Kingston, Jamaica

“ Jamaica has picked up a good deal in these later days, but is not the thriving country it was before the abolition of slavery. Kingston is described as a formal city, with streets at right angles, and with generally ugly buildings. The fact is, that hardly any Europeans or even well-to-do Creoles live in the town, and, in consequence, there are long streets, which might almost belong to a city of the dead, where hardly a soul is to be seen: at all events, in the evenings. ”

“ Jamaica might still be a week’s sail off, under favourable circumstances. The thirst we now endured was far worse than hunger, in that climate, with a hot sun burning down on our heads all day. Our throats got hotter and more parched every hour; we drew in our belts, and that silenced the cravings of hunger for a time, and we had some few bits of biscuit, and ham, and chocolate, but nothing we could do could allay our thirst. ”

“ Her father was a banker, and was fairly prosperous in spite of the poverty of his country. His house of business was at Kingston, and he usually slept there twice a week; but he always resided at Shandy Hall, and Mrs. Leslie and her children knew but very little of the miseries of Kingston. For be it known to all men, that of all towns Kingston, Jamaica, is the most miserable.
I fear that I shall have set my readers very much against Marian Leslie;—much more so than I would wish to do. ”

“ The Jamaica people seldom get so good a haul as this, though prizes are being brought in almost every week. Where the money all goes to, I don’t know; it makes somebody rich, I suppose.
“I was disappointed at not seeing Mr and Miss Ferris, and so, I have no doubt, was Mr Foley, for we thought that they would be back here by this time; but they are still away on the other side of the island. I don’t think I told you that there had been a hurricane here, while we were cruising off Cape François, before our action with the Frenchmen. ”

“ Port Royal crowded with Spanish prizes; its busy dockyards, and English frigates and privateers fitting out there for glorious or desperate enterprises. The name of Jamaica brought them crowding up with incident on incident; and behind the history came Tom Cringle and the wild and reckless, yet wholesome and hearty, planter's life in Kingston; the dark figures of the pirates swinging above the mangroves at Gallows Point; the balls and parties and the beautiful quadroons, and the laughing, merry innocent children of darkness, with the tricks of the middies upon them. ”

“ Save for a few buggies and now and then a noisy road car, Kingston was almost deserted. At some of the street corners groups of men were engaged in violent conversation, and occasionally we saw a policeman; otherwise the empty pavements echoed only the noise of our walking. There are no theatres in Jamaica, and all the wealthier people live in the distant suburbs. The poorer black men who live in the side streets of the town have to be up betimes, so they do not waste their strength by keeping up late at night. It is a cold and a deathly place at night, this little town of Kingston. ”

“ The city of Havana, in Cuba, is lighted at night by oil-lamps. The little town of Cien Fuegos, in the same island, is lighted by gas. But Kingston is not lighted at all!
We all know that Jamaica is not thriving as once it throve, and that one can hardly expect to find there all the energy of a prosperous people. But still I think that something might be done to redeem this town from its utter disgrace. Kingston itself is not without wealth. If what one hears on such subjects contains any indications towards the truth, those in trade there are still doing well. ”

“ I found La Touche on deck, and we exchanged salutations. The brig was under all sail, standing to the eastward. I cast my eye eagerly astern, half hoping to see a British man-of-war in chase of us; but I found that the Frenchmen were carrying all sail, as was but natural, to reach their destination as fast as possible. I could just distinguish to the southward the distant mountains of Jamaica, rising like a blue irregular line above the horizon. Nothing could be more beautiful than the weather. The sky was bright; the ocean glittered in the rays of the rising sun. ”

“ The hotel in Spanish Town is one of the best in Jamaica—cool, with large rooms and wide verandas. There is a garden in front of it with a thick royal palm in the middle. Kingston City is the hottest place on the island; but we are higher up, and that is much better, though in summer it is none too cool. I should like correspondents of my own age, seventeen, but foreign to the United States, and not boys.
Gwendolen Hawthorne.
Mona, Kingston, Jamaica, B. W. I.
Those Funny Foxes. ”

“ There were mourning hearts in your quiet home in Devonshire when the ship returned and your fate was told those who had long-expected to see you once again.
On the 19th we reached Port Royal. We found everybody in the greatest excitement making preparations to receive Count D’Estaign, who, with a powerful fleet and army, was hourly expected to make an attack on the island. None of England’s colonies can boast of more loyal and devoted inhabitants than does Jamaica, as they have given abundant proof of on numberless occasions. ”

“ Jamaica—Murray appointed to the Supplejack brig—Pull up to Kingston—Port Royal Jack—Johnny Ferong’s store—Visit to the Bradshaws—Kind reception—Return—The Supplejack sails for the southward.
Jamaica, a hundred and sixty miles long, by forty-five broad, is, as everybody knows, a very magnificent island; but, alas! its ancient glory has departed for a time, though it is to be hoped that one of the many panaceas proposed for its renovation may, ere long, restore it to its pristine state of prosperity. ”

“ Africa’s Ambivalent Experience, E. S. Macamo, Ed., pp. 19–43, Zed Books, London, UK, 2005. ↑ N. Stolzoff, Wake the Town and Tell the People, Dancehall Culture in Jamaica, Duke University Press, London, UK, 2000. ↑ C. G. Clarke, “Population pressure in Kingston, Jamaica: a study of unemployment and overcrowding,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 165–182, 1966. ↑ C. G. Clarke, Decolonizing the Colonial City: Urbanization and Stratification in Kingston, Jamaica, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2006. ”

“ Were I to designate Jamaica as a community, I would call it a handshaking people. I have often laughed heartily upon seeing two cronies meeting in the streets of Kingston after a temporary separation; when about pistol-shot asunder, both would begin to tug and rug at the right-hand glove, but it is frequently a mighty serious affair in that hissing hot climate to get the gauntlet off ”

“ I fear that they are slaves destined to be sold to the planters of Jamaica, but I cannot bear the thought of handing them over to so cruel a fate. Do you, Willoughby, speak to the men. If any of them have served at sea the matter will be more easy, as I can then enter them among the crew of the Ruby. It will be far better for them than labouring in the plantations of Jamaica. ”

“ Wildman street is named after James Wildman, a member of the Council in 1786, and later fellow member of Parliament for Hindon with Monk Lewis, another Jamaica proprietor.
Though they omitted for two centuries to dedicate their parish church to a patron saint, the people of Kingston named five of their lanes after the Apostles.
Dr. Samuel Knight, who practised medicine in the island “magna cum laude” for thirty-four years, represented Kingston in the Assembly in 1698 and 1701; he lies buried in the church. ”

“ Before a course was shaped for Jamaica, the Cerberus stood for Puerto Cabello. All hands were eagerly on the look out as they approached the port, to ascertain whether the frigate was still there. A shout of satisfaction broke from the throats of the crew as she was discovered with her sails bent ready for sea, though moored head and stern between two strong batteries, one on either side, at the entrance of the harbour. By herself, she looked no insignificant opponent; while the batteries, it was supposed, mounted not less than two hundred guns. ”

“ The swamp covers itself with mangroves, and the mangroves fringe the shore of the lagoon itself for two-thirds of its circuit. As Jamaica grew in wealth and population the trade was carried from Port Royal deeper into the bay. [Pg 175] Another town sprang up there, called King's Town, or shortly 'Kingston.' The administration was removed thither for convenience, and though fallen away from its old consequence, Kingston, with its extended suburbs, its churches and warehouses, and large mansions overhung with trees, looks at a distance like a place of consideration. ”

“ He made no objection to their exploring the island, but their discoveries only convinced them that it was very barren, and that no means existed of their getting away from it. They came, to be sure, on a canoe, in which they concluded that the black occasionally went out fishing; but it was only just large enough to hold him, and the paddles were nowhere to be found. Soon after this, O’Grady, who was in advance, saw a large boat hauled up under some bushes. “Hurrah, boys! here’s a craft which will carry us to Jamaica, if need be,” he shouted, and ran on, followed by Paul and Alphonse. ”

“ HARBOUR STREET, KINGSTON, IN 1820
From a coloured engraving in Hakewill’s “Picturesque Tour of Jamaica”
151Unfortunately Lilly when he planned Kingston, when land was cheap, omitted to leave room for lines of trees down each principal street. Had this been done, shade would have been afforded to drivers and pedestrians alike, and a picturesque feature would have been assured for the town. Moreover, the chessboard plan of laying out a town, naturally from its regularity dear to the heart of an engineer, is fatal in the interests of picturesqueness, however suitable it may be for progression. ”

“ In 1692, as is well known, a large part of the town perished by an earthquake, and from that event Kingston dates its origin, Port Royal being partially destroyed again, by fire, in 1703 and by hurricane in 1722.
Charles Leslie, writing in 1739, says of Jamaica: “One is not to look for the beauties of architecture here; the public buildings are neat but not fine. ”

“ I started for Jamaica in the English steamer, which proved to be our old New York favorite, the Great Western. After landing at Kingston she proceeded to San Jago de Cuba, giving me nearly a week’s sojourn on the island, prior to embarking for the island of Cuba.
Kingston, although quite a large town, was exceedingly dull. The colonists complain bitterly of the mother country; an immense number of estates have been thrown up, the price of labor demanded by the manumitted blacks exceeding the ability of the planter to grow sugar in competition with the slave-holding colonies. ”

“ These forests and cliffs have afforded for several centuries an asylum and fortress to fugitive blacks, who have there set pursuit at defiance, the game and wild fruits the woods supply enabling them to find subsistence without the necessity of descending into the lower regions to obtain food. Rocks and mountains, woodlands and plains, everywhere beautifully blending, form conspicuous features in the landscape of Jamaica. ”

“ Trench Town can be regarded as one of Jamaica’s most ambitious social engineering exercises—a cluster of homes with cedar doors and windows and gable roofs built around courtyards with communal bathrooms and kitchens. The housing project came out of a necessity to provide low cost housing to Kingston’s rapidly increasing urban population and the increasing prevalence of squatter settlements. ”

“ On the 15th, believing that we could not possibly reach a port, we stood to the northward and kept in the latitude of Jamaica, hoping thus to fall in with a fleet of merchantmen under convoy of some ships of war, which we knew were to sail from Jamaica about that time. We had look-outs stationed at each mast-head, eagerly on the watch for any strange sail, friend or foe, from which we might have obtained relief. We should certainly have attacked any foe, even twice our force, for the sake of obtaining food from them. ”

“ The Institute of Jamaica maintains a public library, museum and art gallery especially devoted to local interests. The old parish church in King Street, dating probably from 1692 was the burial-place of William Hall (1699) and Admiral Benbow (1702) . The suburbs are remarkable for their beauty. The climate is dry and healthy, and the temperature ranges from 93° to 66° F. Kingston was founded in 1693, after the neighbouring town of Port Royal had been ruined by an earthquake in 1692. ”

“ The report from the corvette was not so favourable. The surgeon expressed his fears that the commander would not reach Jamaica alive.
For the sake of his wounded men Captain Hemming was anxious to return as soon as possible to Jamaica. Murray was walking the deck of the Supplejack, when a boat from the frigate came alongside, and Lieutenant Rogers stepped on board.
“Good news, Alick!” he exclaimed. “We are to get under weigh immediately the wind will allow us, and proceed at once to Jamaica, where the captain is anxious to land the sick and wounded. ”

“ He was also custos of Kingston. His portrait—a lithograph by A. Maurin, from a daguerreotype by A. Duperly, printed for distribution when he addressed the electors of Kingston in 1848—is in the Jamaica History Gallery in the Institute.
Edward Jordan, C.B., was born in 1800. He devoted himself to journalism in early life, and for many years was connected with the “Watchman” and the “Morning Journal.” While representing Kingston in the House of Assembly he was in 1854 called to the Council, and on that occasion received a testimonial from the inhabitants of the island ”