512 WEST INDIES. 



to any kind of tool ; the palma, affording oil, much esteemed by the 

 natives, both in food and medicine ; the soap tree whose berries an- 

 swer all the purposes of washing ; the mangrove and olive bark, use- 

 ful to tanners; the fustic and red wood, to the dyers ; and lately the 

 log-wood. The indigo plant was formerly much cultivated ; and the 

 cotton tree is still so. No sort of European grain grows here ; they 

 have only maize or Indian coin, Guinea corn, peas of various kinds, 

 with a variety of roots. Fruits, as has been already observed, grow 

 in great plenty ; citrons, Seville aud China oranges, common and 

 gweet lemons, limes, shadooks, pomegranates, mamees, soursops, 

 papas, pine apples, custard apples, star apples, prickly pears, alli- 

 Cada pears, melons, pompions, guavas, and several kinds of berries, 

 also garden vegetables in great plenty and good. Jamaica likewise 

 supplies the apothecary with guaiacum, sarsaparilla, chinia, cassia, 

 and tamarinds. The cattle bred on this island are but few ; their beef 

 is tough and lean; the mutton and lamb are tolerable: they have 

 great plenty of hogs; many plantations have hundreds of them, and 

 their flesh is exceedingly sweet and delicate. Their horses are small, 

 mettlesome, and hardy. Among the animals are the land and sea- 

 turtle, and the alligator. Here are all sorts of fowl, wild and tame, 

 and in particular more parrots than in any of the other islands; be- 

 sides, paroquets, pellicans, snipes, teal, Guinea-hens, geese, ducks 

 and turkeys ; the humming-bird, and a great variety of others. The 

 rivers and bays abound with fish. The mountains breed numerous 

 adders, and other noxious animals, as the fens and marshes do the 

 guana and the gallewasp ; but these last are not venomous. Among 

 the insects are the ciror, or chegoe, which eats into the nervous or 

 membranous parts of the flesh of the negroes, and sometimes of the 

 White people. These insects get into any part of the body, but chieHy 

 the legs and feet, where they breed in great numbers, and shut 

 themselves up in a bag. As soon as the person feels them, which is 

 not perhaps till a week after they have been in the body, they pick 

 them out with a needle, or point of a penknife ; taking care to destroy 

 the bag entirely, that none of the breed, which are like nits, may be 

 left behind. They sometimes get into the toes, and eat the flesh to 

 the very bone. 



This island was originally a part of the Spanish empire in America. 

 Several descents had been made upon it by the English, prior to 1 656 ; 

 but it was not till this year that Jamaica was reduced under their do- 

 minion. Cromwell had fitted out a squadron, under Penn and Vena- 

 bles, to reduce the Spanish island of Hispaniola, but there this squa- 

 dron was unsuccessful. The commanders, of their own accord, to 

 atone for this misfortune, made a descent on Jamaica, and having 

 carried the capital, St. Jago, soon compelled the whole island to sur- 

 render. Ever since it has been subject to the English ; and the 

 government of it is one of the richest places, next to that of Ireland, 

 in the disposal of the crown, the standing salary being 2500/. per an- 

 num, and the assembly commonly voting the governor as much more; 

 which, with the other perquisites, make it on the whole little infe- 

 rior to 10,000/. per annum. 



We have already observed, that the government of all the British 

 American islands is the same, namely, that kind which we have for- 

 merly described under the name of a royal government. Their relit 

 gion too is universally of the church of England ; though they have 



