APPENDIX.

CHAPTER I.

THE GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE WEST INDIES.

JAMAICA.

JAMAICA is the largest of the West India Islands, and lies between seventeen and nineteen degrees north latitude, and seventy-six and seventy-nine degrees west longitude. It is fifty miles broad and a hundred and twenty long, and is in shape nearly oval. On the west of the windward passage, which lies directly before it, and is twenty miles wide, is the Island of Cuba, and on the east Hispaniola.

The prospect of this island from the sea is wonderfully pleasant. On the borders of the coast the land is low, but towards the middle of the island it becomes mountainous. A ridge of mountains runs east and west through the island, the most eastern of which are called the Blue Mountains.

Jamaica is well watered, and contains about a hundred rivers that derive their sources from the hills the climate is warm, and in low and marshy lands unhealthy; but in higher situations it is cool

and temperate, and as salubrious as any other part of the West Indies.

Its soils are various; some deep, black, and rich, and others shallow and sandy, and others again of a middle nature, yet they are all fertile if well cultivated and applied to proper purposes. There are extensive savannahs and deep ravines in the island; and it is much subject to hurricanes and earthquakes. It produces maize, pulse, vegetables of all kinds, fine grass, beautiful flowers, and a great variety of fruits. Its commodities are sugar, cocoa, indigo, pimento, cotton, ginger, coffee, trees for timber, mahogany, manchineel, white wood, cedar, &c. besides some valuable drugs and gums. It abounds in fine harbors, and has a few salt ponds and hot springs containing mineral waters.

Jamaica is divided into three counties, Middlesex Surrey, and Cornwall, containing twenty parishes. It is governed by a legislature of its own, consisting of a governor, council, and assembly; and is defended by its militia, comprising of all the free males in the island from fifteen to sixty.

Its commerce is extensive, and its imports and exports very considerable. It contains thirty-six towns and villages, and churches and chapels in proportion. The chief of its ecclesiastical establishment is a bishop. Its population in 1812 amounted to three hundred and sixty thousand persons. It is famous for its fine rum.

BARBADOS.

BARBADOS, the most easterly of the English Carib bee Islands, is twenty-one miles long and fourteen broad, and contains a hundred and seven thousand acres of land. It lies between 12° 56′ and 13° 16′ of north latitude, and 59° 50′ and 62° 2′ of west longitude. Its climate is hot, but deemed healthy, and as temperate as any other in the tropics. It contains many wells of good water, two rivers, and several reservoirs for rain. Its soil varies; in some places sandy and light, in others rich, and in others spongy, but all well cultivated. The island is level and maintains a very beautiful and civilized appearance. The woods, which formerly grew in many parts, have been all cut down, and in their places are now seen estates and sugar plantations. The soil, in many parts of Barbados, has been so worn out that planters have been obliged to keep an immense number of cattle merely for their manure.

The commodities and vegetable productions of Barbados, are nearly the same as those of the other tropic islands, and it has fish, flesh, and fowl in abundance.

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES.

ST. VINCENT is one of the windward Caribbee Islands. It is twenty-four miles long and eighteen broad, and lies in 61° west longitude, and 13° north latitude. The whole island, except a part of the Charaib country, is very hilly, and in some places

contains lofty mountains. In its scenery there is a mingled wildness and cultivation, which renders it very pleasing to the eye. Its soil is in most places rich, luxuriant, and fertile, and every where well watered with rivers and springs, in the former of which there is a variety of fine fish. The high lands are easy of ascent; the climate is hot, but there is generally a refreshing breeze blowing from the sea. Upon the whole, St. Vincent is esteemed one of the most beautiful and healthy islands in the West Indies, and some have called it the Montpellier of the Antilles. The inhabitants raise abundance of fruit and vegetables, besides those commodities which are for exportation. Among its natural curiosities are a few mineral spas, and the volcanic Mount Souffrière. St. Vincent is said to have derived its name from having been discovered on the 22nd of January, the feast of that saint.

The Grenadines are a cluster of small islands lying between St. Vincent and Grenada, and all of them, except Cariacou dependent on the former. Of these little islets Becquia, Canuan, Cariacou, and the Union are the most extensive; the rest are some of them uninhabited, and few display much cultivation. Taking them all in all, they however produce small quantities of sugar, rum, cotton, and molasses, and sufficient fruit and vegetables for the consumption of the inhabitants. Great quantities of poultry and live stock are reared on these islands.