FAR AND NEAR 



ently carrying all their goods and chattels upon 

 their heads, the women, as usual, having the biggest 

 bundles. Indeed, the number of people everywhere 

 in Jamaica upon the highway was a perpetual sur- 

 prise to us; at least ten times as many as one would 

 see at home in our most populous country districts. 

 Market day comes several times a week, and every- 

 body seems to go to market with something to sell, — 

 a few shilKngs' worth of yams and oranges, or ba- 

 nanas, or eggs, or other farm produce. How familiar 

 became the sight of a woman, — dusty, sweating, 

 lean-shanked, but determined, — with her donkey 

 being led by a boy or girl, while she urged it from 

 behind, its huge panniers stuffed with grass and 

 a variety of country products, sometimes pigs and 

 poultry being visible. 



This day, for the first time in the island, I saw two 

 smooth, nicely plowed fields on a side-hill, such as 

 one sees at home, — many acres free from bushes 

 and weeds, and apparently under thorough cultiva- 

 tion. I wondered at them much till I learned that 

 they were the property of two of my own country- 

 men, who were going into ginger farming. 



We passed the night at Coleyville with the Rev. 

 Mr. Turner, to whom we had a letter, — a forlorn, 

 ramshackle place, but a hospitable host. Here 

 was this man, a Baptist clergyman in middle life, 

 spending his days in this wilderness amid these 

 rude, ignorant people, ministering to their souls and 

 244 



