Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/323

 JAMAICA

271

JAMAICA

4207i square miles, of which about 646 are flat, con- sisting of alluvium, marl, and swamp. There are some mineral deposits in the island, the most abund- ant being copper. The surface of the island is very- mountainous, almost 2000 square miles of it being above an altitude of 1000 feet. The culminating point. Blue Mountain Peak, is 7360 feet high.

Flora and Fauna. — There are over two thousand distinct species of flowering plants and some four hundred and seventy varieties of ferns in Jamaica. The economic woods include: logwood, lignum-vita;, cedar, mahogany, mahoe, fustic, bullet^wood, yacca, satin-wood, and cashaw. The medicinal woods and plants are: quassia, cinchona, gamboge, sarsaparilla, senna, belladonna, castor-oil, ginger, tamarind, and tobacco. Dietetic: coffee, cocoa, arrow-root, pi- mento, cane, plantain, yam, and sweet potato. Among the fruit trees, all the citrus family abound, mango, star-apple, bread-fruit, banana, cocoa-nut, custard-apple, avocado pear, pineapple, etc.

Topography. — The island is divided into three counties: Surrey, Middlesex, and Cornwall; and each into five parishes: Portland, St. Thomas, St. Andrew, Kingston, Port Royal; St. Mary, St. Ann, St. Cath- erine, Clarendon, Manchester; Hanover, St. James, Trelawny, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland.

Popufatinn and Vital Statistics. — The first recorded attempt at enumerating the population of Jamaica was in Hiiill, when "the relicts of the army" were stated to be 2200, and the planters, merchants, and others about the same number. In 1775, there were 13,737 whites, free coloured 4093, slaves 192,787. In 1834 — the year of negro emancipation — it was computed that there were 15,000 whites, 5000 free blacks, 40,000 coloured, 311,070 slaves, making a total of 371,070. In June, 1844, the censvis gave whites 13,816, coloured 81,074, and blacks 346,374; total 441,264. The population in 1891 was 639,493, of whom 14,692 were white, 121,755 were coloured, 486,624 black, 10, 116 coolies (East Indians), 481 China- men, and 3623 not described. The total estimated population in 1907 was 830,261. The Registrar- General's statistics show that upwards of 65 per cent of births were those of illegitimate children. Many of these are the offspring of consistent or permanent concubinage rather than of promiscuity. In this connexion it must not be forgotten that the ancestors of the majority of this people some two generations ago were permitted and encouraged to breed like cattle, and were denied admission to the marriage state. In 1881 there were over 10,000 Catholics in Jamaica; in 1891 there were 12,000; and at the present date (1908) about 14,000. The average annual birth- rate for ten years, 1896-7 to 1906-7, was 36-5 per 1000 of the estimated mean population. For the same period the mean average death-rate of population per 1000 was 23-2. The population of Kingston is some 50,000, Spanish Town 5690, Montego Bay 4760, Port Antonio 2.500, Falmouth 3100, Mandeville 1500.

Climate and Meteorology. — Intimately associated with vital statistics comes the question of climate. Jamaica, being a tropical island, was formerly looked on as injurious as a residence to the inhabitants of northern latitudes. This theory has been completely refuted, and for many years past the invalid and tourist is resorting in mcreasing numljers to this "Riviera of the West", which is an ideal sojourn for the health-seeker. The diversity of surface, from the plains to the plateaux and mountain slopes, affords a variety of climate suitable to any requirement. The table of 1899 given in the next column will illustrate this fact, at varying altitudes and localities.

Meteorological rcrcirds are wanting for Manchester and St. Elizabeth l]if,'hlands, which are much drier than other hill districts of the island. There are many mineral springs valuable for the cure of acute and chronic diseases, especially gout and rheumatism.

Two of them possess very remarkable curative prop- erties: the hot sulphurous springs of Bath, and the warm saline spring at Milk River.

Temperature

Humidity Mean Annual

Rainfall

Locality

Mean Annual

Mean Annual Range

7 A.M.

3P. M

Inches Total Annual

Kingston, Pub- lic Gardens (60 ft. above sea level) ....

Hope Gardens, 700 ft

Cinchona Gar- dens, 4900 ft.

79°.4 F. 77°.3 F. 62°.9 F.

16°.2 F. 20°.9 F. 12°.2 F.

81 87 83

63 67 84

46 . 78 62 . 39 90.08

History. — Jamaica was discovered by Columbus on 3 May, 1494. He landed probably at or near St. Ann's Bay, called by him Sancta Gloria, owing to the great beauty of the environs. Nine years later his caravels were wrecked at Puerto Bueno — the present Dry Harbour. He gave the name Santiago to the island, which was but partially colonized by the Spaniards, and was never popular with them. They first introduced horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and domestic poultry. To the Spaniards Ja- maica is also indebted for the orange, lemon, lime, and other fruit trees; the coffee tree is due however to British initiative about the year 1721. From the constituents of the shell mounds throughout the island and the absence therefrom of all objects of a European character, it would appear that these accumulations represent the kitchen middens of the pre-Columban aboriginal inhabitants. These remains, found principally in caves, comprise: (a) crania and other bones (human), (b) stone implements (celts, etc.), (c) objects of pottery (various), (d) orna- mental beads (chalcedony) ; kitchen middens contain- ing shells (principally marine), broken pottery, fish and coney bones, stone implements, and ashes. Their cottages were built on stockade posts set vertically side by side in a trench. For animal food they de- pended principally on the sea, and on their festivals or Ijarbecues the entire village went out on marine or river excursions. Their gardens yielded arrow-root, beans, cassava, cucumbers, melons, maize, and yams; for fruit they had the guava, mammee, papaw, and star-apple. They cultivated cotton and wound it for cordage and twisted it into yarn for making gar- ments. The only domestic animals were probably the muysea duck and the alca, a small dog. The aborig- ines were most probably a tribe of the Arawak Indians, and not Caribs, who were cannibals. The Arawaks were a gentle and inoffensive people as their name (raeal-eatcrs) signifies. They believed in a Supreme Being (Jocahuna), in a future state, and had a tradition about a deluge. Their form of government was patriarchal. They smoked tobacco and played a football game called hato, in which both men and women joined.

Spanish Occupation. — A review of the period of Spanish occupation is one which reflects very little credit on Spanish colonial administration in those days. Their treatment of the aboriginal inhabitants, whom they are accused of having practically exter- minated, is a grave charge, and if true, cannot be condoned on the plea that such conduct was charac- teristic of the age, and that as bad or worse was per- petrated by other nations even in later years. In the few places where the Spaniards settled, they in- variably built a church, sometimes a monastery, and occasionally a theatre. Sevilla-Nueva (or Sevilla