220 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. u. 



CHAPTER V. 



Topographical description. Towns, villages, and parishes. 

 Churches^ church-livings^ and vestries. Governor or com- 

 mander in chief. Courts of judicature. Public offices. 

 Legislature and laws. Revenues. Taxes. Coins, and 

 rate of exchange. Militia.' Dumber of inhabitants of all 

 conditions and complexions. Trade, shipping, exports and 

 imports. Report of the Lords of Trade in 1734. Pre- 

 sent state of the trade with Spanish America. Origin and 

 policy of the act for establishing free ports. Display of 

 the progress of the island in cultivation, by comparative 

 statements of its inhabitants and products at different pe- 

 riods. Appendix J\'o. I. No. II. 



HE island of Jamaica is divided into three coun- 

 ties, which are named Middlesex, Surry, and 

 Cornwall. The county of Middlesex is composed of 

 eight parishes, one town, and thirteen villages. The 

 town is that of SL Jago-de-la-Vega or Spanish Town, 

 the capital of the island. Most of the villages of this 

 and the other counties, are hamlets of no great ac- 

 count, situated at the different harbours and shipping 

 places, and supported by the traffic carried on there. 

 $?. Ja^o-dc-la-Ve^a is situated on the banks of the 



o o 



river Cobre, about six miles from the sea, and contains 

 between five and six hundred houses, and about five 

 thousand inhabitants, including free people of colour, 



