HISTORIC JAMAICA
Is it nature or by the error of fantasie that the seeing of places we
know to have been frequented or inhabited by men whose memory is
esteemed or mentioned in Stories, doth in some sort move and stirre us
up as much or more than the hearing of their noble deeds or reading of
their compositions?
_Montaigne_
The care which a nation devotes to the preservation of the monuments of
its past may serve as a true measure of the degree of civilization to
which it has attained.
_Les Archives Principales de Moscou du Ministère
des Affaires Etrangères, Moscow, 1898._
[Illustration:
UP-PARK CAMP IN 1840
From a coloured lithograph by Joseph B. Kidd
]
HISTORIC JAMAICA
BY
FRANK CUNDALL, F.S.A.
SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN OF THE INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA
_WITH FIFTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS_
PUBLISHED FOR
THE INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA
BY THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE
LONDON
1915
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. LTD.
AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS
LONDON, ENGLAND
PREFACE
In the year 1900 the present writer published a small volume entitled
“Studies in Jamaica History,” giving the records of certain historic
sites in the colony.
In its issue of October 27, 1908, the Editor of the “West India
Committee Circular,” commenting on the appointment of a Royal Commission
to enumerate and report upon the historical monuments in England, drew
attention to the need for the preservation of historic sites and
buildings in the West Indies, and stated that a letter on the subject
had been addressed by the West India Committee to the Colonial Office.
On November 24 he was able to state that the Secretary of State for the
Colonies (the Earl of Crewe) sympathised with the object of the West
India Committee and had forwarded their representations to the governors
of the various West Indian colonies, recommending them to their
consideration.
In Jamaica the present writer, at the request of the Governor (Sir
Sydney Olivier) and with the consent of the Board of Governors of the
Institute of Jamaica, undertook to prepare a list, parish by parish, of
historic sites, buildings and monuments, stating in each case the nature
of its interest and the name of its owner. This list was published as a
special supplement to the “Jamaica Gazette” on December 23, 1909; and in
November 1912 it was reprinted as part of a report relating to the
preservation of historic sites and ancient monuments and buildings in
the West Indian colonies presented to Parliament.
In the meantime the present writer had commenced a series of articles in
the “West India Committee Circular” dealing with historic sites and
monuments in Jamaica, which appeared from October 1909 till October
1914.
At the suggestion of various persons interested in the subject it was
decided to reprint these articles. In doing this it has been thought
well to arrange them parish by parish and to add a few words of general
history, taken in part from the writer’s contributions to the “Handbook
of Jamaica,” and of descriptions of sites and monuments which have not
been treated of individually.
It is hoped that the following notes may not only serve the double
purpose of evoking interest in the history of the colony in the minds of
its inhabitants and proving a source of information to visitors, but may
be the means of steps being taken to preserve old buildings and other
monuments alike from decay and the hand of man.
A list of works consulted in the compilation of the notes embodied in
this volume would comprise almost all the books in the Jamaica section
of the West India Library of the Institute of Jamaica, some 1400 in
number.
My thanks are due to Mrs. Lionel Lee for making the illustrations and to
Mr. Algernon E. Aspinall for kind assistance in seeing the work through
the press.
F. C.
KINGSTON, JAMAICA.
1915.
CONTENTS
PAGE
LISTS OF OFFICIALS
Governors, Presidents of the Council, Speakers of the
Assembly, Chief Justices, Attorney-Generals, Naval
Commanders-in-chief at Jamaica, Agents for Jamaica in
Great Britain xiii
INTRODUCTION
Aboriginal inhabitants, Arawâks: physical features,
language, beliefs, habitations, implements, name of
Jamaica, other Arawâk names: Spanish occupation, hatos,
towns, buildings, names: English possession, ancient
monuments, buildings, slavery, politics, forts, religion,
agriculture, education, printing, maps, parishes,
counties, place-names, Jamaica overseas 1
I. PORT ROYAL
The Point: Shirley: Jackson: Forts: Residence of the
Governor: Church: Buccaneers: Myngs: Morgan: Earthquake of
1692: Spanish bell: Fire of 1703–4: Hurricane of 1722:
Attempt on Cartagena, Ogle, Smollett: Rodney:
Water-supply: Rodney’s Look-out: Fort Charles: Nelson’s
Quarter-deck: Rodney’s victory over De Grasse: the Convoy:
Prince William Henry: Lady Nugent: Gosse: Hill: _Urgent_ 45
II. ST. CATHERINE
Passage Fort: Jackson: Penn and Venables: Spanish-Town:
Raymond and Tyson: Cathedral, monuments, plate, rectors,
Earl of Effingham, Countess of Elgin: House of Assembly:
Eagle House: Sir Hans Sloane’s House: King’s House: Rodney
Memorial: St. John’s, Guanaboa Vale: Church of St.
Dorothy: Colebeck Castle: Galdy’s Tomb: Ferry Inn: Fort
Augusta: Rodney’s Look-out: Port Henderson 81
III. KINGSTON
Earthquake, site: Lilly, plan: Fire, 1780: Corporation:
Fires, 1843, 1862, 1882: Earthquake, 1907: Names of
streets: Parish church, Knight, Lewis, Hakewill, plate,
rectors, records, Benbow, monuments: Scotch Church:
Headquarters House: Thomas Hibbert: General officers: Old
Mico: Blundell Hall: Institute of Jamaica: Arawâk pottery:
Chancellor’s purse: maces: Monuments, Sir Charles
Metcalfe, Queen Victoria, Edward Jordan, Dr. Bowerbank,
Father Dupont, Rev. John Radcliffe, Rev. W. J. Gardner:
Wharves 147
IV. ST. ANDREW
Liguanea: Halfway-Tree: Old Burial-Ground: Church of St.
Andrew, records, monuments, rectors: Lundie’s pen: King’s
House: Admiral’s Pen: Rock Fort: Fort Nugent: Constant
Spring: Raymond Hall: Up-Park Camp: Berthaville: Mico
College: Stony Hill Barracks: Garden House: Hope: Jamaica
College: Lumb drinking-trough: Newcastle: Jewish
Burial-Ground: Hunt’s Bay: Kitchen-middens: Norbrook:
Hope: Long Mountain: Caves: Dallas Castle: Bloxburgh:
Silver Hill: Cane River Falls: Hagley Gap: Catherine’s
Peak: Gordon Town: Dallas Castle: Manning’s Hill: Salt
Hill: Morce’s Gap: Hardwar Gap: Scarlett 197
V. ST. THOMAS
Name: Yallahs, church, plate: Luke Stokes: Stokes Hall:
Stokesfield, Estate accounts: Morant Bay: Rebellion: Eyre,
Gordon: Church, Bath, Spring, Court House: Botanical
Gardens: Dr. Dancer: Belvedere: Lyssons, Sir John Taylor,
Simon Taylor: Hordley, Monk Lewis: Albion: Arawâk remains
at Cambridge Hill and Botany Bay: Cow Bay and Bull Bay 236
VI. PORTLAND
Name: Titchfield: Early settlement: School: St. George:
Olivier Park: Carder Park: Moore Town: Muirton:
Darlingford: Low Layton: Spring Garden: Modyford’s Gully:
Balcarres Hill: Seaman’s Valley 254
VII. ST. MARY
Name: Gray’s Inn, Spanish remains: Decoy, Tomb of Sir
Charles Price, Gardens: Sir Charles Price’s rat: Agualta
Vale: Dryland: Fort Haldane: Prospect: Heywood Hall 259
VIII. ST. ANN
Historic interest: Liberty Hill: Arawâk remains: Dry
Harbour: Landing of Columbus, 1494: Don Christopher’s
Cove: Residence of Columbus, 1503–4: Mendes, rebellion of
Porras, appeal to Hispaniola, bravery of Bartolommeo
Columbus: Sevilla Nueva, Sloane’s account, Peter Martyr,
Ocho Rios, Chireras: Doyley’s defeat of Sasi: Rio Nuevo in
St. Mary, Final defeat of Sasi: Runaway Bay: Sevilla
Nueva: Cardiff Hall: Edinburgh Castle, Hutchinson:
Moneague Tavern: Forts, Mammee Bay, St. Ann’s Bay, Windsor
Fort: Priory: Dixon Pen: Geddes: York Castle: Dry Harbour
Caves: Walton, Jamaica Free School 267
IX. TRELAWNY
Falmouth: Martha Brae: Bryan Castle, Bryan Edwards and his
writings: Fort Dundas: Hyde Hall: Kitchen-middens 306
X. ST. JAMES
Montego Bay: Close Harbour: Church, rectors: Mrs. Rosa
Palmer: Maroons, Block House, Maroon Town, Accompong, War,
Walpole, Treaty, Balcarres, Gillespie, Maroons in Nova
Scotia: Duckett’s Spring, the Scarletts: Rose Hall: Arawâk
Middens and Caves 319
XI. HANOVER
Lucea, church: Rusea: Shettlewood 343
XII. WESTMORELAND
Savanna-la-Mar, church: Bluefields and Gosse: Cornwall and
Monk Lewis: Roaring River, Fort William and Williamsfield
and Beckford 346
XIII. ST. ELIZABETH
Black River: Munro and Dickenson: Lacovia: Catadupa 369
XIV. MANCHESTER
Mandeville: Sir William Scarlett: Bridges 372
XV. CLARENDON
Carlisle Bay: Vere Church, rectors, monuments: Church of the
White Cross: Morgan’s Valley: Chapelton Church: Halse
Hall: Longville: Kellets 373
INDEX 398
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_With the exception of the full page-plates and the two maps, the
illustrations are from sketches by Mrs. Lionel Lee._
PAGE
Arawâk Bowl 1
Mealing-stone 2
Arawâk Pestle 3
Sketch Map of Jamaica, _circa_ 1661 7
Branding-iron 15
Sketch Map of Jamaica, _circa_ 1866 41
PORT ROYAL
Nelson’s Quarter-deck 68
Kingston Harbour in 1774. _From an engraving in Long's
"History of Jamaica"_ _facing_ 70
Figure-head of the _Aboukir_ 71
ST. CATHERINE
Passage Fort 83
Cathedral, Spanish Town 90
King’s House, Spanish Town 104
Court House, Spanish Town 104
Rodney’s Statue, Spanish Town 105
House of Assembly, Spanish Town 105
The _Lady Juliana_ in tow of the _Pallas_ in 1782. _From
an aquatint by Robert Dodd_ _facing_ 122
Colebeck Castle 134
The Ferry Inn 139
KINGSTON
Kingston, Harbour Street in 1820. _From a coloured
engraving in Hakewill’s “Picturesque Tour of Jamaica”_ _facing_ 150
The Parish Church 157
Date-Tree Hall in 1906 180
Statue of Sir Charles Metcalfe 187
Statue of Queen Victoria 194
ST. ANDREW
Halfway-Tree Church in 1906 200
King Edward’s Clock Tower, Halfway-Tree 208
Admiral’s Pen 211
Rock Fort 212
Fort Nugent 215
Raymond Hall 219
Up-Park Camp in 1840. _From a coloured lithograph by Joseph B. Kidd_
(_Frontispiece_)
ST. THOMAS
Stokes Hall 241
Albion Estate 252
PORTLAND
Port Antonio in 1770. _From an engraving_ _facing_ 256
ST. MARY
Tomb of Sir Charles Price 261
ST. ANN
Dry Harbour 268
Don Christopher’s Cove 273
Rio Novo 285
Cardiff Hall 294
Moneague Tavern in 1844. _From a daguerreotype by Adolphe
Duperly_ _facing_ 302
Slave Punishment Cell at Geddes 303
TRELAWNY
Bryan Castle 307
ST. JAMES
Block-house, Maroon Town 324
Rose Hall 341
WESTMORELAND
Fort William, Aqueduct 360
Fort William Estate, from the site of old Great House 361
Roaring River Estate in 1774. _From an engraving by Thomas
Vivares after a painting by George Robertson_ _facing_ 364
Savanna-la-Mar in 1840. _From a coloured lithograph by
Joseph B. Kidd_ _facing_ 366
CLARENDON
Carlisle Bay 375
Vere Parish Church, at the Alley 382
Morgan’s Valley 394
Halse Hall Great House 396
LIST OF OFFICIALS
The following tables are inserted for reference. The list of Governors
is complete. The others are as complete as it has hitherto been found
possible to make them. There are portraits in Jamaica History Gallery in
the Institute of Jamaica of those to whom an * is suffixed.
GOVERNORS OF JAMAICA[1]
Footnote 1:
Administrations during temporary absences of Governors have not been
included.
1661–62. General Edward Doyley. Governor.
1662. Thomas, Lord Windsor.* „
1662–64. Sir Charles Lyttelton.* Dep.-Governor
1664. Colonel Edward Morgan. „
1664. Colonel Thomas Lynch. President.
1664–71. Sir Thomas Modyford, Bt. Governor.
1671–74. Sir Thomas Lynch. Lieut.-Gov.
1674. Sir Henry Morgan.* „ „
1675–78. John, Lord Vaughan.* Governor.
1678. Sir Henry Morgan. Lieut.-Gov.
1678–80. Charles, Earl of Carlisle.* Governor.
1680–82. Sir Henry Morgan. Lieut.-Gov.
1682–84. Sir Thomas Lynch. Governor.
1684–87. Colonel Hender Molesworth. Lieut.-Gov.
1687–88. Christopher, Duke of Albemarle.* Governor.
1688–90. Sir Francis Watson. President.
1690–92. William, Earl of Inchiquin.* Governor.
1691–92. John White. President.
1692–93. John Bourden. „
1693–1700. Sir William Beeston. Lieut.-Gov.
1700–02. „ „ „ Governor.
1702. Maj.-Gen. William Selwyn. „
1702. Peter Beckford.* Lieut.-Gov.
1702–04. Colonel Thomas Handasyd. Lieut.-Gov.
1704–11. Sir Thomas Handasyd. Governor.
1711–16. Lord Archibald Hamilton. „
1716–18. Peter Heywood. „
1718–22. Sir Nicholas Lawes. „
1722–26. Henry, Duke of Portland. Governor.
1726–28. John Ayscough. President.
1728–34. Maj.-Gen. Robert Hunter. Governor.
1734–35. John Ayscough. President.
1735. John Gregory. „
1735–36. Henry Cunningham. Governor.
1736–38. John Gregory. President.
1738–52. Edward Trelawny. Governor.
1752–56. Admiral Charles Knowles.* Governor.
1756–59. Henry Moore. Lieut.-Gov.
1759. General George Haldane. Governor.
1760–62. Henry Moore. Lieut.-Gov.
1762–66. William Henry Lyttelton. Governor.
1766–67. Roger Hope Elletson. Lieut.-Gov.
1767–72. Sir William Trelawny. Governor.
1772–74. Lieut.-Col. John Dalling. Lieut.-Gov.
1774–77. Sir Basil Keith. Governor.
1777–81. Colonel John Dalling. Lieut.-Gov.
1781–83. Maj.-Gen. Archibald Campbell.* „ „
1783–84. „ „ „ Governor.
1784–90. Brig.-Gen. Alured Clarke.* Lieut.-Gov.
1790–91. Thomas, Earl of Effingham.* Governor.
1791–95. Maj.-Gen. Adam Williamson. Lieut.-Gov.
1795–01. Alexander, Earl of Balcarres.* „ „
1801–06. Lieut.-Gen. George Nugent.* „ „
1806–08. Sir Eyre Coote.* „ „
1808–11. William, Duke of Manchester.* Governor.
1811–13. Lieut.-Gen. Edward Morrison. Lieut.-Gov.
1813–21. William, Duke of Manchester. Governor.
1821–22. Maj.-Gen. Henry Conran.* Lieut.-Gov.
1822–27. William, Duke of Manchester. Governor.
1827–29. Maj.-Gen. Sir John Keane.* Lieut.-Gov.
1829–32. Somerset, Earl of Belmore.* Governor.
1832. George Cuthbert. President.
1832–34. Constantine, Earl of Mulgrave.* Governor.
1834. George Cuthbert. President.
1834. Maj.-Gen. Sir Amos Norcot. Lieut.-Gov.
1834–36. Peter, Marquis of Sligo.* Governor.
1836–39. Sir Lionel Smith. „
1839–42. Sir Charles Metcalfe.* „
1842–46. James, Earl of Elgin.* „
1846–47. Maj.-Gen. Sackville Berkeley. Lieut.-Gov.
1847–53. Sir Charles Edward Grey. Governor.
1853–56. Sir Henry Barkly.* „
1856–57. Maj.-Gen. E. Wells Bell. Lieut.-Gov.
1857–62. Captain Charles Darling.* Governor.
1862–64. Edward John Eyre.* Lieut.-Gov.
1864–66. „ „ „ Governor.
1866. Sir Henry Storks.* Governor.
1866–74. Sir John Peter Grant.* „
1874. W. A. Young. Administ.
1874–77. Sir William Grey.* Governor.
1877. Edward Rushworth. Lieut.-Gov.
1877. Maj.-Gen. Mann. Administ.
1877–80. Sir Anthony Musgrave.* Governor.
1879–80. Edward Newton. Lieut.-Gov.
1880–83. Sir Anthony Musgrave. Governor.
1883. Col. Somerset M. Wiseman Clarke. Administ.
1883. Maj.-Gen. Gamble. „
1883–89. Sir Henry Norman.* Governor.
1889. Col. William Clive Justice. Administ.
1889–98. Sir Henry Arthur Blake. Governor.
1898. Maj.-Gen. Hallowes. Administ.
1898–04. Sir Augustus W. L. Hemming.* Governor.
1904. Sydney Olivier. Administ.
1904. Hugh Clarence Bourne. „
1904–07. Sir James Alexander Swettenham. Governor.
1907. Hugh Clarence Bourne. Administ.
1907–13. Sir Sydney Olivier. Governor.
1913. Philip Clarke Cork. Administ.
1913– Sir William Henry Manning. Governor.
PRESIDENTS OF THE COUNCIL OF JAMAICA
1661. General Edward Doyley, _Governor and President_
1664. Colonel Thomas Lynch
1671. Major-General James Bannister
1674. Colonel Hender Molesworth (_afterwards Baronet_).
1688. Sir Francis Watson
1691. John White
1692. John Bourden
1702. Peter Beckford
Francis Rose
1722. John Ayscough
1735–51. John Gregory
1774. Archibald Sinclair
1775–96. Thomas Iredell
1797. John Palmer
1798. Thomas Wallen
1805. John Scott
1806. Nathaniel Beckford
1811. John Lewis
1821. George Pinnock
1825. George Cuthbert
1838. William Rowe
1840. James Gayleard
1856. John Salmon
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
1866–91. The governor for the time being
1892. Dr. J. C. Phillippo
1893 _et The governor for the time being
seq._
PRIVY COUNCIL
1866 _et The governor for the time being
seq._
SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF JAMAICA
1664. Robert Freeman
1664. Sir Thomas Whetstone
1671. Samuel Long
1672–73. Major John Colebeck (_pro tem._)
1673. Samuel Long
1677. Lieut.-Col. William Beeston
1679–88. Samuel Bernard
1688. George Nedham (_pro tem._)
1688. Roger Hope Elletson
„ Thomas Rives
„ John Peeke
1691–92. Thomas Sutton
1693. Andrew Langley
1694. James Bradshaw
1698. Thomas Sutton
1701. Andrew Langley
1702. Francis Rose
1702–03. Andrew Langley
1704. Edward Stanton
1705. Matthew Gregory
1706. Hugh Totterdale
„ John Peeke
„ Matthew Gregory
1707–11. Peter Beckford, jun.
1711. William Brodrick
„ Samuel Vassall (_pro tem._)
1711–13. Peter Beckford, jun.
1714. Hugh Totterdale
1715. John Blair
1716. Peter Beckford
1718. William Nedham
1719. Edmund Kelly
1721–22. George Modd
1722. William Nedham
1724. John Manley (_pro tem._)
1725. Francis Melling
1727–28. Thomas Beckford
1731. John Stewart
1733. William Nedham
1745. Charles Price [afterwards Sir Charles, Bt.] (_pro tem._)
1747. Richard Beckford (_pro tem._)
1751. „ „
1755. Edward Manning
1756. Thomas Hibbert
1756. Charles Price
1763. Charles Price, jun. [afterwards 2nd Baronet]
1764. Thomas Fearon (_pro tem._)
1765. Charles Price, jun.
1766. William Nedham
1768. Edward Long
„ Phillip Pinnock*
1770. Nicholas Bourke
„ Charles Price, jun.
1775. Phillip Pinnock
1776. Sir Charles Price (2nd Baronet)
1778. Jasper Hall*
1778–93. Samuel Williams Haughton
1781. Thomas French (_pro tem._)
1782. William Pusey (_pro tem._)
1787. William Blake (_pro tem._)
1793. William Blake
1797. Donald Campbell
1798. Keane Osborn
1802. Philip Redwood
1809. James Lewis
1821. David Finlayson
1830. Richard Barrett
1832. Robert Allwood
1838. Richard Barrett
1839. Edward Panton
1842. Samuel Jackson Dallas*
1849. Charles McLarty Morales*
1861. Edward Jordon (_pro tem._)*
1864. Charles Hamilton Jackson*
CHIEF JUSTICES OF JAMAICA
1661. Philip Ward
„ Samuel Barry
1663. William Mitchell
1664–65. Lynch
1671. John White
1675. Sir Thomas Modyford
1676–79. Samuel Long
1681. Robert Byndloss
1685. Samuel Bernard
1688. Robert Noell
1689. Roger Elletson
„ Richard Lloyd
1695–98. Richard Lloyd
1698. Nicholas Lawes
1703. Peter Beckford
„ Peter Heywood
1706. John Walters
1714–15. Peter Heywood
1716. Peter Bernard
1724. John Ayscough
(_d._ 173 6) Edward Pennant
1733. Richard Mill
1733–35. John Gregory
1735. James Hay
1736–39. George Ellis
1739. John Gregory
1742. Dennis Kelly
1746. William Nedham
1749. John Hudson Guy
1751–56. John Palmer
1756–64. Thomas Fearon
1765. George Ellis
1766. Thomas Beach
1770. Peter Haywood
1776. Edward Webley
1779. Richard Welch
1780–83. Thomas French
1784–91. John Grant
1790. Thomas Harrison (_pro tem._)
1792. William Jackson
1801. John Henckell
1802. John Kirby
1808. John Lewis
„ Philip Redwood
1818. Thomas Witter Jackson
1821. Sir William Anglin Scarlett*
1832. Sir Joshua Rowe*
1855. Sir Bryan Edwards*
1869. Sir John Lucie-Smith
1884. Sir Adam Gibb Ellis*
1895. Sir Henry James Burford-Hancock
1896. Sir Fielding Clarke
1910. Sir Anthony Coll
ATTORNEY-GENERALS OF JAMAICA
1671. Edmund Ducke
1688. Sir Richard Dereham
1686–91. Simon Musgrave
1693. William Brodrick
1698. Thomas Barrow
1698. Charles Brodrick
1703. Edward Haskins
„ Robert Hotchkyn
1711–15. William Brodrick
1719. Edmund Kelly
1724. William Monk
1732. Alexander Henderson
1732. Thomas Howe
1732–44. Matthew Concanen
1744. Thomas Hill
1744–49. Robert Penny
1754. Henry Morgan Byndloss
1755. Richard Beckford
1760. Gilbert Ford
1760. Edward Penny
1766. Thomas Gordon
1766. Thomas Beach
1769. Thomas Harrison
1784. Robert Sewell
1796. George Crawford Ricketts
1802. William Ross
1806. Thomas Witter Jackson
1807. William Ross
1810. Thomas Witter Jackson
1818. William Burge
1829. Hugo James
1832. Fitz Herbert Batty
1833. Dowell O’Reilly
1857. Alexander Heslop*
1872. E. A. C. Schalch
1876. G. H. Barne
1877. E. L. O’Mally
1881. Sir Henry Hicks Hocking
1896. (Sir) Henry Rawlins Pipon Schooles
1906. Thomas Bancroft Oughton
1910. Ernest St. John Branch
NAVAL COMMANDERS-IN-CHIEF AT JAMAICA
1655. Sir William Penn, Admiral and General-at-sea*
1655–57. Vice-Admiral William Goodsonn
1656–57. Vice-Admiral Christopher Myngs*
1662. Col. Mitchell, chief over the sea-officers
1662–64. Vice-Admiral Christopher Myngs
1663. Sir Thomas Whetstone, commanded a fleet at Jamaica
1669. Henry Morgan, “Commander-in Chief of all the ships of war”
of Jamaica (commission from Governor)
1676. The Duke of York was Admiral of Jamaica and all other his
Majesty’s Plantations and Dominions
[1692. Commodore Wrenn, commanded in the West Indies
1692. Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Wheler, commanded in the West
Indies]
1702. Vice-Admiral Benbow*
[1703. Vice-Admiral John Graydon, commanded a fleet in the West
Indies]
1703–05. Sir William Whetstone, Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies
[1706. Commodore William Kerr, commanded a fleet in the West Indies
1706. Sir John Jennings, commanded a fleet in the West Indies]
1707–09. Rear-Admiral Charles Wager*
1710–12. Commodore James Littleton
1712. Rear-Admiral Sir Hovenden Walker
1720. Commodore Vernon, Commander-in-Chief of all his Majesty’s
ships in the West Indies*
[1726–27. Vice-Admiral Francis Hosier, commanded a squadron in the
West Indies]
1727. Commodore Edward St. Lo, in command of West India Station
1728. Vice-Admiral Edward Hopson, in command of West India Station
1728–29. Rear-Admiral Edward St. Lo, in command of West India Station
1729. Commodore William Smith
1730–33. Rear-Admiral the Hon. Charles Stuart, in command of West
India Station
1732. Commodore Richard Lestock
1732–39. Commodore Sir Chaloner Ogle*
1736–37. Captain Digby Dent
[1739–42. Admiral Edward Vernon, commanded in the West Indies]*
1742–44. Rear-Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle.
[1744. Vice-Admiral Thomas Davers, died at Jamaica]
1746. Captain Cornelius Mitchell
1747. Captain Digby Dent
1747–49. Rear-Admiral Charles Knowles
1749–52. Commodore the Hon. George Townshend
1755–57. Rear-Admiral the Hon. George Townshend
1757. Rear-Admiral Thomas Cotes
1760–61. Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes
1762. Commodore Sir James Douglas
[1762. Admiral Sir George Pocock, Commander-in-Chief of expedition
against Havana]
1762–64. Rear-Admiral Viscount Keppel
1764–66. Rear-Admiral Sir William Burnaby
1766–69. Rear-Admiral W. Parry
1769–70. Commodore Arthur Forrest*
1771–74. Rear-Admiral Sir George Rodney*
1774–78. Vice-Admiral Clarke Gayton
1778–82. Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Parker*
[1779. Captain Horatio Nelson, commanded in Fort Charles, Port
Royal]*
1782–83. Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley
1783–84. Vice-Admiral James Gambier
1785. Commodore John Pakenham
1785. Captain Alan Gardner*
1786. Rear-Admiral Alexander Innes
1786–89. Commodore Alan (afterwards Lord) Gardner
1790–93. Rear-Admiral Philip Affleck
1793–95. Rear-Admiral John Ford
1796. Rear-Admiral William Parker
1796. Commodore Richard Rodney Bligh*
1796–1800. Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker*
1800–01. Vice-Admiral Lord Hugh Seymour*
1802. Rear-Admiral Robert Montague
1803–04. Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth*
1804–08. Vice-Admiral James Richard Dacres*
1809–11. Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Samuel Rowley*
1811–13. Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Stirling, Bart.
1812. Vice-Admiral James Vashon
1813–14. Rear-Admiral William Brown*
1814–16. Vice-Admiral the Hon. Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis
Cochrane, K.B., Commander-in-Chief on the Jamaica Station,
Windward and Leeward Islands, and Coast of North America
1816–17. Rear-Admiral John Erskine Douglas
1817–20. Rear-Admiral Sir Home Riggs Popham, K.C.B.*
1820–23. Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Rowley, K.C.B.
1823. Commodore E. W. C. R. Owen
1824–27. Vice-Admiral Sir Lawrence William Halstead, K.C.B.
1828–29. Vice-Admiral the Hon. Charles Elphinstone Fleeming
1829–32. Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Griffith Colpoys, K.C.B.
1833. Commodore Sir Arthur Farquhar, C.B., K.C.H. K.S.
1833–36. Vice-Admiral Sir George Cockburn
COMMODORES ON JAMAICA DIVISION OF NORTH AMERICAN AND WEST INDIAN STATION
1838. Sir John Strutt Peyton, K.C.H.
1839–41. Peter John Douglas
1843. Hon. Henry Dilkes Byng
1844–45. Alexander R. Sharpe, C.B.
1846. Daniel Pring
1849–51. Thomas Bennet
1855. Thomas Henderson
1860. Henry Kellet, C.B.
1861. Hugh Dunlop
1864–65. Peter Cracroft, C.B.
1865. A. M. De Horsey (acting)
1865–68. Sir Francis Leopold M’Clintock*
1869–70. Augustus Phillimore
1871–72. Richard W. Courtenay
1873–75. Algernon F. R. De Horsey
1875–78. Algernon McLennan Lyons
1878–80. William John Ward
1880–82. William S. Brown
1882. Edward White
1883–86. F. M. Prattent
1886–89. Henry Hand
1889–92. Rodney M. Lloyd
1892–95. T. S. Jackson
1895–98. H. W. Dowding
1898–99. William H. Henderson
1900–01. Edward H. M. Davis, C.M.G.
1901–03. D. Mc. N. Riddel
1903–05. (Sir) F. W. Fisher
Dockyard close, March 1905
AGENTS FOR JAMAICA IN GREAT BRITAIN
1664–66. Sir James Modyford
1682. { Sir Charles Lyttelton
{ William Beeston
1688. Ralph Knight
1698–1713. { Sir Gilbert Heathcote
{ Sir Bartholomew Gracedieu
1714. F. Marsh
1725. Alexander Stephenson
1725–6. Edward Charlton
1728–1733. Charles de la Foy
1733. John Gregory
1733–1757. John Sharpe
1757–1762. Lovel Stanhope
1764–1795. Stephen Fuller
1795–1803. Robert Sewell
1803–1812. Edmund Pusey Lyon
1812–1831. George Hibbert
1831–1845. William Burge
1845, Dec Office abolished
8.
INTRODUCTION
Studies in Jamaica archæology and history naturally fall into three main
groups: Aboriginal, Spanish and English.
Though, owing to the high form of civilization there attained, research
has in Egypt revealed very full information concerning the condition of
life in the Nile valley thousands of years before the Christian era, it
has hitherto told us very little about the aborigines who inhabited
Jamaica a little more than 400 years ago. How long they had been here
when Columbus discovered the island no one can say for certain, though
the thickness and extent of their middens, some thirty of which have
been opened from time to time, offer evidence of value.
[Illustration:
ARAWÂK BOWL
]
As in Hispaniola, the natives of Jamaica were ruled over by caciques or
chieftains. The estimates of historians of the number of inhabitants in
the West Indian islands differ widely. Las Casas says that the islands
abounded with inhabitants as an ant-hill with ants, and puts them down
at 6,000,000. But Peter Martyr gives but 1,200,000 to Hispaniola and,
taking this as a guide, there would probably have been about 600,000 in
Jamaica—or, roughly speaking, three-quarters of its present population.
Not many were left when the English took the island in 1655.
Judged by the English standard, Indians are short in stature. The
Arawâks of Guiana to-day are described as being of a red cinnamon in
colour. The hair on the scalp is thick, long, very straight and very
black. The features of the face are strikingly like those familiarly
known as Chinese (Mongolian), and the expression is decidedly gentle.
Physically they are weak, and life hardly ever exceeds fifty years. The
natives of Jamaica—as a few skulls found from time to time
testify—possessed, in common with other West Indian tribes, the
peculiarity of tying boards on to the foreheads of their children in
such a way that the skulls assumed and permanently retained an
extraordinarily flat shape.
Peter Martyr, who heard it spoken, said that the language in the Greater
Antilles was “soft and not less liquid than the Latin,” and “rich in
vowels and pleasant to the ear.” Of words of West Indian origin, those
most frequently in use in the English language are avocado (aguacate)
pear, barbecue, buccaneer, canoe, Carib and its derivative cannibal,
guava, hammock, hurricane, iguana, maize, manatee, pirogue, potato and
tobacco.
Columbus has told us of a cacique of Cuba who believed in a future state
dependent on one’s actions in this world, but Sir Everard im Thurn found
nothing of the kind amongst the Indians of Guiana, and it is probable
that Columbus’s guide from Guanahani (Watling Island) only partially
understood the cacique, or that Columbus only partially understood his
guide. Their houses were primitive alike in shape and construction. In
Jamaica, they were probably circular, and were provided with walls of
wattle work plastered with mud, and with a high-pitched roof of palm
leaves; they probably had no windows. The Indians slept in hammocks. The
weapons of the Arawâks of Jamaica and the other large islands consisted
of darts and war clubs; but they apparently did not possess bows and
arrows, which were the form of weapons preferred by the Caribs, and the
use of which gave them a great advantage over their more peaceful foes.
[Illustration:
MEALING-STONE
]
Ornaments were more worn by the men than the women. Painting was the
simplest form of ornamentation; the colours used being blue, black,
carmine, white and yellow, derived from plants and earths. They wore
necklets of hogs’ teeth and stone beads, crowns of feathers in their
heads, aprons of palm-leaves or woven cotton, and bands round their arms
and legs. Their chief occupations and means of living were hunting and
fishing and agricultural pursuits with, in some cases, a certain amount
of trading. As they required nothing more than canoes for travelling on
the water, simple houses to live in, baskets for domestic purposes,
hammocks for rest, rude weapons of the chase, and implements such as
hatchets and chisels, earthen vessels, and a few ornaments and articles
of dress, these, with a few crude rock-carvings, formed the sum total of
their arts and manufactures.
In common with the other aborigines of the West Indies generally and
with the natives of New Zealand and with all the nomad tribes of the new
world from Patagonia to the Arctic circle, the Arawâks of Jamaica were,
when discovered, without any knowledge of the metals as such. From their
kitchen middens we know that they were great fish eaters.
[Illustration:
ARAWÂK PESTLE
]
Until 1895, but few remains had been discovered to testify to the
existence of a tribe which not so very long ago lived by gathering the
fruits of the land and sea of Jamaica. During that and the following
years several collections of Indian remains were found.[2] They are
scattered fairly throughout the island, except curiously enough, the
eastern end, and are thickly grouped in St. Andrew and Vere, in St. Ann,
and in the west end of Westmoreland. They all supply objects similar in
character and giving evidence of no very high advance in civilization or
the arts; being considerably below those of Mexico and Peru. The objects
consist for the most part of petaloid or almond-shaped polished celts of
metamorphic or igneous rocks, found somewhat abundantly all over the
island; circular or oval, shallow, unglazed bowls of baked pottery, with
but crude ornamentation, used in the preparation of food, and some as
mortuary vessels for the heads of their chiefs—found here and there in
the caves and on the sites of dwellings; calcedony beads, hitherto
found, curiously enough, only in Vere; stone and wooden images and
rock-carvings and the rock-pictures; and a few shell and flint
implements and mealing-stones rarely found.
Footnote 2:
For this subject consult “Aboriginal Indian Remains in Jamaica. By J.
E. Duerden, A.R.C.Sc., Kingston, Ja., 1897.”
It is to be regretted that many of the objects shown at an exhibition of
native remains held at the Institute of Jamaica in 1895, following on
the discovery of the Halberstadt cave, as well as others discovered
later, should have been allowed to leave the island. Such things once
lost can rarely be regained.
Some of the early Spanish historians—putting as they frequently did X
for J—wrote the name of the island _Xaymaca_, but it appears in its
present form as early as 1511 in Peter Martyr’s “Decades.” He called it
_Jamaica_ and _Jamica_. The island is unnamed in Juan de la Cosa’s map
of 1500.
Its first appearance in cartography is on the map made by Bartolommeo
Colombo, Columbus’s younger brother, to illustrate the admiral’s fourth
voyage, where it is spelled _Jamaicha_. In Cantino’s map (1502–04) it
appears as _Jamaiqua_: in Caneiro as _Jamaiqua_ and in Waldseemüller’s
map of 1507 as _Jamaiana_. In the so-called Admiral’s map of 1507 it
appears as _Jamaqua_: the name does not appear in Ruysch’s map of 1508,
but in the Ptolemaeus edition, Strasburg 1513, it is given as
_Jamaiqua_, and in the Waldseemüller map of 1516 it is also _Jamaiqua_.
In the Maggiolo map of 1519 it is _Jamaica_, but in the Maggiolo map of
1527 it is _Jamaicha_: in Ribero’s “Antilles” of 1529 and in Mercator’s
map of 1541 it is _Jamaica_: but in Herrera’s map of 1601, it goes back
to the old form _Xamaica_, and as late as 1734 in Charlevoix’s “L’isle
Espagnole,” it appears as _Xamayca_. Amongst Englishmen who wrote of it
from personal knowledge immediately after the British occupation,
Commissioner Butler (1655) wrote it _Gemecoe_ and _Gemegoe_. Daniell
(1655) calls it _Jamico_, Gwakin (1657) wrote it _Jammaca_, and General
Fleetwood (1658) wrote it _Jamecah_.
Columbus on his return from his first journey was told by the natives
when off Tortuga, that if he sailed in a certain direction two days he
would arrive at Babeque, where he would find gold. Columbus mentions
Babeque many times in his journals, but he never found it, at least
under that name. The “Historie,” of 1571, identifies it with Hispaniola
but this is doubted. Las Casas thought that it might refer to Jamaica.
In common with most other West Indian native names Jamaica has come to
us through a Spanish source; and the native pronunciation was possibly
something like Hâmîca. Several derivations have been given of the
meaning of the word. The most extraordinary is that which seeks to
connect it with James II. On Moll’s map of the island, published early
in the eighteenth century, it is stated that it was first called St.
Jago by Columbus, who discovered it, but that the name was afterwards
changed to Jamaica, after James, Duke of York. In this connection it is
somewhat sad to note that not one of the Greater Antilles retained the
name given to it by Columbus. Española, Santiago and Juana, went back to
their native Hayti, Jamaica and Cuba; and St. Juan Bautista became Porto
Rico, but Hispaniola still survives to some extent and is the most
convenient name for the island which contains two republics. Of the
smaller islands, the names of Trinidad, Antigua, Dominica, Montserrat
and Guadeloupe still remind us of their great discoverer.
James Knight, in the rough draft of his history of Jamaica (1742) in the
British Museum, gives the following derivation of the word Jamaica: “In
the original it was Jamajaco. Jamo in the Indian language is a country,
and Jaco is water.”
John Atkins, in his “Voyage to the Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies”
(1737), says that “Jamaica was altered by King James, it being a
compound of his name and ‘_ca_’ an island.” He was possibly not far
wrong in regard to the “island.” The West Indian word for an island,
_cai_ (or the Biscayan word cay) is supposed to appear in Lucayos
(Bahamas), “Men of the Island”; in the Caicos islands, and also in
various cays or keys in the West Indies; albeit modern etymology makes
cay or key the same word as the Welsh cae.
Long wrote in 1774 that “it is not improbable that Jamaica is a name of
Indian extraction, perhaps derived from Jamacaru, the Brazilian name of
the prickly pear, which overspreads the maritime parts of the south
side, where the aboriginal Indian discoverers of this island might have
first landed,” but this derivation has found no supporters among later
writers.
Bryan Edwards, writing in 1793, says: “The early Spanish historians
wrote the word _Xaymaca_. It is said to have signified in the language
of the natives, a country abounding in springs.”
Bridges, who as a rule displays a more fertile imagination than Long
without half his trustworthiness as a historian, says, writing in 1828:
“In the speech of Florida, _Chaübaan_ signified water and _makia_ wood
(Lescarbot, I.6, c.6). The compound sound would approach to Chab-makia;
and, harmonized to the Spanish ear, would be Chamakia, or some such
indistinct union of these two significant expressions, denoting a land
covered with wood, and therefore watered by shaded rivulets, or, in
other words, fertile.” This suggested origin has been usually adopted by
later writers. Why Bridges sought in Florida the meaning of words of
Jamaica, he does not explain. Carib and Arawâk are probably the only two
languages which Columbus heard spoken in the Greater Antilles. Wood, in
Arawâk, is _ada_; woods are in Arawâk _konoko_ and in Carib _eotch_; and
water is in Arawâk _winiab_ (Hillhouse) or _comiaboo_ (im Thurn), and in
Carib _tona_.
Bryan Edwards points out that Fernando Columbus’s “Historie” states that
the Indian name of Antigua was Jamaica, and he adds: “It is a singular
circumstance that this word which in the language of the larger islands
signified a country abounding in springs, should in the dialect of the
Charaibs have been applied to an island that has not a single spring or
rivulet of fresh water in it.” Until further research proves the
contrary Jamaica must remain, what it truly is, the land of woods and
streams.
Apart from the name of the island itself, there are few names of native
origin left. These will be referred to in the body of the work as they
occur.
There is some difficulty in discriminating between the native Indian and
Spanish origin of West Indian names: and too great a faith in the laws
of philology are apt to lead one astray. Placenames are not infrequently
rather evolved in accordance with the rule of phonetics.
On this subject Long wrote: “From the resemblance which the language of
these islanders bears in some respects to the Spanish, I am apt to
suspect that many of their words have been altered by the Spanish mode
of pronunciation, and the difficulty which the discoverers found in
articulating and accenting them without some intermixture of their own
patronymic. In some this is exceedingly obvious, where the letter _b_ is
used indiscriminately for _v_, agreeably to their idiom. This perversion
may easily lead us to ascribe a Spanish or Moorish origin to the names
of places, such as rivers, mountains, headlands, &c., which in fact are
of Indian derivation. Thus the article _gua_, so commonly met with both
in these islands and on the Southern continent, was often prefixed or
appended to the Indian names of places and things; and even of their
provincial _caciques_. Of the latter were Gua-rionexius, Gua-canarillus,
Gua-naboa, and others. Of the former a vast multitude occurs, as
Gua-nama, Xa-gua, Gua-há-gua, Camayá-gua, Aicayazá-gua, Má-gua,
Nicará-gua, Verá-gua, Xará-guo, Gua-ríco, Ni-gua (Chigger), etc., which
may seem to confound them with derivatives from the Spanish or Moorish
word _agua_ (water). So the terminations, _ao_, _ana_, _coa_, and _boa_
or _voa_, as Manabax-ao, Cib-ao, Gu-ana, Magu-ana, Yagu-ana, Ligu-ana,
Zav-ana (Savannah), Furac-ana (Hurricane), Caym-ana, Guaiac-ana
(Guiacum), Haba-coa, Cuana-boa, and so forth. The names therefore
occurring in our island of Liguana, Cagua, Tilboa, Guanaboa, Guadibocoa,
and others of similar finals are with more propriety to be traced from
the Indian than the Spanish dialect.”
With regard to the Spanish occupation of the island both history and
archæology are almost as scantily supplied as in the case of the
Arawâks.
It is estimated that when Jamaica fell into the hands of the English the
population of the capital was half Spanish and Portuguese or their
descendants and half slaves; but it is a curious fact that a negro is
mentioned as holding the position of priest of the Roman Catholic
church.
The more important islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, to say nothing of the
rich mines of South America, offered greater attractions to the
Spaniards than did Jamaica, where—then, as now—the field had to be
ploughed before the harvest could be reaped. They utilized for their
_hatos_, or pastures, the low-lying lands on the sea-coast, which had
formerly been used by the native Arawâks for the cultivation of Indian
corn and cassava.
Of these hatos the principal were, going from east to west, Morante (the
name of which still lives in Morant Bay), Ayala (Yallahs), Lezama (where
Mona now is), Liguanea (Lower St. Andrew), Guanaboa (the name of which
still exists), Guatabaco (about Old Harbour), Yama (in Vere), Pereda
(Pedro Plains), El Eado (behind Bluefields) and Cabonico (near
Savanna-la-Mar).
[Illustration: JAMAICA, CIRCA 1661]
They had settlements at St. Jago de la Vega (the present Spanish town,
established in 1520), Puerto de Esquivella (Old Harbour, named after the
first governor about 1501), Parattee (still bearing the same name),
Oristan (Bluefield, named after a town in Sardinia then subject to the
crown of Spain), Savanna-la-Mar, Melilla (in the north-west corner of
St. James, named after a town on the coast of Barbary, then in the
possession of Spain), Sevilla Nueva (St. Ann’s Bay), Chireras (Ocho
Rios), Rio Nuevo and Hibanal (somewhere near Buff Bay).
Roads ran from Puerto Antonio westerly along the coast to Punta
Negrilla, connecting their townships of Santa Anna, Melilla and Manteca.
From Manteca a road ran southerly to where Savanna-la-Mar now is, and
thence easterly to Old Harbour, and thence northerly to Santa Anna.
There are but scanty remains of Spanish masonry in the island; none of
great importance. The “Columbian Magazine” in 1796 recorded that an old
Spanish tavern, with laths of bamboo, was taken down to make way for
Rodney’s statue, and the adjacent buildings, but there is, of course, no
certain proof that this was Spanish work. The only known relic of
Spanish Jamaica is the church bell from Port Royal now in the Institute
of Jamaica.
Of their buildings in general, Sir Hans Sloane, who was here in 1687–88,
only thirty-three years after the conquest, says that they were “usually
one storey high, having a porch, parlour, and at each end a room, with
small ones behind. They built with posts put deep in the ground; on the
sides their houses were plastered up with clay or reeds, or made of the
split trunks of cabbage trees nailed close to one another and covered
with tiles or palmetto thatch. The lowness, as well as fixing the posts
deep in the earth, was for fear their houses should be ruined by
earthquakes, as well as for coolness.” It seems strange, according to
modern ideas, to build a house one storey only for coolness; although
one might do so for fear of earthquakes.
Long tells us that “a certain number of posts of the hardest timber,
generally _lignum vitæ_, brazilletto, or fustick, of about 18 feet in
length and 6 to 8 inches in diameter, being first well-seasoned and
hardened in smoke, were fixed at proper distances to the depth of 2 or 3
feet in the ground; then a wall of brick, enclosing these posts, was
carried up with very strong mortar to the plate, which was pinned with
wooden spikes to the tops of the posts. The main rafters were small, but
being of the like hard wood, and perfectly well-seasoned, were
sufficiently strong; these were likewise pinned upon each other, and at
their angle of intersection at top formed a crutch to receive the ridge
pole. The smaller rafters were of the lesser ebony trees, stripped of
their bark, hardened in smoke, notched at bottom, and being placed at
the distance of about 18 inches from each other, were pinned to the
plate. Athwart these on all rafters a stratum of the wild cane (_Arundo
Indica_, bamboo species), previously smoked, was tied on by way of
wattling with straps made of the bark of mahoe or mangrove trees. Upon
these wattles some mortar was laid, to the thickness of about 4 inches;
and the whole covered with large pantiles, well bedded in. The thickness
of these roofs, from the outward shell or tile-covering to the ceiling
within, was about 8 or 10 inches. A canopy of so solid a texture was
certainly well contrived to shelter the inhabitants from the
disagreeable effects of a vertical sun,” and accordingly it is found by
experience that these old Spanish houses are much cooler than our modern
ones covered with shingles. After regretting the failure to establish a
manufacture of tiles, and the importation of North American shingles,
Long goes on to say: “The chief error the Spaniards committed in their
buildings was the placing their ground floors too low; these were nearly
on a level with the surface of the earth out of doors, or at most raised
only a few inches higher.” In his time there were, he tells us, upwards
of fifty Spanish houses remaining in Spanish Town “very little the worse
for time or weather.”
Of Spanish names given to towns and villages, St. Jago de la Vega (St.
James of the plain) still survives in custom, although supplanted
officially by Spanish Town. So also do Ocho Rios, Savanna-la-Mar (the
plain by the sea) and Oracabessa; Esquivel became Old Harbour soon after
the British occupation.
Of the Spanish names of rivers, many survive; the principal being Rio
Alto (deep river), Rio Cobre (copper river), Rio Grande, Rio Minho, Rio
Bueno (the good river), Rio Magno (the great river), Rio Novo (new
river), Rio d’oro (golden river), Rio Pedro (Peter’s river). It is
thought that Rio Pedro may be a corruption of Rio Piedra (stony river).
The Rio Minho is said to have been named after a river in Portugal or,
as Long says in another place, after some mine in the neighbourhood. It
is thought by some that it should be Rio Mina, (the river by the mine).
Others are named after rivers in Spain.
Amongst districts we have Santa Cruz (Holy Cross); as well as Pedro both
in St. Ann and in St. Elizabeth. The former is said to have been named
after Pedro Esquivel, the Spanish governor.
The following derivations of Spanish names in Jamaica are given by Long.
Notes by the present writer are added between square brackets:
_Auracabeza._ Aura, air or breeze; Cabeza, head or high land. [This is
now Ora Cabessa in St. Mary. Others derive it from Oro Cabeza, the
golden head.]
_Alta Mela._ Deep Gap. (Alta Mela, Savannah, St. James.)
_Agua Alta Bahia._ Deep water Bay, corruptly Wag-Water. [Still known
as Wag Water.]
_Los Angelos._ The Angels. [Angels in St. Catherine was the first
terminus of the railway.]
_Rio Bonito._ The Pretty River.
_Cabo Bonito._ The Pretty Cape. [In St. Catherine.]
_Cabarita Punta._ Kid or Goat Point. [In Westmoreland, where there is
a river of the same name; there is another Cabaritta Point in Old
Harbour Bay, and a Cabaritta Island in Port Maria Harbour.]
_Rio de Camarones._ Perhaps from Gambaro, a crab, from the abundance
of black crabs hereabouts.
_Cobre Rio._ Copper River, or Cobra Port, Snake River. [Still known as
Rio Cobre.]
_Caborido._ _Quasi_ Caba Arido, the dry or withered cape (part of
Healthshire highlands.)
_Carvil or Caravel Bahia._ Caravela signifies a light round kind of a
ship formerly used by the Spaniards.
_Diablo Monte._ Devil’s Mount. [Now called Mount Diavolo.]
_Escondido Puerto._ The hidden harbour. [In Portland; now called
Turtle Crawle Harbour.]
_Flora Ria._ Flower River.
_Fortaleza Punta._ Fort Point. [On Blome’s map there are two in St.
Ann.]
_Gallina Punta._ Hen Point. [Galina Point is in St. Mary.]
_Guada Bocca._ Guada, brook of water; boca, mouth.
_Hoja Rio._ River of leaves, now corruptly Riho Hoa. [Now called Rio
Hoe.]
_Jarisse Punta._ Cross-bow or arrow, probably refers to some action
with the Indians.
_Javareen._ Rustic expression, signifying a wild boar.
_Lacovia._ _Quasi_ Lago-via, or the way by the lake. [A village in St.
Elizabeth. Elsewhere Long suggests it may be a corruption of La agua
via, the watery way. It was once in the possession of the Gladstone
family.]