THE NATIONAL COPYRIGHT. 1926. BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON D C. IN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN JAMAICA, THE ISLE OF MANY RIVERS BY JOHN OLIVER LA GORCE, M. A., LITT. D. AUTHOR OF "PORTO RICO, THE GATE OF RICHES," "THE TREASURE HOUSE OF THE GULF STREAM," "PENNSYLVANIA, THE INDUSTRIAL TITAN OF AMERICA," "THE FIGHT AT THE TIMBERLINE," ETC., IN THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE T HE hardy Norsemen and the furtrimmed Eskimo may freely have my equity in the icy deserts and wind-ripped regions of the Far North. At least that was my feeling when our steamship nosed out of New York Harbor, her decks and rigging covered with an inch or two of grimy ice and snow, turned south by east from Sandy Hook light to hunt for a region where the flowers were abloom and where summer indeed flourished in the lap of winter. In less than 24 hours, as we moved rapidly along with the Jersey and Virginia capes far abeam and began to flirt with the grand old Gulf Stream, that Godgiven “warm river in the ocean," which was christened by Benjamin Franklin in 1770, a gradual change took place, not only in climatic conditions, but in the spirits of the ship's company. Soon the inky ice that rendered the open decks unsafe footing for the landlubber took wings, for the sun turned to its pleasant task of dissipating the enemy and the passengers actually smiled at one another. Jamaica was our destination, and geographically that Xaymaca-as the Arawak Indians seem to have called their homeland—is the key to the Caribbean, for its tide-swept strand is approximately equidistant from the Yucatan Channel, which in turn is the gateway to the Tehuantepec route; from San Juan del Norte (Greytown), the Atlantic end of any possible Nicaraguan Canal; from Colón, the north entrance to the Panama Canal; from Cartagena, which is a principal port on the northern coast of South America, and from Mona Passage, the European ship lane between Haiti and Porto Rico. THE RENDEZVOUS OF OCEAN HIGHWAYMEN It was this strategic situation, commanding all known ship routes that lead in and out of the Caribbean Sea, which made Jamaican waters the natural hunting ground of the buccaneers, privateers, and pirates of the days that cluster around. the times of Morgan and Kidd, of l'Olonoise and Blackbeard-gallows birds all. Jamaica has an area about equal to that of the State of Connecticut, yet nowhere can one reach a point as much as 25 miles from the seashore! There are approximately the same number of miles of motor roads as in the Nutmeg State, and if Jamaica's business men would only awaken to their opportunity and organize for 20th-century progress in the building of suitable, if small, hotels throughout the island, it would become one of the world's finest and most populous midwinter playgrounds, where the charm of the Tropics and the health-giving coolness of mountains meet and join hands in a successful effort to please. The approach to Jamaica from the north by the usual steamship routes is enough to put any new visitor to the Antilles on tiptoe of expectancy. If the schedule is fortunate, you may pass Watling Island, THE STATION OF THE HERO OF TRAFALGAR England's hero, Lord Nelson, was for a time in command of Fort Charles, when scarcely twenty-one, and even then gave proof of naval genius (see text, page 5). THE SUNKEN CITY OF PORT ROYAL LIES BENEATH THE WATER IN THE FOREGROUND You sail directly over the vanished city of "battle, murder, and sudden death," which once enjoyed the questionable distinction of being "the wickedest city of its day." It was swallowed by the sea during the tremendous earthquake of June 7, 1692 (see text below and page 5). amid the Bahamas, generally regarded as the first land of the New World sighted by Columbus on a morning in 1492, and by the next afternoon more than likely the magnificently terraced mountains of Cape Maisi, Cuba, loom up ahead, and presently you are passing so close to the eastern extremity of Cuba that you can almost wave to the native fishermen ashore. Far off to port rise the hazy crests of the mountains of Haiti, at whose base is Mole St. Nicolas, so well remembered in modern times as a date line in the SpanishAmerican War. For you are sailing For you are sailing through the Windward Passage, which figured so largely in the American naval maneuvers, through which Cervera was bottled up in Santiago Harbor. Spain never had much naval luck in these warm seas. AN ISLE OF SURPRISES The pleasant glimpses throughout the day's sail prepare the voyager for those of the early morrow, for the morning, and sunshine, will bring the John Crow Mountains of eastern Jamaica into view. Rounding South East Point, the extremity of the island, the sturdy steamer of the White Fleet turns its nose westward, and on past Port Morant and Yallahs Bay, with as fair a palm-studded plain off the starboard rail as you could ever wish to see, guarded in the background by the splendor of the Blue Mountains, rising to an ultimate height of nearly a mile and a half above the strand-and what a surprise to those of us who scnehow carry the subconscious feeling that tropical isles are pretty flat and mostly sand at that! Then heaves in sight the historic Palisadoes, that narrow spit which separates Kingston Harbor from the Caribbean Sea. and beyond which lies the capital city of the British West Indies. As you round the head of the Palisadoes you view what you may of Port Royal, that vanished city of "battle, murder, and sudden death"-well known to us in song and story of pieces of eight, of |