216 CUBA AND PORTO RICO 



the producers to obtain the prices which would prevail if 

 the island had free trade with this country. Absentee 

 landlordism is also a great curse to the island. Most of 

 the land titles are held in England, and largely by men 

 ami families of fortune, who care little for these estates. 

 since they have ceased to return the immense revenues 

 formerly attainable under the plantation system. The 

 conservatism of the English people also stands seriously 

 in the way of Jamaican advancement. The English man 

 adheres to the dress and customs of his Northern isle in 

 this tropical clime, and cares little for the ever-increasing 

 inventions which make competitive industry possible. 

 The last time I was in Kingston an American ice-wagon 

 arrived on a steamer. The daily papers, in noting this in- 

 novation, the inhabitants having been before dependent 

 upon depots for this commodity, remarked in a spirit of 

 despair that "thus our island is rapidly becoming Yan- 

 keeized.*' 



Notwithstanding the intense loyalty to the crown of 

 every Jamaican, from the humblest negro to the highest 

 official, there is a general feeling on the part of the people 

 in favor of annexation to our country. Froude found in 

 the island the same longing for admission to the Ameri- 

 can Union which he had left behind him in the Lesser 

 Antilles. " If the West Indies were ever to become pros- 

 perous, it could only be when they were annexed to the 

 United States." In meeting with this subdued but inef- 

 faceable sentiment throughout the loyal British islands, it 

 occurred to me that these people were indulging in a vain 

 hope, at least for the present ; for I have never heard the 

 least expression on the part of Americans of a desire to 

 take from England the responsibility of controlling her 

 West Indian islands, although it would be but wisdom to 

 break down the commercial barriers which now weigh so 

 heavily upon the inhabitants. 



Jamaica has one hundred and eighty-five miles of excel- 

 lent railways, extending from Kingston northwest to Mon- 



