WEST INDIES. 511 



guish them into Windward and Leeward Islands, with regard to the 

 usual courses of ships from Old Spain or the Canaries, to Carthagena, 

 or New Spain and Porto Bello. The geographical tables and maps 

 distinguish them into the great and little Antilles. 



JAMAICA. ...This island, which is the first belonging to Great 

 Britain, and also the most important that we arrive at after leaving 

 Florida, lies between the 76th and 79th degrees of west longitude 

 from London, and between 17 and 18 north latitude. From the east 

 and west it is in length about 140 miles, and in the middle about 60 

 in breadth, growing less towards each end, in the form of an egg. 

 It contains 4,080,000 acres, of which 900,000 were planted in 1675 ; 

 and in November 1789 there were no more than 1,907,589 acres loca- 

 ted, or taken up by grants from the crown. 



This island is intersected with a ridge of steep rocks, heaped by the 

 frequent earthquakes in a stupendous manner upon one another. 

 These rocks, though containing no soil on their surface, are covered 

 with a great variety of beautiful trees, flourishing in a perpetual 

 spring : they are nourished by the rains which often fall, or the mists* 

 which continually hang on the mountains ; and their roots, penetrat- 

 ing the crannies of the rocks, industriously seek out for their own 

 support. From the rocks issue a vast number of small rivers of pure 

 wholesome waters, which tumble down in cataracts, and, together 

 with the stupendous height of the mountains, and the bright verdure 

 of the trees, through which they flow, form a most delightful land- 

 scape. On each side of tins chain of mountains are ridges of lower 

 ones, which diminish as they remove from it. On these coffee grows 

 in great plenty. The vallies or plains between those ridges are level 

 beyond what is ordinary in most other countries, and the soil is pro- 

 digiously fertile. 



The longest day in summer is about thirteen hours, and the short- 

 est in winter about eleven ; but the most usual divisions of the sea- 

 sons in the West Indies are into the dry- and wet seasons. The air of 

 this island is, in most places, excessively hot, and unfavourable to 

 European constitutions ; but the cool sea-breezes, which set in every 

 morning at ten o'clock, render the heat more tolerable : and the 

 air upon the high grounds is temperate, pure, and cooling. It lightens 

 almost every night, but without much thunder, which, when it hap- 

 pens, is very terrible, and roars with astonishing loudness; and the 

 lierhtning in these violent storms frequently does great damage. 

 During the months of May and October, the rains are extremely 

 violent, and continue sometimes for a fortnight together. In the plains 

 are found several salt fountains ; and in the mountains, not far from 

 Spanish town, is a hot bath, of great medicinal virtues. It gives re- 

 lief in the dry belly ache, which, excepting the bilious and yellow 

 fever, is one of the most terrible endemial distempers of Jamaica. 



Sugar is the principal and most valuable production of this island. 

 Cocoa was formerly cultivated in it to a great extent. It produces 

 also ginger and the pimento, or, as it is called, Jamaica pepper; the 

 wild cinnamon tree, whose bark is so useful in medicine ; the man- 

 chineel, whose fruit, though uncommonly delightful to the eye, con- 

 tains a most virulent poison ; the mahogany, in such use with our 

 cabinet makers, and of the most valuable quality ; but this wood be- 

 gins to wear out, and of late is very dear : excellent cedars, of a 

 large size, and durable ; the cabbage tree, remarkable for the hard- 

 ness of its wood, which when dry is incorruptible, and hardly yield* 



