j.^-6 JAMAICA, 



work, if it fhould ever be given to the public, will be found to 

 correct many errors in Sloane and Brown ; who, compared witli 

 him, were in various inftances very fuperficial obfervers, or ill-in- 

 formed. He invented a vegetable foap, fuperior in its properties to 

 common foap ; for which difcovery, the aflembly of this iiland 

 o-ranted him a reward of one hundred pounds fterling. He likewife 

 prepared a (ago from a fpecies of the palm, fo common in Jamaica, 

 ■equal m its alimentary qualities to what comes from the Eaft- 

 Indies. Notwithflanding thefe voluminous collections, it is cer- 

 tain, there flill remains a very great number of plants and minerals 

 iii this ifland to be defcribed and clafied. And, to compleat the 

 whole, there is required a judicious analyfis of their properties 

 and ufe. I have been informed, that her majefty queen Anne, 

 upon the reprefentations of Sir Hans Sloane, gave out of her privy- 

 purfe 200/. RerWng per.arifium, to fupport and encourage a botanical 

 profeffor in this ifland; but her death happened foon after, and the 

 bounty was withdrawn. 



The importance of cultivating this fcience, in a part of the world 

 fo abounding in materials, will not be denied, when we confider 

 the immenfe fums that have been acquired in trade by the Jefuits 

 bark, the canella, cochineal, indigo, logwood, and various other 

 vegetable productions; whofe value might ftill have been loft to 

 the community, and their preparations unknown, had not fome 

 knowledge in natural hiftory revealed them. And there is very 

 probable ground to fuppofe, that there is in this ifland a vafl variety 

 of plants ftill to be examined; whofe fruit, gums, barks, or roots 

 (to fay nothing of the foffile and mineral kingdoms), might be 

 found very proper fubjeds for export, or for oecouomical ufes 

 among the inhabitants. In order to promote fuch beneficial re- 

 fearches, it is to be wiHied, that thofe planters, who fend their 

 fons to Great-Britain for education in phyfic and furgery, would 

 dire£t, that botany fhould alfo be attended to, and made a principal 

 branch of their fludy. Botanical knowledge feems particularly re- 

 quifite to their praflice in a country that teems with vegetable re- 

 medies for moft of the diftempers incident to the climate. A total 

 ip"norance of this ufeful fcience is a moll contemptible defeat in the 

 practitioners here ; for what can be more reproachful than to have 

 2 it 



