The surface of Jamaica is usually hilly or mountainous, and there is a great variety of climate, according to situation and elevation. The largest extent of level land is to the westward, where the low lands are near the sea. The form of the coasts presents the outline of a turtle, the mountain ridges representing the back. The highest elevations are situated to the east, the inclined slope rising from the west. Vestiges of intermittent volcanic action occur. From the sea-level on all sides a series of ridges gradually ascend towards the central range, dividing the large rivers, and rising occasionally into peaks of 6000 feet. The Blue Mountains, running centrally from east to west, rise at some points to above 7000 feet. The vapours ascending from the rivers and surrounding ocean produce in the upper regions clouds saturated with moisture, which induce vegetation belonging to a colder climate. During the rainy season there is such an accumulation of vapour as to cause a general coolness over the island, and of course occasioning very sudden and heavy showers, and sometimes destructive floods. Upwards of one hundred and fourteen rivers or streams find their way from the interior to the sea, besides the numerous tributaries which issue from every ravine in the mountains. These streams for the most part are not navigable; in times of flood they become devastating torrents. In the parish of Portland, the Rio Grande receives all the smaller tributaries from the west; there is scarcely a mile width between any of these streams, and the land rises about 1000 feet to the mile. In St Thomas in the east, the drainage of the main ridge is performed by the Plantain Garden river, the tributaries of which form deep ravines and narrow gorges in the mountains, which unite and descend, the valley of the Plantain Garden expanding out into a most picturesque and fertile plain. Black River flows through a level country, and is accessible to small craft for about 30 miles. Salt River and the Cabarita, both also on the south side, are navigable by barges. The others on the south are the Rio Cobre (where irrigation works have been constructed for the sugar estates and provision and fruit growing in the district), Yallahs, and Rio Minho; on the north Martha Brae, the White River at Buff Bay, the Great Spanish River, and Rio Grande. There are several medicinal springs. Jamaica has sixteen harbours, the chief of which are Port Morant, Kingston, Old Harbour, Green Island, Montego Bay, Falmouth, Port Maria, St Ann’s Bay, Lucea, and Port Antonio, besides numerous bays, roadsteads, and shipping stations affording tolerable anchorage. The surface of the valleys and level lands consists of alluvial deposits composed of sediment derived from the disintegration of the higher land. The White Limestone formation seems to originate two descriptions of alluvia, one white and the other red, the colour being due to oxide of iron combined with the argillaceous residue of the pre-existing limestone. The red soil is particularly favourable for coffee growing. The area occupied by the Coast Limestone and White Limestone represents about five-eighths of the island. The substructure of Jamaica consists of igneous rocks. In economic geology Jamaica produces a great variety of marbles, porphyrites, granite, and ochres. Traces of gold have been found associated with some of the oxidized copper ores (blue and green carbonates) of the Clarendon mines. Copper ores are very widely diffused, though the working of the veins has been found too expensive. Cobalt and lead have been worked, but hitherto unprofitably. Manganese occurs, also iron ores and a form of arsenic. There is a great variety (and at the same time great equability) of climate. In the lowlands the temperature rises from 75 α at night to 85° in the day, and is tempered by the sea and land breezes. At Up-Park Camp, 225 feet above the sea-level, the mean temperature of the hottest month (July) was 81 o, 71, and of the coldest month (January) 75 o- 65. At Newcastle, 3800 feet, the hottest month was 67 0, 75, and the coldest 61°. The temperature therefore is very equable. In the higher levels the temperature may be 40° to 50°. In the plains there is much humidity. At Kingston the temperature ranges from 70° to 80° throughout the year. Parts of the island are extremely favourable for sufferers from tubercular disease. The island is generally healthy, though sometimes subject to yellow fever, like most tropical countries. Hurricanes, when they occur, come between July and October. The periodical rains, which generally last for six weeks, constitute the May and October seasons.

The vegetable productions are very numerous. There are forest trees fit for every purpose; among these are the ballata, rosewood, satinwood, mahogany, lignum vitae, lancewood, and ebony. The logwood and fustic are exported for dyeing. There are also the Jamaica cedar, and the silk cotton tree (Ceiba Dombax). Pimento (peculiar to Jamaica) is indigenous, and furnishes the allspice. The bamboo, coffee, and cocoa are well known. Several species of palm abound,—the macaw, the fan palm, screw palm, and palmetto royal. There are plantations of cocoa-nut palm. The Government are raising cocoa-nuts with profit on a barren spit of sand by the sea. Cinchona plantations have recently been successfully established in the mountains, the produce selling well in the London market. The other noticeable trees and plants are the mango, the breadfruit tree, the papaw, the lacebark tree, and the guava. The Palma Christi, from which castor oil is made, is a very abundant annual. English vegetables grow in the hills, and the plains produce plantains, cocoa, yams, cassava, ochra, beans, pease, ginger, and arrowroot. Maize and guinea corn are cultivated, and the guinea grass, accidentally introduced in 1750, is very valuable for horses and cattle,—so much so that pen-keeping or cattle farming is a highly profitable occupation. Among the principal fruits are the orange, shaddock, lime, grape or cluster fruit, pine-apple, mango, banana, grapes, melons, avocado pear, breadfruit, and tamarind. There are public gardens at Kingston, at Castleton, about 20 miles from Kingston, and at Bath, and an experimental plantation of different varieties of cane at Hope plantation. The sugar cane was cultivated at an early period, for in 1671 there were a number of sugar works. There are many beautiful flowers, such as the aloe, the yucca, the datura, the mountain pride, the Victoria regia; the cactus tribe is well represented. Innumerable varieties of ferns grow in the mountains, and orchids in the woods. The sensitive plant grows in pastures.

There are fourteen sorts of Lampyridx or fireflies, besides the Elateridae or lantern beetles. There are no venomous serpents, but plenty of harmless snakes and lizards. The large lizard, the iguana, is eaten, as are also the land crab and tortoise. The scorpion and centipede are poisonous, but not very dangerous. Ants, mosquitoes, and sandflies swarm in the lowlands. Gosse enumerates twenty different song birds in Jamaica. Parrots, pigeons, guinea fowl, and a great variety of water birds are found. The sea and rivers swarm with fish, and turtles abound. The seal and manatee are sometimes found, and the crocodile. The domestic animals are those of the ordinary English kind. Jamaica beef and pork are very good. Poultry succeeds well The population was returned in the census of 1844 as 380,000, of whom 16,000 were white, 68,000 coloured, and the rest black. In 1861 it was returned at 441,000, of whom 14,000 were white, 80,000 coloured, and 347,000 black. In 1871 the numbers were 13,000 white, 100,000 coloured, 393,000 black; total 506,000. The census of 1881 will probably show a total of 600,000,—a large increase in the black and coloured population, and a stationary if not reduced number of white people.

The total value of imports was £1,492,722 (including £757,077 from the United Kingdom) in 1878, and £1,347,342 in 1879— amounts considerably below the values for the preceding six years, in four of which it was above £1,700,000. The imports consist principally of provisions for consumption, a considerable proportion coming from the United States. The total value of exports in 1878 was £1,210,705 (£954,584 to the United Kingdom), consisting of 9,572,714 lb of coffee (an extending industry), 908,603 tt> of ginger, 6,195,109 lb of pimento, 18,115 puncheons of rum, 26,066 hhds. of sugar, and 35,157 tons of logwood. The total value is below that of the six preceding years. The sugar exported was below the average of preceding years; but in 1879 sugar exports rose again to 29,000 hhds. The value of the fruit exported (principally to United States) had risen from £9337 in 1875 to £39,451 in 1878. The total exports for 1879 were £1,357,571 value. Tire area under crops in 1878 was 121,457 acres, in guinea grass 120,264, in pasture 318,549, in wood and runate 1,217,596, leaving 942,134 acres of the total extent to be accounted for as unpatented primeval forest or rocky land of no value. One of the newest industries, besides cinchona, is the growth of excellent tobacco; Jamaica cigars are now becoming well known in England. The public revenue for 1878 was £438,564, and the appropriated revenues from roads, poor rates, &c., £74,900, making a grand total of £512,465, or about 18s. per head of the population. The estimates for 1880 showed a public revenue of £469,875 and appropriated £72,580, total £542,455. £245,000, or more than half the public revenue, is raised from import duties, and £94,000 from rum duties; the railway receipts (Government having purchased the line by loan with a view to extension) for 1880 were estimated at £23,000. The remainder comes from licences, postal revenues, and other sources. The public expenditure for 1879 was £460,154, the appropriated £73,050, total £533,204, and the estimated expenditure for 1880—public £485,655, appropriated £72,580, total £558,235. The main items of expends ture are—debt charges and sinking funds and redemption, £73,000; administrative departments, £33,000; revenue departments, £33,000; judicial, £36,000; ecclesiastical, £10,000 (the church has been disestablished, and the expenditure will be gradually less as vested interests disappear); medical, £55,000; constabulary, £50,000; penitentiary and prisons, £25,000; education, £25,000; railway managing, &c., £14,000; public works and irrigation, £58,000.

In 1878, 617 schools. underwent inspection by the Government; 51,488 children were on the books, the average attendance being 29,679. Of these schools, 54 passed first class, 176 second class, and 343 third class. The average Government grant to each school aided during the year was £29, and the total education grant, exclusive of departmental salaries, was £18,572. Elementary education has made progress during the eleven years the present system has been in operation. The collegiate school in Kingston offers higher education. Among educational institutions, the Church of England high school, the Calabar institution or Jamaica Baptist College, and Wolmer’s free school, founded in 1729 by John Wolmer forthe free education of poor children, as well as the Mico school, require mention. The ecclesiastical establishment is regulated by Law No. 30 of 1870, which provided for gradual disendowment. This law created a synod, to consist of clergymen and lay representatives, and it continued to each existing rector, island curate, and stipendiary curate the payments from the state so long as they fulfilled their functions. Under this law the estimates for 1880 show as still op the establishment five rectors, twenty island curates, and three stipendiary curates, the total amount for the Church of England being £9749; this, with £367 to the Church of Scotland, and £100 to the Church of Rome, makes up the ecclesiastical establishment. Besides the state paid clergymen, there are about forty clergymen paid out of the Diocesan Church Fund. Besides three American church missionaries at Kingston, there are about twenty Presbyterian ministers, thirty Wesleyan, eight of the London Missionary Society, fifty Baptist, one Independent, six United Methodist Free Church. The Moravians have fourteen stations and seventeen missionaries. There are two synagogues.

Kingston, the capital, is on the south coast. It was founded in 1693, and is built on a plain which rises from the shore with a gradual ascent to the foot of the Liguanea mountains. This plain is covered with country residences and sugar estates. The town population in 1871 was 4393 whites, 13,291 coloured, and 16,630 blacks. It is now estimated at over 40,000. The seat of government was recently transferred from Spanish Town to Kingston, and the principal civil and judicial business is transacted there. The chief retail business street is Harbour Street. Port Royal Street is the chief thoroughfare of the wholesale merchants, who keep wharves which line the seaboard of the town. The public buildings possess little architectural interest. The Victoria Market (opened in 1872) and public landing place at the foot of King Street (where Rodney’s statue was brought from Spanish Town), form a very fine market-place. The court house in Harbour Street is a handsome building. The public hospital (with 170 beds), the law library, the chancery registrar’s office (with its piece of tapestry of the royal and island arms, which used to be carried before the governor on state occasions), the court of vice-admiralty, the public library and museum in East Street, are also worthy of mention. The parish church in King Street is one of the oldest churches in the island, dating probably from 1692. It contains the tombs of William Hall (1699) and Admiral Benbow (1702). The only bank is a branch of the Colonial Bank, besides the Government Savings Bank. Up-Park Camp, to the north-east of the city, is the headquarters of a West India regiment.

Jamaica was discovered by Columbus and possession taken in the name of the king of Spain on the 3d of May 1494. He called it St Jago, but it is known by its Indian name Jamaica, “the isle of springs.” It is sometimes written Xamayca. The inhabitants belonged to the gentler Indian tribes, not to the fierce Caribs. In June 1503 Columbus was driven by a tempest into a bay on the north side, now St Ann’s Bay. After his departure the island remained unvisited until 1509, when his son Diego, having established his right in the council of the Indies to the governorship of Hispaniola, sent Don Juan d’Esquivel to take possession of the island, in opposition to Alonzo d’Ojeda, who claimed it under a royal grant. Thenceforward, under the nde of the Spaniards, the Indian population diminished, until in 1655, when the island fell into the possession of the English, the race was practically extinct. The controversy respecting the rights of the descendants of Columbus continued for a long time. About the year 1523 Diego Columbus founded St Jago de la Vega, St James of the Plain, which was the official capital, under the name of Spanish Town, until Kingston was recently selected. Attention had been gradually given to agriculture, the cotton plant, sugar cane, and various kinds of corn and grass having been introduced. In 1596, during the alliance of Queen Elizabeth with the Low Countries, andtheconsequentwar withSpain, Sir A. Shirley, a British admiral, invaded Jamaica, but made no attempt at occupation. In the reign of Charles I. Colonel Jackson defeated the inhabitants at Passage Fort. Shortly afterwards the island was divided into eight districts in the nominal possession of eight noble families, and the total population became extremely small. The next important event was the expedition sent by Cromwell, under Admirals Penn and Venables; failing against Hispaniola, they took possession of Jamaica on the 3d May 1655, the island having been in the possession of the Spaniards one hundred and sixty-one years. Under Cromwell emigrants were sent from Scotland and Ireland and other places. But the Spaniards and their negroes harassed the new comers, who died in considerable numbers. On the 8th May 1658 an attack from Hispaniola was defeated, and soon after the remaining Spaniards were driven from the island. The slaves called Maroons, however, who had fled to the mountains, continued formidable. Down to the end of the 18th century the disaffection of these Maroons caused much trouble. In 1661 a regular civil government was established, Colonel D’Oyley being appointed governor-general with an elective council. Next year he was succeeded by Lord Windsor, who was instructed to summon a popular assembly to pass laws. Jamaica became the resort of the buccaneers, who carried on a profitable piracy on these seas during the war with Spain. In 1670 peace was made with Spain, and the English title was recognized by the treaty of Madrid. The buccaneers were suppressed. In 1672 the Fourth or Royal African Company was formed to carry on a monopoly of the slave trade. From 1700 to 1786 the number of slaves imported was estimated at 610,000, of whom about one-fifth were re-exported. In 1673 the governor sent home the first pot of sugar to the secretary of state; at this time there were 7768 whites and 9504 negroes on the island. In 1678, while the earl of Carlisle was governor, an attempt was made to saddle the island with a yearly tribute to the crown, and to restrict the free legislative power of the assembly. The privileges of the assembly, however; were restored under Sir Thomas Lynch in 1682; it was not until 1728 that £8000 (currency) a year was settled on the crown, and the laws and statutes of England were made equally applicable to Jamaica. This amount was afterwards commuted for £6000, used by the governor for salaries, allowances, and contingencies. In 1854 this fund was merged in the ordinary civil list. The other principal event in the general history of Jamaica was the threatened invasion in 1782 by the combined fleets of France mid Spain under De Grasse. It was saved by the victory of Rodney and Hood, off Dominica, in commemoration of which event a statue of Rodney, by Bacon, was erected in Spanish Town.

A great earthquake occurred in 1692, when the chief part of the town of Port Royal, built on a shelving bank of sand, slipped into the sea. In 1712 and 1722 there were dreadful hurricanes, the last causing the seat of commerce to be transferred from Port Royal to Kingston. Since then there have been a number of hurricanes, the most recent being in August 1880, when considerable damage was done to crops, provision grounds, churches, chapels, and schoolhouses in the eastern part of the island.

Since 1800 the history of Jamaica has been, with some exceptions (such as the defeat by Admiral Duckworth in 1806 of the French squadron intended to invade Jamaica), confined to its domestic concerns and its relations with the mother country. In 1807, when the slave trade was abolished, there were 323,827 slaves in the island. The island was very prosperous,—sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton, pimento, ginger, and indigo being produced; and it was also the dépôt of a very lucrative transit trade between Europe and the Spanish main. The anti-slavery agitation in England, growing stronger every year, caused great excitement in the island, and there was much violence and misrepresentation on both sides of the question. The negroes revolted in 1832, under the belief that emancipation had been granted; many hundreds of lives were sacrificed, a large amount of property destroyed, and various atrocities were committed. This stimulated the agitation in England, and in 1833 the Emancipation Act was passed, the period of apprenticeship being ultimately reduced to four years. Of the £20,000,000 compensation, £6,161,927 was awarded to Jamaica, being about £19 a head on a slave population of 309,338. The wisdom of the manner in which the emancipation policy was carried out by England has been often questioned. During Sir Lionel Smitns administration, on the 1st of August 1838, the apprenticeship came to an end, and entire emancipation was effected by an Act of the assembly. Difficulties arising between the British Government and the assembly as to the Prisons Act, a bill was introduced by Mr Labouchere (Lord Taunton) into the House of Commons to suspend the constitution of Jamaica, the rejection of which measure occasioned...