JAMAICA IN 1850. 



CHAPTER I. 



Departure from New York — -How to escape sea-sickness—Our 

 passengers — Taylor, cousin of General Zachary Taylor — The 

 Pass of Mayaguana — Arrival at Port Royal — Commodore 

 Brooks—Kingston seen from the Bay. 



It is not easy to imagine a more delightful series of 

 sensations than one experiences in passing at the rate of 

 two hundred and fifty miles a day, in a first class steam- 

 ship like the Empire City, from the rigors of a northern 

 winter, to the soft and genial temperature of the tropics. 

 It was the second day after New Year's, at precisely 

 three o'clock in the afternoon, that we sailed from pier No. 

 3, leaving New York city behind us all ice-bound, her 

 streets covered with snow and resonant with sleigh bells. 

 Furs and woollens enveloped her population, and thermo- 

 meters of every sect and denomination were agreed that 

 the weather was very cold. The greater part of the night 

 following that of our departure, I passed in walking the 

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