163 



February 6. 

 The Jamaica canoes are hollowed cotton-trees. 

 We embarked in one of them at six in the morn- 

 ing, and visited the ruins of Port Royal, which, last 

 year, was destroyed by fire : some of the houses 

 were rebuilding; but it was a melancholy sight, not 

 only from the look of the half-burnt buildings, but 

 the dejected countenances of the ruined inhabit- 

 ants. I returned to breakfast at the rectory, with 

 two other ecclesiastical commissaries ; had more 

 conversation about their proposed plan ; and became 

 still more convinced of the difficulty of doing any 

 thing effectual without danger to the island and to 

 the negroes themselves, and of the extreme deli- 

 cacy requisite in whatever may be attempted. 

 We afterwards visited the school of the children of 

 the poor, who are educating upon Dr. Bell's sys- 

 tem ; and then saw the church, a very large and 

 handsome one on the inside, but mean enough as 

 to its exterior. I was shown the tombstone of 

 Admiral Benbow, who was killed in a naval en- 

 gagement, and whose ship afterwards 



" Bore down to Port Royal, where the people flocked very 

 much 



To see brave Admiral Benbow laid in Kingston Town 

 Church," 



as the admiral's Homer informs us. 



The church is a large one, but it is going to be 

 still further extended; the negroes in Kingston and 

 its neighbourhood being (as the rector assured me) 



m 2 



