44 



out fruit of some kind. To supply them witli bananas alone, 

 there arrived from the West Indies during the year 1895, 185 car- 

 goes of this fruit, comprising nearly 17,000,000 bunches, of the 

 value of over £5,000,000 sterling. Jamaica furnished the larger 

 share of this immense shipment of tropical fruit; and that island 

 is becoming quite prosperous in spite of the great depression that 

 has overtaken all the sugar-producing countries in that part of the 

 world. Hitherto, Florida has supplied a good deal of the grape 

 fruit for the American market, but since the disastrous effects of 

 the 'freeze' of last yeai% the Florida plantations have been almost 

 destroyed. Much English capital invested in fruit growing in 

 that state has been lost, and many of our young countrymen set- 

 tled there have suffered a severe reverse of fortune. Even where 

 the groves are not quite destroyed, it will take years of toil and 

 expenditure to bring them back to their former condition. For 

 some time, at least, the chief supplies of grape fruit must therefore 

 be drawn from the West Indies. The people in that part of the 

 world would do well to establish trees of the best varieties, and 

 take advantage of the opportunity to participate in what promises 

 to be a steady and remunerative industry. 



THE BREAD-FRUIT TREE. 



Stephen Fuller, the writer of the following letter (one of the 

 last he wrote in his official capacity), was agent for Jamatca in 

 London for no less than thirty years — from 1765 to May I795> 

 when he was succeeded by Robert Sewell. 



He belonged to a well-known Jamaica family founded by 

 Colonel Thomas Fuller, a soldier of fortune, who, coming out un- 

 der Venables in 1655, became a member of the Council. Other 

 members of the family sat in the House of Assembly during the 

 eighteenth century. 



The Council and the Assembly at that period considered it de- 

 sirable that, their agent should have a seat in the House of Com- 

 mons, and when Sewell succeeded Fuller they raised the salary 

 from £500 to £1,000 with that end in view. 



Fuller represented Jamaica in the House of Commons during 

 the early part of the struggle which led to the abolition of the 

 Slave Trade, and was an out and out supporter of the planters' 

 views, publishing various Reports on the subject by direction of 

 the Assembly. 



The bread-fruit trees referred to had been brought to Jamaica, 

 from Otaheite, by Admiral Bligh, in 1 791 ; for which Bligh re- 

 ceived a vote of one thousand guineas from the House of Assem- 

 bly of Jamaica, and the gold medal of the Society of Arts of 

 London. The letter appears in the manuscript letter-book of the 

 Agent of Jamaica for 1794-1801, in the Library of the Institute of 

 Jamaica. 



F. C. 



