James Hakewill

“ The principal road across the island, from Spanish Town to St. Mary’s, passes through the estate, on the bank of a pleasant rivulet, between the works and dwelling house: the cane field and pasture land is a continuation of small steep hills with water-courses passing between them; the wood covers the hills towering over these. The soil is in general light and poor, but with a judicious use of manure, which the situation of the cane land renders the application of, a hard task for the stock, gives fair returns. ”

“ Unlike the peasant of Europe, who if he do not work must starve, he has only to betake himself to the woods, where, if no law gives the power of dislodging him, he will immediately find himself at ease, and look with perfect indifference on all beyond his hut and his plantain ground. In this point, Jamaica differs from some other islands, in which there are no provision grounds, in lieu of which the negroes are regularly paid a sum of money, with which they go to the market of imported provisions. ”

“ Let us not draw a too frightful picture of our system: but we must for a moment dwell on the number of human beings living by the prostitution of charms, which might have been their passport to honest and honourable society, sacrificing their health to the brutality of their more degraded fellow-creatures, and filling the public theatres and streets with the exhibition of lewdness, misery, and shame. ”

“ Notoriously good mothers, he soon sees himself surrounded by a family on which his best feelings may be placed; and whenever the moment shall arrive which shall see him so far master of his fortunes as to allow him to form a more honourable connexion, his partner sees no duplicity in his conduct, nor considers it a desertion of principle, expecting only a proper provision for herself and family. Nor are the numbers who submit to this course of life considerable, when compared with the population. ”

“ And does the horror of the system end here? do the sufferings of so many wretched beings close the catalogue of ills? Would to God it did! But we have seduction in all its forms; we have the dreadful crime of child murder, made more horrible by the punishment which follows its detection. ”

“ A party of the ancient Spanish inhabitants, however, still lurked in the woods, and Sosi, their governor, had returned to share their fortunes; but a body of their fugitive negroes having surrendered to D’Oyley, informed him where their late masters were sheltered, and joined some troops that were in pursuit of them: thus the Spaniards were entirely routed, and the few that survived, by escaping to Cuba, took their last farewell of a country, their fond attachment to which it is not possible to reflect upon without emotions of pity. ”

“ The land in general, from its richness, bears a very luxuriant cane, some of which grow to an enormous size: but are unfit for making sugar, and are only grown for the still-house. The greater part of the land on which the town of Port Maria is built is the property of C. N. Bayly, Esq., as was likewise the ground on which the Court-house has lately been erected, but for which an exchange was made by the parish for other lands, which are now attached to Trinity Estate. ”

“ On his arrival, a young man looks in vain for the indulgence of his English habits; he finds no opportunity of indiscriminate gratification; and he is soon taught, that the only means of securing to himself the comfort of female attention, is by forming a connexion nearly as binding as matrimony, and to which almost all would incline, could they find a female of education who would, at the same time, share his present humble state, and be equal to his fortunes when the prospects he indulges in of affluence and independence are realized. ”

“ Against this an argument is sometimes drawn, from the advertisements in the public papers for the recovery of runaway negroes, as if the disinclination of a slave to work, were a proof of the cruelty with which he is treated; or that in a population of 300,000 of the lowest class of a community, it is to be expected that, even with kind treatment, all would be more inclined to work than to remain idle—more attentive to their duties than alive to their pleasures. ”

“ The cane pieces of the two estates occupy about 1000 acres, that is 600 to the Old Works and 400 to the New: but the field of canes actually kept in cultivation has latterly been considerably diminished. There is also a due proportion of land in guinea grass and common pasture, both for the working stock of the estates (about 550 head) and for the cattle belonging to the negroes, who have 100 head of breeding cows, besides their produce. The remainder is chiefly woodland, but presents the means of forming more than one additional sugar-estate, for which the soil is very well adapted. ”

“ Jamaica was discovered by Christopher Columbus, in his second expedition to the New World. In his former voyage he had explored the north-eastern part of Cuba, proceeding from thence to Hispaniola; but he had returned to Europe in doubt whether Cuba was an island only, or part of some great continent, of which he had received obscure accounts from the natives. To satisfy himself in this particular, he determined, soon after his arrival a second time at Hispaniola, on another voyage to Cuba, by a south-westerly course ”

“ A petition was presented to the House of Assembly from the inhabitants of Kingston and Port Royal, in which they stated, “That they had subscribed a large sum of money for the purpose of conveying water from the Hope River to the Parade at Kingston, by means of which they propose to form a spacious basin to surround the statue, and that they had lately subscribed a further considerable sum to assist in erecting it; but that they are penetrated with the deepest concern to find that a report prevails of its being intended to be placed in Spanish Town.” ”

“ But a residence of nearly two years in the island of Jamaica must be pleaded as the Author’s apology for offering, also, a few remarks on the moral condition of some parts of its inhabitants; first, the Negroes. As slaves these are, undoubtedly, subject to be sold; but large purchases of Negroes, unless with the estate on which they are settled, and which would be useless without them, are not often made. ”

“ To one point of the moral condition, also, of the white inhabitants of the island, the author is desirous of inviting attention, because the greatest portion of the prejudice existing with respect to the state of society in the island is drawn from that source: he alludes to the connexion formed between them and the black or coloured females. But in all societies we must take the greatest positive good with the least positive evil ”

“ The poor wretch, whose maternal feelings would have prompted her to a far different course, sees in the birth of her infant, only want and beggary, her character blasted, and her means of providing for her child made more than doubtful by its birth—she has recourse to the alternative from which humanity shrinks appalled—if successful in the concealment of her crime, her better feelings are gone for ever ”

“ The richness of the land, adapted for the most part to the cultivation of sugar, the easy approach to a shipping-place, the general healthiness of the spot, and the excellent provision grounds for the Negroes, render this one of the most desirable properties in the Island, more especially as the crops are seldom known to fail from that grievous calamity a protracted drought. The returns are annually from 1,000 to 1,100 hogsheads of sugar ”

“ The mansion-house, or, according to local phraseology, the great house, is placed on a rising ground, and judiciously overlooks the works, which are extensive, and in the most complete repair; the mill is turned by a well-supplied water-wheel, and the boiling-house contains a double and single set of coppers. The overseer’s house and offices, the hospital, and a building for the negro children, are severally large, and well adapted for their purposes. ”

“ This man being an expert cattle doctor, had frequently leave of absence; and at his return, after the lapse of a fortnight, would bring home a very considerable sum of money. This is an indulgence granted very generally to expert and well disposed negroes on the principal grazing farms; but even those apparently the least capable may accumulate large sums. While on a visit in the neighbourhood of Arcadia estate, in Trelawny, the author was told that an old woman had brought the attorney a large sum of money, to be sent to the proprietor in England as her free gift. ”

“ The Vale is almost daily throughout the year overcast with a thick fog, which begins to rise slowly on the approach of evening, grows denser as the night advances, becomes gradually diffused into all the contiguous vales or inlets among the surrounding mountains, is heaviest about the dawn of day, and remains settled until the sun has warmed and agitated the air: then it rises higher, expanding in the atmosphere ”

“ Since the provisions of the legislature have removed every restriction from the unlimited possession of property by the free-coloured inhabitants, marriage is almost universal among them, and the natural consequence presents itself in a coloured population, growing in affluence and respectability. ”

“ Port Royal, as a place of defence, is deservedly valued. The ships, in advancing towards the harbour, must necessarily pass between shoals and rocks, through a difficult channel, in some parts extremely narrow; and are inevitably exposed to a severe fire, without the possibility of bringing their guns to bear. ”

“ With regard to their comforts it is to be remarked, that nearly the whole of the markets of Jamaica are supplied with every species of vegetable and fruit by the overplus of the negro’s produce, by which traffic they acquire considerable riches. ”

“ Golden Vale, about five miles in the interior from Port Antonio, contains about 250 acres of level cane-field above and below the works, and about as much more bottom land, not so convenient for canes, which is chiefly in pasturage, with a very large extent of hilly and mountainous land to the south-westward, in pasturage, provisions, ruinate and wood. There are on the estates 500 negroes, 50 mules, and 300 head of cattle. ”

“ This estate contains nearly three thousand acres of land, of which five hundred and eighty are in cane cultivation of plants and ratoons. On it are six hundred negroes; many of them settled on it from father to son, and who regard their houses and provision grounds (of which they have between three and four hundred acres) as an inheritance, the possession of which they enjoy with uninterrupted security. With their surplus produce, and their pigs and poultry, they supply even to the distance of Anotto Bay, and from this traffic derive a very considerable profit. ”

“ The lower grounds are chiefly clay, intermixed here and there with rich veins of vegetable mould: the latter mostly abounds near the banks of rivers, consisting of the sediment they have deposited, or the finer particles washed down from the hills. Long, in his History of Jamaica, published in 1774, speaking of this estate, says: "The plantation called Carvers (now Whitney) is one of the most celebrated for its fertility. ”

“ But if a frame of mind, manly, sober, and undissipated—if domestic habits and affections—if the prevention of female misery and a growing population, be advantages, they are the attendants of this calumniated system ”

“ It is situated at an immense elevation, about three miles south-westward of Port Antonio, and commands the most extensive and varied landscape scenery. This view, which is terminated southerly by some of the highest of the Blue Mountains, includes in the valley, along which the Rio Grande has its impetuous course, the Golden Vale and Seaman’s Valley estates, with some small portions of Stanton Harcourt and Hope estates. ”