24 



RICHARD HILL, 



court, except the clerk, were also colored. I was assured 

 that more than seven-tenths of the whole police force of 

 the island, amounting to about eight hundred men, are 

 colored. Judging from the proportion that fell under my 

 observation, this estimate cannot be far from correct. 1 

 may as well add here, that in the Legislative Assembly of 

 J amaica, composed of from forty-eight to fifty British sub- 

 jects, some ten or a dozen are colored men. Nay, more, 

 the public printers of the legislature, Messrs. Jordon & 

 Osborn, are both colored men, and are likewise editors of 

 the leading government paper, the Kingston Journal. 



It was my privilege, shortly after my arrival, to make 

 the acquaintance of one of the most highly cultivated men 

 I ever met, upon whose complexion the accidents of birth 

 had left a tinge which betrayed the African bar on his es- 

 cutcheon. I refer to Mr. Richard Hill, of Spanishtown. 

 He is a brown man, about forty-five years of age, I judged, 

 and was educated in one of the English universities, where 

 he enjoyed every advantage which wealth could procure 

 for his improvement. His appearance and address both 

 indicate superior refinement. He enjoys an enviable repu- 

 tation as a naturalist, and has published a volume on the 

 birds of Jamaica, illustrated by his own pencil, which dis- 

 plays both literary and scientific merit of a high order. 

 He is one of the stipendiary magistrates of the island, 

 upon a salary of £500 sterling per annum. 



