•5-6 JAMAICA. 



irot'ced, and no dew appears on the grafs. The unaltered fLation ' 

 ot the thermometer is alone an evident proof, that the heat of the 

 atmofphere is not diminiflied, and confequentlv, that the vapours 

 remain uncondenfed. 



Foos are crenerally fuppofed detrimental to health ; hut the fog 

 of Slxteen-mile-walk by no means defeives this imputation. The 

 inhabitants do not fcruple to expofe themfelves to it freely; ncr is 

 it known to produce any efteds injurious to them. The principal 

 .caufe of its inoffenfive quality maybe, that it is not mixed with 

 any lulphureous or noxious exhalations; at lead:, it is without any 

 fenfible fmell ; which would moft certainly not be the cafe, if it 

 was much impregnated with any fuch effluvia. Its goodefFecls con- 

 fill in the copious dew which it flieds upon the trees and herbage, 

 •and which fupports them in the drieft weather in a flourilhing ftate. 

 Thole lon(^ drowths therefore, which fometimes happen in this 

 iflund, fo fatal to the eflates in general, afFe£l the plantations in 

 this vale but very little; the fog fupplying, in a great m.eafure, the 

 want of rains, or at lead: fo far as to fave the canes from perifhing 

 in the manner they do in other parts of the ifland. ^^_ 

 q /t^ — The North-weft part of this vale is called The Maggoti, a tra6l 



.♦-' /^ of favannah lying near the foot of Monte 'Diablo. The name of 



**'^^/ / this favannah gave rife to a ftory, that, whenever it rains here, the 



t occcc^'t^^ '^ drops which fall upon any perfon's cloaths become maggots in half 



■ / ^^ A.-f^i^ an hour. This wonderful metamorphofis, reported probably at firft 

 -,.0^ / 1 4>^ by way of joke to feme credulous inquirer, has with all its ab- 



f7L£!^'-^0 *^ -yi'^'^*^*^ furdity been fwallowed, and retailed by feveral authors, copying 

 Q one from the other, and gravely recorded by them among the nota- 



/^ A^' ^'^^^^y iiVm of this ifland. Thefe maggots, however, never exifted, ex- 

 cept in the briiins of the inventor. The name, perhaps, was of 

 Spanith extraftion, compounded of Maga (au enchaiitrefs), and 

 Oteo (watching on a high place); alluding probably to the pin- 

 nacle of Monte Diablo,- over which the thunder-clouds fo fre- 

 quently break, as, together with its horrid afpeft, to make it fee m a 

 proper refidence for a witch, under patronage of the Devil, to 

 whom the mountain was dedicated. The road leading from Six- 

 teen-mile-walk to St. Anne crofles this mountain, traverfing the 

 iace of it, which is fo fleep, that few travelers venture to de- 



fcend 



'••^'^v^^. 





