"between your eyes for the dead." Among the heathens. however the same ceremonies were still continued; for in Samaria, in the days of Ahab, king of Israel, it is recorded of the prophets of Baal that, in worshipping their idol " they "cried aloud and cut themselves after their manner with "knives and lances till the blood gushed out upon them."§ At this day the islanders of the South sea express grief and lamentation for the dead in the very same manner.

But perhaps the instance the most apposite and illustrative, was the habit among the Charaibes of chewing the betele, preparing it with calcined shells precisely after the manner of the Indians in the east ;-a circumstance, which, though recorded by P. Martyr,|| had escaped my researches, until it was pointed out to me by Mr. Long. Some other resemblances, almost equally striking, might be collected; but the reader will probably think that more than enough has already been said on a subject, the investigation of which he may perhaps deem a mere matter of idle curiosity, neither contributing to the improvement of science, nor the comfort of life.

Here then I conclude. An attempt to trace back the Charaibes of the West Indies to their progenitors, the first emigrants from the ancient hemisphere, in order to point out, with any degree of precision or probability, the era of their migration, were (like the voyages I have been describing) to venture on a vast and unknown ocean without a compass; and even without one friendly star to guide us through the night of conjecture.

Deut. c. xiv. v. 1.

§1 Kings, c. xviii. v. 28.

Decad. vii. c. vi.

CIVIL AND COMMERCIAL,

OF THE

BRITISH COLONIES

IN THE

WEST INDIES.

BOOK II.

JAMAICA.*

CHAPTER I.

Discovery of Jamaica by Columbus.-His return in 1503. -Spirited proceedings of his son Diego, after Columbus's death. Takes possession of Jamaica in 1509.-Humane conduct of Juan de Esquivel, the first Governor.-Establishment and desertion of the town of Sevilla Nueva.— Destruction of the Indians.-St. Jago de la Vega founded. -Gives the title of Marquis to Diego's son Lewis, to whom the Island is granted in perpetual sovereignty.-Descends to his sister Isabella, who conveys her rights by marriage to the House of Braganza.- Reverts to the crown of Spain in 1640.-Sir Anthony Shirly invades the Island in 1596. and Col. Jackson in 1638.

JAN

AMAICA had the honour of being discovered by
Christopher Columbus, in his second expedition

It may be proper to observe, that the governor of Jamaica is stiled in his commission Captain-general, &c. of Jamaica and the territories

to the New world. In his former voyage he had explored the north-eastern part of Cuba, proceeding from thence to Hispaniola; but he had returned to Europe in doubt whether Cuba was an island only, or part of some great continent, of which he had received obscure accounts from the natives. To satisfy himself in this particular, he determined, soon after his arrival a second time at Hispaniola, on another voyage to Cuba, by a south-westerly course, and, in pursuance of this resolution, on the 24th of April, 1494, Columbus sailed from the port of Isabella, with one ship and two shallops. On Tuesday the 29th, he anchored in the harbour of St. Nicholas. From thence he crossed over to Cuba, and coasted along the southern side of that island, surrounded by many thousand canoes filled with Indians, whom curiosity and admiration had brought together. In this navi

thereon depending in America. By these DEPENDENCIES were meant the British settlements on the Musquito shore, and in the bay of Honduras : But his jurisdiction over those settlements having been imperfectly defined, was seldom acknowledged by the settlers; except when they wished to plead it in bar of the authority claimed by their respective superintendants. On such occasions they admitted a superior jurisdiction in the governor of Jamaica, and applied to him for commissions civil and military. As both the settlements were surrendered to the crown of Spain by the Spanish convention signed at London on the 14th of July 1786, it comes not within the plan of my work to enter on a display of their past or present state. I formerly drew up a memorial concerning the settlement on the Musquito-shore, wherein an account was given of the country, its inhabitants and productions, and the question between Great Britain and Spain, as to the territorial right, pretty fully discussed, This memorial having been laid before the House of Commons in 1777 (by Governor Johnstone) was soon afterwards published in Almon's Parliamentary Register for that year.

gation, on Saturday the 3d of May, he discovered, for the first time, the high lands of Jamaica on the left, and probably learnt its name (the name which it still retains) from some of the Indians that followed him.† As this was a new discovery, and many of the seamen were willing to believe that it was the place to which they had been formerly directed by the Indians of the Bahama islands, as the country most abounding in gold, Columbus was easily persuaded to turn his course towards it. He approached it the next day, and, after a slight contest with the natives, which ended however in a cordial reconciliation, he took possession of the country, with the usual formalities.

But it was not until the fourth and last voyage of Columbus, a voyage undertaken by this great naviga`tor after he had suffered a severer trial from the base ingratitude of the country and prince in whose service he laboured, than from all his past toils, dangers and inquietudes, that he learnt more of Jamaica; which, as it had the honour of being first discovered by him nine years before, had now the still greater honour of affording him shelter from shipwreck. For, on the 24th of June 1503, being on his return to Hispaniola, from Veragua, he met with such tempestuous weather as compelled him, after losing two of

† P. Martyr. F. Columbus. The early Spanish historians wrote the word Xaymaca. It is said to have signified, in the language of the natives, a country abounding in springs. Columbus having at first named the island St. Jago, Oldmixon, and some other writers, erroneously suppose that Jamaica was the augmentative of James.