A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 265 



As we got further south it became warmer very rapidly, and soon 

 sweaters and heavy suits were laid aside. At Fortune Island we took a lot 

 of Jamaica negroes aboard, and one evening they came to the promenade 

 deck and gave a concert. It was very darkeyish, but not half so musical 

 as what the American plantation negroes do. Off the coast of Cuba 

 the temperature on deck was eighty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, and 

 in my cabin, ninety-eight. It is unnecessary to state where I spent 

 most of my time. 



Now just a word concerning the place we were to visit. The island 

 of Jamaica was discovered in 1494 by Christopher Columbus, who was 



BOG WALK. 



very much taken by its beauty, and delighted with the politeness and 

 good nature of the natives ; so much did he and his followers appreciate 

 them that within a few years they had robbed them of all they had and 

 practically exterminated them. The island, by the way, was not known 

 as Jamaica in those days, but as Chab-makia, from two Indian words 

 meaning wood and water, or in the thought of the Indian, "watered by 

 shaded rivulets/' The Spanish softened the word to Chamakia, and in 

 turn the English made it Jamaica. 



In 1654 the English captured the island and began to colonize it. 

 For many years they sent their convicts there to work for the planters, 



