The times., 1898-10-30
THE ISLAND OF JAMAICA
Famed for It's Rum and Pun
gent Remedy.
WHENPIRACY WASINyOGUE
1t was the Home of the Old Sen Rob-
bers-Tbe English Are in Possess
sion, and Their Customs Prevail
The Jolly Buccaneers-The Land
of Springs.

Kingston, Jamaica, Oct. 22.-Dawn was
breaking in the east, and the blue noun
tains leaping out of their beds of mist
and tumbling their cloudy blankets in
every direction as we caught the first
glimpse of this far-famed bit of the
queens domain. One who is familiar
with out own great West sees in Ja-
maica a strong resemblance to the Black
Hills of Dakota.
Some of the peaks of the central range
are more than 1000 feet high. and eternll-
ly veiled in clouds. Their lower slopes
and ridges are clothed with the most
luxuriant verdure of the tropics. and the
foot hills. trending down to the coast in
many sharp spurs. like a colossal van
dyke pattern, have emeralded valleys be-
tween, filed with cane fields and coffee
groves.
No emerald was ever half so green as
the living green" OF these deep valleys.
They are watered by innumerable streams
that come pouring down from the upper
heights, through canyons banked with
dred varieties of the great palm family.
Xaymaca Qand of springs, the abor
igines called their island. The cary
Spaniards rendered the word after their
own musical Observation-Disclosures -ah-and
il remained for the English. who always
ruin the nomenclature and wiring the last
drop of romance out of every place that
;n, Iai saFn Il f4tt
it out to Jay-mayke.
Pineapple Rum.
To most of us. the name OF this small
territory is intimately associated with its
celebrated pineapple rum. or with re-
membered pains under the apron in con-
nection with its pungent ginger. Judg-.
ing from the enormous quantities of ia
maica rum and Jamaica ginger which
have long been used in all parts OF the
civilized world, one would expect TO find
q fair-sized continent here, given up 10
| the exclusive production of those useful
articles-instead OF an extremely limited
| tract I60 miles long by 20 broad. hardly
| one-fifth of which is yet cultivated. Per-
| haps. as with Panama hats and Habana
I cigars and Mexican fligree. work, the ar
| ticles are made almost anywhere else
| than in the place whose name they bear.
| Near Port Royal, the entrance harbor
| to Kingston. we beheld the usual West
India scene-a level stretch between the
sea and the base of the hills. formed in
| the slow course OF centuries by debris
washed down from above; the pain COW
cred with cane fields, coffee groves and
cocoa palms. dotted with Villas and the
| tall chimneys of sugar factories.
Presently Kingston came into sisht-the
| white walled city Of dream as seen
! from a distance. glorified in the go,den
and rosy glow of the morning. Between
| stretched a sand spit, eight miles long
u natural breakwater, rising only Few
feet above the waterline, in places bare
ly twenty-five yards across and nowhere
more than fifty; yet the laundering
swells of the Caribbean, pounding cease
less upon it. never wear it any thinner
Just beyond the curling surf. wherever
the sand is dry enough, cocoa-palms & ow
thickly-a long line of soft green. above
| which appear the masts and spars OF
| vessels anchored on the other side OF the
spit and apparently mixed up with the
houses of Kingston. AT the up-end OF
the sand bank stands Port Royal-the
ancient Puerto Real, SO famous In West
| Indian history.
Great Brftain's CoIors.
A lighthouse rears its white hulk half
way down among the palms, and a gun
| is fred from II whenever vessel Tying
| the colors of Great Britain appears, but
the banner of any other country is not
| considered worthy that delicate compli-
ment. Treacherous coral reefs rise out
| of the deep water for several miles, some
| forming low, wooded islets, others indi-
Gated only by the breakers dashing over
them, and only local pilots can take
vessel safely through these natural de-
fenses.
There are two channels through which
the lagoon can be approached. The east
ern passage, through which we steamed,
runs so near the shore than an enemy's
ship would be sent to kingdom come by
| the batteries hidden among the sand
hills long before it could reach the
mouth The western passage Is less in
tricate, but is covered by powerful forts.
Thus nature and art have combined to
| render the position so strong that in old
times Kingston was considered unat-
| tackable Nowadays a Dewey or Schley
could shell it easily enough over the spit
| from the open sea. As we rounded the
point and the lagoon opened out before
US the scene was most interesting. d.
rectly in front were the dockyards, forts.
and towers of Port Royal, with
streets and terraces, roofs ana turrets,
domes and steeples, all sharply de-
fined in the exquisite transparency of the
air At the farther end of the lagoon, in
side the sandbar, lay Kingston, blue and
hazy, six miles distant. Back of King
ston the mountains, now pileh in masses
of shadowy gray, streaked with orange
and amethyst by the newly-risen sun be-
hind them.
Very EngIikh.s
After we had beaten about for half an
hour, pilot boat shot out from shore
with the swiftness of a racing shell. The
pilot, though of ebony complexion, like
all of his calling in these waters, was
veneered with English. from top to
toe. His white duck suit was of the nat
test, the trousers with an exceeding
flare at bottom. and his silk hat curtailed
to the conventional dimensions of low
crowned derby. His conversation was
edifying, with a drawl and cockney ac-
cent which would drive a New York
anglomaniac mad with envy. though is
suing from blackest lips. "Oh, say!
cawn't do it, doncher KNOW" and numer-
Gus illusions to "bloody rot and ''beastly
warm and "three-penny ha' penny" in
changing bob" His boat was another
curiosity-a canoe, .thirty-seven feet long
followed out of the trunk of a cedar