A FLYING TRIP TO JAMAICA 
265 
As we got further south it became warmer very rapidly, and soon 
sweaters and heavy suits were laid aside. At Fortune Island we took a lot 
of Jamaica negfoes aboard, and one evening they came to the promenade 
deck and gave a concert. It was very darkeyish, but not half so musical 
as what the American plantation negroes do. Off the coast of Cuba 
the temperature on deck was eighty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, and 
in my cabin, ninety-eight. It is unnecessary to state where I spent 
most of my time. 
Now just a word concerning the place we were to visit. The island 
of Jamaica was discovered in 1494 by Christopher Columbus, who was 
BOG WALK. 
very much taken by its beauty, and delighted with the politeness and 
good nature of the natives ; so much did he and his followers appreciate 
them that within a few years they had robbed them of all they had and 
practically exterminated them. The island, by the way, was not known 
as Jamaica in those days, but as Chab-makia, from two Indian words 
meaning wood and water, or in the thought of the Indian, “watered by 
shaded rivulets.” The Spanish softened the word to Chamakia, and in 
turn the English made it Jamaica. 
In 1654 the English captured the island and began to colonize it. 
For many years they sent their convicts there to work for the planters. 
