of habit than of inevitable conditions. There are
places in Jamaica which are subject to fever and
other maladies, but on the whole the island is very
salubrious. Diseases due to miasma and malarial
exhalations are lessened with the improvement of
drainage and the cultivation of soil, and only about
one fourth of the island has y e t been reduced to
cultivation. The health of cities depends mainly
upon sanitary arrangements, which have not been
so much neglected in English as in Spanish colonies.
T h e safety of the individual depends largely upon
adapting his dress, diet, and general regimen to the
conditions of the tropics, and not trying to pursue
habits of living and of working there which are fitted
for a colder and more changeful climate.
C H A P T E R X IX
HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION OF JAMAICA
TH E early history of Jamaica has been fairly
covered by the accounts of colonising, buccaneering,
and slave-trading. T he town of Sevilla
del Oro, established b y the first Spanish colonists
under Juan d ’Esquivel in 1509, was close by the
Bay of St. Ann, the Santa Gloria of Columbus, near
the middle of the north coast, and the spot is still
marked by the ruins of an ancient church. But the
permanent Spanish colony was on the southern
plain of Liguanea, backed b y a ridge of hills of the
same name, and its capital, founded in 1525 by
Diego Colon, was the Santiago de la V eg a which
the English called Spanish Town, and retained as
the capital of their colony until 1869. During the
old wars of Queen Elizabeth’s time, Sir A . Shirley
made an attack upon Jamaica, but did not occupy
it, and in the time of Charles I ., one Colonel Jackson
from St. K i t t ’s plundered and nearly destroyed
Santiago of the Plain. Later on, the island was
coolly partitioned among “ eight noble families,”
but no respect was paid to their title when, under
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