Impressions of Jamaica,

AND OF KINGSTON IN PARTICULAR.

I

WAS up with the sun this morning. Last night the full

moon shone beautifully in the starry heavens. We had music, and dancing, and singing on board. All were merry and full of glee. Now, all is changed. The sun has mounted his beamy throne, and his golden rays are dancing on the blue mountains of Jamaica. Fleecy clouds are rolling around the dark tops of the highest peaks, while I am gliding along the coast of the land so celebrated for piratical depredations and negro insurrections.

The island is one hundred and fifty miles long, and about fifty miles in breadth. The range of mountains, extending nearly the whole length of the colony, is truly grand and picturesque. The loftiest summit is eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is worth a journey from New York to behold such a scene. Shortly after sunrise, we took a black pilot on board, and after passing the point where once stood the beautiful city of Port Royal, which was swallowed up by an earthquake in 1692, we reached Kingston, this world-renowned city of moral and commercial decay, about ten o'clock A. M. While at the wharf, negro boys came swimming about the vessel, crying piteously for dimes. The passengers would throw small silver coins into the water, and with the alacrity of pelicans, down went these

black fellows after the prize. Nearly naked, and all barefooted, some eighty or ninety women, black, dirty, and shining with grease, stood ready to carry in the coal for the steamer. Rank and file, and singing, or rather yelling, yet keeping time as they go (each one bearing a round bucket of coal upon her head), they march up one gangway with a stately strut, and delivering their load into the hold as they pass, they march down another in the most perfect order. Such an exhibition of tatterdemalion wretchedness and human degradation I was unprepared to witness. Leaving this sickening scene, I left the steamer “to see what I could see." On every hand were importunate beggars, that beggar description in all that is revolting and disgusting to humanity.

Jamaica is called the Island of Springs. By others she is designated the Queen of the Antilles, and as being the brightest jewel in the crown of England. Respecting her mineral springs, there are four, somewhat noted for their healing virtues in cases of bronchitis, rheumatic, pulmonary, and cutaneous affections, viz. Bath, St. Faith's, Silver-Hill, and Milk-River Bath. There are marvellous stories told of people living to a great age in those districts. I presume Methuselah would have been living still had he been a partaker of their waters of life. Were Jamaica called the blackest instead of the brightest jewel in the British crown, I could perfectly appreciate the truth of the poetical appellation. Can it be that prostrate commerce, ruined plantations, ignorance, sloth, vice, and prostitution form the boasted jewel of the crown of England? The glory of Jamaica has departed. The sun of her prosperity has gone down. Religion itself is on the wing, and a general gloom pervades this interesting land. Education

is neglected, and the school-houses are melancholy ruins. The planters are leaving the country with disgust, and the settlers

generally are sunk in apathy and sloth.

The blacks crowd into Every house seems to be

the towns, and are too lazy to work. crumbling away. Not a new habitation can be seen. Was it to produce this state of things, that the British people, through a mistaken philanthropy, paid twenty millions of pounds sterling? I will not stop here to inquire into the cause of this general ruin. However, the Emancipation Bill of 1833 commenced the work of destruction, and the Sugar Duties Bill of 1846 successfully accomplished what the other had left incomplete.

Jamaica has been in the possession of the British since 1665. It is divided into three counties, viz.: Middlesex, Surry, and Cornwall, and these are subdivided into twenty-two parishes. The legislature consists of the Governor and a council of eleven members appointed by the British Government, and a House of Assembly of forty-seven representatives, who are chosen by the people. The population, ten years ago, amounted to three hundred and seventy-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-three, and out of that number, there were only nine thousand two hundred and eighty-nine white males, and six thousand four hundred and eighty-seven white females. There are about forty thousand in Kingston, about three thousand of whom are white. The houses generally have a mean look. They are not more than two stories high, and have no chimney-tops. The streets are narrow and dirty, and abound with a dwarfish race of hogs. I should judge, from their starved appearance, that they would leave but little for the poor buzzards, that hover over this tropical city, to pick up. The asses and the mules have the same fam

ished air, and the horses are lucky whose skins perfectly cover their bony protuberances. The chickens have a similar aspect of want, and their feathers fail to conceal their nakedness. The rats, however, seem to be of a superior breed, and are large and fat. The dilapidated state of the buildings gives them easy access to the pantries; and, like their unscrupulous race everywhere, they indulge in their thieving propensities, and help themselves "before their betters." They seem to enjoy the blessings of the Emancipation Act as well as the negroes, and are bold in their independence. In point of intelligence the one is but a little elevated above the other. There is one striking difference between the races, and even it may be attributable to the imperfect gift of speech which the black enjoys over the rat. The rat, professionally a thief, can only steal, having no loftier pretensions; and is subject to no moral or criminal law, and feels perfectly safe in his depredations, unless caught in the act of stealing, or in a trap (which the knowing ones studiously avoid); while the negro will not only steal when opportunity offers, but meanly beg, instead of working for an honorable living, in a land where labor is so much in demand.

I saw the horses of the island that were booked for the race that was to come off on the following day. Being the property of gentlemen, they looked as if they had "life and mettle in their heels," and not like the harnessed skeletons that belong to the city, whose owners modestly charge two dollars and a half per hour for the use of one of them. The negroes who come into Kingston from the country, in their own conveyances, have a respectable air, and look fat and contented. They are polite and courteous in their manner, and much respected by the white

population. The policemen are black, some of the judges and legislators are black, and the city barracks are filled with black soldiers, who wear red coats. The white soldiers of Queen Victoria occupy a more salubrious position, on the brow of a mountain, distinctly seen from the city. Some of the negroes of the city follow the stranger, and beg of him to relieve their wants, while others, with shirts, handkerchiefs, straw hats, and other commodities for sale, annoy one at every step he takes. Another class sell the fruits of the island. All seem to be dealers, but the beggars. There are only a few good stores, and one or two decent-looking hotels, in the place. So heavily do the rains fall occasionally, that the streets leading down to the docks are not only unpaved, but so scooped out, that they seem like so many channels of dried-up rivers. During the rains, the waters rush down them with an impetuous velocity. Hogs, rats, and chickens are frequently swept away in the rushing currents. It is with difficulty the mule, or his half-brother, the jackass, can ford the street-rapids of Kingston. Some of the flounder-footed negroes carry people across for a small compensation.

I visited the suburbs of Kingston, where some of the gentry reside. I entered some of the gardens, and was politely shown around. Here are to be seen growing all the choicest fruits of the tropics. Here all is beauty and luxuriant magnificence. The trees and the flowers are in bloom, and the highways are redolent of perfumes. Here are impenetrable hedges of the cactus tribe, from twelve to sixteen feet high, extending for miles on cach side of the road. If the Paradise of our first parents was more inviting and enchanting than the gardens of Jamaica, I do not wonder at our ancient mother partaking of "the forbidden