JA MAICA IN 1850: OR, THE EFFECTS OF SIXTEEN YEARS OF FREEDOM ON A SLAVE COLONY. BY JOHN BIGELOW. Magnas inter opes inops.-Hor'ace. NEW YORK & LONDON: GEORGE P. PUTNAM. 1851.

ENTERED According to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by JOHN B I GE LOW, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States For the Southern District of New York. WM. C. BRYANT & CO., PRINTERS, 18 Nassau street, cor. Pine,

PREFACE. In the following pages the author has endeavored to explain the causes of the stricken and prostrate condition of one of the most delightful, and formerly, one of the most productive islands in the world, and to indicate the processes by which, in his judgment, the laws of nature and of trade are providing for the ultimate restoration of its ancient prosperity and wealth. They embrace the substance of observations made during a recent excursion to Jamaica, which, it is proper for him to say, was undertaken merely for recreation, and with no thought of troubling the public about it, except perhaps, by an occasional letter to the public journal with which he is professionally connected. During his absence he found occasion to address several communications respecting Jamaican affairs, to the readers of the Evening Post,

ii PREFACE. and upon his return was pleased to discover that they had been the means, to some extent, of developing the lively curiosity which pervades the public mind of America, for information about the politico-economical condition of that island, after a deliverance of sixteen years from chattel slavery. That curiosity the author has endeavored to gratify, without attempting to do anything more. He has not presumed to write a history or a geography of Jamaica, nor to present a scientific statement of its resources, neither has he written a book of travels. He has limited the personal narrative almost exclusively to such incidents as seemed necessary to an intelligible analysis of the causes which have reduced Jamaica to her present deplorable condition, and of the means which are in operation for her ultimate restoration. He has endeavored to give a correct picture of Jamaica as she is, not what she has been; nor has he referred to her past history, farther than was necessary for that purpose. The views he has taken of the wants of Jamaica, and of the duty of the Iome Government toward her, are essentially different from those professed, so far as he knows, by any political party either there or in England, and yet he publishes theml with some confidence, for he is satisfied

PREFACE, iii that they are such as almost any American would adopt, who should visit the island and inform himself with tolerable minuteness, of its physical and political condition. The author avails himself of this occasion to make his grateful acknowledgements to those friends whose acquaintance, it was his privilege to make in Jamaica, and whose hospitable attentions enabled him to forget that he was nearly two thousand miles from his home, a stranger in a strange land. He desires also, specially to recognise his obligations to Captain J. D. Wilson, of the U. S. Mail Steamer, Empire City, to whose devoted courtesy he owed many important privileges and facilities during his absence, and whose personal and professional character, it will always be his delight to honor. NEW YORK, Oct. 21st, 1850.

CONT ENTS CHAPTER I. Pages. Departure from New York-How to escape sea-sickness -Our passengers-Taylor, cousin of Zachary Taylor-The Pass of Mayaguana-Arrival at Port Royal-Commodore Brooks-Kingston seen from the Bay, - 1-12 CHAPTER II. Kingston Hotels-Streets-Inhabitants-Old people and babies-Coolies, - 12-20 CHAPTER III. Intermarriage between the whites and browns-Public sentiment about color-The proportion of colored and white people in public and professional employments-Colored people of note-The English policy towards them, - 20-30 CHAPTER IV. Spanishtown-Governor Grey —His embarrassmentsHis family-House of Assembly-The Public Printers-The Speaker-His compensation, - - 30-38

~~11 @ ~CONTENTS. Pages. CHAPTER V. Political Representation in Jamaica-Impotence of the Legislature-Executive influence-The CouncilDeliberations of the Assembly- Political PartiesPublic Salaries-Memorial against the Council, 38-52 CHAPTER VI. The Poverty of Jamaica-Depreciation and diminution of exports-The market value of estates-Corresponding prostration in the other British West India Colonies,. 52-64 CHAPTER VII. Physical resources of Jamaica-Soil —Fruits-Vegetables —Drugs-Trees-Irrigation —Rivers- Difficulties of transportation-Harbors-Mines,- - - 64-78 CHAPTER VIII. The decline of Jamaica explained-The complaints of the Planters-The remedies proposed by the Planters-The real difficulties in Jamaica stated-First, the degradation of labor, - - - - 70-78 CHAPTER IX. Absenteeism and Middlemen-Stanley's letter to Gladstone, - 78-88 CHAPTER X. Encumbered Estates-Insolvency of the Island-The Planters and the Home Merchant-Restrictions on Commerce, - - 88-102

CONTENTS. 111 Pages. CHAPTERe XI. Accumulations of land-No middle class-Labor not capital, - 103-112 CHAPTER XII. Labor to become capital —Increase of small proprietors-Carlyle's Remedy reviewed, - o - 113-124 CHAPTER XIII. Labor and Wages, - -- 125-138 CHAPTER XIV. Central Mills,. - 139-140 CHAPTER XV. Manufacturing Resources-Uses of cocoa nut-Political Influence of the African-Emigration of the whites -Destiny of Jamaica, -- 150-162 CHAPTER XVI. Climate-Health-Precautions, - - - - 163-167 CHAPTER XVII. Conclusion-Alienation of land-Ocean steamers-Postoffice department-Newspapers, - - - 178-186 APPENDIX A. Visit to the Emperor of Haiti, - 190-192 APPENDIX B. A Tabular Return of Exports from the Island of Jamaica for sixty-one years, ending October 10, 1848, 201-204

4iV CONTENTS. Pagese APPENDIX C. Epitome of the Island revenue for the years ending 1844,'4-6,'46,'47, and 1848, - - 205 APPENDIX D. Extent and Resources of the British Colonies, - - 207-214

JAMAICA IN 1850. CHAPTER I. Departure from New York-How to escape sea-sickness-Our passengers-Taylor, cousin of General Zachary Taylor-The Pass of Mayaguana-Arrival at Port Royal-Commodore Brooks-Kingston seen from the Bay. IT is not easy to imagine a more delightful series of sensations than one experiences in passing at the rate of two hundred and fifty miles a day, in a first class steamship like the Empire City, from the rigors of a northern winter, to the soft and genial temperature of the tropics. It was the second day after New Year's, at precisely three o'clock in the afternoon, that we sailed from pier No. 3, leaving New York city behind us all ice-bound, her streets covered with snow and resonant with sleigh bells. Furs and woollens enveloped her population, and thermometers of every sect and denomination were agreed that the weather was very cold. The greater part of the night following that of our departure, I passed in walking the 1

2 HOW TO AVOID SEA-SICKNESS. deck of the steamer without an overcoat of any kind, and was warm and comfortable, as if it were an evening in June instead of January. In two days more linen clothing was gladly substituted by the less prudent of our company, including myself, for flannels, and the pitch trickled from the seams of the ship, and from her rigging, under the unrelenting heat of a tropical sun. But the air was always pure, soft and exhilirating, the heat not in the least enervating, and the effect of the gradual transition was not unlike the delightful sensations of a warm bath, protracted through a series of days instead of minutes. No stimulants afford such delightful sensations. I had small occasion for sleep, to which I did not devote on an average more than three hours out of every twenty-four, nor did I suffer any inconvenience from the want of it. I always awoke refreshed and hungry. Neither was I sea-sick. I discovered soon after our departure the propriety of adopting the following precautions, to which I presume I owe my exemption from this common terror of inexperienced sea voyagers. In the first place, I was careful never while sitting in the cabin, to rest my feet upon the floor, but always to stretch them upon the sofa or a chair; in the next place, I always seated myself so that the roll of the ship should pitch me from side to side, and not forward and backward. In the third place, whenever I felt in the least unsettled, I was careful

THE VOYAGE, 8 never to fix my attention upon any near object, and especially avoided reading or writing; if necessary, I closed my eyes altogether. Finally, I made it a point to go regularly to the table and eat moderately of plain food. By the careful observance of these precautions, I was enabled to enjoy my voyage without interruption, and I came to the conclusion that most persons, if in good health when they embark, may avoid sea-sickness altogether by following my example. In six days from the period of our departure we were entering the harbor of Port Royal, having made the voyage in less time than it had ever been made before. From the time we parted with our pilot off Sandy Hook, until we arrived at Jamaica, our wheels never stopped. By night and by clay, whether we were sleeping or waking, whether watching or dreaming, the massive engine beneath us, like an imprisoned giant, with arms of iron and breath of flame, toiled on without fatigue and without repose. The weather was uniformly fine, and all the incidents of the voyage conspired to make it pleasant. The interior accommodations of the Empire City are palatial. I enjoyed the exclusive use of a state-room, most eligibly situated with a sitting-room adjacent, luxuriously furnished. Our table abounded with all the luxuries of the New York market, dispensed by one of the most hospitable of captains, and our company was exceedingly pleasant,

4 GENERAL'AYLOR AND PARTY. in spite of all the trying familiarities to which one is exposed in the cabins of populous ships. Among our fellow passengers was Mr. Catherwood, the artist, who was on his way to Central America, whence, after a sojourn of a few months, he proposed to embark for California on a professional visit. His large experience as a traveller in every quarter of the globe, rendered him an interesting and useful addition to our mess. Gen. S. G. Taylor, cousin of the late President Zachary Taylor, was also of our company, accompanied by his wife, his son, Captain Marcellus K. Taylor and his wife, a poodle dog and a parrot. General Taylor so closely resembles his distinguished cousin that I thought they were brothers before I was told that they were kindred. He lacks the perceptive faculties which were the most prominent intellectual endowments of Zachary, but in other respects the likeness is very striking. For some years past the General has been consul at Bogota. I believe he holds the office still, though he is not attending to its duties if it have any. He was now on his way to the Isthmus for the purpose of prosecuting a speculation in gold mining in which he was engaged, with some others, in that region. A disparity of some forty years between his own age and that of his wife seemed only to increase his devotion to her, and his consideration for the comforts of what seemed nearer to her than any other living things, except himself,

CAPTAIN TAYLOR —COPPER MINERS. 5 her parrot and her poodle, which he tended unremittingly when her attention was, as it sometimes had to be, withdrawn from one or both of them. Her devotion to these pets were something of an annoyance to some of her fellow passengers, especially to a consumptive gentleman from New York, who was bound to Jamaica in quest of health, and who was the involuntary auditor of all the conversation which passed between them; but it proved at the same time, that if Providence had permitted her marriage with the General to be attended with the usual blessings of matrimony, she would have made a most affectionate and devoted mother. Capt. Marcellus K. Taylor, the son of the General, by a former marriage, attained some distinction in the Mexican war for his bravery and professional resources. He had the credit of having devised and constructed the cornstalk bridge across the ravine near Monterey, over which his uncle, the President, marched his whole army in safety to the attack of that place. He was, also, one of the escort appointed to attend General Santa Anna when he retired fiom Mexico, after his defeat and surrender. I judged him to be about thirty years of age. Besides these, we were accompanied by two gentlemen from New York, and a company of men in their employ, who were going to Jamaica to engage in mining for copper, which they think may be found on that island in

6 TTIHE PASS OF MAYAGUANA. great abundance. They have already secured a long lease of the lands, or mountains, rather, on which the mines lie, and speak of their speedy and complete success with entire confidence. The first land we made after taking leave of the heights of Neversink, was the point of Mayaguana, about 1,200 miles from New York. A dangerous coral reef, which projects from the island, gives this point some consequence, as it has been more fatal to navigators than any other, I believe, among the West India Islands. It is a striking illustration of the triumphs of modern navigation, that. Captain Wilson was able to calculate his courses with such accuracy, for a distance of four hundred leagues, as to come within half a mile of the point towards which he laid the course of the ship, when he took his last departure from Barnegat. We fortunately reached it during daylight; had we arrived in the night, we should have been compelled to lie-too till morning, the channel is so narrow and tortuous. In passing it from the south, the captain says, on his return voyage, he always keeps on by night or day, for he is enabled to get a "departure," so recently, from the headlands of St. Domingo, that in the absence of all currents, he can navigate the passage without difficulty; but in coming fromi the north, owing to the variety of currents which one encounters in the Atlantic, it is impossible for the navigator to calculate his position

ARRIVAL AT PORT ROYAL. 7 with such accuracy as to make the passage in the night safe. An error of half a mile in his reckoning might be fatal. The thermometer stood at 80~ as we rounded Mayaguana, and many of the passengers, like myself, were imprudent enough to throw off their flannel under clothing. Sad experience has since taught me, that flannels are no where of so much importance to the health, as in tropical climates. At seven o'clock on the morning of the 10th, we were boarded by a pilot, as we entered Kingston harbor. He was a mulatto, intelligent looking, and about 25 years of age. He seemed rather overcome by the good luck which had befallen him in getting so big a ship. He soon, however, recovered his self-possession, gave his orders to the man at the wheel, and conducted us safely up in front of Port Royal. Before the ship had fairly stopped, we were surrounded with boats filled with negroes, some dressed decently and some indecently, and some not at all. They all talked at once a language which they designed for English, but as it would have been unintelligible to me under the most favorable circumstances, of course, amid all this confusion, it was like the apostle's preaching to the Greeks-foolishness. Some of the boats were filled with oranges, bananas,

8 ARRIVAL AT KINGSTON. and star apples and other fruits, which our passengers were expected to purchase. The empty boats were waiting for a fare. Such of our company as proposed to land at Jamaica, including myself, soon made a selection from the group, and debarked with our baggage with as little delay as possible. Before we reached the shore, the steamer was ploughing her way again across the bay, on her route to Chagres. We were compelled to stop at Port Royal, to have our baggage inspected by the custom-house officers, before going over to Kingston. The revenue officers were mostly colored people. I saw but one white oarsman in any of the revenue boats, and in that one, the coxswain was a colored man. When the ceremony of inspection was over, we re-distributed ourselves in our boats, and bore away for Kingston, about six miles distant, on the opposite side of the bay. We had four colored oarsmen, under the commnand of Commodore Brooks, himself, a very black man, with very white linen, whose broad pennant of red, with a white ball, swung at the mast head, to indicate that he was senior officer of the port. He told me that he received his commission from the admiral on the station, and that no other boatmen were at liberty to raise the red flag, but himself. I was amused at the style in which these pretensions were asserted, and asked him what he would do if one were so

COMMODORE BROOKS. 9 irreverent as to appropriate his color. He said he would go and pull it down, but added, that no one would dare to attempt such an outrage. I felt my capacity to realize the dignity of our commander gradually expand, and when he added, that he had several other boats plying between Kingston and Port Royal, I was awed. Our boat was very well in its way, but the oars were a novelty. They consisted of two pieces. One a long pole the entire length of the oar, of uniform size from end to end. The other was a board in the shape of an ordinary oar blade, which was spliced to the pole in three places, with a cord "and nothing else." The oarsmen struck the water with the side of the blade to which the pole was attached, instead of the smooth side, out of respect to some principle of hydrodynamics, with which I was not familiar. Instead of tholepins, they used a rope, tied to the side of the boat, through which the oar was passed, and by which it was detained near, if not in its place, when used. The Commodore defended both these novelties with a force of logic which required nothing but a stupidity among his hearers, corresponding with his own, to render perfectly conclusive. He was about two hours getting us over to Kingston, a distance of about five miles. During the voyage I had leisure to contemplate the striking scenery which bounds the city we were approaching, in the rear.' A high range of hills, rising gradually to mountains, sur1I

10 - TIE TROPICS. rounds it on all sides. These hills are indented, apparently, by the centurial washing of running waters, until they look as if some astringent had been poured over them in their days of formation, and corrugated their surface into its present shape. They were green, and as I afterwards discovered, were cultivated and inhabited to their very sulmmits. As we approached the shore, and the vegetation began to reveal itself, I realized, for the first time, that we were within, the tropics. We have hot weather at the north, and custom-house officers and negroes-weather as hot, custom-house officers as troublesome, and negroes as black as any I have yet encountered, but I had never before seen the cocoa-nut and the plaintain growing, as I did now. Here, in the depth of winter, orange trees were dropping their fruit, and the bananas were ready to be plucked; the the lignu-mvite tree waved its luxuriant foliage, ornamented with a delicate blossom of surpassing beauty; and in the distance, our eyes were directed to the waving sugar fields of the Caymanos, and on the mountains, to the abandoned coffee estates, belonging to the bankrupt Duke of Buckingham. I was most impatient to get on shore, that I might stray into the country and stare the wonders of tropical vegetation full in the face. Notwithstanding my impatience, I was compelled to submit to many delays. My largest trunk, which. was

AWKWARDNESS OF THE NEGROES. 11 handled by the coachman in New York without difficulty, engaged the devoted exertions of four negroes, in the effort to draw it from the boat, which they effected by instalments, after turning it over, as they did every article of luggage, several times, and trying it in various ways and from opposite sides, as if to see if they could not in some way get the advantage of it. They were two hours in transporting our luggage from the boats to our lodgings, not half a mile distant. And as the sun was nearly verticle the whole time, their delays were not a little trying to the tempers of the best of us.

CHAPTER II. Kingston-Hotels-Streets-Inhabitants —Old people and babies — Coolies. THERE are no first-class hotels in Kingston, and the best accommodations for travellers are to be found at boarding houses, of which there are two or three claiming precedence, which compare with the others, as warts compare with corns. They are all kept and served by colored people, who enjoy the princely prerogative which attaches only to indolent people and kings; entire immunity from all the penalties of lapsed time. They have no idea of doing anything within any specified period, and punctuality with them is- a word, but not a thing. The house at which I stopped was inferior to no other in Jamaica, and was in many respects satisfactory. It was, however, quite impossible to have anything done within any appoinjteed period. If breakfast was ordered at eight o'clock, it was sure not to be ready till ten. If dinner were ordered at three, we congratulated ourselves if we got it by five. The wait, ers, of which there was an abundance, had no idea of saving steps. They would carry every article to the table sepa

KITNcSTON. 13 rately, and would spend an hour running up and down stairs with things which, with a little forethought, they might have transported at a single trip. Excellent fresh fish, good mutton, poor poultry, and of course fruit of unequalled richness and inexhaustible varieties were commonly served in English style; the rooms were spacious and pleasant, though scantily furnished. It may be interesting to some to know that for these accommodations I paid fourteen dollars a week. My first impressions of Kingston were not favorable, and I had no occasion upon further acquaintance to change them. The city is well enough situated, on ground gradually rising from the sea, at the rate of about one hundred feet to the mile, and the mountains which bound it in the rear, about four miles distant, furnish a most desirable refuge from the extreme heats of summer, or to invalids who require a more bracing temperature occasionally than can be furnished below. In a drive of four hours, one may be transferred from an average temperature of eighty degrees to one of sixty. But the city of Kingston is a most undesirable residence. The streets are all quite narrow, scarcely wide enough for alleys. The houses are all partially dilapidated, and of course old. Though I have been through nearly every street, I have not seen a single new house erecting, save an Insane Asylum, which, by the way, has been suspended for want of funds. A terrible fire laid a

4 STREETS. large portion of the city in ruins, several years ago, and only a portion of the houses have been rebuilt. These are commonly one story high only and very mean. In the busiest parts of the city, and on every block, may be seen vacant lots, on which are crumbling the foundation walls of houses long in ruins. Rents are exceedingly low, less than half a fair interest on the cost of the buildings alone —while the'vacant lots cannot be said to have any market value, there being no sales. There are several fine houses yet extant here, but they were all built many years ago, when the island was prosperous, and very few of them are " in repair." There is not a foot of street pavement to my knowledge, in Kingston, and the streets are almost uniformly from one to three feet lower in the centre than at the sides. This is the result of spring rains which wash cown the mountains in torrents, and through the streets of the city to the river, oftentimes making such channels in them as to render them impassable. This periodical visitation was suggested to me by a resident, as the reason for not paving the street walks. That may be a good reason for Jamaica people, but it would not be a sufficient one for Yankees, if they had to use the streets. They would either remove the mountains altogether, oi make such terms with the rains as would induce them to use the highways to the ocean, as not abusing them.

COLOREDl) JEWS, J' Kingston contains about forty thousand inhabitants at present, nine-tenths of whom, at least, are colored. In walking the streets, one scarcely meets white persons as frequently as he would meet colored persons in New York city. The whites are mostly English, or of English descent. The proportion of Jews of all colors is fearfully great. I had never seen a black Jew before, and I was astonished to find how little the expression of the Israelitish profile was effected by color. My imagination could never have combined the sharp and cunning features of Isaac with the thick lipped, careless, unthinking countenance of Cudjo; but nature has done it perfectly, if that can be called a combination in which the negro furnishes the color and the Jew all the rest of the expression. What will be the ultimate consequence of this corruption of the African blood, is a question over which the wise men of Jamaica are already beginning to scratch their heads. Though Kingston is the principal port of the island, it has but little of the air of a commercial city. One looks and listens in vain for the noise of carts and the bustle of busy men; no one seems to be in a hurry, but few are doing anything, while the mass of the population are lounging about in idleness and rags. The business is mostly mercantile, and confined to three or four streets. Here are no mechanics or mechanical operatives such as abound in the larger cities of the north. Nearly all who do not

16. OIt) PEOPLE AND BABITES, traffic, wait upon those who do, or lead a life of comparative indolence, The professional. men are about the only exceptions. The white inhabitants are almost all of British descent. It is an uncommon thing to meet a Frenchman or a Spaniard in Kingston. The English language is universally spoken, and in every variety of African dialect. They have what they call the omnibus here, which is of the capacity and shape of a four-wheeled cab. These vehicles pursue no specific route, but carry their passengers to any part of the city for twenty-five cents, provided their starved horses are equal to the effort. I never tried any of them but twice, but on both those occasions the horses gave out more than once before they reached my place of destination. I never saw a place so abounding in old people and babies. Almost every woman you meet, and of whatever age, has an infant in her arms or somewhere upon her person, while the streets are littered with children more advanced. So aged persons are far more abundant here than in our northern cities. This may be attributed to the mildness of the weather, which enables the old people to be in the streets at all seasons, without exposing them to those infirmities with which our northern climates afflict the aged. But the fact probably is, that while in the north the poor aged people die of neglect, privation and exposure, as soon as they become too infirm to proyide for all the

COOLIES. 17 wants occasioned by our trying climate and long cold winters, in Jamaica the same class do not reach any such crisis, until much more advanced in years. They never feel cold weather, they can easily get all they require for their support if they can walk, so abundant are the fruits and edible productions of the island; and though the ties which bind the parent and child together are generally much more frail here than at the north, and though the aged rarely depend upon their children for any assistance, yet the means of subsistence are so much more accessible, that one never hears of a person contracting disease or suffering very seriously for want of food. I here beheld, for the first time, a class of beings of whom we have heard much, and for whom I have felt considerable interest. I refer to the Coolies, imported by the British government to take the place of the faineant negroes, when the apprenticeship system was abolished. Those that I saw were wandering about the streets, dressed rather tastefully, but always meanly, and usually carrying over their shoulder a sort of chigfonier's sack, in which they threw whatever refuse stuff they found in the streets, or received as charity. Their figures are generally superb, and their eastern costume, to which they adhere as far as their poverty will permit of any clothing, sets off their lithe and graceful forms to great advantage. Their faces are ahmost uniformly of the finest classic mould, and illumi

18 COOLIES. natec by pairs of those dark swimming and propitiatory eyes, which exhaust the language of tenderness and passion at a glance. But they are the most inveterate mendicants on the island. It is said that those brought from the interior of India are faithful and efficient workmen, while those from Calcutta and its vicinity are good for nothing. Those that were prowling about the streets of Spanishtown and Kingston, I presume, were of the latter class, for there is not a planter on the island it is said, from whom it would be more difficult to get any work than from one of these. They subsist by begging altogether, they are not vicious, nor intemperate, nor troublesome particularly, except as beggars. In that calling they have a pertinacity before which a northern mendicant would grow pale. They will not be denied. They will stand perfectly still and look through a window from the stleet for a quarter of an hour if not driven away, with their imploring eyes fixed upon you, like a stricken deer, without saying a word, or moving a muscle. They act as if it were no disgrace for them to beg, as if the least indemnification which they are entitled to expect, for the outrage perpetrated upon them in bringing them from their distant homes to this strange island, is a daily supply of their few and cheap necessities, as they call for them. I confess that their begging did not leave upon my mind the impression produced by ordinary mendicancy. They

COOLIES. 19 do not look as if they ought to work. I never saw one smile, and though they showed no positive suffering, I never saw one look happy. Each face seemed to be constantly telling the unhappy story of their woes, and like fragments of a broken mirror, each reflecting in all its hateful proportions the national outrage of which they are the victims.

CHAPTER III. Intermarriage between the whites and browns —Public sentiment about color-The proportion of colored and white people in public and professional employments —Colored people of note -The English policy towards them. IT was sixteen years in August, since slavery was abolished on this island, and the apprenticeship system, which took its place, was abolished four years later. Since that period, the laws have recognised no complexional distinctions among the inhabitants. The black people have enjoyed the same political privileges as the whites, and with them have shared the honors and the patronage of the mother and local governments. The effect of this policy upon the people of color may be partially anticipated; but one accustomed to the proscribed condition of the free blacks in the United States, will constantly be startled at the diminished importance attached here to the matter of complexion. Intermarriages are constantly occurring between the white and colored people, their families associate together within the ranlks to which by wealth and culture they respectively

PUBLIC SENTIMENT ABOUT COLOR. 21 belong, and public opinion does not recognise any social distinctions based exclusively upon color. Of course, cultivated or fashionable people will not receive colored persons of inferior culture and worldly resources, but the rule of discrimination is scarcely more rigorous against those than against whites. They are received at the "King's House "-it is thus the Governor's residence is styledand they are invited to his table with fastidious courtesy. The wife of the present Mayor of Kingston is a " brown" woman-that is the name given to all the intermediate shades between a decided white and decided black complexion-so also is the wife of the Receiver General himself, an English gentleman, and one of the most exalted public functionaries upon the island. A circumstance occurred shortly after I arrived, which may be interesting to some in this connection. It was proposed by some of the officers stationed near Kingston, and gentlemen resident in and about the city, to give a public ball. They proceeded to engage the theatre for the occasion. Some Jews who, as a class, incline to indemnify themselves for their exclusion from the society of the whites by striking an alliance with the people of color, circulated among the latter a report that the committee on invitations to the ball had resolved, that " no colored person, Jew or Dog," should be invited. Of course the story produced considerable excitement among those mostconcerned.

~22 INTERMARRIAGE OF THE RACES. The theatre belongs to the city. The committee " on the theatre" in the Common Council, composed of a majority of brown men, quietly turned the key of the theatre, and excluded the artizans sent to arrange it for the festival. The ball had to be postponed in consequence, and finally took place at the Camp, a much more desirable place in every particular. I was assured by members of the ball committee, that the Jew's report was false altogetherthat they had resolved upon no such exclusions. They did not propose to invite Jews, because no social intercourse had existed between them and their respective families, nor did it appear that either party desired any; but they said that invitations had been sent to' the daughters of the Receiver General and of the Mayor; -all, as I have before mentioned, browns. Before the ball took place, I believe the colored people became satisfied that they had been deceived, for a brown gentleman spoke to me with some bitterness, of a determination formed by the committee on invitations, as he professed to know of his own knowledge, to invite to the ball no persons who had ever been behind a counter; but he made no allusion to the other report. One unacquainted with the extent to which the amalgamation of races has gone here, is constantly liable to drop remarks in the presence of white persons, which, in consequence of the mixture of blood that may take place in

THE PROMINENCE OF COLORED PEOPLE. 23 some branch of their families, are likely to be very offensive. I was only protected from frequent contretemps of this kind, by the timely caution of a lady, who, in explaining its propriety, said that unless one knows the whole collateral kindred of a family in Jamaica, he is not safe in assuming that they have not some colored connections. One of the most distinguished barristers on the island is a colored man, who was educated at an English university, and ate his terms at Lincoln's inn, as must all barristers who wish to practice here; the judicial authorities of the island having no power to admit any one to practice the law in any of its departments. This is a circumstance, by the way, rwhich has given to Jamaica a bar of no inconsiderable culture and talent. It so happened that the Surry Assize was sitting in Kingston when I arrived, Sir Joshua Rowe presiding. I availed myself of the courtesy of a professional friend, and accompanied him one day to the court, while in session. Though the room contained a crowd of people, there did not appear to be twenty white persons among them, the court and bar inclusive. Two colored lawyers were sitting at the barrister's table, and the jury box was occupied by twelve men, all but three of whom were colored, and all but two who were negroes, were Jews. Two witnesses were examined before I left the room, both of whom were colored and both police officers. All the officers of the

24 RICHARD HILL. court, except the clerk, were also colored. I was assured that more than seven-tenths of the whole police force of the island, amounting to about eight hundred men, are colored. Judging from the proportion that fell under my observation, this estimate cannot be far from correct. I may as well add here, that in the Legislative Assembly of Jamaica, composed of from forty-eight to fifty British subjects, some ten or a dozen are colored men. Nay, more, the public printers of the legislature, Messrs. Jordon & Osborn, are both colored men, and are likewise editors of the leading government paper, the Kingston Journal. It was my privilege, shortly after my arrival, to make the acquaintance of one of the most highly cultivated men I ever met, upon whose complexion the accidents of birth had left a tinge which betrayed the African bar on his escutcheon. I refer to Mr. Richard Hill, of Spanishtown. He is a brown man, about forty-five years of age, I judged, and was educated in one of the English universities, where he enjoyed every advantage which wealth could procure for his improvement. His appearance and address both indicate superior refinement. He enjoys an enviable reputation as a naturalist, and has published a volume on the birds of Jamaica, illustrated by his own pencil, which displays both literary and scientific merit of a high order. He is one of the stipendiary magistrates of the island, upon a salary of ~500 sterling per annum.

BLACKS IN OFFICE. 25 It is the policy of the present administration, both in Downing street and Spanishtown, to promote intercourse in every possible way, between the different races in Jaimaica, and throughout the British West India Islands; and, to this end, the colored people are familiarized as rapidly as possible with the political duties of the citizen-as John Bull understands them. They have, certainly, a fair share of the public patronage, indeed they are esteemed the favorites of the government; there are one or two black regiments here constantly under pay; they furnish ninetenths of the officers of the penitentiary, and, as I have before said, almost the entire police force of the island, and ultimately, I have reason to believe, it is the expectation of the home government, that these islands, without changing their colonial relations, will be substantially abandoned by the white population, and their local interests left to the exclusive management of the people of color. But more of this anon. While the entente cordiale between the whites and the colored people is apparently strengthening, daily, a very different state of feeling exists between the negroes or Africans, and the browns. The latter shun all connection by marriage with the former, and can experience no more unpardonable insult, than to be classified with them in any way. They generally prefer that their daughters should live with a white person upon any termls, than be married to 2

26 COLOR THE MEASURE OF RANK, a negro. Few will need to be told that where such is the condition of public sentiment in a class, the standard of female virtue among them cannot be very high. It is, perhaps, a trifle higher than among the slaves. It is their ambition that their offspring should be light complexioned, and there are few sacrifices they will not make to accomplish that result, whether married or not. Color with them, in a measure, marks rank, and they have * Lest I should be supposed from these remarks, to countenance an opinion quite popular in some quarters, that licentiousness is an inherent vice in the negro character, I may as well state, that the training received by the black population during the prevalence of slavery, is more than sufficient to account for any kind of intimacy between the sexes which is found to exist here, unless, perhaps, it should be one of a virtuous character. The masters would rarely permit, and almost uniformly discouraged matrimony among the slaves, for reasons sufficiently obvious to those who can bring themselves to look for a moment upon human bondmen in an exclusively financial point of view. The same selfishness tended to discourage matrimony among the overseers and agents, and often the loss of their situation was the penalty which they paid for presuming to rear children for their own honor rather than of slaves for the profit of their employers. In a recent sketch of a trip to Jamaica, made by the Rev. Dr. King, I found some facts stated as coming within his observation which confirmed what I have said. He says:" A missionary, in whose word I can thoroughly confide, informed me that four negroes, who had attended for some time on his instructions, intimated to him their earnest desire to marry the women with whom they were living in concubinage, and expressed to him their hope that he would intercede for them with their masters to have the measure sanctioned. He wrote a respectful letter to the proper authorities, soliciting their acquiescence, and despatched it to its destination on a Saturday forenoon. No notice of the communication was taken till Monday, when the four negroes were called out, stripped, and lashed, and then told to show their bleeding backs to their parson, and acquaint him that this was the answer to his letter! The prohibition against marriage extended to whites as well as to blacks. A book-keeper or overseer perilled his situation by marrying without the consent of the attorney or proprietor; and usually it was vain to solicit any such concurrence. To the present day difficulties are occasionally interposed by the same parties to the formation of the nuptial union; and I was requested, in one case, to use my influence in obviating this kind of opposition. An attorney agreed to wave further resistance to his book-keeper's wedding, on the whimsical condition that I should accomplish a considerable journey to perform the marriage ceremony. When such was the state of the whole colony, when fornication and adultery were everywhere practised by the lords of the soil, and the imperious agents of their pleasure, who could expect the seventh commandment to be regarded by the negro, or what could be looked for from systematic and penal suppression of its observance but the desertion of females, the neglect of progeny, and the general dissolution of morals by which Jamaica is now afflicted 2"

A HAYTIEN KUMTGEE 27 the same fear of being confounded with what they deem an inferior caste, that is so often exhibited by vulgar people, who have no ascertained or fixed social position. It was in consequence of the state of feeling, which I have described, that Soulouque, the Emperor of Hayti, who is utterly black, is stated to have recently commenced his terrible system of persecution against the browns. Upon the pretence that they were conspiring against his governl ment, or contemplated other capital offences, he issued warrants for the arrest of all the prominent brown men within his Empire. They were obliged to abscond precipitately, to save their lives. Many of them took refuge in Jamaica. I visited one who cultivates a small plantation of about twenty acres, near Kingston. Nothing about him but his complexion and his hair indicated African blood. HIe had a fine intelligent countenance, and good address. His grounds were under admirable culture, and displayed skill, industry and thrift. His tobacco beds were his pride, but around them the rarest tropical fruits and vegetables to be found upon the island, were growing in luxuriant perfection. He had been stripped of most of his property by the Emperor, but he was living here in apparent comfort and respectability. Upon the walls of the room in which my companion and myself were shown, were suspended two portraits, one of his wife and the other of his daughter,

28 THE POLICY Oi SOULOUQUIER who, he informed me, is now in Paris, at school. If the likeness be correct, the original must be exceedingly beautiful. The paintings were both of superior merit as works of art. His wife had not been permitted by the Emperor to join him, nor did he enjoy very frequent opportunities of hearing from her. He alluded to his domestic sorrows with great feeling, but with a Frenchman's hopefulness, he looked for a time when justice should be done. Of course his indignation against Soulouque was very strong, nor was he much disposed to extenuate his lmajesty's faults; and yet a brief conversation with him first led me to doubt whether the Emperor, any more than the devil, was half as black as he had been paintedC I afterwards satisfied myself that he was not. From what I heard and saw I concluded that he administered a strong central government with as much gentleness as would consist with the greatest good of the greatest number. He is, doubtless, a more beneficent ruler than any brown man would have been, because, in the first place, he belongs to much the more numerous caste, there being many more blacks than browns on the island. In the next place the browns are very generally cunning and false, they are oppressive upon the blacks when they have power, and are universally more indisposed than the blacks to any productive labor. It seems better, therefore, that the blacks should

HIS CHARACTER. 29 have a representative of their own than' of a lighter class, unless he be absolutely white, to govern them; and from all I can learn, a better man than Soulouque was not easily to be found. He is a man of strong will, unsurpassed courage, an accomplished soldier, knows the people he rules perfectly, and in spite of all the scoffers of black government may say to the contrary, is kindly disposed to his people, and to all but his enemies. During my stay in Jamaica a French gentleman who was inquiring into the condition of the negro population of the West India islands, passed a month on the island of Hayti. After his return, he wrote an account of his visit to the court of the Haytien Emperor, in the form of a letter, which was dated at Kingston, March 18, 1850. This visit was so recent, the account of it is so unprejudiced and satisfactory, it bears so directly upon matters to which I am chiefly desirous of directing the attention of my readers, and withal it is likely to reach so few of them in any other way, that I feel that I shall add materially to whatever of interest or value these pages may possess, by publishing the communication entire. It will be found in the Appendix A.

CHAPTER IV. Spanishtown-Governor Grey-His embarrassments-His family -House of Assembly-The Public Printers-The SpeakerHis compensation. ST. Jago de la Vega, now and for more than a hundred years past called Spanishtown by the people, is the political centre of the island. It lies about east of Kingston, and is reacled by traversing twelve out of the only fourteen miles of railroad in Jamaica. The inhabitants do nothing here in a hurry, and it is not surprising therefore, that the average time made by the trains between the two cities, is not less than forty-five minutes, or fifteen miles the hour, for which passengers are expected to pay the sum of seventy-five cents. Slow as it is, however, it is the only punctual thing upon the island. I was told, in this respect, that it was working an important revolution in the habits of the islanders. The road had been in operation several months before any body believed it was in earnest in its hours of departure, and no one ever reached the train desired in season. They have since learned that the habits of the locomotive are inflexible, and no one now

SPANISHTOWN. 31 presumes to expect from it the same indulgence to their laziness which is safely reckoned upon, from every other style of conveyance. Spanishtown is one of the oldest places on this continent. It is supposed to have been founded by Diego Columbus, the brother of the discoverer, in 1523. No one visiting the place at this time, will dispute its antiquity, nor experience much difficulty in believing that all the houses at present standing, were built before Diego left the island, so old and ruinous is their general appearance. The Governor's residence is here; here the Parliament holds its session uniformly, and the superior courts occasionally; and here are the government offices and public records. The occupants of these public buildings and the persons employed about them, represent the wealth, intelligence and industry of the city. I did not see a store in the place, though there may have been one or two perhaps; it has not a single respectable hotel, nor did I see a dray-cart, or any similar evidence of activity and thrift, although a population of 5,000 people is said to be lodged within its precincts. The city is supported mainly out of the public treasury. Those that have anything are generally connected in some way, directly or indirectly, with the public service, and those that have not anything, wait upon those who have. The public buildings form a quadrangle, one side of

32 GOVERNOR GREY. which is the " King's House,"-the residence of the Governor-opposite to it is the Parliament House and the other two sides are devoted to the public offices and courts. This is all of Spanishtown worthy of notice. The present Governor of the island is Sir Charles E. Grey, a cousin of Earl Grey, Her Britannic Majesty's Secretary for the Colonies. He is about sixty years of age I should judge, and rather stout but vigorous and active. He is far from being handsome but nature has endowed him with a benevolent disposition, a rare and genial humor, and more than ordinary executive talents, which, with the aid of high culture and rare experience, have made him a decidedly noticeable man. He was educated to the bar, and practised in the courts of Westminster Hall for some years, not without distinction. During my visit in Spanishtown, the British steamer Teviot arrived, bringing the young Earl of Durham, yet quite a lad, who, for the sake of his health, had chosen this, instead of the more direct route, to visit his sister, Lady Elgin, in Canada. His arrival furnished the Governor an occasion for mentioning that the first fee he ever received as a barrister, was two hundred and fifty guineas from this lad's father, in the case of his contested election to a seat in Parliament, many years ago. The result of the contest vindicated Lord Durham's sagacity, and at once gave the young barrister professional position.

-),OBAIBLE SUCCESSOR TO LORD ELGIN, 38 His family connection and serviceable talents transferred him, at a comparitively early age, from the bar to the highly important post of judge in India, where he presided with distinction for many years. He was subsequently appointed Governor of the island of Barbadoes, fiom whence he was promoted to his present position, which is esteemed the second governorship, in point of dignity, in the gift of the crown-Canada being the first. One of the Governor's friends here tolc me, that if Lord Elgin should retire from Canada, Sir Charles would unquestionably be appointed to his place. The change I think would be popular in Canada, though one of the prominent reasons for removing Elgin, would constitute a fatal objection to appointing Sir Charles as his successor. Both are necessitous, and cannot spare any portion of their incomes to popularize and strengthen themselves with amoing their people; Elgin does not scruple to use the ~300 appropriated to him by his government for entertaining, to the paying off of incumbrances upon his estates, and in consequence enjoys the reputation of being a screw and a niggard throughout Canada. Sir Charles Grey is deeply in debt, and I believe has been outlawed by his creditors; at all events, his embarrassments were such that he was obliged to leave England. He has been repeatedly prosecuvted in the courts of the island for his liabilities, and recently had the hardihood to plead his governorship in bar 2*

34 GOVERNOR, GREY9S COMPENSATION. of an action upon one of his bonds. The courts very properly decided that governors have no "privilege" which exempted them from the payment of their debts, and he was compelled to pay. Thus pressed at all times by his creditors, of course he never has a spare penny which is not required to satisfy them, and has no means to entertain them with that liberality which his taste would incline him, and which made Lord Metcalf so exceedingly popular both in Jamaica and afterwards in Canada. Lady Grey resides with her daughters, in England. Lieut. Charles William, the son of the Governor, is with him in the capacity of assistant secretary. This separation of the family, I am told, is one of the consequences of the father's improvidence and pecuniary necessities. The catastrophe, however, is so enveloped in scandal that I do not feel authorized upon my information to give its details farther currency. The Governor is ex oficio Chancellor, the presiding officer of the " Court of Ordinary," and presiding officer of the "Court of Appeals under Errors." He is also vested with the powers of a High Court of Admiralty. As Governor, he receives a salary of $30,000 a year, which is increased by the fees accruing from his various judicial offices some eight or ten thousand more. His official income is not over estimated at forty thousand dollars an

HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. 35 nually; a very pretty sum. for a plain man, but not much for a nobleman, they say. Opposite to the Governor's residence, is the House of Assembly or Parliament House, where I was impatient to meet the assembled legislative wisdom of the island, and whither I bent my steps as soon after my arrival as circumstances would permit. When I entered, the House was " in Committee of th Whole on the State of the Island," Mr. Jordan, a brow man, and one of the editors of the Morning Journal, in the chair. Mr. Osborne, another brown man, his associate in the editorship of the Journal, was speaking. About twenty-five members were present. The room was a plain, indeed homely sort of: anr apartment, competent to hold three or four hundred people, and divided in two by a bar, within which sat the members. The room was entirely without ornament of any kind, and resembled a country court room in the United States. Mr. Jordan, who occupied the chair, is a clear headed, deliberate, and sagacious man, and is perhaps as much as any one, the leader of what is called the King's House or administration party. Osborne, who was speaking when I entered, was originally a slave; I afterwards had occasion to observe that he talked more than any other man in the house, though I did not perceive that he had any particular vocation as an orator. He is not educated; lie is, however, rather illiter

36 THE SPEAKER. ate than ignorant, and his mind lacks discipline and order, but he has an influence with his colleagues which is not to be despised. He is sanguine and pertinacious to a degree, and by taking advantage of the heedlessness or indolence of his colleagues, accomplishes more than many members of superior capacity. HIe 1and Jordan are the public printers, from which appointment they derive a profit which is supposed here to exceed thirty thousand dollars a year. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the Assembly and in their journal they support the present administration fervently. The Speaker, Charles M'Larty Morales, is of Jewish descent, and by profession a physician. He contested his present seat successfully witl Samuel Jackson Dallas, the previous incumbent, who I learned to my surprise, is a cousin to the late Vice President of the United States. Mr. Dallas represents Port Royal; he is very tall, quite thin, and grey, and looks like a gentleman, but shares few of the advantages of personal appearance which distinguish his American cousin. The Speaker is chosen by the Assembly, subject to the' matter-of-course approval of the Governor. He is the only member who receives any compensation. As Speaker he is allowed ~960 per annum, nearly $5,000; at least that was the sum allowed to Mr. Dallas, by a law passed in 1845, and I think no change has been miade in that salary

HIS COMPENSATIONo 87 since. I am the more confident of this, from a circmnstance which occurred during my visit on the island. Some of the friends of Morales brought forward a proposition to advance the Speaker's salary, when a member rose and with crushing effect, produced the journal of the House of some previous year, in which Morales's vote was recorded against the law which advanced the Speaker's salary to its present figure, upon the ground that the old salary was high enough. Of course the proposition met with no favor. Had I realized what a set of shadows composed this body, and how utterly destitute they were of the independence and the power which give to political representation all its value, I should have felt less impatience to, visit it. I had expected to find there, as in the United States and as in England, the troubles of the people finding fit expression. I supposed the reports, debates and legislative formula's would have revealed the-activity, the tendencies, the grievances, and in general the public sentiment of Jamaica; instead of which, I found a body of men in no respect representatives of the people, holding legislative office without the vital functions of legislators.

CHAPTER V. Political Representation in Jamaica-Impotence of the Legislature -Executive influence-The Council —Deliberations of the Assembly- Political Parties - Public Salaries - Memorial against the Council. I HAVE stated that the local legislature of this island has neither the independence nor the power necessary to make it, to any extent, representative of the people. A few facts will show the truth of what I say, and will go far to explain the decrepit condition of this colony, to those who appreciate the dependance of good government upon full and fair representation. Jamaica is divided up into twenty-two parishes, as they are called, each of which sends two, and Kingston, Spanishtown and Port Royal, one additional delegate to the assembly, making the aggregate forty-seven, when the house is full. Every member, before taking his seat, is required to swear that he and his wife together, if he have a wife, are in the receipt of a clear income of nine hundred dollars a year, from real estate, or that they own real estate worth nine thousand dollars, or real and personal

POLITICAL REPRESENTATION. 39 estate together, worth about fifteen thousand dollars; and when he gets his seat he is obliged to discharge its duties without any compensation. A high property qualification like this, of course reduces the number of persons eligible to the assembly to a very small figure, and throws the legislation, not only into the hands of the comparatively rich, but into the hands of the landholders. The poor are utterly excluded from all participation in its privileges or responsibilities. Such discriminations are as pernicious as they are absurd, and have resulted, as any statesman could have anticipated, indeed, as they were probably designed to result, in subordinating the interest of the commercial, mechanical and industrial classes to that of the large landholders. All the energies of legislation are exerted to promote the growth and sale of sugar and rum; but there is no party in the assembly inquiring about the inexhaustible commercial and manufacturing resources of the island. In spite of these conditions, imposed by law upon candidates applying for seats in the legislature, they might still possess some of the more important representative functions if their constituency were free, and if the right of suffrage were liberally extended. But here again we find a characteristic distrust of poor men, and a truly English anxiety to guard the landholder. Every voter must own a freehold estate worth thirty dollars, or pay a yearly

40 IMPOTENCE OF THE LEGISLATURE. rent on real estate of not less than one hundred and forty dollars, or pay yearly taxes to the amount of fifteen dollars. The first consequence of these restrictions is, that the people of the island are not only ineligible to the legislature, but they have nothing to do with making a selection from those who are. I say people, for of course the great bulk of the adult population are poor; they are colored people who, only sixteen years ago, were, with no considerable exception, slaves. Of the 400,000 people who, according to the received estimate, constitute the present population of Jamaica, but 16,000 are white. The remaining 384,000 are colored and black people. The last census taken upon the island fixed the proportion of these as follows: colored, 68,529; blacks, 293,128.* The average vote of this en* A census of the island was taken on the third day of June, 1844, and the following results were obtained: Males. Females. Total. White, 9,289 6.4 7 15,776 Colored, 31,646 36,883 68,529 Black, 140,698. 452 430 293,128 Totals, 181,633 195,890 377,433 The ages of the population were thus classified: Males. Females. Sex not specified. Total. Under 5 years 20,575 22, 884 8,248 51,707 Between 5 and 10 18,472 21,534 7,215 47,221 Between 10 and 20 25,916 27,482 9,385 62,733 Between 20 and 40 50.834 50,919 20,006 121309 Between 40 and 60 27,896 29,532 11,069 68,499 Over 60 9,576 12,628 3,759 25,963 Total 377,433 By the above tables, it appears, that every thousand inhabitants are, according to color, in the following proportion: Vllite, 41'79; Colored, 181'56; Black, 776'63. The proportion of females to every 100 males is 107'79; according to color for every one hundred white males, there are 69'83 white females; for every 100 colored males, 110'22 colored females; and for every 100 black males, 108'33 black females.

EXECUTIVE INFLUENCE. 41 tire population, white and black, I understand, has never exceeded three thousand-or, three quarters per cent. The city of New York, with about the same population, usually polls over fifty thousand votes, which is a smaller proportion probably, than is polled in any other county in any free state of the Union. But this is not all. When the legislature is chosen, it has no control over the questions of fundamental interest. The heart which gives it life, beats in London; the islanders have no more control over its action than the finger nails have over the circulation of the blood. The Assembly, in connexion with the Executive and Council, can levy taxes for local purposes, it must raise money to pay the officers sent out to rule over it; it can keep the highways in condition, it must support the established church; it may provide public instruction, it may establish a police; but even these powers it exercises subject to the approval of the Queen or of Parliament. The organization of their local government, the appointments to fill the various executive offices, and the taxes payable upon imports and exports, are all matters with which the island legislature has nothing to do. But even in its local legislature I have not exhibited all its impotence. The Governor is vested with power " to adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve " the Assembly at his pleasure, and is invested with almost the entire patronage of the island,

42 THE COUNCIL. which is altogether controlling. Some notion of its extent may be formed from the following items, which have fallen under my observation. He appoints the Vice-Chancellor, with a salary of about $12,500 a year; two assistant Judges, with salaries of $10,000 a year each; six chairmen of quarter sessions, at $6,000 a year each; three revising barristers to canvass the votes of the island annually, at $1,000 a year each; a commissioner of stamps, at $2,500 a year; three official assignees of insolvents, at $2,500 a year each; nine water bailiffs to regulate the landing and discharge of vessels, with salaries at discretion; seventeen health officers and an indefinite number of assistants, at undefined salaries; an agent general of immigration, at a salary of $1,500 a year; an inspector general of police, at a discretionary compensation; an inspector general of prisons, at a salary of $3,000 a year; a superintendent at $1,500; an auditor of accounts at $2,000; and some fifty subordinate officers; and finally, he has the extraordinary power of suspending any member of the Council, and of appointing a new member in his place. I have not alluded before to the Second Estate of the island, the Council, which, as a nominal branch of the local government, is worthy of some notice. The Council is the upper house of legislation in Jamaica, and is composed of twelve men appointed by the crown, of whom the Lieutenant Governor, the Chief Justice, the At

THE COUNCIL. 43 torney General and the Bishop, are ex-officio members. All bills originate with the lower house, but they must pass the Council before they go to the Executive or can become laws. Of course, nothing can pass this body, thus constituted and appointed, which is not perfectly satisfactory to the Colonial minister, nor does anything ever pass itagainst the wishes of the Governor. It is nominally a branch of the legislature, but in fact is nothing but a cabinet or sort of privy counsel, with which the Governor consults, and which he uses as a sort of breakwater between himself and the lower house. They are an independent legislative body upon questions in which the Governor has no adverse interest, but they are as incapable of making any resistance to his will as his shadow would be.* * During my stay in Jamaica, an information, was filed by the Attorney General against William Girod, the editor of the Colonial Standard, the organ of the country party, for a libel upon the Council. It seems that the Council had received a petition, signed by some members of Assemby, among others, imputing corrupt motives to a portion of that body in their legislative proceedings Girod was a member of the Assembly, and belonged to the party which this petition assailed. He denounced the Council for receiving it, and, among other things said: We are not skilled enough in parliamentary law, to be able to state the extent to which the Council have sinned against that degree of etiquette, which custom at least, if not mutual respect, has ever maintained between the two lower branches of the legislature. But this we know, that the Council have now opened the door to recrimination, and they need not be surprised, if at an early opportunity, the true opinion of the people of Jamaica, of thbse who are competent to offer an opinion, the wealth, the education and the respectability of the country, finds its way in the form of' accumulated contempt of the Council, their selfishness, their corruption and their avarice, upon the journals of the Assembly. For this he was prosecuted by the government. He was successfully defended by Mr. Moncriefi; who, by the by, is a brown man, and one of the most eloquent advocates in Jamtica. The following extract from his speech, will be found to confirm the view I have taken of its operation as a branch of the government: "Now. let me ask, if these opinions expressed in this publication before you, are tho opinions of yesterday?-if they are- noxious to society?-if the object was to subvert society. or if the object of WVilliam Girod was to sow sedition in the minds of the inhabitants of this country 2 Gentlemen, as matter of history,

44 DELIBERATIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY. From the illustrations here presented, it is apparent that the executive patronage reaches every point of influence and every interest worth conciliating or promoting on the island, and enables the Governor practically to dictate its legislation. It is hardly necessary to say that the deliberations of a body thus constituted and crippled, possess but little interest to strangers, and furnish a very narrow theatre for the display of oratory or statesmanship. The questions never involve any principle, and the discussions these opinions are not of yesterday. In 1792, it was the opinion of those who then represented the people of the colony,'That it be recommended to the House to appoint a committee to prepare an humble address to his majesty, grounded on the several preceding resolutions, and humbly to represent to his majesty, that the junction of two such different capacities as that of a privy council of State and a legislative council, in one and the same body, of which five members only constitute a quorum, (no greater number having tattended the Board during the late contest,) has ever been productive of great inconvenience to the good people of this island. and has proved, and must always prove, the never-failing source of discord and distrust between this House and the King's representative, (and the time now gives it proof;) and lastly, to pray his majesty graciously to afford such relief in the premises, as to his royal wisdom shall seem meet. Ordered, That Mr. Bryan Edwards, Mr. W. MIitchell and Mr. Shirley, be a committee for that purpose.' (Journals of Assembly, Vol. 9, page 100 ) Gentlemen, in 1812, those who then represented the public opinion of the colony resolved,'That the Council of this island, as at present constituted, have not necessarily a territorial qualification in the country, or any community of interest with the inhabitants, to wholm they are in no manner accountable, that nothing can more clearly prove the danger of such a body having any control over the property of our constituents, than the late wanton rejection of a law necessary to the public safety, because the House would not sulrrender its most important privileges.' So far back, then, as 1792, the bold men who'represented the colonists predicted, and predicted truly, that so long as an oligarchy existed in this colony, so long as there existed an irresponsible body having legislative power over the people of this country-so long as that anomalous Boardl existed, there would be no peace in the colony; and with the opinions so long ago uttered, I, from what has taken place within the last few years, cordially agree; and I say that for a body of that description to proscribe any other than their opinions to punish us for uttering opinions other than theirs, will never meet with the concurrence of a jury, or there would not be one single moment's security for any of us. It is for this reason, gentlemen, that I ask you if you are to convict William Gir od of libel, for uttering opinions which have pievailed now for more than half a century? For uttering the opinions of a lalre body of the inhabitants of this country Whether public opinion shall be crushled and stifled by a body exercising tyrannical power? I say, gentlemen, and I say it advisedly, that where irresponsible power decides there is tyranny; human passion will make tyrants of an oligarlhy, and this prosecution shows what that Board would do if you would assist thlim; they would cramp the expression of opinion; they would circumscribe our opinions to their own limits; they would do what despotic power always does, they would ride rampant over the people."

POLITICAL PARTIES. 45 are never elaborate. Though the assembly contains many gentlemen of talent and prominence in their respective callings, they never find occasion to display it here. Their debates are quite as informal and colloquial as those of the New York Municipal Council, and their legislation disposes of far less considerable interests in the course of a year. It is difficult to convey any satisfactory idea of the state of political parties here, for they can hardly be said to have any state. They are not arrayed upon any of the issues which classify the inhabitants of the mother country. Upon the questions agitated in the British parliament in which they have any interest, they are for the most part agreed. Colonial assistance of any kind all desire, and all desire protection for colonial produce. The appointees of the present government have prudence enough not to proclaim their sentiments upon the house-tops, but even they, do not disguise them at the fire-side. It is to free trade they ascribe their ruin, not to the abolition of slavery. I did not find a man upon the island, and I made very extensive inquiry, who regretted the Emancipation Act, or who, if I may take their own professions, would have restored slavery had it been in their power. They say that if they only had the protection on the staples of the island which they enjoyed with slavery, they would prosper. It was the removal of that protection, added to the advanced price

46 PUBLIC SALARIES. of labor, occasioned by the emancipation of slaves, which compelled them to surrender their accustomed market to the cheaper slave-grown productions of Cuba and Brazil. The number of those who are opposed to colonial protection is too small to constitute a party, and hence, that subject rarely enters into the formation of party issues of any kind. The party lines are most distinctly drawn between what are known, the one as the " King's House," and the other the " Country Party"-the former being the administration and the latter, the opposition parties. The prominent measure pending between then at the last Assembly, of a strictly party character, was the retrenchment of salaries, The country party is composed mostly of the planters and large proprietors of land, who insist that in the present depressed and impoverished condition of the island, it is impossible to pay the enormous salaries which were granted in the days of their prosperity. They say, and with reason, that forty thousand dollars a year is too much for a governor of four hundred thousand people, when the President of the United states, with twenty millions of subjects receives only twenty-five thousand a year-that fifteen thousand dollars for a Chief Justice of Jamaica, and ten thousand for each of his associates, is extravagant, when the Chief Justice of the highest tribunal in the United States only gets six thousand dollars; and so

MEMORIAL AGAINST THE COUNCIL. 47 on through a succession of salaries all proportionately enormous and equally unnecessary. The administration party, on the other hand, say that none of those holding office find their compensation excessive; that a residence in a hot climate, and distant from home, deserves to be well paid for; that they accepted office under the present rate, and they have a vested interest in their salaries, which ought not to be violated. The planters reply, that it was never their wish to have any one leave a distant home to rule them in Jamaica; in other words, they would be perfectly willing to furnish resident incumbents for all the offices on the island, for such appointees would not require a premium for leaving home and living in a hot climate. Indeed, the importation of officials from the mother country has occasionally been resented as a great grievance by the islanders, and not without justice. The appointment of the present Chief Justice, Sir Joshua Rowe, is an instance. He was the first Chief Justice ever sent to Jamaica from abroad. He was appointed, I believe, about fifteen years ago. Theretofore the first judicial office of the island had always been filled from the Jamaica bar. The islanders felt so outraged at this appointment, that for two years they refused to appropriate money for his salary. Meantime he went on discharging his duties with noticeable ability-and wisdom, and added from day to day to the number of his personal

48 MEMORIAL AGAINST THE COUNCIL. friends, especially from among the members of the bar, where his appointment gave most offence, until finally all opposition disappeared, and he has since received his fifteen thousand dollars, without a murmur against him for having been a non-resident barrister at the time of his appointment. After enduring their grievances as long as they thought it became them, the country party, introduced their bill. Of course the council, fiom four or five of whom it would cut off an important moiety of their income, took good care that the bill did not pass. The country party sent a memorial to the Minister for the Colonies, requesting that the council might be re-constituted in a way to enable the public sentiment of the island to have fair expression. The memorial was thrown under the minister's table, and a speech about the colonies, from the premier in the House of Commons, full of sympathy and figures, was all the satisfaction which the memorialists obtained. The country party then drew up a memorial to Parliament, setting forth the evils incident to the present organization of the council, and requesting that it should be changed in such a way as to prevent those members whose income, a retrenchment bill would affect, from having the power to defeat its passage. This memorial was the prominent party measure of the last session of the Assembly. Of course, it was resisted by the administration with all

MEMORIAL AGAINST THE COUNCIL. 49 their power. It passed, hoowever, on the 29th of January last, I believe, only five members voting against it. The Colonial Standard, a journal printed at Kiingston, and the organ of the country party, commented upon this measure as follows:"We observe by yesterday's proceecdings, that the memorial to the Commons is to be forwarded to Mr. Roebuck for presentation, and that to the Lords, to Lord Stanley. The selection appears rather heterogeneous, but we are not sorry for it. The question is not one which has any bearing on the political parties. It appeals to the independent nembers of Parliament on all sides. The people of Jaaiica have been subjected in their private fortunes to a ruinous change of circumstances, alnd they have insisted that the cost of government should partake of the same cheapness as that which has been the ground-work of their ruin. The council, composed, with two exceptions, of official and salaried individuals, possessing a personal interest in the question, have refused to sanction any measure of retrenchment, present or prospective; and within the last five years have rejected five different bills, having one or other object. In this course they have been supported by the Colonial office, and the only appeal lies to Parliament. It matters not to which side of the House the conduct of this appeal is entrusted, but a more fitting man in the Commons than Mr. Roebuck could hardly have been selected. The analogy between the present complaint of Jamaica and that from Canada, which was so very ably managed by Mr. Roebuck in 1834, is complete-the only 3

50 RECEPTION OF T-IE PETITION, difference being, that in Canada the council were appointed for life, whereas, in Jamaica, they hold their seats at pleasure, making the case of Jamaica, only so much stronger. Mr. Roebuck, who made good the complaints of Canada, has but to go over the same ground in exposing the grievances of Jamaica. He triumphed in the one case; he cannot fail in the other." This petition was presented to the House of Lords by Lord Stanley on the 6th May, on which occasion it received its quietus from Earl Grey, the Colonial Minister, in the following extraordinary remark, as reported by the English journals:" Earl Grey said, that whatever grounds there might be for an alteration in the constitution of Jamaica, he was not prepared to admit that there were special grounds for bringing forward the question at the present moment. The noble earl defended the conduct of the council, who had never stood in the way of reduction or economy." Had the country party been successful in carrying their retrenchment bills, they would have saved, perhaps, fifty thousand dollars a year, scarcely more, rather a small matter, one would suppose, to make such a pother about. And yet it.is the most direct mode left to them, of promoting their prosperity by legislation, and has been the prominent party issue among them for the past two years. A better

POLITICAL PAR'I'ES. 51 illustration could not be desired, to show the utter impotence of the Assembly, and the over-shadowing authority of the Executive. The country party embraces most of the English planters; the colored people generally support the government. This surprised me at first, but I soon came to understand it. In the first place, English proprietors somehow, are always at War with the operative classes, all the world over; at least I never heard of either of the two classes thinking that they had any community of interest. In the next place, the government have felt the necessity of conciliating the colored men in Jamaica in every possible way, and hence it is that this part of the population fill at least nine-tenths of all the offices. I think there has been a sincere desire felt by the heads of the government in England to have the blacks prosper and vindicate the philanthropic purpose which secured their liberty. This desire has largely increased the proportion of political appointments to be made from that class. But the political and physical strength of the blacks has become formidable, and if those people were to become thoroughly alienated from their allegiance, the island would very soon become uninhabitable to English people, and its commerce would be ruined. Bearing, however, as they do, but a trifling portion of the burthen of taxation, sharing in very liberal proportions the patronage which the taxation of

52 POLI'ITICAL PARTIES8 others supports, and flattered by the notice and encouragement with which their loyalty is rewarded, they very naturally ally themselves to the King's house party, upon all questions of revenue and taxation, which, in fact, furnish the only subjects for party controversy,

CHAPTER VI. The poverty of Jamaica-Depreciation and diminution of exports -The market value of estates-Corresponding prostration in the other British West India colonies. IT is difficult to exaggerate, and yet more difficult to define, the poverty and industrial prostration of Jamaica. The natural wealth and spontaneous productiveness of the island are so great that no one can starve, and yet it seems as if the faculty of accumulation were suspended. All the productive power of the soil is running to waste; the finest land in the world may be had at any price, and almost for the asking; labor receives no compensation, and the product of labor does not seem to know the way to market. Families accustomed to wealth and every luxury, have witnessed the decline of their incomes, until now, with undiminishec estates, they find themselves wrestling with poverty for the commonest necessaries of life. There are no public amusements here of any kind, for amusements are purclased with the surplus wealth of people, and here there is no surplus. There was not a theatre, or a museum, or a circus, or any other place of entertainment, involving ex

54 ESTATES ABANDONED. pense, open during my stay on the island. The corporation of Kingston owns a building which has been used as a theatre, and in the suburbs of the city is a plain once famous as a race course, but of the first, rats and spiders are the only tenants, and weeds and underwood have overgrown the other. But the island abounds with more palpable, if not more significant evidences of prostration than these. Since the year 1833, when the British Slave Emancipation Act was passed, the real estate of the island has been rapidly depreciating in value, and its productiveness has been steadily diminishing to its present comparatively ruinous standard. Whatever diversity of views may exist respecting the influence which the abolition of slavery may have had in producing this state of things, there is no doubt, I believe, entertained by any, that the passage of the Emancipation Act of 1833, was followed by the disasters I have referred to, as promptly as it could have been if it had been their cause. I will start, therefore, at that point to illustrate still further, and in another aspect, the present industrial condition of Jamaica. Since 1832, out of the six hundred and fifty-three sugar estates then in cultivation, more than one hundred and fifty have been abandoned and the works broken up. This has thrown out of cultivation over 200,000 acres of rich land, which, in 1832, gave employment to about 30,000

DIMINUTION OF EXPORTS. 55 laborers, and yielded over 15,000 hogsheads of sugar, and over 6,000 puncheons of rum. During the same period, over 500 coffee plantations have been abandoned, and their works broken up. This threw out of cultivation over 200,000 acres more of land, wThich, in 1832, required the labor of over 30,000 men. From an official return of the exports from the island now lying before me, I am enabled to compare the surplus production of its great staples in the three years previous to the Emancipation Act, with the exports for the three years preceding the month of October, 1848. They contrast as follows:Sug-ar Rum Mo. Ginger. Pimento Coffee Year when exported. I ds. puns, cks. pounds. pounds. pounds. 1830......................100,205 35,025 154 1.748,800 5,560,620 22,256,950 1831...................... 94,881 36,411 230 1,614,640 3.172,320 14,055,350 1832...................... 98,686 33,6 79 2,55,560 4,024,800 19,815,010 293,772 105,121 1,183 5,719;000 12,757,740 56,126,310 1846.................... 36.223 14,395 76 1,462,600 2,997,060 6,047,150 1847...................... 48,554 18,077 22 1,24,480 2,800,10 6,421,122 1848...................... 42212 20,194 2 320,340 5,231,908,684,941 126,989 52,0666 100 3,106,820 11,029,108 18,153,213 Aggregate diminution....166,783 1 52,455 ] 1,083 1 2,802,180 1 1,628,532 1 38,973,097 By this contrast it appears that during the last three years the island has exported less than half the sugar, rum, or ginger; less than one-third the coffee; less than onetenth the molasses; and nearly two millions of pounds less of pimento, than during the three years which preceded the Emancipation Act.

56 DEPRECTAT'ON OF PROPERTY. If any one reflects a moment upon the probable effects which would result from cutting off, only half the exports of such a country as the United States or England, one has less difficulty in realizing the condition of the people of Jamaica, who are not exporting much more than a third of what they have exported in the days of their prosperity.* The political economist need not be told that such a falling off fromi the income of the island, must have been attended with a corresponding depreciation in the value of real estate, but no one unacquainted with the fertility and beauty, and former productiveness of Jamaica, can realize the extent of that depreciation. I will give you a few illustratio.ns which can be relied upon. The Spring Valley estate in the parish of St. Mary's, embracing 1,244 acres, had been sold once for ~318,000 sterling. In 1842, it was abandoned, and in 1845, the freehold, including works, machinery, plantation utensils, and a water power, was sold for ~1,000. The Tremoles estate, of 1,450 acres, once worth ~68,265 sterling, has been since sold for ~8,400, and would not now bringo half that sum. The Golden Valley sugar estate, containing about 1,200 acres, was sold in 1846 for ~620, including machinery and works. * In 1797 they exported 3,621,260 lbs. of ginger, which is one-third more than the largest quantity exported during the years I have enumerated above. In 1805 they exported 160,352 hhds., sugar, and in 1814 they exported 34,045,585 lbs. of coffee,

DEPRECTATTON OF PROPETRTY. 5, The Caen-woocl sugar estate, which once cost ~18,000, was offered by its present owners, but found no purchasers, at ~1,500, and its cultivation has been abandoned. The overseer of Friendship Valley estate used to receive a salary of ~120 per annum for his services; he has been offered the whole estate within three years, for ~120. Fair Prospect estate, which used to yield five hundred hogsheads of sugar, and was valued at ~40,000, was sold in 1841 for ~4,000, and now would not bring anything like that sum. Ginger Hall, which used to yield ~1,200 sterling per annum, has since been sold for ~1,400. Bunker's Hill estate, which had been mortgaged for ~30,000, was last sold for ~2,500. A sugar estate lying in the parish of St. Thomas, in the East, embracing 1,000 acres of land, with a good dwelling house, works, machinery, copper stills, and other appropriate fixtures, was put up at auction in 1847, in Kingston, and sold for ~620. Provision lands about the Rio Grande river, which had never been opened, and which were exceedingly productive, have been sold for one dollar per acre, and I was informed by the Governor, Sir Charles Grey, that he knew of ten thousand acres of land, lying all together, which could now be bought for ~1,000, or for about fifty cents an acre; indleed, what is yet more extraordinary, a cutti-'3 *

)8 TIHE PROSTRATTON OF TET- OTRER TSLANDS. vatecd sugar estate of 2000 acres was sold only this last April for ~600. I might multiply facts of this kind without,number, but it is sufficient to say, that prepared land, as fine as any under cultivation on the island, may be readily bought in unlimited quantities for five dollars an acre, while land far more productive than any in New England, may be readily had for from fifty cents to a dollar. That the misfortunes of Jamaica may not be attributed exclusively to local causes, it is proper that I should state that the other British West India islands have all been visited by equally serious, if not the same prostrating influences, and all consider themselves ruined and helpless. By returns recently made to the British House of Commons, it appears that, comparing the imports from British Guiana, Jamaica, and Trinidad, during the years 1831 to 1838, with the years 1844 to 1848, the production of sugar has fallen off 3,130,000 cwts., molasses 506,133 cwts., rum 3,324,627 galls., coffee 52,661,350 lbs., and the production of cotton has entirely ceased. In 1838 there were two hundred and fifty-eight estates in Demerara and Essequibo in profitable cultivation; of these, seventy-one have been abandoned and one hundred and eleven sold under execution. The condition of Berbice may be inferred from the following extract from the Address presented to the Governor

BERBICE. 59 on the occasion of his visiting that island in the fall of 1849. It is taken from the Berbice Gazette, of October 15, 1849. "It can but prove a source of the deepest sorrow to your Excellency to behold in your tour of inspection throughout this county, the rapid progress of desolation and decay, consequent upon the measures of the Imperial Government, measures which, though intended to promote the general interests of the empire, have been only attended with a wholesale destruction of property here, without producing an amount of benefit to the mass of the population at home, in any degree commensurate with such a fearful, but one-sided sacrifice. " We would particularly draw your Excellency's attention to the condition of the Courantyne Coast, the west bank of the Canje Creek, and both banks of the river Berbice, and we would pray your Excellency to compare it with the condition in which you found them on your first visit to this country a few years ago. " At that time your Excellency found magnificent estates, independent and wealthy proprietors, a thriving class of European subordinate officers, and a peasantry beyond all comparison, the most happy and prosperous in the world. Now, in every direction, your Excellency will only encounter impoverished proprietors; you will find the introduction of intelligent European servants discontinued, the peasantry relapsing with astonishing and most alarming rapidity into a state of greater barbarism than at any former period, and innumerable fine buildings and costly machinery falling

60 THON. E. STANLEY'S REPORT. rapidly into dilapidation and decay, and approachable only by water communication, the roads and thoroughfares being quite impassable. " That this is no over-drawn picture, your Excellency will have but too fatally conclusive proof, but it may well be inferred from the fact, that since that time, three cotton, thirty coffee, and nine sugar estates in this county alone have been totally abandoned, and are now relapsing into a wilderness." Just before my arrival at Jamaica, the island had been visited by the Hon. E. Stanley, M.P., who was on a tour through the British possessions in the West Indies with the view of informing himself accurately of their condition. He has published the result of his observations in the form of a communication to the Hon. W. E. Gladstone. As the conclusions to which his visit lead him are quite different from those to which I have been brought by my far more limited opportunities of observation, I shall take occasion in a subsequent chapter to notice his paper again. I only refer to it now for the purpose of quoting from it some illustrations of the declining condition of Guiana. Writing to this point he says:"M y next reference will be to an even more certain authority, the official returns of the number of estates in the colony, which at three different periods continued to export produce.

BRITISH GUIA.NA. 61 "Total number of sugar estates which made returns of produce for taxation in British Guiana were"In 1841, 215. See Local Guide, page lii. "In 1846, 208. Taken from official returns. "In 1848, 187. Taken from the same. "The diminution in the first period of five years is 7. "The diminution in the second period of two years 21. "In February, 1850, there were 27 estates under sequestration, of which 25 were sugar estates. "This is so far important, that it proves the retrograde condition of a country not surpassed in point of natural advantages by any in the world; but you will easily see that it furnishes a very inadequate idea of the real depreciation of property which has taken place, since every estate which continues to produce any crop at all-no matter how little, or at what price saleable-remains on the list as before. A more accurate measure may perhaps be found in the following list of sales, effected before and after 1846. It will be obvious that the number of estates thus sold and re-sold, within a period of sixteen years, must necessarily be very limited; and consequently, that there is no room for a mere selection of isolated cases, which might give an exaggerated and unreal impression of distress. "Indeed, even here the depreciation is not fully represented; for, in order to be sold, an estate must find a purchaser; and a very large proportion of those not yet wholly abandoned, are only not in the market because their owners, or the creditors of those owners, are well aware that it is useless to send them there.

62 POVEYRTY OF GUIANA. "In addition to the above, I may subjoin the following communication, forwarded to me by a gentleman lately returned from Guiana: "'The La Grange and Windsor Forest estates were bought by Mr. Cruikshank for ~25,000 and ~40,000, in 1838 and 1840, respectively. The two were sold together, a few weeks ago, for ~11,000 nominally; but this price included a claim for ~5,000 due to the purchaser, making the actual purchase money ~6,000, or something less than one-tenth of the original value.' " Showing a fall in aggregate value of something like 90 per cent! Will any one say after this, that. the statements which reach them of colonial distress are exaggerated or over-colored? Take now the description given by a member of the Court of Policy, Mr. White, himself a planter, addressing the Combined Court in presence of the Governor; and let it be noticed that the accuracy of his assertions appears nowhere to have been disputed in the subsequent debate:"' To show how property in this country had depreciated in value within the last few years, it appeared to be necessary only to compare the present value of that property with what it brought a few years ago. The value of fixed property-sugar estates —before emancipation, was estimated at twenty millions of pounds sterling, or twice the value of the slaves, as they were appraised by the commissioners. But what was the value of that same property now? There were still 220 estates in the colony. If the sales which had taken place within the last year were to be taken as a criterion of the present value of property-and he thought they could very properly be taken as a criterion-it would be found that the average value of estates did not exceed ~3,000. It was only the other day

POVERTY OF GUIANA. 63 that two large estates which, within his recollection, a few years ago, would have brought ~40,000, were sold for ~3,000 each. Therefore, taking ~3,000 as the average value of estates, the real value of estates here, including cotton and coffee estates, was ~660,000; that was to say, property which some years ago would have brought twenty millions sterling, had been, in consequence of the measures of the British Government, reduced in value to ~660,000. That showed the utter annihilation which had taken place in the value of property in the colony. There was another point which would also show the great depreciation which had taken place in the value of property. In the petition to which he had already referred, it was stated that the gross annual value of produce of the colony in 1846, was $3,500,000, or ~700,000 sterling. Now, he believed he had shown the value of all landed property in the country, taking the value of the estate to be ~3,000, was ~660,000. That was, the value of the sugar estates in the colony was only ~660,000, while the produce of a year was ~700,000. In fact, the landed property in this country was not worth one year's purchase!" It is easy to see that such a general depreciation in the price of productive property anywhere, must leave poverty and ruin on its path, but adequately to realize the financial reverses of this gem of the ocean, it is necessary to appreciate its exceeding fertility and unequalled natural resources. I will briefly allude to some of the most prominent indications of both.

CHAPTER VII. Physical resources of Jamaica-Soil —Fruits —Vegetables —Drugs — Trees —Irrigation —Rivers-Difficulties of transportation — Harbors-Mines. JAMAICA embraces about 4,000,000 acres of land, of which there are not, probably, any ten lying adjacent to each other, which are not susceptible of the highest cultivation, while not more than 500,000 acres have ever been reclaimed, or even appropriated. The quality and productiveness of the soil may be inferred in part, from what I have said of its exports. Sugar retoons here, on most plantations, three or four times. I myself picked some cotton of a superior quality, which had been planted more than ten years. Very little of the soil has been manured, or requires to be, and such a thing as an exhausted estate is hardly known. The negroes sometimes exhaust the three or four acres of which they may have become proprietors, by covering the ground with every variety of fruit and vegetable, and by planting anew, after every crop, without giving the soil either rest or restoratives. But these exceptions are of trifling importance. Vegetation

PHYSICAL RESOURCES OF JAMAICA. 65 here is not suspended by the approach of winter, which averages a temperature only ten or fifteen degrees lower than that of summer. Planting and harvesting go on throughout the year. The richness of the soil may be inferred fiom a usage which has existed since long previous to the abolition of slavery, of setting apart to the negroes one day in seven for the cultivation of their own little grounds from which they gather nearly their entire support. On Saturdays, they are never expected to work for any one but themselves. They devote that day to tilling their grounds and marketting their produce. This one clay's labor in each week is all they require to keep up to the highest power of production, from three to five, and sometimes ten acres of provision grounds. The fruits of the island are of infinite variety, and most of them grow spontaneously, or with very little culture; each month having its own peculiar harvest. Among those fruits which grow in greatest abundance and perfection, are the pine apple, shadduck, orange, pomegranate, fig, grenedillo, cashew apple, banana, star apple, chirimoya, tamarind, cocoa nut, olive, date, plantain, mulberry, akee, jack fruit, bread fruit, and every variety of melons, grapes, pears, plums, mangos, &c. Among vegetables most easy of cultivation, are potatoes, yams, cassava, peas and beans of every variety, all the com

66 - PHYSICAL RESOURCES OF JAMAICA. mon table vegetables of the United States, ochro, choco, calalue, and a curious variety of salads. Maize and Indian corn grow here luxuriantly. The Guinea grass, which is superior for grazing purposes to any other, grows wild to the height of five and six feet. The island also abounds in dye stuffs, drugs and spices of the greatest value; to these may be added the aloe, ginger, cochineal, spikenard, liquorice root, castor oil nut, vanilla, peppers of every variety, arrow root, ippecacuanha, jalap, cassia, senna, and many others, of which I have no knowledge. I have already referred to the immense crops *of pimento which used to be gathered here, and which in 1848, in spite of the general agricultural depression upon the island, amounted to over five millions of pounds. I learned a fact in the natural history of this spice which was new to me, and may be new to many of my readers. It was communicated by Mr. Richard Hill, the colored gentleman to whose accomplishments in natural history I have already alluded. The island of Jamaica furnishes nine-tenths of all the pimento that is the subject of commerce throughout the world. And yet, says Mr. Hill, there is not a pimento walk on the island which has been cultivated from seed planted by human hands. On the contrary, all the seed is scattered about with the rejectamenta of the birds, and when it comes up, the bushes and shrubbery by which it happens

FOREST TREES. 67 to be surrounded are cut away from about it, and thus the pimento walk is laid out. The same thing, he said, was true of the guava. He intimated an impression that a proper analysis of the soil in which the seed germinated would probably reveal the secret, hitherto inviolate, by the aid of which the pimento could be cultivated from its seed. This statement becomes the more astonishing when the fact is considered that Jamaica has exported over three millions of pounds of this spice in a single year. The forests of Jamaica abound with the rarest cabinet woods, in wonderful variety. I was shown a beautiful box, the top of which was inlaid with thirty different choice and rich indigenous specimens. Among the trees of most value in various ways may be mentioned the bread fruit tree, which takes a fine polish; the satin wood; the cedar, which grows to an immense size; the cotton tree, the body of which is cut out by the negroes for canoes; the bamboo, one of the most useful trees on the island; the trumpet tree, the bark of which is used for cordage and the body for other purposes; the black and green ebony; lignumnvite; the palmetto,'which sometimes grow one hundred and forty feet in height, and others. The mahogany is native to Jamaica, but is now getting quite scarce, so extensively has it been cut and exported during the past forty years. It is proper to say that some of the parishes require irri

68 IRRIGATION. gation during a portion of the year. This necessity is confined almost exclusively to the south side of the island, districts which sometimes are not visited with rain for three or four months. Spanishtown and Kingston, and their respective suburbs, oftentimes experience these prolonged droughts, and without irrigation all cultivation in their vicinity is not unfrequently entirely suspended for a short period, while in the adjacent parishes, at the same time perhaps, there will be frequent and sometimes excessive rains. In one hour a person may drive from Spanishtown, where everything is parched and perishing, into St. Thomas, in the Vale, where the most luxuriant foliage and abounding rivulets and meadow streams indicate frequent and copious showers. In the dry parishes however, the want of moisture that is not repaired by the heavy dews which are providentially sent during the winter season, may be supplied by irrigation at very inconsiderable expense; for the whole island abounds in water at all times. It is traversed by over two hundred streams, forty of which are from twenty-five to a hundred feet in breadth, and, it deserves to be mentioned, furiish water power sufficient to manufacture everything produced by the soil, or consumed by the inhabitants. Far less expense than is usually incurred on the same surface in the United States for manure, would irrigate all the dry lands of the island, and enable them to defy the most protractec droughts with which it is ever visited.

FACILITIES FOR TRAVELLING. 69 The facilities for transportation in Jamaica are exceedingly limited. With the exception of the fifteen miles of railroad, there is not, to my knowledge, a stage coach or regular periodical conveyance to be found in Jamaica; nor does any steam or other boat ply at stated periods between any of her ports. Of course, therefore, the expense of getting about is very great, and the intercourse between the opposite extremities of the island, quite limited —more so than between the Atlantic shore of the United States and the Mississippi valley, and rather more expensive. While man has done so little for the internal improvement of the island, Providence has benignantly indented its shore with sixteen secure harbors and some thirty bays, all affording good anchorage, as if it were designed to provide against the indolence and supineness of her inhabitants by inviting to her shores the enterprise and capital of other nations. Besides the productiveness of its surface, this island unquestionably abounds in mineral wealth. As slavery never can beget or procure mechanical skill, the mineral regions have never been thoroughly explored or worked, nor their value understood; but I have good reason to believe that its copper mines are inferior in richness to none in the world, and that coal will be mined here extensively before many years. Such are some of tbe natural resources of this dilapidated

70 MINERAL WEALTH. and poverty-stricken country. Capable as it is of producing almost everything, and actually producing nothing which might not become a staple with a proper application of capital and skill, its inhabitants are miserably poor, and daily sinking deeper and deeper into the utter helplessness of abject want. Magnas inter opes nops. Shipping has deserted her ports; her magnificent plantations of sugar and coffee are running to weeds; her private dwellings are falling to decay; the comforts and luxuries which belong to industrial prosperity have been cut off, one by one, from her inhabitants; and the day, I think, is at hand when there will be none left to represent the wealth, intelligence and hospitality for which the Jamaica planter was once so distinguished. Why is this? Is any one to blame for it, and can human agency extend any relief, and if any, what is it? These are questions which have been much considered, and have received so great a diversity of answers, that I indulge the hope of being pardoned for adding one to the number.

CHAPTEE VIi. The decline of Jamaica explained-The complaints of the planter — The remedies proposed by the planters-The real difficulties in Jamaica stated-First, the degradation of labor. THE present ruinous condition of Jamaica is ascribed by its inhabitants mainly to three causes, the abolition of slavery in 1834, the inadequate compensation paid to the owners of the slaves, and to the repeal of the protective duty on British colonial sugar. 1st. The abolition of slavery they aver, caused the price of labor to advance beyond the point of successful competition with countries where slavery was tolerated. It became impossible, as they claimed, for a Jamaica planter, with free labor, to raise sugar for anything like the prices at which it was sold by the planters of Cuba, Brazil, and Porto Rico. 2d. England, they say, paid them but a small proportion of the value of the slaves when she emancipated them. The Commissioners appraised the slave property of all the

72 THE COMPLAINTS OF THE PLANTERS. British West Incies at ~43,104,889 8s. 6d., and the government finally allowed the owners only ~16,638,937 8s. ldc., or less than fifty per cent., whereby the slaveholders sustained a loss of over ~26,000,000 in addition to the loss, supposed to be twice as much more, sustained from the depreciation in the value of the fixed property, much of which, this change in the character of the labor rendered no longer productive or available. 3rd. In 1846, Parliament passed a law reducing the duties on sugar, by which slave grown sugars were admitted into the British market at a corresponding reduction. of price. The planters complained that the necessity of using free labor compelled them to expend more in raising their crops, while the removal of the protective duties compelled them to accept less for them when gathered. This act is now their great grievance. They do not ask the mother country to change its general free trade policy, but they insist that the right of the planters to receive full compensation for their slaves was recognized by the government, that such compensation was not paid in money, but that a prohibitory duty on slave grown sugar was offered them as an important part of their indemnification. They farther state, that by opening the British markets to slave grown sugar, they are propagating and fostering an institution, the suppression of which was the avowed motive of the government for stripping the

THE COMPLAINTS OF THE PLANTERS. 73 planters of their slave propeity by the Emancipation Act of 1834.* I believe I have here given a full and perfectly fair statement of the causes to which the Jamaicans as a body, attribute their ruin. It is a fair reflexion of the sentiment of their journals, and corresponds with the view of Mr. Stanley, who has volunteered to be their champion and apologist. It is a view which leaves them nothing to do, and therefore is very naturally acceptable to a West Indian. They fold their arms under the conviction that no efforts of theirs can arrest the decay and dissolution going on about them, and that nothing but home legislation, nay, nothing but protection to their staples, can protect them from hopeless and utter ruin. This has seemed to me a most gross and extraordinary The following is the material clause of this Act, certainly one of the very most momentous measures ever adopted by any legislative body. It directly set at liberty some 800,000 human beings, and destroyed a title to over three millions of property. The bill was submitted in 1833 by Lord Stanley, then Secretary for the Colonies.' Be it enacted, that all and every, the persons who, on the first day of Auust, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, shall be holden in slavery within any such British Colony as aforesaid, shall, upon and fromn and after the said first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, become and be to all intents and purposes free, and discharged of and Prom all manner of slavery, and shall be absolutely and forever manumitted; and that the children thereafter born to any such persons, and the off'spring of such children, shall in like manner be fiee from birth; and that from and alter the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, slavery shall be, and is hereby utterly and forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout the British colonies, plantations and possessions abroad." This bill also provided for a system of apprenticeship which was to last twelve years, and then give place to unrestricted freedom. This system worked so badly that after a trial of four years it was abandoned, and on the 1st of August, 1838, the freedmen of all the British Colonies were made fully and unconditionally free. 4

74 THE REAL TROUBELES delusion, though it seems to be one which is hurrynlg' oil the result they deprecate. The downward tendencies of the island cannot be more rapid than they are at present, and it is possible that the present population will not be able to arrest them without helpl from the governmentt If so, then the ruin of Jamaica is inevitable, for nothing isless probable than that England will return to the protective system of 1814, or compel the consumers of sugar in England to pay a tax of over $25,000,000, merely to sustain the proprietors of sugar and eoffee estates in the West India islands. I will not attempt to conjecture what a change in the revenue policy of Great Britain might effect for her colonies, nor how far a restoration of slavery would contribute to repair the losses which its abolition is supposed by some to have caused; but of two things I am clear. I am clear that neither course would have saved them from bankruptcy, for they were all mortgaged for more than they were worth at the time slavery was abolished and when their staples were protected in the English markets by prohibitory duties. I am also clear that if Jamaica was an American State, she would speedily be more productive and valuable than any agricultural portion of the United States of the same dimensions, and that neither the Emancipation Bill of'33, nor the Sugar Duties Bill of'46, are fatal obstacles to a prosperity far exceeding anything which Jamaica has ever known,

DEGRADATION OF LABOR. 75 An American has but to glance his eye over the industry of this island, to discern ample causes for its declining condition, which are quite independent of those to which it has been charged. While those continue, no home legislation, in my judgment, can make the island permanently prosperous. If they are removed, I might say with almost equal confidence, that no home legislation could prevent their becoming prosperous. I will mention some of these causes which most impressed me, and were most frequently forced upon my attention. First in importance I reckon the degrading estimate placed upon every species of agricultural labor by the white population. It is well known that the laborer belongs to a proscribed class throughout the British dominions, and that no merit or accomplishment will wipe out the disgrace of such a connexion. That feeling, of course, is very much more inexorable here among the planters, who have been accustomed mainly to slave labor. They would, as a class, sooner beg than hold the plough or ply the hoe. Of course one never sees a white laborer on their estates, and the colored people have no competition for wages except with persons of their own complexion. It is unnecessary to add, that such an estimate of labor among the whites has a most pernicious effect upon the blacks. They, with the average sequence of negro logic, infer that if gentlemen never work, they have only to abstain fiom work to

T76 DEGRADATION OF LABOR, be gentlemen. Again, they revolt from a service which they think degrades them, and are disinclined to labor for others more than is absolutely necessary for their own maintenance. They render their services without any alacrity, and without any desire or effort to have it reward the employer. It is owing to this unworthy pride on the part of the white people, and the enervating effect of their example upon the blacks, that the former, as a mass, are almost entirely unproductive, and the latter far less productive than they should be or would be, if within the influence of a healthier public opinion. Between the two, there is no intellect invested in the industry of the island. The planter does not attend personally to the culture of his estates, and, of course, does not avail himself of his superior capacity to select and devise. modes of economizing labor, and in multiplying the productive power of his land. The operatives have no interest to diminish the amount of labor required, for that, they fancy, would bring down wages, which are now so low as hardly to be worth collecting after they are earned; but if they had, they are mostly too ignorant to make the attempt successfully. The whites are generally too proud or too lazy to supervise and teach the black, and if they were not, they also are too ignorant to do it, for they rarely give more thought to the mechanics of their estates, or possess more skill in managing them, than the

DEGRADATION OF LABOR. 77 more intelligent of the negroes employed by them. The consequence is, that while the cost of labor has been advancing, there has been no advance whatever in the mechanical and implemental economics of the island.* I could not perceive that sixteen years of freedom had advanced the dignity of labor, or of the laboring classes one particle. That fell legacy which slavery always leaves behind it, I found here, neither wasted nor reduced. The operative occupies a decidedly lower social position in Jamaica now, than he does in South Carolina. The degrading effects of slavery upon free labor are written all over the Slave States of the American Union, and are familiar to all my readers. Those effects, aggravated by the heats of a warmer sun, and mitigated by few of the social and political influences which are constantly operating upon the laboring classes in the United States, I found * An incident came under my observation one day in Spanishtown which in part illustrates what I have been saying, and as a commentary upon the habitual indolence of the people, may be worth making "a note of." I wished to leave that place one morning by the railroad in the seven o'clock train for Kingston, and. the evening previous requested my landlady to have a carriage ordered to take me to the cars in season. When I asked in the morning for my carriage, I was told that none could be procured at so early an hour. Upon farther inquiry it appeared that the negroes would not mount their boxes before nine or ten o'clock, and of course the white proprietors would, on no telrms, be seen driving a hack. So I was obliged