June i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



943 



existence in Asia. However, the uniformity of noiuen. 

 clature in the archipelago as far as Tahiti and 

 Madagascar indicates a transport by human agency 

 since the existence of known languages. 



The Chinese name means head of the king of 

 Yue, referring to an absurd legend of which Dr. 

 Bretschneider speaks. (>•) This savant tells us that 

 the first mention of the coconut occurs in a poem 

 of the second century before Christ, but the most 

 unmistakeablo descriptions are in works later than the 

 ninth century of our era. It is true that the ancient 

 writers scarcely knew the south of China, the only 

 part of the empire where the coconut palm can live. 



In spite of the Sanskrit names, the existence of 

 the coconut in Ceylon, where it is well established 

 on the coast, dates from an almost historical epoch. 

 Near l'oint-de-Galle, Seemauu tells us may bo seen 

 carved upon a rock the figure of a native prince, 

 Kotah Kaya, to whom is attributed the discovery of 

 the uses of the coconut, unknown before him ; and 

 the earliest chronicle of Ceylon, the Maha'wansa, does 

 nut mention this tree, although it carefully reports 

 the fruits imported by different princes. It is also 

 noteworthy that the ancient Greeks and Egyptians 

 only knew the coconut at a late epoch as an Indian 

 curiosity. Apollonius of Tyana saw this palm in Hindu- 

 stan, at the beginning of the Christian era. (w) 



From these facts the most ancieut habitation in 

 Afia would be in the archipelago, rather than on 

 the continent or in Ceylon; and in America in the 

 islands west of Panama. What are we to think on 

 this varied and contradictory evidence? I formerly 

 thought that the arguments in favour of Western 

 America were the strongest. Now, with more in- 

 formation and greater experience in similar questions, 

 I incline to the idea of an origin in the Indian 

 Archpelago. The extension towards China, Ceylon, 

 and India dates from not more than three thousand 

 or four thousand years ago, but the transport by 

 sea to the coasts of America and Africa took place 

 p erhaps in a more remote epoch, although posterior 

 to those epochs when the geographical and physical 

 conditions were different to those of our day. 



LETTERS FROM JAMAICA : NO. V. 



SUGAR ESTATES IN JAMAICA — A " BUGGY"— JAMAICA 

 RIVERS — THE PALMY DAYS OF SUGAR— FORT MORANT 

 —ECONOMIC PRODUCTS— SUGAR-MAKING— LIBERIAN 

 COFFEE — JAMAICA DELICACIES — MIXED AAUOK. 



Blue Mountain DisteicttM aroh 1S85. 

 To the Editor of the Ceylon Observer. 



Dear Sir, — Since list addressing you I have visited 

 the eastern end of the island, and passed through the 

 township of Bath, and some of the sugar estates in 

 the famed " Plantain Garden River" district: a de- 

 scription of my journey will give me materials for my 

 letter this month, and help your readers to while 

 away a few spare moments in learning a little more 

 about " Xaymaca," the land of wood and water. 



I left this plantation on Saturday, 7th March (for 

 in Jamaica a sugar property is an estate, but coffee 

 land a plantation), in company with our stipendiary 

 Magistrate and the Clerk of Petty Sessions, who 

 kindly gave me a seat in their "buggy" as far as 

 Morant Bay. These buggies are Americans, but the 

 seats are not back-to-back, as in the Oeylon American 

 waggon, but the same as a phreton except that the 

 seat next the driver turns on a pivot so that it can 

 be used either way. We rode from here to Monk- 

 lands where the cart road commences, but it is veiy 



i' Bretschneider, Study and Value, etc., p. 24, 

 loSeemann, /•'/. Vitienns, p. 270; Pickering, Chronol, 

 Arrangement, p.M-8. 



tough and stony, in fact there are no bridges or cul- 

 verts, for there is not enough public money to 

 make good roads all over the island ; and moreover 

 the river-beds are so broad, and shift about so 

 with almost every "October" season, as the rains are 

 termed, that bridges would have to be very long, 

 and the expense too heavy : usually the rivers are 

 low enough to bo easily fordable, but of course the 

 process is very trying to carriage spiings. 



To return to our Magistrate, for we have a "Petty 

 Sessions" or Police Court at Woburn Lawn every 

 fortnight, except during the rains, when the rivers 

 between this and Morant Bay are impassible: they 

 sometimes "come down," as the saying goes, so quickly 

 that a traveller has been known to be penned in be. 

 tweeu two branches, having got over one arm, aud 

 finding the next impassable, turned to go back to 

 the coast, but found the spot he had but a short 

 time previously crossed too dangerous, so had to 

 spend the night in his carriage between the two, in 

 fear and trembliug lest a further rise should Hood his 

 place of refuge, and sweep him away. I was shown 

 a spot where stood the hut of five Calcutta cooly 

 people who were all washed away and drowned in the 

 Hoods of last October. A curious custom obtains here, 

 that a person may refuse to be tried at the Petty 

 Sessions for certain minor of fences and choose the 

 higher tribunal : this is very vexatious, as the District 

 Court is generally a long way off. Monklands is a 

 property which in the old slave days was one of the 

 grandest coffee plantations, the proprietor luxuriating 

 in gold plate, as wa3 customary I am told on many 

 estates in those old " palmy days" when sugar was 

 £60 a hogshead and coffee 150s to 160j a cwt. if 

 not even more. A story is told in this district of a 

 celebrated robber and highwayman, one Three-fingered 

 Jack, who stole a great deal of this gold plate and 

 secreted it in a cave, buried in the dense woods of the 

 Blue Mountain range, then even more inaccessible 

 than at present : he was at last captured, hung, and 

 gibbeted, but his treasure store has never been dis- 

 covered. From Trinity Villa, which is a large 

 village and district with a nice room, church aud 

 school, the road passes through and near Coley, Serije 

 Island, Belvidere, and Blue Mountain (all sugar estates), 

 on to Morant Bay, the capital of St. Thomas in the 

 east, and celebrated as the spot where the rebellion 

 of 1865 broke out, several Europeans wero 

 murdered, and the Court House burnt down 

 over the heads of those who were gallantly de- 

 fouding it. Such a state of things, we trust, will never 

 occur again, a3 the Creoles were sadly misled, and 

 have now a sad example before them in Hayti ; 

 and will have the good sense to see that their best 

 and safest interests lie in loyalty to the Queen aud 

 old England. 



From Morant Bay I had for cicerone the acting 

 Inspector of Police, who had kindly timed his rounds 

 to take me with him. We passed through Lyssons and 

 other sugar estates on to Port Morant, a snug harbour, 

 which reminded me of Galle on a smaller scale, and 

 hero the country up to and around Bath became 

 much more like the environs of Kaudy and Gampola, 

 and quite tropical ; we saw some Banana plant- 

 ations, an industry which of late years has yielded 

 good returns, as have also coconuts and oranges, while 

 cacao is also beginning to be more extensively cultiv. 

 ated. The coconut trees though bearing tine large nuts, 

 seemed to me less tall than those in Ceylon : this is 

 probably due to severe gales aud hurricane*. Bath 

 is a long straggling street with a church and court- 

 bouse, and a good lodging house (there are no Gov- 

 ernment resthouses in Jamaica). I went round the old 

 Botanical Garden which is now more of a jungle than 

 anything else, as I believe it is now only made use 

 of for i he seeds borne by its fine old trees. At a 



