, was utterly unfit to decide impartially 
 a question in which they were personally so deeply interested. Naturally 
 enough fresh rebellions broke out among the slaves, who had gathered from 
 conversation, overheard and repeated, that Emancipation had been agreed on in 
 England, but was being withheld in Jamaica. In one of these rebellions 
 about this time, property to the value of j£666,gTj was destroyed, and the 
 proprietors were so impoverished, that the Home Government had to grant 
 a loan of ;^2oo,ooo to replenish the devastated plantations. It is to be noted 
 that almost all risings of slaves were characterised by the burning of crops and 
 of planters' houses, fire being almost the only weapon within reach of the insur- 
 gents. The wrath of the owners was then poured out on the teachers of religion. 
 The violence of the language used and the unfounded nature of the charges 
 alleged against missionaries may well be regarded as signs of the consciousness of 
 the weakness of the cause. To assert that "ample provision had been made for 
 the proper instruction of slaves ' ' was as untrue as it was a ridiculous piece of 
 bounce for the Assembly to ' ' threaten the transfer of their allegiance to the 
 United States, or even to assert their independence after the manner of their 
 continental neighbours." Again we are compelled by want of space to abstain 
 from details — details in some cases as disgusting as they are disgraceful. 
 
 We hasten to the end of the struggle. In 1832 the Earl of Mulgrave 
 arrived and entered on his memorable Governorship. He at once insisted on 
 Canning's Resolutions of 1823 being embodied in the Island legislation. The 
 infatuated Assembly again asserted its independence of the British Parliament. 
 To allow the House of Commons to legislate was ' ' subversive of the common 
 rights and dangerous to the lives and liberties of the colonists." The Assembly 
 acknowledged indeed the Supremacy of the Crown, but refused to " admit the 
 supremacy of a portion of His Majesty's subjects in the Parent State over 
 another portion of these subjects in Jamaica." After this, all other efforts hav- 
 ing failed, the Imperial Parliament had no alternative but to pass the Emanci- 
 pation Act. This was in May, 1833, when it was enacted that on and after 
 the ist of August, 1834, all slaves should be free, this freedom to take effect 
 after an intermediate period of apprenticeship of six years for predials, or field 
 labourers, and of four years for domestic servants. The Government proposal 
 to advance a loan of ^15,000,000 was altered into a grant of ^20,000,000, 
 as compensation to the slave-holders. In October of the same year, the Island 
 Assembly met to consider the Imperial Act, which was ungraciously accepted. 
 The old blustering independence was by no means dead, but had to content 
 itself with an impertinent declaration that the action of the Imperial Parlia- 
 ment was unconstitutional, and involved a policy of ' ' spoliation which could 
 
64 LATER HISTORY. 
 
 produce nothing but discontent and rebellion." Thus on the ist of August, 
 1834, slavery ceased and the apprenticeship system commenced. Pecuniary com- 
 pensation, amounting to ;^S,8S3,97S, was paid to Jamaica owners in consid- 
 eration of the manumission of 255,290 slaves, while 55,780 slaves, consisting 
 of children, old people and runaways, were excluded from the compensation. 
 The apprenticeship system was not allowed to run its allotted time, for irk 
 
 THE ALTAR, PARISH CHURCH, KINGSTON. 
 
 June, 1838, following, the Legislature in the mother country, though strongly 
 protesting against the interference of the Imperial Parliament, it was decided by 
 the Jamaica House of Assembly to close the apprenticeship on the ist of August 
 in that year. Accordingly, on the ist of August, 1838, absolute and uncondi- 
 tional freedom was granted to the slave, or apprentice, population of Jamaica. 
 
 It is not our intention here to narrate the further history of the Colony, 
 but we cannot close without a slight review of the progress and development 
 
LATER HISTORY. 65 
 
 of the emancipated negroes. There have been those who have asserted that there is 
 in the African race an ethnological inferiority which makes it unreceptive of 
 the highest civilisation. This opinion, however, is necessarily an a priori begging 
 of the question and by no means leads logically to the a posteriori conclusion 
 that all attempts at civilisation have failed, are failing and. must fail. Not 
 the most sanguine friend of the negro ever expected that his complete civilisa- 
 tion would be effected in a day, or even in a century. Favourable surround- 
 ings and sufficient time have been, and are, always and everywhere, essential 
 conditions for the growth of the higher civilisation, and those who know the 
 African race best do not doubt for a moment what the result will be when 
 these conditions have been fully realised. We venture to say that there is no 
 half-century in the whole history of civilisation, in which greater advancement 
 has been made by any race than has been made by the West Indian British 
 negroes in the half-century which elapsed in August, 1888, since the complete 
 emancipation of their race. Like other human beings, they have their faults, 
 many and greaf, but, in the majority of cases, they are the faults of a child 
 rather than the vices of a man ; their virtues, too, may be the virtues of a 
 child, docility, affection, simplicity, but who will say that these cannot grow 
 into the virtues of a man ? Whether ethnologically inferior or not, they started 
 fifty years ago, heavily handicapped with the vices which had come down to 
 them from the days of the African heathenism of their race, or which were 
 incidental to their condition as slaves. They started without money, with little 
 or no education, with violent prejudice against them, to compete in the battle 
 of life with their former owners, men of means, men of education and influ- 
 ence, men holding the reins of government. Now, after the lapse of half a 
 century, we find them exercising political power in an intelligent and con- 
 tented spirit J among their number are lawyers, doctors, clergymen and school- 
 masters, talented, successful and respected members of their professions ; there 
 are a few wealthy planters and merchants, and there is a large body of small 
 peasant proprietors — without its parallel outside the West Indies — an industrious, 
 honest and God-fearing set of men, acquiring and practising year by year 
 those habits of steady application, intelligence and self-reliance, which are as 
 essential to the black man's success as they are to that of the white. If 
 we were asked to point to the results of Emancipation in Jamaica, we would 
 do so by means of a contrast. Little more than fifty years ago there were 
 more than 300,000 persons of African descent in Jamaica, held in unnatural 
 bondage by alien tyrants, perpetually driven by cruelty and hardship to rebel- 
 lion, which was futile in all save in increasing the cruelty, deprived of the 
 rights of citizenship and often of the privileges of humanity, existing the exist- 
 ence of cattle rather than living the lives of men and women. Look on that 
 picture and now look on this. There are in Jamaica' at the present time 
 upwards of half a million persons, African by descent, but British subjects by 
 birth, speaking the English language, enjoying English institutions, with an 
 English literature and English laws, loyally bound by ties both of gratitude 
 and of expediency to the English Throne. 
 
SPORT IN JAMAICA. 
 
 'npHERE are other amusements for tl*e tourist in Jamaica than the feasting of 
 * the eye on beautiful scenery. This being a British Colony, first and fore- 
 most comes naturally the national British game of Cricket. 
 
 There are several cricket clubs in Kingston and about the Island, but chief 
 among them all stands, as it ought to, the Kingston Cricket Club, with a total 
 membership of about 300. The Club owns a first-class ground at Sabina Park, 
 on the outskirts of Kingston, and numbers among its members* all the foremost 
 cricketers of the Island. It is constantly being recruited by new blood in the 
 shape of officers of the Garrison, fresh from English schools and colleges, and so 
 can always put a formidable eleven into the field. Indeed Sabina Park is 
 classic ground for Americans; for there in January, 1888, the team of Ameri- 
 can cricketers who were making a tour of the West Indies were defeated by the 
 picked strength of the Kingston Club. This reverse, however, they atoned 
 for, by beating in succession the St. Elizabeth, the Garrison and the Portland Clubs. 
 
 Besides the cricket ground the Club possesses on the same place three 
 excellent lawn tennis courts, where play is permitted every day of the week. 
 Saturday excepted. 
 
 Friends introduced by members of the Club are cordially welcomed. 
 
 Jamaica, by the way, contributed seven men to the team of cricketers, from 
 the West Indies, who visited the United States and Canada in 1886 ; where, 
 out of thirteen matches played, they won six and lost five* while two were 
 left drawn. 
 
 The premises of the Royal Jamaica Yacht Club are pleasantly situated' at 
 Rae Town, a suburb of Kingston. Cool, airy rooms are these, close to the beach, 
 with the pure sea-breeze blowing through them all day. Billiards and whist are 
 provided for and there is a reading room supplied with the latest magazines and 
 papers. Several of the members own small yachts, and on every important public 
 holiday a regatta is held, that on the Queen's Birthday, the 24th of May, being 
 the chief. One also takes place during the visit of the North American and 
 West Indian Squadron of the British Fleet about the month of April. 
 
 On all these occasions, among the events are races for fishing canoes, pulling 
 and sailing ; and most picturesque is the sight of these frail hollow logs — for they 
 are nothing else — tearing along through the waves, if there be a strong breeze, 
 with the leech of the one sail trailing in the water half the time, and the half- 
 naked crew sitting up on the weather gunwale busily baling out the water that 
 is shipped by the bucketful. 
 
SPORT IN JAMAICA. 
 
 67 
 
 Jamaicans do not yield to the inhabitants of any country in their enthusiasm 
 for the sport of racing. 
 
 Every year about a fortnight before Christmas a meeting is held in Kingston, 
 "which lasts three days, and comprises fourteen or fifteen events. The principal 
 prize is the Queen's Purse, which is regulated by a law of the Island, passed by 
 a sporting legislature of the old days, but owing to the impetus lately given to 
 this pastime by a few energetic young sportsmen, other purses outstrip it in 
 value. 
 
 But although that is the case, the winner of the Queen's Purse, a three-mile 
 race, is generally regarded as having carried off the "blue riband" of the 
 
 CROSSING A RIVER, 
 
 Jamaica turf. At this meeting compete descendants of some of the best blood to 
 be found in the English Stud Book, and the race of thoroughbreds is preserved 
 from degeneracy by the constant importation of mares and stallions from England, 
 for each of which the Government awards a bounty. 
 
 Those interested in turf matters may derive the most complete information by 
 consulting the Jamaica Stud Book recently compiled by Mr. J. T. Palache, of 
 Manchester. 
 
 Race meetings are also held at Cumberland Pen, a quarter of an hour from 
 Kingston by rail, and at Black River. 
 
 St. Elizabeth, Manchester and St. Ann's are the parishes in which racers are 
 principally bred. 
 
 The Kingston race-course is a breezy stretch of common to the north of the 
 
68 
 
 SPORT IN JAMAICA. 
 
 city, commanding a fine view of the Palisadoes and the harbour to the south, 
 and looking up northwards to the dim and distant Blue Mountain Peaks, the 
 white huts of Newcastle perched on one of the ridges in bold relief, and the 
 encircling sweep of the foothills embracing the Liguanea Plain, while the dark 
 blue barrier of the Long Mountain bounds the view eastward. It is a noble 
 setting, and one that cannot be surpassed by any other race-course in the world. 
 The track is oval in shape and just one mile in length. On the western side 
 is an iron grand stand, underneath which are bar rooms, weighing rooms and 
 other offices, with a railed enclosure in front. Flanking this, a strip of garden 
 north and south divides the course from the road. 
 
 A NATIVE FI8HINQ BOAT. 
 
 Although we have no large game in Jamaica there is plenty of shooting for 
 the sportsman who is content with wild-fowl. 
 
 Of game birds we have the blue pigeon, the baldpate, the whitewing, the 
 peadove, the whitebelly, the partridge and, last and most delicious of all, the 
 ringtail. 
 
 Of these all, with the exception of the whitebelly, partridge and ringtail, 
 may- be shot from the 26th of July to the last day in February, the open season 
 for the three just mentioned dating from the first of September. A gun license 
 costs eight shillings. 
 
 The blue pigeon and the baldpate are strong-winged sporting birds that take 
 a good deal of shooting when in a hurry. The whitewing is a smaller pigeon 
 and flies more in flocks than the others. The peadove is generally to be found 
 
SPORT IN JAMAICA. 69 
 
 singly or in pairs along the roads or on commons, or in dry river courses, and 
 he will carry away more shot for his size than any other bird. The whitebelly 
 and the partridge never fly in the open. They haunt thickets in the wood- 
 land where the underwood is not too dense. The ringtail is a denizen of the 
 high mountains and shooting him is very toilsome work. 
 
 In addition to these, we are visited every winter by large flocks of duck 
 and teal, escaping from the rigours of the North American climate. 
 
 The best time for shooting is in the grey dawn of the morning, and for 
 a couple of hours after sunrise, for theil the birds leave the roost and fly off 
 to the feeding grounds in the case of pigeons, and the ducks and teal come 
 out of the sedges and disport themselves in the open spaces on the ponds and 
 marshes. 
 
 SPANISH TOWN RIVER. 
 
 Exceedingly pleasant are these morning excursions when, starting from your 
 home before daylight, you watch the grey morning light flicker up, and see 
 the first red streak of the coming sun set aglow the eastern sky, and breathe 
 the dewy freshness that everything exhales in this, the sweetest hour of the 
 whole day's round. And when you have got into position, how your nerves 
 tingle at the cry of "mark" as a plump baldpate comes whizzing along over- 
 head ; and how satisfying the crack of the gun and the thud that follows it, 
 as your first bird falls headlong, a crumpled heap of feathers ! 
 
 Most exciting of all is the alligator hunt. It is difficult for any but the 
 practised eye to detect the small portion of his snout and the caverns that 
 conceal his eyes, which are all that the beast shows above the surface of the 
 water as he paddles warily along ; and it is almost as difficult to distinguish 
 him from a log of wood as he lies basking in the sun at noonday, with his 
 tail and hind paws in the shallow water and his head and the forepart of the 
 body recumbent on the margin of the lagoon or the bank of the river. 
 
70 
 
 SPORT IN JAMAICA. 
 
 A Winchester rifle is a very handy weapon for the slaughter of this beast, 
 and his most vulnerable points are the skull just in the region of the eyes, 
 and the body immediately behind the forepaws. But the shot must in either 
 case be fair and true. 
 
 This sport, however, should only be undertaken by those who can stand, 
 exposure to the burning rays of a mid-day sun, and who are proof against 
 the noxious exhalations of malarious swamps ; so we will advise the stranger, 
 if in search of health, to leave it alone. 
 
 The Blue Mountain forests teem with wild hogs, but the hunting of these 
 is a vocation which demands a special training. The professional hog hunters- 
 
 
 ON THE NORTH COAST ROAD. 
 
 are a race of men who are' built of nothing but bone and sinew, past fatten- 
 ing by any process of diet. They go out armed with muzzle-loading fowling 
 pieces of antique and precarious structure, which they charge with a liberal 
 allowance of bits of lead and old nails. They are' accompanied by a couple 
 or two of lean mongrel dogs, contemptible to look at, but of marvellous 
 endurance and agility. After camping out for a night, they start early on 
 the following morning, and are pretty certain soon to come across fresh hog 
 "sign," as they term it. The dogs begin to sniff the air and whimper, and 
 after circling round for a minute or two with noses to the ground, dash off 
 in one direction followed by the hunter, as they go crashing through the 
 underwood, crossing precipitous gorges and splashing through the crystal streams 
 that rush down them, hurling themselves down steep mountain sides at aa 
 
SPORT IN JAMAICA. 71 
 
 angle of forty-five degrees, and toiling up an equally abrupt ascent with 
 scarcely diminished speed, every foot of it covered with dense forest. Presently 
 they give tongue, and the hunter knows that the quarry is sighted, and soon 
 an angry grunting tells him that it is brought to bay. Then he yells out 
 encouragement to his dogs, calling each by name, and struggling and crashing 
 through the forest draws near enough to give the gallant boar his coup de grace. 
 Often the dogs get the worst of it ; and the writer of this once joined in a hunt 
 which, although five dogs were engaged, resulted in a loss of the game and the 
 death of one dog, while another was so sorely injured that his wounds had to be 
 stitched up. 
 
 A boar standing two feet six inches at the shoulder is by no means a 
 rarity ; and the writer has seen, far in the recesses of the Blue Mountain forests, 
 fresh tusk marks on trees and saplings at a height of three feet six inches 
 from the ground. 
 
 Wherever the hog is killed there the camp is pitched — water is always near 
 by in these wonderful mountains— and, a fire being kindled, the process of 
 "jerking" is begun. That is a slow grilling over a wood fire, among the 
 embers of which aromatic leaves are cast, while powdered pimento seed and 
 salt are sprinkled upon the meat. The dogs are amply rewarded by the offal, 
 and soon curl themselves, gorged, as near the fire as they can creep, to enjoy 
 a well earned rest. Night comes down, the strong land-breeze rushes seaward 
 from the Peaks singing a mournful dirge among the treetops ; the fitful glare of 
 the fire throws weird shadows among the tall trees, eclipsing the twinkle of the 
 firefly that flits among the leaves ; and all is silence and slumber, save when a 
 gaunt figure steals out of the hut, its lean proportions doubly grotesque in 
 the uncertain firelight, to watch the progress of the grilling of the prized 
 meat. 
 
 If their luck is good they may take three or four hogs in a couple of 
 days, as much as they can carry home ; and the meat prepared as 'above de- 
 scribed is readily disposed of at ninepence and sometimes a shilling a pound ; for 
 when properly done it is a most toothsome morsel, and perfectly clean and whole- 
 some, as the food of these wild hogs consists entirely of roots, berries and fruit, 
 and their drink of the purest water. 
 
 Any more health-giving amusement than a few days of hog hunting among 
 the Blue Mountain forests it is almost impossible to conceive ; but, as already inti- 
 mated, one must be in first-rate condition. 
 
 Votaries of the ' ' gentle art ' ' may also find recreation in the land of the 
 forest and the stream. And it would indeed be strange if no fish were to 
 be found in those waters, from the very abundance of which our Island derives 
 its name. 
 
 In the lower reaches of the rivers near the coast, especially where the waters 
 form tidal basins, and are impregnated by the sea, some of the most delicious 
 fish are to be found ; chief among them the callipeva and the snook. There is 
 also a description of mullet that swims in shoals, and is generally taken with a 
 cast net. 
 
72 
 
 SPORT IN JAMAICA. 
 
 Higher up, in the pools below the white rush of the rapids and the leap 
 of the waterfall among the ferns, our celebrated mountain mullet are to be 
 found. Eels and mudfish are also common in all the streams, as well as crayfish 
 and prawns. 
 
 But all of these are exceedingly practical creatures, and owing no doubt to 
 the lack of briUiant-hued winged insect life which skims across the surface of the 
 
 PALMS IN CASTLETON GARDENS. 
 
 water and forms the food of the fish in more northern regions, they, as a rule, 
 decline to be tempted by any fly, however gaudy. Some of our local enthusiasts 
 in the art of angling do however succeed in making them take specially prepared 
 ones ; but they are easily caught by such bait as Avocado pear, and the berries of 
 the sweetwood and other trees. 
 
 The mudfish, eels and crayfish, are caught in bamboo basket-work "pots" laid 
 
SPORT IN JAMAICA. 
 
 73 
 
 at the bottom of the pools, and baited with something good to eat. A piece of 
 cocoanut meat roasted is a never failing allurement. 
 
 There are miles upon miles of crystal rivers among the gorges of the Blue 
 Mountains into which no hook has ever been cast. 
 
 Legislation has of late years been found necessary to preserve the river fish 
 from the indiscriminate destruction wrought by the negro methods of catching 
 them. Chief among these was the construction of a dam across some tolerably 
 swift and shallow rapid, into which at intervals funnel-shaped pots were fixed. 
 Into these, fish of all sizes were swept by the force of the current, and instantly 
 killed, being often terribly mangled. These weirs are now illegal, and the fish 
 have been further protected from sportsmen of all sorts and conditions by the estab- 
 lishment of a close season. 
 
 PARK LODGE. 
 
 After having been directed to spawn ' ' by Act of Parliament ' ' at three 
 different seasons of the year, the period between the 30th of June and the ist 
 of October has now been decreed as that during which they shall multiply and 
 increase, unmolested by rod or net or fish-pot. 
 
 In concluding this chapter we would say that in attempting any of the dif- 
 ferent varieties of sport which we have touched upon, it will be necessary to 
 form acquaintance with some resident of the country who will be able to put you 
 "up to the ropes." 
 
 But that, as we have already said, will not prove a difficult matter in a land 
 where every decent stranger is taken by the hand and treated as a friend till he 
 proves himself the reverse. 
 
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF JAMAICA. 
 
 '"pHE first object that greets the ej^ of the voyager as he nears the shores of 
 ^ this Island is the mass of dark blue mountain looming up on the horizon ; 
 and as he draws nearer and nearer, though clearer and more distinct the shapes 
 that peak and ridge may assume, each still retains the tint of deep, deep azure 
 that gives its name to the range. 
 
 From its highest point, 7,500 feet above the sea, it throws out branches 
 north and south, which now open out into alluvial plain, now descend sheer 
 into the girdle of paler blue sea that encircles the Island. 
 
 And from that highest point down to where the foam of the breakers curls 
 around its feet, it is majestic, beautiful, fraught with a thousand legends of bygone 
 times, and clothed with a thousand different forms of vegetable life in the 
 dark woods that re-echo the roar of the streams thundering down each gorge. 
 
 Up on those towering peaks whose heads daily wreathe themselves in a white 
 robe of fleecy mist, or don the leaden crown of the thunder-cloud, under the 
 yacca and the soapwood is the lair of the wild hog ; and among the branches 
 resounds the mournful " lookoo " of the ringtail pigeon, the scream of the parrot 
 and the plaintive note of the solitaire. These with the sough of the wind 
 among the tree tops and the roar of the torrent in the ravines make nature's 
 concert. 
 
 Whole forests of graceful tree-ferns are there ; orchids garnish the gnarled 
 limbs that do eternal battle with the wind ; mosses, green and gold and gray, 
 clasp the knotted trunks or float pendant in the air. Strange fungi of brilliant 
 hues crops out of the ground, where the foot of the hunter falls noiseless on the 
 carpet of dead leaves centuries deep. 
 
 Fairy forms of fern overarch the crystal stream and kiss its frothing surface 
 with their trailing fronds. Brilliant blossoms nod aloft on the mighty trees and 
 blush among the thickets. 
 
 And among all this we may wander for weeks together in silent commune 
 with nature, with no chance of seeing a human form, and no fear of encountering 
 a dangerous or noxious wild beast or reptile. 
 
 The naturalist will find abundance of new material in the shape of ferns, 
 orchids, flowers and fungi ; the lover of the woods for their own sake will be 
 able to gratify his passion to the full ; and the practical man in search of land to 
 cultivate will surely say^. " What magnificent soil ! " 
 
 The most striking Peak of the Blue Mountains in approaching Jamaica from 
 the eastward is the Sugar-loaf, which rises sharp, distinct and isolated, about 
 
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF JAMAICA. 
 
 75 
 
 forty miles, as the crow flies, from the eastern extremity of the Island. 
 Although eminently fitted by its shape and situation to be the highest point 
 of the range, by some mistake, it is not, that distinction being enjoyed by the 
 most westerly of a cluster of three "humps" rather than Peaks, which are 
 connected with the Sugar-loaf by a precipitous ridge of about a mile and a half 
 in length. This ridge is in parts so narrow that it is literally possible to sit 
 astride of it ; and were it not for the profuse vegetation that covers its sides, it 
 would be indeed giddy work to look down them. 
 
 From here westward the main ridge runs along the centre of the Island, 
 dividing the Parishes of St. Andrew and St. Mary, and it may be said to 
 
 CASTLETON GARDENS. 
 
 terminate at Stony Hill, ten miles to the north of Kingston. None of the 
 other points approach the highest within 2,000 feet, with the exception of Sir 
 John's Peak on the Government Cinchona Plantation, which is 6,100 feet high. 
 This, however, is on an off-shoot trending southwards, and not on the main ridge 
 proper. 
 
 These southern and western slopes are largely cultivated and inhabited. Here 
 are situated all the principal coffee plantations of this part of the Island. Turning 
 east and north we behold only virgin forest, the home of the ringtail and the 
 wild hog, rarely trodden by human foot. 
 
 And on both sides shoot out great spurs, which in their turn send forth 
 other spurs, which again branch out into numberless ridges, all intersected 
 
76 
 
 THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF JAMAICA. 
 
 by ravines, so that the aptness of the description of the great Columbus, 
 when he likened Jamaica to a crumpled sheet of paper, at once becomes obvious. 
 
 In the hollows of these manifold ridges lie valleys of the richest vegetable soil 
 that one can conceive, virgin land, absolutely untouched by cultivation. Down 
 each gorge rushes a stream of a purity that puts the very crystal to shame, wasting 
 day after day tons upon tons of potential water power. 
 
 Coffee, the natural product of these mountains, grows here to perfection, and 
 bears in almost incredibly short time. As an instance of this we may be 
 allowed to quote the case of some two hundred acres of virgin soil 
 recently planted in coffee by Captain ^. G. Taylor, of Moy Hall, a retired 
 
 MONTEGO BAY FROM CHURCH TOWER. 
 
 English officer, who settled in these mountains. Having the necessary capital 
 he proceeded to clear and cultivate at an elevation of from 4,000 to 5,000 
 feet, in the Parish of St. Thomas, on the southern slope of the Peak. In 
 two years some of the coffee actually began to bear; in four it was all in 
 bearing; and now the crops are coming in upon him so thick and fast that 
 he was for a time seriously put about for the necessary space for curing and 
 storing. He has now commenced clearing some one hundred and fifty acres 
 more. When that shall have been completed and planted Moy Hall will be the 
 most extensive coffee plantation in Jamaica, and a perfect mine of wealth to the 
 fortunate owner. 
 
 And when we remember that the climate of these mountains is such that 
 Europeans can labour in the open air without discomfort, and English flowers. 
 
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF JAMAICA. 77 
 
 fruit and vegetables grow easily, it will be seen that here is an El Dorado 
 indeed. The principal difiSculty is of course the means of transport and locomo- 
 tion, for owing to the mountainous character of the country everything has to be 
 done on horse or mule-back. 
 
 On the northside of the eastern end of the Blue Mountain range, in the 
 Parish of Portland, on the lovely Cuna Cuna Pass to which allusion has already 
 been made, lies the Maroon settlement of Moore Town. Every ridge of this 
 portion of the range is alive with legends of the Maroon wars ; for here was 
 the principal haunt of those bandits of the old, dark days ; and here, far 
 back in an almost inaccessible fastness of rocky mountain precipice was their 
 stronghold of Nanny Town. 
 
 About the year 1730, "The Maroons had grown so formidable under a 
 " very able leader named Cudjoe that it became necessary to increase the 
 " military strength of the Colony and to erect extra barracks. Every barrack 
 " was provided with a pack of dogs by the Church wardens of the parish to 
 " guard against surprises at night and for tracking the enemy in the mountain 
 " fastnesses." Nanny was one of the wives of this same Cudjoe, and her name is a 
 household word among the Maroons to the present day. She appears to have had 
 the reputation of being possessed of supernatural power, and many remarkable feats 
 are still ascribed to her. 
 
 Chief among them was the pot which she kept boiling at the junction of 
 the two rivers, just below the site of Nanny Town, without any fire under- 
 neath, into which the soldiers and militia who were operating against the 
 Maroons fell and perished when they looked into it. The whole region about 
 Nanny Town teems with legend ; and the belief in the weird stories is not 
 confined to negroes alone, as we shall presently show. After defying for years 
 all attempts to dislodge them, the Maroons at length succumbed in 1734 to 
 the intrepidity and skill of a Captain Stoddart, who cut a path through the 
 forest and dragged up two small mountain howitzers. Bringing these to bear 
 upon the settlement he created such a panic among the Maroons, who had 
 probably never seen or heard of cannon before, that most of those who were 
 not actually killed by the discharge hurled themselves over the precipices and 
 were dashed to pieces among the adamant rocks below. To quote the words 
 of a recent historian : ' ' The spot is now and has been ever since a scene of 
 "superstitious awe to the Maroons; it is difficult if not impossible to per- 
 " suade one to guide the traveller to the place. The spirits of those slain in the 
 " battle are said to linger there ; while it is a fact that men whose personal 
 " courage is unquestionable have been bewildered by the strange mysterious noises 
 " they hear when camping down for a night. The fears of the Maroons have 
 " affected their own spirits, for the falling stones are no doubt occasioned by the 
 " wild hogs rooting among the hills ; and the flapping of the wings of strange 
 " low-flying creatures is occasioned by sea-going birds who roost among these mighty 
 " heights and before dawn hasten away to the ocean below." 
 
 And in truth it is a spot worthy to be the scene of ghost stories. Far 
 away from everywhere, in the heart of the Blue Mountain range, the Main 
 
78 THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF JAMAICA. 
 
 Ridge throws out two large spurs that trend northward, and that in their turn, 
 as above described, again shoot out cross ridges. Two of these converge at a 
 height of 3,700 feet and fall in almost a sheer precipice of adamant rock 900 
 feet high into a river that roars along in the narrow gorge at their feet. The 
 river is formed by the junction of two others that gush out from behind the 
 ridges, and where they meet the eternal beat of the plunging ' waterfall has 
 hollowed out a cauldron in the iron rock, which it keeps full of seething, 
 but ice-cold water. Here you have the rnysterious "Nanny's Pot." This spot 
 can scarcely be surpassed on the face of the earth for wild and romantic 
 beauty. On one hand the Stony RivQj-, the principal stream, which flows along 
 
 GARDENS, SPANISH TOWN. 
 
 the site of the old stronghold 900 feet above, descends this^abyss in three leaps, 
 the last of which is over a perfectly perpendicular wall of rock 150 feet high. 
 Over this it flows in a silvery cascade that throws broadcast into the air a 
 myriad sparkling gems, and forms tiny rainbows wherever its course is broken by 
 a slight inequality in the face of the rocky wall. On the other hand the waters 
 of the Nanny River come tearing down into Nanny's Pot, keeping the ferns 
 and grasses that fringe its sides and nestle in every crevice in a prepetual 
 state of agitation by the displacement of the air. On every side tower black 
 rocks with surfaces polished by the flow of centuries, glistens and sparkles 
 water of crystal purity, and nod and gleam and nestle green and gold mosses, 
 ferns and lichens bejewelled by irridescent dew-drops, all shaded by tall forest 
 trees between whose leaves the sun casts mottled shadows on the loveliness beneath. 
 
THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF JAMAICA. 79 
 
 A paradise on earth in truth ! It is hard to picture in one's mind this silvery 
 torrent befouled by bloodstains, these moss-decked boulders besmirched by bat- 
 tered brains and mangled limbs, the harmonious silence of this whispering, 
 sighing, verdant wilderness, to whose beauty the roar of the cascade tunes cease- 
 lessly fitting music, turned to discord by oaths and curses and screams of rage and 
 pain, the baying of hounds and the rattle of musketry. 
 
 Captain Stoddart's track was afterwards converted into a permanent road, 
 traces of which are still in existence and used by the hog hunters living 
 about the villages of Sbmerset and Rose Hall in the Upper Blue Mountain 
 Valley in the Parish of St. Thomas. But they are always careful only to 
 approach within a respectful distance of Nanny Town ; while the Maroons confi- 
 dently assert that none but themselves can go thither, and persistently refuse to 
 believe that the writer of this description depicts the scene from his own per- 
 sonal observation. In fact, so great is their dread, that it is beyond question 
 that there are now only a very few of the older men of the Moore Town settle- 
 ment who know the place, none of the younger generation having ever been near 
 it. Should this description and the legend attached to the spot arouse the 
 curiosity of any traveller to verify for himself the story of spook and goblin, an 
 application to the writer of this will put him in the way of doing it without 
 any reference to Maroons. 
 
 So much for the historical and the sentimental aspect of the beautiful Blue 
 Mountains, in wandering among which it will be strange if the words of Long- 
 fellow do not occur to the lover of nature. 
 
 " This is the forest primeval ; the murmuring cedar and yacca 
 
 " Bearded with moss, and garments green, indistinct in the twilight, 
 
 " Stand like Druids of old with voices sad and prophetic, 
 
 " Stand like harpers hoar with beards that rest on their bosoms. 
 
 " This is the forest primeval, but where are the hearts that beneath it, 
 
 " Leap like the roe when he hears in the woodland the voice of the huntsman ? " 
 
THE CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
 OY the kind permission of the oublishers, Messrs. Wm. Wood & Co., New 
 ^ York, we reprint the following extracts from an article on the Clima- 
 tology of Jamaica, by Dr. Thomas L. Stedman, of New York City, which 
 forms part of Buck's "Reference Hand-book of the Medical Sciences." Apart 
 from the fact that the opinions here expressed are those of an experienced 
 and competent medical man, they have a value of their own, as far as Jamaica 
 is concerned, in that they are the deliberate and well-weighed utterances of one 
 who is neither a native of, nor a resident in, this colony, and whose words 
 may therefore be regarded as being untinged by prejudice and unbiased by 
 patriotism. 
 
 Dr. Stedman writes : — It is difficult in a brief article of this nature to 
 describe satisfactorily the climate of Jamaica, as owing to the diversity of ele- 
 vation and other causes it varies greatly in different parts of the Island ; in 
 some districts it is hot, in others temperate and even cool ; in some it is dry, 
 others the rainfall is very great ; indeed, the only characteristic common to all 
 the varying climates of Jamaica is equability. Thus at the seacoast the average 
 temperature is 78° F., (the extreme range for the year being only 35°), while 
 on the mountains at an elevation of between 4,000 and 5,000 feet the mercury 
 ranges between 50° and 70°, occasionally falling, on the summit of the highest 
 peak and in mid-winter, even to the freezing point. In the accompanying 
 charts, compiled from the official figures in the " Hand-book of Jamaica," the 
 mean temperature is given for the city of Kingston, and this may be regarded 
 as the mean maximum for the entire Island. Unfortunately systematic observa- 
 tions of the variations of temperature in the more elevated portions of the 
 interior are wanting, but numerous unofficial readings of ordinary thermometers, 
 taken with more or less regularity for a number of years by private indi- 
 viduals, show that the in-door temperature in places in the interior is on an 
 average from 5 to 15" below the figures here given. From June, 1880, to the 
 end of the year 1886, the readings of the thermometer were taken at eight 
 hour intervals, to wit, at 7 a. m. and at 3 and 11 p. m., but since that time at 
 7 A. M. and 3 P. M. only. During the entire period the highest temperature 
 observed was 96.1°, recorded on September 12th, 1890, and the lowest was 
 56.7'^, recorded on December 4th, 1887. The absolute maxima and minima 
 are not given in the first table, but their averages are about four degrees 
 above and below the maxima and minima deduced from the daily readings. 
 
 The most striking peculiarity of the climate of Jamaica is its variety com- 
 
CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
 8l 
 
 bined with equability. A ride of a few miles into the hills will bring one 
 from the torrid zone to the temperate — from an average temperature of nearly 
 80° to one of 65° or 70°. But whatever district one may select, whether a 
 warm one or a cool one, he will find the temperature very nearly constant, 
 the extreme range for any one month being seldom over 25" Fahrenheit, 
 while that for the entire year, at Kingston, is but 35°; and in some 
 parts of the Island the excursions of the mercury are even more restricted 
 than this. As regards humidity, also, there is the same choice of climate open 
 to the invalid or the pleasure seeker, who may select a place of residence with 
 a humid or a dry atmosphere as suits best his inclinations or the necessities of 
 
 FERRY ON RtO COBRE RIVER. 
 
 the affection from which he suffers. Jamaica indeed enjoys all the advantages 
 in respect to uniformity of temperature of island climates in general, while the 
 differences in elevation and in exposure to, or protection from tile prevailing 
 trade winds give to it the pleasing diversity, as regards temperature, humidity, and 
 rainfall of the most temperate of continental climates. 
 
 In the first of the meteorological charts the rainfall is given in two 
 columns, one for Kingston and the other, the average for the whole Island. 
 There is, as a rule, less rain in Kingston than in most of the other parts of 
 the Island, the trade winds being drained of their moisture by the mountains 
 to the north and east of the city. The heaviest precipitation occurs in the 
 Parish of Portland which forms the northeastern extremity of the Island. 
 
82 
 
 CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
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CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 83 
 
 There are two principal rainy seasons, namely in May and October, but there 
 is usually more or less rain all through the summer months. In the winter months 
 in the neighbourhood of Kingston the precipitation is very light. The rain 
 -usually comes in heavy showers of only a few hours' duration, and the days 
 during which the sun does not shine at all are very rare. It is almost always 
 possible to predict when the rain is coming as it can be seen, quite a while 
 
 AVENUE OF COTTON TREES. 
 
 before its arrival, advancing from the mountains, giving one ample time to get 
 under cover before the downpour begins. This is fortunate for the visitor, as a 
 wetting is one of the three things that an unacclimated person in the tropics must 
 avoid, the other two being exposure to the direct rays of the noonday sun and to 
 the cool night air. 
 
84 
 
 CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
 MINERAL SPRINGS OF JAMAICA. 
 
 One Pint Contains : 
 
 Milk River 
 Bath. 
 
 (Analysis by 
 Sarony & Moore.) 
 
 St. Thomas 
 the Apostle. 
 
 (Analysis by 
 Bowrey.) 
 
 Jamaica 
 Spa. 
 
 (Analysis by 
 E. Turner.) 
 
 Silver Hill 
 Spring. 
 
 (Analysis by 
 Bowrey.) 
 
 Manatee 
 Bay Spring. 
 
 Carbonate of Sodium 
 
 Grain* 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Carbonate, of Iron 
 
 
 
 
 
 traces 
 
 Carbonate of Calcium 
 
 Chloride of Potassium 
 
 
 
 0.866 
 
 
 2.71 
 
 1.44 
 
 
 
 
 
 Chloride of Magnesium ... . 
 
 37.08 
 
 
 
 
 4-34 
 
 Chloride of Sodium 
 
 186.93 
 
 1.48 
 
 
 0.125 
 
 52-52 
 
 Chloride of Calcium 
 
 13-5° 
 
 
 
 
 1-31 
 
 Chloride of Lithium 
 
 traces 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Sulphate of Sodium 
 
 27-93 
 
 0.79 
 
 
 0.341 
 
 
 
 Sulphate of Magnesium 
 
 
 
 
 2.831 
 
 1-745 
 
 
 
 Sulphate of Calcium . 
 
 
 0.62 
 
 
 1.234 
 
 
 
 ^nlnlintp nf Trnn 
 
 
 
 2.210 
 
 0-833 
 1.360 
 
 
 Sulphate of Aluminium . . . . 
 
 
 
 4.168 
 
 
 
 Phosphate of Aluminium . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 traces 
 
 Iodide of Sodium 
 
 traces 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bromide of Sodium 
 
 traces 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bromide of Potas-sium 
 
 Bromide of Magnesium 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 traces 
 
 
 
 
 
 Silicate of Sodium 
 
 
 0.45 
 
 
 
 
 Silica 
 
 traces 
 
 
 
 0.883 
 
 
 
 
 Totals 
 
 266.88 
 
 3-59 
 
 10.073 
 
 6.521 
 
 60.88 
 
 Temperature (Fahrenheit) . . . 
 
 92° 
 
 130° 
 
 63° 
 
 
 
 Sulphuretted Hydrogen 
 
 
 Undetemined. 
 
 
 
 
CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
 85 
 
 The population of Jamaica, according to the census of 1891, is 639,491, 
 an increase of about 60,000 since the census of 1881, and of 130,000 since 
 that of 1871. The capital and chief city is Kingston, the largest and most 
 important, as well as the healthiest, seaport town of the British West Indies. 
 It is a city of 48,500 inhabitants, situated on gently sloping ground on the 
 shores of a large and nearly landlocked harbour. The land on which the city 
 lies is a gravel bed, and as it has a slope to the sea of about ninety feet to the 
 mile the natural drainage is excellent. The water supply is drawn from two 
 rivers at a distance of several miles from the city, and as regards freedom from 
 contamination is above reproach. 
 
 THE SQUARE, MANOEVILLE. 
 
 The diseases for the climatic treatment of which Jamacia is particularly well 
 suited are bronchitis, fibroid phthisis, incipient pulmonary tuberculosis, catarrhal 
 affections of the respiratory passages, Bright's disease, rheumatism, various forms 
 of dyspepsia, and nervous prostration. All parts of the Island are naturally not 
 suitable for the treatment of all these varied affections, but for each one a 
 locality exists where the patient can find the climate especially adapted to the 
 necessities of his particular disease. Respiratory affections especially do well in this 
 mild and equable climate, as may be judged from the records of one of the life 
 insurance companies doing business on the Island, which show that the company 
 lost but one life from diseases of the respiratory organs (bronchitis) during a 
 period of thirty-five years. These do well in almost any part of the Island, 
 
86 
 
 CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
 although there is even here a choice, as cases with scanty expectoration are most 
 benefited in those districts where there is considerable moisture in the atmosphere, 
 while those in which there is free or even profuse secretion are more quickly re- 
 lieved in the neighbourhood of Kingston where the humidity of the air is at a 
 minimum. Patients with nervous prostration receive more benefit from a stay 
 near the seashore than they do in the uplands, and the same is in a measure 
 true of dyspeptics, especially of those in whom the gastric trouble is partly ner- 
 vous in its origin. Sufferers from Bright's disease do well, as a rule, in all parts 
 of the Island except possibly in the most elevated regions where in the winter 
 months the thermometer is apt to fall a little too low after the sun goes 
 down, and where, especially on the northern slope, there is at times a little too 
 much rain to be agreeable. The same remarlts will apply also in the case of 
 
 RIVERHEAD, STEWART TOV/N. 
 
 rheumatic patients, but the latter would do well to take a course of the waters 
 at one of the numerous mineral springs, of which a few words may be said in 
 closing this article. 
 
 There are several medicinal springs in Jamaica, some thermal and others 
 cold, which possess therapeutic properties of no little value, and which are 
 deserving of more careful study by balneologists than they have hitherto re- 
 ceived. The most important of these, or at least the best known and the only 
 ones at which passable accommodations for visitors are as yet provided, are the 
 Bath of St. Thomas the Apostle, about a mile from the town of Bath in the 
 Parish of St. Thomas, the Jamaica Spa, at Silver Hill in St. Andrew's Parish 
 and the Milk River Bath, at Vere in the Parish of Clarendon. The first 
 of these- is a thermal sulphur, the second a chalybeate, and the third a thermal 
 saline water. 
 
 The accompanying table, extracted from a brochure on the "Mineral Springs 
 
CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 87 
 
 of Jamaica" written by the Hon. J. C. Phillippo, M. D., shows the results of 
 analyses of these three and of two other springs on the Island. All of these 
 are quite easily accessible from Kingston. 
 
 The limits of this article will not permit of a detailed description of 
 each of these springs, but the subjoined analyses will suffice to indicate their 
 general characteristics and to suggest their therapeutic application. The waters of 
 one or the other of the springs are of value, taken internally and applied in the 
 form of baths, in the treatment of rheumatism, gout, chronic bronchitis, catarrhal 
 conditions of the stomach and intestines, constipation from abdominal plethora, 
 hepatic and other congestions of the abdominal viscera, amenorrhoea, anaemia 
 and chlorosis, various forms of skin diseases, and chronic malarial affections. 
 The Government has made grants from time to time for the improvement and 
 care of the buildings at these baths, but there is yet much to be desired in the 
 matter of cuisine, bathing facilities, attendance, and other things that con- 
 tribute to the comfort and entertainment of the invalid. In the absence of 
 these desiderata they still possess the great advantage that they may be visited 
 in the winter season when the more pretentious and better equipped spas in 
 Europe and the United States are closed. 
 
 The best months in which to visit Jamaica are November to April in- 
 clusive, as these are the coolest and dryest of the year, but one accustomed 
 to the fierce summer heats of our northern cities would find a grateful change 
 in the hills of Jamaica even in mid-summer. 
 
 To the above opinion we may add that a fair criterion of the healthiness, 
 or otherwise, of the climate of Jamaica may be obtained from a study of the 
 medico-military statistics of the colony. These are exhaustively treated of in an 
 expansion of a paper read before the Jamaica Branch of the British Medical 
 Association by the late Brigade-Surgeon S. E. Maunsell. 
 
 Beginning at 1817, about the time when a first attempt was made to com- 
 pile statistics of disease and to classify under various heads the causes of non- 
 efficiency among soldiers, Dr. Maunsell, in a statistical summary, shows, amongst 
 others, the following remarkable figures : 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 1817 — 1836 
 1838—1847 
 1848—1859 
 i860 — 1869 
 
 During the first of the above-mentioned four periods the soldiers were over- 
 crowded in the enervating heat of the plains ; sanitation was almost unknown, 
 ventilation was unheeded, water was collected from the roofs of the barracks 
 
 Rath 
 
 3 PER 1,000, 
 
 
 Admissions to 
 Hospital. 
 
 Fatal Cases. 
 
 1812.5s 
 
 
 121. 3 
 
 1526.66 
 
 
 63.07 
 
 1141.69 
 
 
 32.70 
 
 994.76 
 
 
 21.25 
 
88 
 
 CLIMATE OF JAMAICA. 
 
 whence it drained into tanks, it was never filtered and was too deficient in 
 quantity to admit of ordinary cleanliness. And the other accompaniments of 
 barrack-life were of the same type. 
 
 During the second period tlie strength of the military forces stationed in 
 Jamaica was much reduced ; hence there was more barrack-room accommodation 
 and consequently a decreased mortality. 
 
 The reduction in the years 1848-1859 may largely be accounted for by 
 the removal, first started indeed in 1842, of the European ^:roops to Newcastle, 
 4,000 feet above the unhealthy stations and encampments on the plains. 
 
 The improvement in the decade, 1860-1869, would possibly have been more 
 marked but for an outbreak of fever in 1867. This is a convenient place in 
 vvhich to pause briefly in our statistics, because one result of the 1867 epidemic 
 was a War Office Commission, the giving effect to the recommendations of which 
 has almost revolutionised the reputation of Jamaica as an unhealthy military 
 station. This Commission plainly showed that in the zone, where yellow fever 
 is endemic, an entire dependence on elevation as an absolute and certain 
 safeguard was utterly insufficient, if it were accompanied by a neglect of other 
 reasonable precautions which should be taken in every climate. 
 
 The above-quoted figures show that half a century ago three soldiers out 
 of four stationed in Jamaica were twice a year in the hospital, and that twelve 
 per cent, died every year. Other statistics, which need not be tabulated here, 
 show that more than five-sixths of these fatal cases were caused by fevers, that 
 on an average every soldier had twenty-three days of sickness during each year, 
 each attack lasting on an average thirteen and one-half days. 
 
 We now turn to the military figures for the next two decades and we 
 find; 
 
 1870 — 1879 
 1880— 1889 
 
 YEARS. 
 
 Average 
 Annual Deaths. 
 
 Ratio of Deaths 
 
 per 1,000 Admissions 
 
 • to Hospital. 
 
 13-77 
 11.36 
 
 In the last-named of these years, 1889, the deaths from all causes were eight 
 per thousand and from fevers nil. 
 
 Statistics such as these can have but one meaning which is that, when proper 
 sanitary precautions are taken and due care is paid to personal hygiene, whether 
 among military men or among civilians, the climate of Jamaica is as healthy as 
 that of any part of the world. Admitting the possibility of contracting, 
 through carelessness or otherwise, some tropical fever, this possibility is more 
 than counter-balanced by the immunity from other sicknesses and ailments, which 
 have their origin, not in evil conditions and surroundings which man can 
 remedy, but in the bleak cold of winter, in frost and ice, and snow and blizzard, 
 against which there is for the delicate constitution no escape but flight. 
 
STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT JAMAICA. 
 
 TO AND FROM JAMAICA. 
 
 "^HE Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, with its fleet of transatlantic and 
 ■' intercolonial ships puts Jamaica in fortnightly communication with Great 
 Britain and with the West India Islands. 
 
 The Steamers of this Company afford favourable opportunities to persons 
 desirous of taking trips for novelty, pleasure, or health. 
 
 The various routes include calls at places where the scenery is of great 
 beauty and grandeur, and where the climate is warm and mild at the time 
 when severe weather is experienced in more northerly latitudes. 
 
 The vessels of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company are fitted with the 
 electric light throughout and all modern improvements — Ladies' Saloons, Smoking 
 Rooms, etc., etc. 
 
 Passengers making pleasure trips in the West Indies can travel intercolonially 
 by the Company's Steamers by paying a fixed charge of 25/- per day for each 
 day they are on board, while at sea or in port, provided the time is not less 
 than 14 consecutive days. 
 
 The transatlatic ships calling every alternate Friday are : 
 
 Atrato, 5140 registered tonnage. 
 
 Orinoco, 4434 " " 
 
 Don, 4028 " " 
 
 Para, 4028 " " 
 
 Medway, 3669 " " 
 
 The West India and Pacific Steamship Company's steamers are despatched 
 once a month from Liverpool, calling en route at St. Thomas, Port-au-Prince, 
 Kingston and New Orleans. The Caribbean line runs direct between London 
 and Jamaica ; the Pickford & Black's West Indies Steamship Line connects 
 Jamaica with Halifax, Bermuda and Turks Island ; while the Clyde line affords 
 communication between Jamaica, London and Glasgow. 
 
 The main means of passenger communication between Kingston and the 
 United States is by the Atlas Steamship Company, the New York offices of 
 which are at 21 and 22 State street. 
 
 The fleet of the Atlas Line are all iron and steel screw steamships, con- 
 structed under the superintendence of the surveyors to English Lloyds and in 
 accordance with the requirements of the British Board of Trade. 
 
g2 STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT JAMAICA. 
 
 The following particulars of the steamship "Adirondack" will fully describe 
 the vessels comprising the Company's fleet as a great similarity exists in their 
 construction, etc., etc. ". - 
 
 The steel steamship "Adirondack," built in Glasgow by Aitken & Mansel, 
 with engines and machinery by John and James Thomson, forms the latest 
 addition to the fleet of the Atlas Steamship Company. The steamship is 310 
 feet long, and has an advantage for the comfort of passengers in possessing a 
 beam of thirty-nine feet. The hull and framing are constructed of steel of a 
 greater thickness than that required by the exacting requirements of the highest 
 class in Lloyds. As an additional strength, she has two steel decks, the upper 
 sheathed with wood, thus constituting the vessel into a steel girder, of immense 
 strength. For a considerable portion of the vessel's length the bottom is 
 double, so that in the event of the outside hull being punctured .' the inner 
 plating will effectually prevent water entering the main and vital portions of 
 the vessel. She possesses fine lines, a sharp bow with clean entrance and a 
 graceful, well moulded run. She has two masts, is fore and aft rigged, provided with 
 "leg-of-mutton" sails, that are easily and readily handled. The hull is divided into 
 eight distinct compartments by water-tight iron bulkheads, placed at intervals 
 across the ship. The engines are of what is known as the triple expansion 
 type, having three cylinders, any two of which can be worked independently 
 in the event of a break-down. They are twenty-five inches by forty-two inches, 
 representing 1,500 indicated horse-power. The boilers are of steel, three in 
 number, and have Weir's patent feed heaters and patent feed evaporators. In 
 order to avoid the disagreeable smells that usually emanate from the engine- 
 room and hold, as well as to secure the position of least motion and best 
 ventilation, the entire passenger accommodation has been located at the centre 
 of the ship, forward of the engines, and above the main deck. The state-rooms, 
 being on the upper deck, thus secure an all-around ventilation, with the ports so 
 far above the water line as to seldom require closing ; they are also unusually 
 large and airy. The saloon is a steel house built over the state-rooms, with hand- 
 somely decorated stairways leading to the apartment. 
 
 Windows on all sides admit both air and light, in addition to enhanced 
 facilities for pure air through a patent ventilating apparatus fixed in the ceiling. 
 There are ample accommodations for over sixty first-class passengers. The saloon 
 and state-rooms are lighted by electricity, each state-room being provided with a 
 knob by which the light can be controlled at pleasure. 
 
 The Jamaica Coastal Service is performed by the Atlas Company's Branch 
 Steamers " Arden " and " Adula " — the latter a recent addition to the Atlas 
 fleet ; both vessels were specially designed for the Island trade and are provided 
 with all the latest improvements. The passenger accommodation is situated on 
 the upper deck forward of the engines, the state-rooms being particularly large 
 and airy and the saloons commodious and well appointed. 
 
 These two steamers, one of which is under contract to the Colonial 
 Government, afford most attractive trips to tourists and give the opportunity 
 of visiting some thirteen ports, each one surpassing the one preceding it in 
 
STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT JAMAICA. 93 
 
 loveliness and beauty of situation ; in fact, no more delightful voyage could 
 possibly be suggested than this around the Island of Jamaica. It occupies but 
 four days, through waters always smooth ; and every few hours a fresh port is 
 made where passengers may land, returning to the steamer, or, if they prefer 
 it, journeying overland, to meet her at another port. Frequent opportunities 
 are also afforded in the same manner for the return overland to Kingston on 
 horseback, or by conveyances which are always to be hired at reasonable prices 
 at the various ports of call. 
 
 KING'S HOUSE AND GROUNDS. 
 
 SUGGESTED EXCURSIONS FROM KINGSTON. 
 
 One Day.— To Hope Gardens; Gordon Town; Cane River Falls; Castle- 
 ton Gardens ; Port Henderson ; Spanish Town ; Newcastle. 
 
 Two Days. — To Bog Walk, Linstead and Ewarton, sleeping at Rio Cobre 
 Hotel, Spanish Town ; Bath ; Mandeville. 
 
 Three Days. — To Mandeville ; Moneague. 
 
 In all cases arrangements should be made beforehand both for lodging ac- 
 commodation at hotel or boarding-house and for being met by buggy or car- 
 riage at the nearest railway station. 
 
 For excursions of more than three days' duration the tourist will do well 
 to avail himself of the facilities offered by the Atlas Steamship Company, or by 
 
94 
 
 STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT JAMAICA. 
 
 following any portion of the route round the Island which has been sketched 
 elsewhere in these pages. 
 
 ACREAGE AND CULTIVATION. 
 
 The acreage of Jamaica consists in all of 3,692,587 acres. Of this in round 
 figures 3,000,000 acres are available for cultivation of various kinds, the culti- 
 vation varying with the elevation above the sea-level of the latter number of 
 acres, and nearly two-thirds, as shown by the returns of the revenue depart- 
 ment, are in the possession of individuals ^r trusts. Thus there is room for fresh 
 enterprise and increased colonisation. 
 
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 LINSTEAD MARKET PLACE. 
 
 Varieties of Cultivation. — ^Almost every kind of tropical and sub-tropical 
 fruits has been grown successfully in Jamaica. The cultivation of many of 
 these, such as tea, has not yet reached a point either in quantity or in quality, 
 that it can be regarded as a marketable commodity. This may be largely due 
 to want of capital to oppose existing competition or perhaps to the fact that 
 other markets are more readily found for better-known Jamaica products. 
 
 The principal productions are coffee, pimento, ginger, cinchona on higher 
 elevations ; sugar, cacao, oranges, limes, tobacco, nutmegs, cocoanuts, pine-apples, 
 bananas and other fruits on the lower. It has been successfully shown that 
 Jamaica fruits can be preserved and made into jams and jellies, but as yet only a 
 beginning has been made in the export of this species of manufacture. Fibre- 
 
STATISTICAL INFORMATION ABOUT JAMAICA. 
 
 95 
 
 yielding plants will grow in many places now apparently uncultivatable. As a 
 winter vegetable garden for New York and other large American cities, Jamaica 
 has hardly been seriously experimented on. While nature has done much, 
 man has done little. Sugar and rum, once almost the only commodities 
 largely exported, have been in recent years left behind by bananas, and there is 
 no reason why other fruit industries, many of them requiring less capital and 
 Involving less risk than bananas, should not hold prominent rank in foreign 
 markets. Industry, care and personal supervision of work bring their reward in 
 the rich soil of Jamaica to an extent not exceeded in any other agricultural 
 country. 
 
 GOING TO MARKET, JAMAICA. 
 
 POPULATION. 
 
 The estimated population of Jamaica at , the present time is 660,000. An 
 unusually large proportion of the people who in other countries and under other 
 circumstances would form the labouring classes, occupy their own small settle- 
 ments. This is partly owing to the facilities for acquiring land, partly to the 
 cheapness of the bare necessaries of life and partly to man's natural love of 
 independence and perhaps of indolence. Another reason, however, may be and 
 probably is, the low rate of wages which obtains throughout the Island. Conse- 
 quently labour— and especially good, skilled labour — is not to be had in any 
 great abundance. This is an evil the remedy of which is too obvious to need 
 mentioning here. 
 
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