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CHAP. X.

HISTORY OF JAMAICA.

County of Cornwall-description of Savannah la Mar, the county town of Montego, and Trelawney-parishes, extent, productions, boundaries, and rivers-general statement of population-settlements and produce of the whole island, from the last authentic documents.

THE COUNTY OF CORNWALL.

This county is divided into five parishes, which contain nine towns, and three or four villages.

THE parish of St. Elizabeth skirts the parishes of Clarendon

and Vere, in Middlesex, on the east; it joins Westmoreland westward; St. James's and Trelawney parishes in this county, on the north; and the sea is its southern boundary. The Black River, and another called the Y. S., the Hector, the Broad River, and several small ones, contribute to the fertility of this district, and to the commercial convenience of its inhabitants. The Black River, according to Long, is the noblest in the whole island its source is in the north division of the parish, at the distance of sixteen miles from the nearest part of the sea coast: it meanders about thirty-four miles before it reaches the sea, and is navigable by boats and large barges for many miles. The Y. S. is the next considerable stream: it is so called from an ancient Gallic word formed by these two letters, and signifying crooked or winding in one of its windings, in the bosom of a thick wood, it encounters a kind of rocky breakers, formed by a craggy mountain, from the fissures of which it descends rapidly in a beautiful cascade, deemed one of the remarkable natural curiosities of the island. The town of Lacovia is situated about seven miles inland from Pedro Bay it lies very low in a kind of bottom, and is liable to be inundated by the waters of a large morass which surrounds it. It contains, however, two tolerable taverns, or inns, for the reception of travellers; and, besides a court-house for the purpose of holding the quarterly session of the peace, and transacting the parish business, it has about fourteen houses, mostly

inhabited by Jews. Accompong and Charles Town were in habited by the Maroons before they were sent into exile. There is likewise a small hamlet belonging to this parish, called Black River Village, remarkable only for the handsome parish church which stands near it. The soil of this parish varies considerably in some parts there are rich veins of mould adapted to the cultivation of sugar cane; this land lies contiguous to the banks on the Y. S. and Black Rivers: but a prodigious tract, consisting of not less than twenty thousand acres, lies scattered in waste morass, which might be drained and made productive. The south-west part of the parish is moun tainous and stony, while the vales are continued sands, particularly the plain of Luana. On the whole, it is reckoned an unhealthy district; and the troops that were stationed in barracks in swampy places near the bay, were attacked with putrid fevers and dysenteries, which proved fatal to many of them. Nearly eighty thousand acres of land in this parish remain uncultivated; the greater part of it mountainous, but capable of producing coffee and other valuable commodities.

Westmoreland parish was formerly a part of St. Elizabeth, and was made a separate district in 1703: it therefore joins it on the eastern side, and extends to a part of St. James's: the west and south divisions are bounded by the sea coast, and on the north it is united to the parish of Hanover. Its chief rivers are Bluefields in the eastern division, the Bonito and the New Savannah westward, and the Great River on the north-east side. But it is principally remarkable for its head-lands, and good harbours. Bluefield Bay is the most distinguished. It is situated to the westward, is very spacious, and has such excellent anchorage, that it is the constant rendezvous, in time of war, for our homeward-bound fleets and their convoys intending to steer by the Gulph of Florida.

The town of Savannah la Mar, the capital of Cornwall, is situated west of Bluefield Bay, and is sheltered on the one side by the head-land called Bluff Point, and on the other by Cabarito. The roads to this town are for the most part deep and dirty. The rains in this parish are heavier than in the others on the south side of the island, and the country is flat towards the sea; so that during the rainy seasons the roads are almost impassable.

Though the ships that are to take on board the produce of the neighbouring plantations, consisting of sugars, rum, mahogany planks, and other commodities for exportation, lie before the town, it has but an indifferent harbour, or rather road. The water is shoaly, and poorly defended from a stormy sea; nor is the town much better guarded against the attacks of an

enemy. The fort, which cost the parishioners upwards of sixteen thousand pounds, is ill contrived, and frequently undermined by the waves. Formerly eighteen or twenty guns were mounted on it, and kept in good order; but most of them in the course of time, from neglect, have been dismounted: and the salutes to men of war, and on other occasions, are obliged to be given from a battery of fourteen small pieces of ordnance placed before the court-house. This edifice was erected in 1752, for the purpose of holding courts of common-pleas, the quarter sessions of the justices of the peace, elections, and parish business; but in 1758 it was enacted by the legislature of the island, that the assize court for the county should be hoiden in this town, which considerably enlarged and extended its jurisdiction. This town carries on a considerable trade, being commodiously situated for a correspondence with Truxillo, Honduras, and the Musquito shore; the passage to which is short and speedy, for the trade-wind serves both going and returning. At present, however, it is not large, for it consists of only one decent street, and about seventy scattered houses. Underneath the court-house are the barracks, capable of holding seventy. men: a company of regulars constantly do garrison duty. But the situation is not healthy, on account of a tract of undrained morass land seven miles in length, which lies to the westward, and cannot well be drained, being covered with mangroves, and lying below the level of the sea. Even the ground on which the town is built is flat and low, so as to be subject to those excessive heats and putrid vapours, which, in the months of July and August, produce diseases that prove fatal to constitutions not habituated to the climate by long residence. The hamlet of Queen's Town, called also Beckford's, and the Savannah, is about two miles distant from the capital: this was intended by the late Richard Beckford, Esq. to have been a handsome town, deriving its name from the founder. That gentleman made a free grant of the land in lots of from five to twenty acres, and formed a plan of regular streets, with a large square in the center, on which the church was to be erected; but the plan not being carried into execu tion, a hamlet was substituted, which consists of a few wellbuilt houses; but in other respects it is not a place of any

note.

The planters who quitted Surinam in 1675, and the remnant of the Scots colony at Darien, who came to the island of Jamaica in 1699, settled in the eastern district of this parish, near Scots Cave. From the Dutch emigrants, this division obtained the name of Surinam Quarters; and the names of several of

the settlements of the Scotch, point out the nation from which they were taken; as Culloden, Auchindown, &c.

On leaving Savannah la Mar, the road to Hanover crosses the Cabarito River twice, by two bridges constructed with planks laid across some beams, but not provided with any siderails for the security of passengers. The road then proceeds by a steep ascent, or rather a pass of about a mile in length, and so narrow that two horses can scarcely go abreast. From the summit, the eye takes in, at one glance, a rural scene enriched with every embellishment of nature and art. The landscape is inexpressibly fine: cane fields, villas, pastures, clumps, groves, and rivulets, are promiscuously spread over the whole of its protuberant and diversified surface. This part of the parish exceeds most others for the peculiar nature of the soil, which is a kind of Fuller's-earth, soapy and rich, and so congenial to the sugar cane, that a long and uninterrupted culture seems not to have exhausted, or even impaired, its fertility..

Hanover parish was not made a separate district till the year 1723, when part of Westmoreland was formed into a new parish by its present title. Its boundary on the east is the Great River, which divides it from St. James's. The northern and western parts extend to the sea coast; but it is from the south of Westmoreland that it has acquired its domain. There are several rivers in Hanover parish, but none of them considerable, their sources not being above a few miles from the sea. Its principal shipping-places are Orange Bay, Green Island Harbour, and Sancta Lucia Harbour. Green Island Harbour, and Orange Bay, are the most north-western parts of Jamaica; the former takes its name from a little island at the offing, about half a league distant from the main land. On the west side of the harbour is a small battery of nine six-pounders, a sufficient guard to the entrance, as they are always kept in order for defence: there are likewise two more guns at a distance from the battery, near a small tavern, where the main battery was first intended to be erected. North-west of the harbour, there is another small bay, very commodious for shipping. And on the western side, a strong battery has been built, and is kept up at the expense of a private gentleman, to protect his rich plantations in the vicinity: it has eighteen guns mounted, and embrasures for twenty-one.

Orange Cove is situated at a small distance from the abovementioned bay, near Point Pedro. This is the most delightful part of Hanover: it is beautiful beyond description. Whereever the wandering eye directs its view, it meets with a succession of objects equally new, striking, and lively, through

out an extent of many miles. In one division is seen a wide plain, richly covered with canes of an emerald tint, of dif ferent shades, and striped with fringes of logwood, or penguine fence; or, instead of this border, with rills of crystal water. In another rises a velvet lawn, whose gently-sloping bo som is embellished with herds and flocks, and its borders enriched by negro villages, shaded by clumps of graceful trees. On the neighbouring hill are seen windmills at work, with boiling-houses and other plantation buildings at the foot; together with labourers, cattle, and carriages, all briskly occupied in performing the various duties attendant on cultivation. In addition to these animated scenes, a boundless prospect of the sea opens to the north; and a battlement of hills, crowned with woods, bounds the northern view.

Not less delightful is the prospect of Lucia, the only town inhabited by white people in this parish, and its charming en virons. The harbour at the entrance is half a mile across; and, continuing its channel about a mile inland, it expands itself into a circular bason of nearly the same space in every direction. The anchorage in all parts is very good; and the depth of water is from four to six fathoms. The town itself

is but small, consisting only of one large street, and about sixty isolated houses. The south-west side stands upon a swampy foundation: the land behind it, as well as on each side, being mountainous, no part of the town is seen from the road, until you enter it; and the only full view of it is from the har bour. Upon the whole, it is not a healthy spot; but it is conveniently situated for carrying on a profitable traffic with the Spanish island of Cuba. The entrance of the harbour is de ended by a fort erected on the western point of a small peninsula: it has from twenty to twenty-five pieces of ordnance mounted, and constantly ready for service: there are also barracks for fifty men at a small distance; but the garrison, in time of peace, does not consist of so many. The church, a handsome brick building, which cost the parishioners upwards of seven thousand pounds, is delightfully situated at the distance of half a mile from the town, and is near the fort. On the opposite side of the harbour is a plantation, called the Point, remarkable for its fine situation, commanding the harbour, the shipping, the fort, and the town, and a distant view continued for many miles over well cultivated cane-fields, and a country most agreeably diversified. The progress of improvements in this parish, which contains more sugar works than some other parishes of three times its extent, affords a prospect of its becoming one of the wealthiest settlements in the island.

St. James's is the next. The boundaries of this parish are,

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