JAMAICA

The Cayman Islands are dependencies of Jamaica, consisting of Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. The total area of the group is 225 square miles, and the population was estimated in 1906 at 6000. There is good pasturage. Cocoanuts and turtles are exported. The administration is by a Commissioner.

HISTORY.

EARTHQUAKE OF 1907. On Monday, January 14, at about 3.30 P. M., an earthquake occurred at Kingston. (See EARTHQUAKES). This was the second time in its history that the island's capital had been destroyed, Port Royal, the former capital, having met with a like disaster in 1692. In the catastrophe of 1907 fire broke out after the houses had been shaken down and almost every building in the city was soon destroyed. Rescue work was at once begun and Sir Alexander Swettenham, the Governor, took speedy steps to stop the panic among the refugees who sought safety in the adjoining hills. During Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the shocks and earth tremors continued and by that time the gas and electric works and the water reservoir were destroyed. The earthquake was less severe than that in the San Francisco disaster, but after twenty seconds not a single brick building, of which Kingston was mostly composed, was left standing. Those killed were estimated to be over a thousand. At the time many distinguished delegates to the Agricultural Conference were on the scene, but none of them perished except Sir James Fergusson. Upon the receipt of news from some of the members of the Imperial Parliament in the party, the British Admiralty gave orders on Wednesday for the cruisers Brilliant and Indefatigable to proceed at once to the assistance of the devastated city. But the first to give aid from outside was a detachment of American warships, including the Missouri and Indiana, and a torpedo boat, under the command of Rear-Admiral Davis. The latter of fered the Governor guards to protect public buildings and banks and also a recruiting party to help recover the dead. According to the rear-admiral's report to Admiral Evans, the Governor assured Rear-Admiral Davis there was no need of police protection or relief, hence he declined the offer to land a wrecking party to assist the hospital authorities, police the streets, clear the débris, and bury the dead. However, upon request, Admiral Davis landed fifty men under arms from the Indiana to prevent an alleged mutiny in the penitentiary, which contained from five to six hundred prisoners. Admiral Davis then proceeded to King's House, where the Governor and his family were living in tents. The admiral, however, said that he would probably withdraw that afternoon the guard from the penitentiary, as the Governor was sure that he was capable of controlling the situation, having at his service the West India Regiment, a thousand strong, and two companies of artillery, besides the insular constabulary. Nevertheless on this day, Admiral Davis considered it his duty to remain for the present, the situation being so confusing.

THE SWETTENHAM AFFAIR. On Thursday, Rear-Admiral Davis's mission of mercy to Kingston came to a sudden stop because of Governor Swettenham's hint that the presence of American sailors were no longer needed. The trouble between the two officials began when the American

squadron reached the scene. The Governor objected to the firing of the salute in his honor, as he feared that the Jamaicans might mistake the firing for another earthquake. Upon hearing this, the Admiral apologized to the Governor for the salute, and trusted that this apparent disregard of the Governor's wishes would be overlooked. He explained that he had landed working parties from his two ships because he thought that a great deal might be done in the way of assistance to private individuals without interfering with the Governor's forces or the government officials. He also explained that this landing party, after finishing its work in guarding the archives of the United States Consulate, assisted the working party to catch some thieves, recovering from them a safe taken from a jewelry store. Thereupon the Governor wrote to the admiral the following letter:

"Dear Admiral,-Thanks very much for your letter, for your kind call, and for all the assistance you have given and offered us. While I most heartily appreciate your very generous offers of assistance, I feel it my duty to ask you to re-embark the working party and all parties which your kindness prompted you to land. If, in consideration of the American Vice-Consul's assiduous attentions to his family at his country house, the American Consulate should need guarding in your opinion, although he is present and it was unguarded an hour ago, I have no objection to your detailing a force for the sole purpose of guarding it. But the party must not have firearms or anything more offensive than clubs or staves for this function. I find that your working party this morning was helping Mr. Crosswell to clean his store. Mr. Crosswell is delighted that this work should be done free of cost, and if your Excellency will remain long enough, I am sure all private owners will be glad of the services of the Navy to save them expense. It is no longer a question of humanity. All those who are dead died days ago, and the work of giving men burial is merely one of convenience. I shall be glad to accept delivery of the safe which the alleged thieves took possession of. The American Vice-Consul has no knowledge of it. The store is close to a sentry post, and the officer in charge of the post professes ignorance of the incident. I believe the police surveillance of the city is adequate for the protection of private property. I may remind your Excellency that not long ago it was discovered that thieves looted and pillaged the house of a New York millionaire during his absence in the summer. But this would not have justified a British Admiral in landing an armed party to assist the New York police. "I have the honor to be, with profound gratitude and the highest respect,

"Your obedient servant, "Alexander Swettenham, Governor."

The Governor in a later explanation of his remarks said that the reference to the tramp pillaging the residence of a New York millionaire was a "jocular parallel." But the immediate result of his letter was the withdrawal of Admiral Davis and his forces, and the countermanding of President Roosevelt's order for the dispatch of the Celtic with a cargo of beef, which had been sent for the relief of the Kingston sufferers. In excuse for the Governor's attitude, it was said that for some time he had

been irritated with the American Government, because of the latter's attempt to secure laborers from Jamaica for the Panama Canal. But the dispatch which the Governor sent to Secretary Root, expressing gratitude for the "practical aid so kindly given by Admiral Davis and the Service Squadron," did not prevent a bitter local criticism of the Jamaican executive. It was claimed that the latter's action had deprived thousands of women and children of food and also of the shelter tents which were to have been dispatched from Havana. On the 21st, Mr. Tait, the mayor of Kingston, wrote to Admiral Davis that in his own behalf and in behalf of the council and of the citizens of the stricken city, he desired to express deep regret that any unpleasantness should have occurred, causing

the withdrawal of the admiral's valuable assistance, so generously rendered to Jamaica. The mayor also asked that the admiral should not take offense at the conduct of one man who, overwrought by the responsibility placed on his shoulders by the calamity, acted in a manner which he would regret on reflection.

In regard to the opinion in official circles at Washington, it was declared at the State Department that the action of one man, at a time of great distress and mental strain, should not be the means of raising an unpleasant issue with a great and friendly nation. But the matter as regards Kingston itself did not stop there. At a meeting of merchants and professional men, held on January 30, it was resolved that the meeting deplored the "enormous loss caused to the entire community, and more particularly to the mercantile community, by the wholesale pillage of shops and stores, such pillage being entirely due to lack of organization on the part of the government and to their not having called to their aid the citizens of Kingston, and having refused the valuable aid of the United States Navy, which would have prevented much of the loss that occurred. Hence the meeting desired to place on record its conviction that "the chief executive officers of the government have been and are out of touch with the community, and that this attitude of remoteness on the part of the executive officers of the government appears to make them unable to cope with the situation in the only practical way, namely, that of concerted action on the part of all persons interested." A copy of this resolution being forwarded to Lord Elgin, Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Imperial Government requested that Governor Swettenham express his regret for his letter of the 18th. The latter did so and resigned "on the ground of age," and the international phase of this in

cident was considered closed.

In February the Jamaicans expressed much disappointment that the home government refused to make a grant of aid to the colony, and was unwilling to loan them £1,000,000, save only under the condition that the colonial government give full guarantees. A Restoration Committee, under the head of Archbishop Nuttall, then arranged to dispatch a deputation to England to ask that this grant be not refused. It was said that should the refusal become absolute, plans were being considered by the committee to make a definite, direct appeal to the American Government for help. The Kingston Gleaner regretted that necessity should have arisen for such a drastic step, but approved it as a last resort, saying that the British

Government by its action was simply driving the West Indies to look more and more to the United States as their natural protector. In reply to such remonstrances and to the complaint that Great Britain should have left her stricken subjects to the generosity of foreign powers, Mr. Winston Churchill, on May 8, said that the government had decided to make a grant in aid of £150,000 for the earthquake sufferers and also to loan the colonial government a rebuilding fund of £800,000.

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chant and philanthropist, died on September 13, JAMES, DANIEL WILLIS. An American mer1907. He was born in Liverpool, England, on April 15, 1832. He came to this country in his youth, and entered the employ of Phelps, Dodge & Co., in New York City, for which his father had been Liverpool correspondent. He retained his connection with this firm during the reand often anonymously, Mr. James gave genermainder of his life. Always unostentatiously ously to many charitable, educational or public institutions, sometimes, in order to conceal his identity, resorting to the expedient of transmitting his gifts through a bank, so that even the recipient was kept in ignorance of the giver's. identity. He gave $1,000,000 to the Union Theological Seminary, in New York City, in February, 1904, for the erection of new buildings on Morningside Heights, and for a year or was not positively connected with that institutions he aided, or actually founded, but it benefaction. His name was never given to the became known that during his life he had given large sums to Amherst and Oberlin colleges, to Columbia University, to the Hartford Theological Seminary and to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City, while by will he left legacies of $100,000 each to the Union Theological Seminary, Columbia and Yale universities, Aid Society of New York, the American Board Amherst College, Copper Union, the Children's of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Hampton Institute, the Cathedral of St. John, and the Presbyterian Hospital of New York. To the town of Madison, N. J., where he had his country home, he gave a public park, and a handsome stone library, which forms part of a block containing four stores, an opera house, several offices, and a commodious assembly hall, the income from which maintains the library and the park. The firm of which he was a memwest, and the liberal development of this propber owned valuable copper mines in the Southerty, including the building of more than 1300miles of railroad, brought about the incalculable improvement of that region.

JAMESTOWN TER-CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION. This was held at Sewall's Point, on the south shore of Hampton Roads, five miles from Norfolk, Va., from April 26 to November 30, 1907.

ORIGIN. Early in 1901 the plan of organizing a celebration to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of the first permanent settlement of Anglo-Saxon people in this country, had its origin in a joint resolution adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia. Subsequently committees from the cities of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, and other adjacent places of the tidewater Virginia were organized, and on May 10, 1902, Governor Montague approved the charter of the Jamestown Exposition Company.