ii 



PREFACE. 



and upon his return was pleased to discover that they 

 had been the means, to some extent, of developing 

 the lively curiosity which pervades the public mind of 

 America, for information about the politico-economical 

 condition of that island, after a deliverance of sixteen 

 years from chattel slavery. That curiosity the author has 

 endeavored to gratify, without attempting to do anything 

 more. He has not presumed to write a history or a 

 geography of Jamaica, nor to present a scientific statement 

 of its resources, neither has he written a book of travels. 

 He has limited the personal narrative almost exclusively 

 to such incidents as seemed necessary to an intelligible 

 analysis of the causes which have reduced Jamaica to her 

 present deplorable condition, and of the means which are 

 in operation for her ultimate restoration. He has endea- 

 vored to give a correct picture of Jamaica as she is, not 

 what she has been ; nor has he referred to her past his- 

 tory, farther than was necessary for that purpose. 



The views he has taken of the wants of Jamaica, and of 

 the duty of the Home Government toward her, are essen- 

 tially different from those professed, so far as he knows, by 

 any political party either there or in England, and yet he 

 publishes them with some confidence, for he is satisfied 



