20 J A M A I C A. 



pantiles, well bedded in. The thicknefs of thefe rooft, from the 

 outward, (hell or tile-covering, to the ceiling within, was about 

 eight or ten inches. A canopy of fo folid a texture was certainly- 

 well contrived to flielter the inhabitants from the difagreeable 

 efFefts of a vertical fun ; and accordingly it is found by experience, 

 that thefe old Spanifh houfes are much cooler than our modern 

 ones, covered with fliingles (or flips of wood half an inch thick 

 formed like flates), which are not only very fubje6t to be fplit in 

 nailing, and fo create leaks, but are not folid enough to exclude 

 the fun's impreflion, nor lie fo compaft as to prevent a fpray from 

 being driven in by the wind in heavy fhowers, which occafions 

 a moifl: and unwholefome atmofphere within doors. Befides, thefe 

 fhingled tenements are very hot in the day-time, and cool at 

 night ; whereas the Spanifh houfes preferve a more equal tem- 

 perament of air by day and by night. Their materials preferve 

 them greatly from accidents by fire; and^ confideriug their {la- 

 bility, they feem to be the cheapefl and befl- contrived kind of 

 buildings for this ifland. It is plain, therefore, that the Englifh, 

 in negle£ling thefe ufeful models, and eftablifhing no manuflv^ure 

 of tiles, but ereding lofty houfes after the models in the mother- 

 country, and importing an immenfe quantity of North-American 

 fhingles every year for covering new roofs, and repairing old ones, 

 confult neither their perfonal fecurity, their convenience, their 

 health, nor the faving of a moft unneceflary expence [fj. 



The chief error the Spaniards committed in their buildings was 

 the placing their ground-floors too low : thefe were nearly on a 

 level with the furface of the earth out of doors, or at moft raifed 

 only a few inches higher. Some of their houfes in the town have, 

 indeed, acquired a raifed foundation in the courfe of time ; for, the 

 torrents of rain having gradually wafhed and hollowed the ftreets 



[/] It is remarked by UUoa, th;it the walls of Caxamarca (an Indian town in Peru), and of 

 feveral houfes in the neighbouring vallies, although built on the very fuperficies of the earth with- 

 out any foundation, have withllood thofe violent earthquakes which overthrew the more folid 

 buildings of Lima, and other large towns, erefted by the Spaniards. Experience inilruCted the 

 natives, that, in parts fo liable to earthquakes, it was improper to dig a foundation in order to 

 ftrengthen the walls. He mentions it as a tradition, that, when the newly-conquered Indians faw 

 the Spaniards fink foundations for their lofty buildings, they laughed, and told thciii, " they were 

 " digging their own graves :" intimating, that earthquakes would bury them under the ruins of 

 their houles ; a prophecy which has been moil fatally verified in the fequel. 



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