62 JAMAICA. 



a fine vegelable dark mould on a clay. The lower grounds are 

 cliieRy clay, ii]termixed here and there with rich veins of vegetable 

 mould, or the brick mould; the latter moftly abounds near the' 

 banks of the rivers, confitling of the fediment they have depofited, 

 or of the finer particles walhcd down from the hills. The planta- 

 tion called Carvers is one of the moll: celebrated for its fertility : it 

 is a fmall dale, Ivirroiuuled with rocky hills, and fo rich, that it 

 produces alaioit invariably tlrree hundred hogflieadi of fugar per 

 annum, with lo iitrlc labour to the Negroes employed upon it, that 

 they multiply fufficiently to keep up their ftock, without having 

 recourfe to African recruits. Near Juan de Bolas river, about fix- 

 teen miles from the coaft, the road continues towards St. Ann's, 

 paffing by eafy traverfts up the fide of a fteep mountain, on the 

 fummit of which we enter a favannah, or plain, of about four 

 miles in length, called Old Woman's Savannah, from an elderly 

 Spanifh lady, who took up her abode here after the illaiid was fur- 

 rendered to the Englifli, and refided here many years in a hut. 

 This favannah is watered with feveral fine fprings; and the foil, 

 though apparently not fertile, produces very good fugar. The 

 air is fo pure and delightful, that many fmall lettlements have 

 been formed here j and the inhabitants attain, for the mod part, 

 to a good old age. The late Mr. James Dawkins made choice of 

 this fpot for founding an academy for the inllruction of boys, na- 

 tives of the ifland; and, had he lived, the projeft would no doubt 

 have been brought to maturity: but of this plan I fliall hereafter 

 give a further detail. The hamlet, or village of the Crofs, is fi- 

 tuated about fix miles trom Old Harbour Bay, on the great roads 

 leading, one to leeward, the other to Old Woman's Savannah. 

 It confifts of about ten houfes, near the parifh-church, which 

 is an handfome brick-building, of four ailes. Hard-by, likewife, 

 ft ands the Ikeleton of the parfonage-houfc, which at prefent is con- 

 verted into a cooper's fliop ; a metamorphofis that is not at all won- 

 derful ; for the inhabitants of this hamlet, being moftly Jews and 

 Mu'artoes, afford no very agreeable neighbourhood to a Proteftant 

 d-vnie. The lowlands of this parifh were the firft fettled ; but the 

 inli.ibitants in proceis of time having found the climate of the 

 rnoui. ains more cool, the feafons more regular, and the foil more 



fertile. 



