A sugar estate, and one of the finest in the "land of springs," is that
of "Mount Welcome."
It is situated about ten miles from Montego Bay, in a broad valley,
between two rounded ridges. These ridges, after running parallel for
more than a mile, and gradually increasing in elevation, at length
converge with an inward sweep--at their point of convergence, rising
abruptly into a stupendous hill, that fairly merits the name which it
bears upon the estate--_the "mountain_."
Both the ridges are wooded almost down to their bases; the woods, which
consist of shining pimento trees, ending on each side in groves and
island copses, pleasantly interspersed over a park-like greensward.
The "great house" or "buff" of the estate stands under the foot of the
mountain, just at the point of union between the two ridges--where a
natural table or platform, elevated several feet above the level of the
valley, had offered a tempting site to the builder.
In architectural style it is not very different from other houses of its
kind, the well-known planter's dwelling of the West Indies. One
storey--the lower one, of course--is of strong stone mason-work; the
second and only other being simply a wooden "frame" roofed with
"shingles."
The side and end walls of this second story cannot with propriety be
termed walls: since most part of them are occupied by a continuous line
of Venetian shutters--the "jalousies" of Jamaica.
These impart a singular cage-like appearance to the house, at the same
time contributing to its coolness--a quality of primary importance in a
tropical climate.
Outside in the front centre a flight of broad stone steps, resting upon
arched mason-work, and bordered by strong iron balustrades, conducts to
the level of the second storey--the real dwelling-house: since the
ground-floor is entirely occupied by store-rooms and other "offices."
The entrance door is from the landing of the aforesaid _escalier_, and
conducts at once into the "hall"--a spacious apartment, of
crucifix-shape, running clear across the building from side to side, and
end to end. The current of air admitted by the open jalousies, passing
constantly through this apartment, renders it at all times delightfully
cool; while the lattice-work serves to mellow the glare of light, which,
under the sky of the tropics, is almost as disagreeable as the heat. An
uncarpeted floor, composed of the hardest sorts of native wood, and
subjected to a diurnal polish, contributes to increase the coolness.
This great hall is the principal apartment of the dwelling. It is
dining and drawing-room in one--where side-boards and cheffoniers may be
seen in juxta-position with lounge chairs, fauteuils, and ottomans--a
grand chandelier in the centre extending its branches over all.
The bed-chambers occupy the square spaces to one side of the cross; and
these also have their jalousied windows to admit the air, and exclude,
as much as possible, the sultry rays of the sun.
In Mount Welcome House, as in all other country mansions of Jamaica, a
stranger would remark a want of correspondence between the dwelling
itself and the furniture which it contains. The former might be
regarded as slight, and even flimsy. But it is this very character
which renders it appropriate to the climate, and hence the absence of
substantiality or costliness in the style and materials of the building.
The furniture, on the other hand--the solid tables of mahogany, and
other ornamental woods--the shining carved side-boards--the profuse show
of silver and cut glass that rests upon them--the elegant couches and
chairs--the glittering lamps and candelabras--all combine to prove that
the _quasi_ meanness of the Jamaica planter's establishment extends no
farther than to the walls of his house. If the case be a cheap one, the
jewels contained in it are of the costliest kind.
Outside, the great house of Mount Welcome looks grand enough. Its broad
facade, in which the deep green of the jalousies contrasts pleasantly
with the white of the surrounding walls--the massive stone stairway in
front--the wooded mountain sweeping up and forming a background of
variegated green--the noble avenue of nearly a mile in length, with its
double rows of tamarinds and cocoa-palms, leading up in front from the
lower end of the valley--all contribute to produce a picture of almost
palatial grandeur.
Nor does a nearer view detract from the splendour of this picture. The
platform on which the house is built affords space for a large garden
and shrubbery, extending rearward to the mountain-foot, from which they
are separated by a high wall of stone.
The _mountain_ is a conspicuous feature of the landscape. Not so much
from its height: for there are others of equal elevation near to it; and
further off, though still within sight, many still higher. Even the
famed "Blue Peak" is visible, towering hundreds of feet above the
surrounding summits.
Nor is it conspicuous from being isolated. On the contrary, it is only
a spur of that vast elevated chain of hills, that, separated by deep
gorge-like valleys, and soaring thousands of feet above the level of the
Caribbean Sea, are known as the "Blue Mountains of Jamaica."
Covering almost the entire area of the island--which is thus broken into
an endless succession of gigantic corrugations--Jamaica presents a
surface rough and irregular as the crumplings upon a cabbage-leaf; and
"land of mountains" would be a title as appropriate as its ancient
Indian appellation, "the land of fountains."
The hill which overlooks the estate of Mount Welcome is less than two
thousand feet above sea-level; but what renders it remarkable is the
geometrical regularity of its outlines, and, still more, its
singularly-shaped summit.
Viewed from the valley below, it presents the appearance of an exact and
somewhat acute cone, up to within about fifty yards of its top. There
the sloping outline ends--the line on each side thence trending
vertically, and abruptly terminating in a square table-top, forty or
fifty feet in diameter. In general appearance, this truncated summit is
not unlike that of the famed "Cofre di Perote" of Mexico.
The sloping sides of the mountain are densely wooded, especially that
fronting the valley of Mount Welcome--towards which is presented a broad
frowning _facade_, thickly clothed with a forest that appears primeval.
Alone at its top is it treeless--bare and bald as the crown of a
Franciscan friar. There stands the square coffer-like summit, a mass of
solid rock, which repels the approach of the vegetable giants that crowd
closely around its base, some of them stretching out their huge arms as
if to strangle or embrace it.
One tree alone has succeeded in scaling its steep rampart-like wall. A
noble palm--the _areca_--has accomplished this feat, and stands
conspicuously upon the table-top, its plumed leaves waving haughtily
aloft, like a triumphal banner planted upon the parapet of some
conquered castle.
This summit rock presents a singular appearance. Its seamed and scarred
surface is mottled with a dark glaze, which during the sunlight, and
even under the mellower beams of the moon, gives forth a coruscation, as
if the light were reflected from scale armour.
To the denizens of the valley below it is known as the _Jumbe Rock_--a
name characteristic of the superstitious ideas attached to it. Though
constantly before their eyes, and accessible by an hour's climbing up
the forest path, there is not a negro on the estate of Mount Welcome,
nor on any other for miles around, that would venture alone to visit the
Jumbe rock; and to most, if not all of them, the top of this mountain is
as much of a _terra incognita_ as the summit of Chimborazo!
I am speaking of a period more than half a century ago. At that time
the terror, that was attached to the Jumbe Rock, did not altogether owe
its origin to a mere superstition. It had been partly inspired by the
remembrance of a horrid history. The rock had been the scene of an
execution, which for cruel and cold-blooded barbarity rather deserves to
be called a crime.
That table-summit, like the blood-stained temples of the Moctezumas, had
been used as an altar, upon which a human sacrifice had been offered up.
Not in times long past, neither by the sanguinary priesthood of Azteca,
but by men of white skin and European race--their victim a black and an
African.
This incident, illustrating Jamaica justice during the dark days of
slavery, deserves to be given in detail.
Volume One, Chapter II.