80 STORMS AND HURRICANES. possible before the sun has been up half an hour. I have frequently felt exposure to the sun for the first half-hour of the day deprive me of the refreshment received from the previous exercise. Journeys should always be performed early in the morning or towards. the decline of the day. To enable you to rise at an early hour you should retire early to rest, otherwise you may suffer as much inconvenience from the want of sufficient sleep as from any other cause. "The degree and description of exercise to be taken must be regulated by every individual's constitution; in general, gentle exercise is most conducive to the preservation of health. It is of great importance to attend to the first symptoms of indisposition. A slight head-ache might be attended with fatal consequences if neglected, as it would generally arise from some obstruction of the system." Let not these hints be thought irrelevant to our present design. The necessity of attending to his health cannot be too forcibly impressed on a missionary's mind, and cannot be more appropriately given than in a missionary work. * Storms and Hurricanes are less frequent in Jamaica than in Barbadoes and some of the other Caribbean islands, or even than they were in Jamaica formerly. They, however, occasionally occur, carrying devastation and misery in their train. To one of these awful visitations of the Almighty, although by no means * Hurricanes are so called from the Indian word hurrica. They are violent tempests of wind, which generally happen a day or two before the full or new moon next the autumnal equinox in August and September. so terrible and destructive as those which occurred in 1786 and 1815, the author was an eye-witness. It began its desolating course in the middle of the night, and, with the exception of a few short intervals, during which it seemed to be gathering fresh energy in order to renew its assaults with greater violence, continued until nearly the middle of the following day. It was preceded by an awful stillness occasionally broken by an indistinct sound resembling the roaring of a cataract, or the blowing of winds through a forest, by an intermission of the diurnal breeze,-by an almost insupportable heat, the thermometer standing at between 95° and 100° of Fah.,-by vast accumulations of vapour moving in the direction of the mountains,by flocks of sea-gulls,-by a deep portentous gloom gradually increasing and overspreading the hemisphere, -by all the omens, indeed, which are said to be their precursors. From three o'clock until nearly the break of day, the lightning was terrific beyond description ; illuminating the whole concave of Heaven, and darting apparently in ten thousand fantastic forms, whilst the reverberations of the thunder, echoed back by the distant mountains, seemed to shake the pillars of the earth, as if commissioned to seal the doom of the world. The rain descended in torrents, and an awful, deep, and compact gloom overshadowed the face of nature. The morning of the deluge could scarcely have presented an aspect more dismal. It was a period of fearful suspense and terror. The wind began to blow from the north, but on attaining the acme of its violence, it blew from all parts of the compass, and carried ruin on its wings. In every direction were ́dismantled houses, shattered fences, uprooted trees, and the ground strewed with shingles, splinters, branches of trees, fruit, and leaves. The writer's garden was a wilderness, and his dwelling-house shook to its foundation. Every habitation around was closed, every crevice filled up, and every tenant in total darkness. All business was of course suspended, and not an individual to be seen but at intervals, when one cautiously appeared to acquaint himself with his situation, and to view the desolation around. Nothing was to be seen or heard but the pelting of the storm and the continued sighs of elemental tumult. "Venti vis Interdum rapido percurrens turbini compos Lucretius, lib. i., 1272. The last earthquake in Jamaica was that of 1692, which engulphed Port Royal; shocks, however, are of very common occurrence, some of such severity as to excite considerable alarm and occasion serious injury. One of the most appalling that has occurred for many years was experienced in the month of February last, which, in conjunction with the unexpected appearance of a comet and the dreadful calamity, in which these awful dispensations of Divine Providence have lately involved several of the windward islands, has created an alarm which it is hoped will operate. beneficially upon society at large. *"Oft through the ravaged plain POPULATION. 83 CHAPTER VI. POPULATION. Census of the different Parishes, Stock, Land in Cultivation, Agriculture, Horticulture-Improvements: Implements, Machinery-Present defective State of Husbandry-Thoughts on Immigration. THE number of aboriginal inhabitants on the first possession of the island by the Spaniards has been variously estimated. According to some writers they amounted to several hundred thousand; according to others from sixty thousand to one hundred thousand. But, to the everlasting infamy of the Spanish name, it is recorded that the whole of this immense mass of human beings was entirely exterminated within fifty years of their subjection to their lawless invaders. As previously stated, the first Spanish colony was established by Don Juan d'Esquimel, under the authority of Diego Columbus, and consisted of seventy persons. At successive periods this number was increased, although subject to frequent variations, so that on the conquest of the island by Penn and Venables, the Spanish and Portuguese amounted to 1500, with an equal number of negroes and mulatto slaves. Under the British the population rapidly increased, exhibiting in the short space of seven years a total of 2600 men, 645 women, 408 children, and 552 negroes, with 2917 acres of land under cultivation. Owing to the unsettled state of affairs in the mother country during the period of the Commonwealth and the early years of the Restoration, the tide of immigration was very considerable. The total number of slaves imported to Jamaica since the conquest of the island to the abolition of the slave-trade in 1805 was 850,000, and this, added to 40,000 brought by the Spaniards, makes an aggregate of 890,000, exclusive of all births since that period. Immediately after the abolition of the slave-trade, the slave population varied from 300,939 to 322,421.* To the great discredit of the public authorities, no accurate census of the island has been taken for many years, and thus no correct statement can be made respecting it at the present time. It is, however, generally supposed that the aggregate population, including 30,000 whites, is now half a million, which is about seventy persons to a square mile. This proportion is small compared with that in other parts of the world, and even with Barbadoes, where there are 600 to a square mile; so great, however, is the annual increase of population, as to encourage the hope that in a few years it will be more than doubled. Even at the present time it is * According to the return of the Compensation Commissioners in July, 1835, the number of slaves for which compensation was given was 311,692. Of these about 30,000 were children under six years of age, and of the remainder a little more than one-fifth were non-prædials. The free coloured and black people were estimated at 40,000. Estimating these at 441. 15s. 21d. on an average gave 6,161,9277. to Jamaica, as its share of the 20,000,000l. compensation, being one-third of the total amount. |