LAND SWALLOWS—TURKS ISLANDS—AN EARTHQUAKE SHOCK—CONSTANT SPRING HOTEL
We had delightful weather some days before our arrival at Kingston; the
sunsets were magnificent, the beautiful colouring of the after-glow I
shall never forget. I remember two nights before the end of our journey
going to the forecastle of the ship to watch the fantastic shapes of the
clouds on the southern horizon, intersected as the dark masses were with
the most wonderful opalesque lines of pale green, blue, and yellow, the
latter shading into deepest orange. In front of us was flying a little
land swallow, heralding the approach of land. As Christopher Columbus
neared the scene of his wonderful discoveries, he speaks of the little
winged messenger of hope which, flying on ahead of his ship, warned his
brave sailors of the approach of _terra firma_.
It was no less a world-explorer than the above who discovered Jamaica the
3rd of May, 1494. It was during his second voyage to the New World, and
the Spaniards kept it till 1655, when it was surrendered to an English
force. Oliver Cromwell, whose policy was that of to have and to hold,
sent out a Commissioner to conduct the Civil Government, also 1000
troops. These were followed shortly after by 1500 settlers from Nevis,
Bermuda, New England, and Barbadoes, and 1000 Irishmen, with as many
young women. Ten years later the foundation of Jamaica’s wealth as a
sugar-growing country was laid by the immigration into it of over 1000
inhabitants of Surinam, which had been given to the Dutch in exchange for
New York, then known as New Amsterdam; these people industriously engaged
in planting sugar in the western parts of the island where the country is
flat. For many years nothing more momentous than occasional depredations
of a piratical nature, or attacks from French cruisers, occurred to
disturb the progress of this industry.
Later the history of the island consists of constant quarrelling, the
Civil Government being repeatedly repealed, then restored. Finally, in
1884, a new constitution was given to Jamaica. The present Government
consists of the Governor, who is President of the Legislative
Assembly, the Senior Military Officer, the Colonial Secretary, the
Attorney-General, and the Director of Public Works. In addition to these
are five members appointed by the Crown, and nine elected by tax-payers
of upwards of twenty shillings. There are fourteen electoral districts.
Jamaica—which retains the old Indian name _Xaymaca_, “a land abounding
in springs”—is divided into three political divisions called counties.
They are known as Middlesex, Surrey, and Cornwall respectively. These are
sub-divided into fourteen parishes, the affairs of each being managed by
a Parochial Board.
The Jamaican legislation has the power to pass laws applying to the Turks
and Caicos Islands; the Supreme Court of Jurisdiction extending to these
islands in matrimonial and divorce cases.
It was at Turks Islands that we first saw land on approaching the West
Indies. They are a group lying to the south-east of the Bahamas, and were
so called from a peculiar kind of cactus which grows there, somewhat
resembling a Turkish fez. The largest of them is 7 miles long, and 1½
miles broad. Salt is exported from them, about 1,500,000 bushels bring
annually shipped to the United States. It was midnight when we stopped
and made our presence known to the Postal and Telegraph Office on shore
by signalling. I looked out of my port-hole and saw a long stretch
of coast, slightly hilly, but it was too indistinct to see much. The
distance we were from the shore I presumed to be not more than a mile.
Presently I saw a small sailing boat come close to the big steamer, and
in the dim light receive an emaciated-looking mail-bag, which we had
surveyed previously, when brought up to be in readiness to hand over to
the postal authorities. A precocious small boy, who was permitted to feel
the sealed-up bag, declared there was only one letter inside.
A stay of twenty minutes sufficed to exchange mails and to receive
the latest British telegrams. Everybody was then keen to know how the
Education Bill was progressing at home.
The whole of the succeeding day we coasted along the northern shores
of Hayti. Universal wonder was expressed that so exquisite a spot was
permitted by Providence to become that which Ruskin said of Naples, “a
paradise inhabited by devils.” As a nation we are suffering for the sins
committed by our forefathers in bringing the “devils” away from their
primeval forests. Yesterday an American lady said to me anent the negro,
“He ought never to have been brought to these islands,” and went on to
declare that we should not only pray to be delivered from evil, but quite
as much from the consequences of other people’s evil, which generally
fall upon the innocent more than the guilty, so I think we may profitably
take thought for the morrow when we contemplate any particular course of
action.
Many philanthropically-disposed persons consider that the blacks were
better off under kind and considerate masters, before the days of
emancipation, than in these days when each nigger does exactly as he
pleases. The present situation, to my mind, seems precisely the same as
that of a number of unruly schoolboys suddenly let loose from proper
control and discipline.
It was the morning of Saturday, 22nd November, when we came in sight of
Jamaica—but before the early hour at which everyone appeared dressed, so
as not to lose the first sight of the beautiful mountainous outline—an
event of some importance occurred. Bells were ringing long before
daylight, and a great commotion was going on below amongst the main-deck
cabins; I put on my dressing-gown, and, finding a stewardess with her
arms full of soaked bedclothes, asked what on earth was the matter.
Three of the cabins on the port side had been completely swamped, she
told me. Since everybody had packed to be in readiness to land, it was
more than awkward to have the clothes they were going to put on that
morning simply saturated. One lady, whose berth lay immediately under
the open port, said she had been rudely awakened by a volume of water
streaming over her. Before she had recovered her breath another equally
huge sea poured into the cabin; she had never been more alarmed in her
life. The sea was so perfectly smooth, I could not understand it. The
time was between the hours of three and four, and, so far as we knew, we
were off Port Morant. However, an hour or so after, our wonder was set
at rest, for the pilot who came on board to take us up Kingston Harbour
advertised the fact that an earthquake shock had been felt that morning
at Port Royal, and that there had not been so severe a one for thirty
years. This, thought I, was a nice introduction to the volcanic sphere of
action.
There is a narrow strip of land about 7 miles in length enclosing the
harbour of Kingston to the southward, and Port Royal is situated at the
western extremity of it. The town was, before the great earthquake of
1692, says Leslie in his Jamaican “History,” the finest town in the West
Indies, and at that time the richest spot in the universe. It figured
in the early colonial history of this island as the emporium of the
ill-gotten riches of those raiders of the Spanish Main, the buccaneers,
who squandered their gains in riotous living and gambling. The wealth
poured into Port Royal by these pirates was enormous. They intercepted
all vessels traversing those seas. Every Spanish ship was a rich prize.
If outward bound to the Indies they were laden with the choicest products
and manufactures of the home country, the glass of St Ildefonso, silks
and serges from Valencia, porcelain of Alcora, cordage from Carthagena,
Castille soap, Toledo cutlery, the fine wool of Spain’s merino sheep,
with the wine and oil and almonds and raisins produced by Spain in common
with Italy and the Greek islands. If they were returning home to Europe
the Spanish galleons were loaded with ingots of gold and silver. The
disposal of these prizes, which were numerous, made a golden harvest
for the merchant; while the riot and revelry of the sailors, recklessly
spending their share of the plunder, enriched the retailers; and the
traffic of this far-famed mart laid the foundation of dowries for
duchesses and endowments for earldoms. The Rector of Port Royal, at the
time of the great earthquake, thus describes the awful occurrence: “Whole
streets with their inhabitants were swallowed up by the opening of the
earth, which, when shut upon them, squeezed the people to death, and in
that manner several were left with their heads above ground, and others
covered with dust and earth by the people who remained in the place. It
was a sad sight to see the harbour covered with dead bodies of people of
all conditions floating up and down without burial, for the burying-place
was destroyed by the earthquake, which dashed to pieces tombs, and the
sea washed the carcases of those who had been buried out of their
graves.” The ruins of the old city are still to be seen in clear weather
under the surface of the water, and divers occasionally find relics in
their explorations. Attempts to rebuild the place were frustrated first
by a great fire in 1703, and subsequently by a great storm in 1722, which
swept many of the buildings into the sea, destroying much shipping and
many lives. On that day fifty vessels were in the harbour: out of that
number four men-of-war and two merchantmen alone succeeded in getting
away.
At the present day Port Royal holds an important position as a naval
station. It contains the official residence of the Commodore and Staff
of H.M. ships serving on the North American and West Indian station; the
dockyard is fully equipped with machinery and steam-engines to repair the
warships and refit them after injuries sustained. There is also a fine
naval hospital, which can be made to accommodate two hundred patients if
required. The defences of Port Royal have latterly been much improved,
new batteries having been added to the fortifications.
It was after the fire of 1703 that Kingston, the present capital of
Jamaica, began to grow in importance, a law being passed declaring that
henceforth Kingston was to be the chief seat of trade and head port of
entry; but the place was unpopular, and Spanish Town, built originally by
the Spaniards and the seat of government, remained practically the chief
town in the island for many years.
There could be nothing more beautiful than the entry into Kingston
Harbour as I saw it. The Blue Mountains in the background were free from
the cloudy embrace which so often veils the peaks, a lower range of hills
clad with verdant green up to their summits lay between us and them. On
our right was the promontory of Port Royal, with its red tiled roofs,
waving palms, green foliage and yellow sands. In front, like a watch-dog,
lay stretched upon the shining waters the _Urgent_, the guardship of the
naval station. To our left the coast presented a semi-circular sweep,
and over the green of the mangrove swamps, on which trees oysters grow,
one saw in the distance the churches and warehouses of Kingston. Shortly
after passing the entrance of the harbour, which is but a mile in width,
a gun was fired to announce the arrival of the Direct Mail from England.
Everyone was attentively admiring the beautifully situated harbour as
we slowly steamed up to the company’s wharf. J. T. Froude says: “The
associations of the place no doubt added to the impression. Before the
first hut was run up in Kingston, Port Royal was the rendezvous of all
English ships which for spoil or commerce frequented the West Indian
seas. Here the buccaneers sold their plunder and squandered their gains.
Here in the later century of legitimate wars whole fleets were gathered
to take in stores, or refit when shattered by engagements. Here Nelson
had been, and Collingwood and Jervis, and all our naval heroes. Here
prizes were brought in for adjudication, and pirates to be tried and
hanged. In this spot more than in any other beyond Great Britain herself,
the energy of the Empire was once throbbing.”
Such was the past, and if the everlasting hills had looked down
upon scenes of glorious days in the annals of our monarchy, as well
as upon the inglorious ones of privateering, of cruelty, of rapine
and of avarice, who could tell what were the possibilities of the
future? Whilst we had journeyed out from England the three years of
Columbian internecine warfare had drawn to a conclusion. Now there is a
chance—indeed certainty, since the Americans have taken it in hand—that
the Panama Canal may become a reality in years to come, instead of the
failure “of the greatest undertaking of our age.” When the Atlantic is
united with the Pacific who can tell what future greatness lies before
Kingston, being, as she is, the best harbour in the West Indies, and from
her geographical situation the natural intermediate port for coaling.
When this great watery highway is established, what new markets will be
opened to West Indian industries!
Millions’ worth of rusty machinery, never yet unpacked, lies buried in
the mud of Darien, sent out when money was more plentiful than brains,
and when swindling ranked with the fine arts. Thousands of lives have
been lost in the swamps and jungles of the tropics over the so-far
futile project of M. de Lesseps. No worse spot in the world could be
found where nature resists the invasion of science and the enterprise
of the European. In the hot tropical jungle, deadly snakes, alligators,
mosquitoes and centipedes abound.
The unfortunate blacks, who rushed to Darien as to an expectant
gold-field, attracted thither by the dollars their fellows were earning,
were stricken down with yellow fever, dysentery, and typhus in countless
numbers.
For all this, it has rightly been believed by many that some day, sooner
or later, the commercial progress of the world will demand the execution
of this apparently impossible scheme. Now we confidently look to America
to see it successfully completed.
To return to the world of actualities, I gazed interestedly down from
the decks of the _Port Antonio_ to the quay where we were to land.
The mahogany-coloured occupants of numerous small boats shouted up to
us, gesticulating and laughing as they showed their beautiful white
teeth. Meanwhile, the great ship slowly approached her moorings. Then a
detachment of a West Indian regiment, marching to the sound of a band,
approached, and took up a position exactly in front of us.
Directly the gangway was accessible a troop of officials thronged up on
deck to pay their respects to the Governor. The band struck up a popular
air, the soldiers were inspected, and Sir Augustus Hemming with his
friends passed out of sight. People came streaming on board to greet
their home-returning relatives and friends, whilst every religious
community seemed to be represented in the motley groups of black-coated
men who had come to receive the delegates from Keswick.
“They are going to have a high old time,” irreverently remarked a stray
black sheep amongst my fellow-passengers, speaking collectively of the
black-garbed ecclesiastics. I found some friends waiting for me, who very
kindly steered me and my belongings through the custom-house, which is
quite close to the landing-stage, and proved to be no ordeal whatever,
since I had no merchandise to account for. My trunks were given into the
care of a porter from Constant Spring Hotel, and I had no farther trouble
with them. My friends got a “bus,” as the buggies are called in Kingston,
and we drove a very short distance, when I entered the electric tram
which every twenty minutes runs between the town and the hotel, six miles
away.
For the benefit of intending visitors to Jamaica I may here mention that
Messrs Elder, Dempster & Co., who own the Direct Mail Service by which
I travelled, and which some two years ago was called into existence by
Mr Chamberlain in his efforts to help the West Indies, are also the
proprietors of the two best hotels Jamaica possesses: Myrtle Bank in the
town of Kingston, and Constant Spring, 6 miles off in the country.
My intention was to go first of all to the latter, especially as I heard
how hot Kingston is in the daytime. I learnt, too, that a voucher from
Constant Spring Hotel enabled you to take what meal you chose at their
other hotel in town and _vice versa_. I had several purchases to make, so
that if I were to be busy shopping in the heat of the day, so much the
more advantageous would it be to ensure cool nights.
I cannot say that I admire Kingston; in fact I consider all West Indian
towns best at a distance. The electric trams are a great boon, and an
eminently satisfactory mode of transit. The American lady of smoking-room
fame joined me _en route_ for the hotel. She could not refrain, when she
saw the sugar-cane as we passed the market, from buying some. She said it
reminded her of her home in California, and, much to the amusement of the
blacks opposite, she brought out a knife and insisted on teaching me how
to eat cane. This was my first acquaintance with Jamaican blacks; but I
still turn round to admire the country women striding along with Heaven
only knows what in those heaped-up baskets on their heads, to which they
seem to give not a thought. For the most part, they wear clean print
gowns, short, fastened up below the waist behind, so as not to impede
their gait—I have since read that no women in the world walk better or
can poise such weights on their heads as they can. Very charming country
houses with nice gardens line the road, when once one is out of the town
right away to Constant Spring. We paid fourpence for our ride, and at the
end of it, walked up a path sheltered with trellised arches, and covered
with alamander, bougainvillia, scarlet hibiscus, with nicely laid-out
gardens on each side of us, arriving in due course at the central
entrance of the hotel. Having secured rooms adjoining, with verandahs
looking out on to the garden, and beyond that the golf links, which we
learnt, together with a new wing, were to be opened in a few days, we
repaired to the spacious dining-room, which takes the whole breadth of
the building, as indeed do all the sitting-rooms. Thus, with balconies
on either side, one can always find a cool spot. My friend and I chose a
table and ordered lunch. The fair Delicia swept ponderously past us.
“Oh! won’t you come and lunch with us?” asked my companion in the kindest
manner.
“Thank you,” returned that important spinster in acrid accents; “I have
my own table prepared for me,” and she followed the manager to another
part of the room, where henceforth she was always to be seen alone in her
grandeur.
“My goodness!” exclaimed the charming American, when her pomposity had
betaken herself to a safe distance, “if I’d guessed she was that crabby
I’d have saved my breath. She has put on empty-headed side since she
struck this hotel!”
Several of our fellow-passengers found their way up to Constant Spring
during the course of the afternoon. The little journalist made tracks for
the fair Delicia.
We found some nice people staying at the hotel, amongst them the
inevitable British matron, who was shocked at so many things that I
wondered how it was she could stay in a land where so much human anatomy
is in evidence, as it certainly is in this island.
For people who want a warm climate to winter in, pleasant society, and
a comfortable hotel in which to stay, I consider Constant Spring Hotel
a very charming resort. The building is large, and extends over a good
deal of ground. You enter a large central hall, where small tables used
for afternoon tea are scattered about, with most comfortable chairs and
lounges. The staircases on either side lead to a gallery above, from
which you look down upon the scene below. From this hall, on your right,
you pass through the large drawing-room to the dining-room; on your
left, you enter into the reading-room, which is nicely fitted up with
half-a-dozen writing tables, whilst a table in the centre is covered with
magazines and papers; this room is carpeted throughout, so that persons
walking through do not disturb you when reading or writing. Passing
through this room you come to the ping-pong and billiard-rooms. Another
great advantage is that there is a first-rate swimming bath belonging
to the hotel, and which is open to both ladies and gentlemen at certain
hours. The expenses of a winter residence in this hotel would not be
greater than at any similar one in the south of France, about fifteen
shillings a day; but for a permanent stay, or visit of some weeks,
advantageous terms could be made. I should advise people writing from
England and engaging rooms to be careful to ask for them on the north
side, which is the cool side, looking out towards the Blue Mountains.
Visitors to Jamaica, coming out with introductions to a few residents,
would soon find themselves in very pleasant society at Kingston, and
during the winter months there are a good many garden-parties, dinners,
and dances, both at the hotels and in the neighbourhood.
Besides the naval station at Port Royal there is a garrison at Newcastle
which is situated some 4000 feet above sea-level; it appears that
formerly our soldiers were quartered in mangrove swamps: the Government
has of late years gone to the opposite extremes. Now their habitation
is amongst the clouds. There is no doubt about the healthy situation of
this eyrie in the mountains; but one pities the poor fellows condemned to
an exile of two or three years in this isolated spot. The temperature
in this elevated region never rises beyond 70° and never drops below
60°. The officers, although they can descend occasionally from the misty
heights, must be bored beyond description. There is absolutely nothing
to hunt, nothing to shoot; the mongoose has eaten up every partridge,
as it has exterminated snakes, and driven the remaining rats into
dwelling-houses.