PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 



61 



" Examine the present sanitary condition of the 

 Island. * * * Observe well the fact that the 

 existing laws, meagre as they are, as relates to 

 sanitary matters, are daily broken, and put to open 

 defiance in our very towns and thoroughfares. 

 • * * Correct all this, and then will immigration 

 prove to us a benefit ; then will it be a boon to 

 the liberty-crippled American black, a source of 

 temporal and eternal advantage to the African hea- 

 then. Till this is done, any further attempt to induce 

 strangers to embark their fortunes here, can be but 

 to disregard the laws of God and man, and by ex- 

 posing the deceived to destruction ; to bring down 

 greater judgments yet upon the authors of their ruin." 

 —Page 117. 



The testimony of Capt. 0. B. Hamilton of the 

 royal navy, in 1853, before a committee of the House 

 of Commons, in relation to the condition of that 

 island, is curt and to the point. We present the 

 following extract : 



" Chairman. — Ton made use of a phrase some 

 time ago with respect to Jamaica having become a 

 desert. Will you explain to what extent you apply 

 that term ? 



" Cajpt. Hamilton. — I mean that in going to plan- 

 tation establishments that had evidently been once 



