A WEST INDIA ISLAND. 
473 
the shoals of putrefying bodies that floated about the harbour. The 
destruction of Port Royal, which is now a fortified naval station, led 
to the establishment of Kingston, now the capital with a population of 
48,000 souls, but which, though a flourishing commercial town, did not 
for more than 170 years after the earthquake, wrest the position of 
political capital from Spanish Town, a dozen miles off, which had been 
the principal town under the Spanish rule. 
I must leave many interesting facts unmentioned ; but at the 
beginning of the 19th century, wheu the trade in slaves was stopped, 
Jamaica was one of the richest colonies of Great Britain, and many 
families of nobles and others obtained wealth by marrying Jamaican 
heiresses. Most of the great sugar and coffee estates were held by 
absentees, and morality and behaviour usually looked for in a civilised 
society were at a low ebb. It is also certain that even then many 
estates had been mortgaged, and the number of encumbered estates 
had greatly increased when, on the 1st August, 1834, a further step 
was taken, and, by Act of the Imperial Parliament, slavery was prospec- 
tively abolished, all existing slaves being converted into what w r ere 
called “ apprentices,” in which condition they were to remain for six 
years if they were field labourers, and for four years if they were 
domestic servants, after which period all slaves were to become 
absolutely free. This measure was carried despite opposition of the 
Island Parliament and of the bulk of the white inhabitants. Twenty 
millions sterling was paid by the British taxpayers as compensation to 
the slave-owners in the West Indies. Of this sum about £6, 000, 000 
fell to Jamaica as compensation on account of 255,290 slaves; while 
for the remaining 55,780 slaves, classed as aged, children, and 
runaways, nothing was paid. Later on the term of apprenticeship at 
first fixed was shortened ; and entire freedom was given to everyone 
from the 1st August, 1838. 
No doubt this measure injured many proprietors very much, 
although in some cases the compensation came as a welcome help ; 
but on the whole the island fell into a depressed state, as the manu- 
mitted slaves, to a great extent, avoided more work than they found 
absolutely necessary for their subsistence. Religion and morality, 
however, became more general ; education of the negroes began to be 
attended to instead of being much neglected; and absentee proprietor- 
ship diminished. But it required other troubles to arise before the 
island began a real advance in moral and material prosperity, based 
on what 1 trust and believe to be sure foundations. 
The House of Assembly, which practically ruled Jamaica, was a 
body elected on a very narrow and restricted franchise, and acted in the 
interests of the whites. The magistrates were almost all whites, and 
mainly planters ; and most of these gentlemen looked with regret to 
the old slave days. The negro labourers considered they had great 
grievances ; and some negroes, or semi-negroes, who were in Parlia- 
ment or who wrote to the Press, did what was in their power to inflame 
the negroes against the Government. In 1865 a drought had devastated 
the provision grounds and deprived the peasantry of their usual food, 
while the American war and some increased taxation on imports had 
made costly the supply of breadstuffs. Many inflammatory and 
seditious speeches were made ; and on the 11th October, 1865, actual 
