the inclosing arm of the sand spit was that Port
Ro yal where revelled and rioted the slavers, buccaneers,
and pirates in the wicked old times of ill-
gotten wealth.
Here is still the chief port, and the plains and
slopes which extend backward and upward from the
shore were the scene of the old colony whence
spread the plantations and the groves and gardens
that constituted the Jamaica of former days. Thence
have scattered the communities which now occupy
the island. The coast is indented with many other
bays which afford safe harbours, and there are now
several ports more or less visited. East of K in g ston
and not far from the end of the island is Port
Morant, and a few miles west of the capital is Old
Harbour, above which Diego Colon planted the
capital of his colony and called it Santiago de la
Vega. I t still lingers, and has always been called
Spanish Town by the English. Well toward the
western end of the island on this coast is Bluefields
Bay with the port of Savana la Mar, and at Green
Island on the west coast is a small harbour. Proceeding
eastward along the northern coast we find
in succession the ports of Montego Bay, Falmouth,
St. Ann Bay, where Columbus spent his last dreary
months in the western world, Port Maria, Annotto,
and Port Antonio.
Jamaica has no such fringe of coral reefs as decorates
the edges of so large a part of Cuba, nor are
there swamp areas along its coasts. For the most
part it is “ rock-bound,” and in many places steep
ridges and broken cliffs come to the water’s edge.
Off to the south-east are the Morant K e y s , and
forty miles to the south is Pedro Bank, a long submarine
plateau, from which some scattered keys
rise to the surface. The three small islands to the
north-west, called the Caymans— Grand Cayman,
L ittle Cayman, and Cayman Brae— belong politically
to Jamaica, though geographically they are part of
the extension of Cuba westward from Cape Cruz,
which is mostly under water. These islands have
an area of less than two hundred square miles, and
support a primitive population of about 4300, chiefly
engaged in gathering cocoanuts and green turtles
for export.
T he general level of Jamaica is somewhat higher
than that of Cuba, and a larger proportion of its
area is occupied by mountain ranges or broken into
ridges and deep valleys. T he geological structure
is much the same, consisting of a shell of limestone
over a skeleton of primitive or metamorphic rock,
which protrudes here and there in granite or micaceous
schist, interspersed with porphyry, quartz, and
spar. The loftiest mountain range is in the east,
and as one approaches the island from that direction
a delicate blue haze hangs over these heights, which
has given them the name of “ Blue Mountains.
Their general altitude is about 6000 feet, but they
rise to 7400 in Cold Ridge. There is a sharp crest
running east and west, from which the slope is
gradual toward the north, breaking into lower and
lower ridges with intervening valleys, and spreading
into plains here and there down to the coast, while
on the south the descent is more abrupt and some