BARBECUED PIC. 
395 
the farms were well supplied with the several va- 
rieties of poultry — turkeys, hens, and mallards, and 
Muscovy ducks, with occasional geese — Swine’s flesh 
was the ‘ most frequent dish at the table of the best 
inhabitants.’ The ‘ barbecued pig,’ which neces- 
sity had taught the huntsman to prepare in the 
forest, roasted in a rude oven of heated stones, and 
flavoured with native spices, — a more refined taste 
had transferred from the herdsman’s hut to the plant- 
ation hall. Monk Lewis, whose taste was luxu- 
rious and fastidious, declares it to be one of the most 
delicious of viands. ‘ Several gentlemen of the 
country,’ he relates in that very agreeable gossip- 
ing Diary, his ‘ Journal,’ ‘ dined with me to-day ’ 
(January 26. 1816). ^ We had at dinner a land 
tortoise and a barbecued pig, — two of the best and 
richest dishes that I had ever tasted, the latter in par- 
ticular. It was dressed in the true Maroon fashion, 
being placed on a barbecue, or frame of wicker work, 
through whose interstices the steam can ascend, 
— filled with peppers and spices of the highest fla- 
vour, wrapped in plantain leaves, and then buried 
in a hole filled with hot stones, by whose vapour it 
is baked ; no particle of the juice being thus suf- 
fered to evaporate. I have eaten several other good 
Jamaica dishes, but none so excellent as this.’ 
When the Spaniards with their slaves retired to 
the north side of the Island on the conquest by the 
English in 1655, they left their negroes to hold the 
mountain fastnesses, and harass the conquerors and 
new settlers. These became the body of independ- 
