tax most of our college Mercurys to their utmost in endurance (see page 40).

Along the route the ebon runners pant, dogtrot succeeding sprint; then a few moments' rest, and they speed on again. The Mandeville housewives never can be sure of how many bearers start from the seaside; therefore the first to arrive get the best price for their fish, and the prize of a few shillings more awaits the fleetest. These runners do not last many years at this pace, for Nature frowns upon the overdraft on heart and lungs and the end is inevitable. One little old Ford would do the work of a dozen human engines panting up the mountain side; but-well, runners are numerous and much cheaper than gasoline in this part of the world.

From Mandeville, where the Harvard University Observatory specializing in the study of the moon and planets is located, there is a captivating road that swings down to the coast again, carrying one along the beautiful Milk River; it returns north around Old Harbor Bay, where Columbus touched on his second voyage, and then winds into Spanish Town.

THE COLONIAL CAPITAL OF THE ISLE,
ONCE A PLACE OF SPLENDOR

A delightful place is this capital of aboriginal, Spanish, and early English rule in Jamaica. There is nothing left to remind us of the mild "meal-eating" Arawaks who contrasted so favorably with the "man-eating" Caribs that gave their name to the sea they dominated. The only place left for the savages is on the coat of arms of the colony.

Under the Spaniards this settlement of Spanish Town was called Sant' Iago de la Vega, and is supposed to have been laid out about 1534. In 1536 the island of Jamaica was ceded to Louis Columbus (son and successor to Diego Columbus), who, in addition to his title of Duke of Veragua, became the Marquis de la Vega. It had taken the place of Sevilla d'Oro, or Golden Seville, on the north shore, as the Spanish capital, and continued to be the Jamaican capital until 1872, when Kingston succeeded to that honor.

An English merchant, describing life in Spanish Town two centuries ago, declared that "one gets no more credit for keeping a coach and six there than for keeping

a horse in England, it is so common," and descriptions of the life of the rich planters, even as late as 1850, are filled with stories of coaches and fours, outriders and high-booted postilions running the highways between plantation visits.

The glory of being the capital is gone, but in Spanish Town there is a mellow charm around the old Square, environed as it is by the King's House, the Rodney Memorial, the Court House, and the House of Assembly, that makes one wish. to linger there, for romance is not far away.

THE HISTORIC CATHEDRAL

No visitor to Spanish Town who reacts to the call of olden days can forget the impressions that quietly surround him. within the restful inclosure of the old parish church founded in 1655-restored, of course, yet the oldest cathedral in the British colonies. Beneath the gravestones that form its floors and inscribed on the silent monuments that guard the walls are such names as Catherine, wife of Sir Charles Lyttelton, 1662; Governor Sir Thomas Modyford, 1679; the Earl and Countess of Effingham, 1791; the wife of Sir Adam Williamson, 1794-these last several being beautifully carved tributes from the master hand of the English sculptor, Bacon. Over there is a simple stone, dated 1682, that marks the last resting place of the gallant Colonel Colbeck, who fought the Spanish for their golden isle side by side with Admiral Penn and General Venables; yonder the sleeping place of the Countess of Elgin, and near by that of Samuel Long, who outgeneraled the Earl of Carlisle in safeguarding the privileges of the island for the planters.

To glance through the old registers of baptismal and marriage entries fills the eye with names that brighten the page of English history. The courteous sexton will show you all of his treasures if you will but request it, and his pride in their guardianship is something of a lesson in restraint.

OTHER VISITS TO DELIGHT THE MIND

All good things must come to an end, it is said; so we leave quaint old Spanish

Town behind and speed on to Kingston, where our island tour began.

If not yet satisfied and no scenic indigestion falls to our lot, other places and interests are calling. The side trips are many.

There is the Río Cobre, with its luxuriant and beautiful vegetation-ferns, rushes, creeping black-eyed susans, bamboos, coconut palms, annattos, guangos, and many other trees of beauty and value.

Gaulin, teal, and kingfishers are so tame that they bespeak kindly human neighbors, while humming birds industriously flit from flower to flower.

Near the mouths of the many rivers one notices fine coconut plantations. There is a crop for a tropical farmer who likes repose! Given good soil and a little cultivation, it will yield some 3,500 nuts per acre in this garden spot, and the nuts don't bruise when they fall, either!

Pimentos, or allspice, is another Jamaican product. It grows on a species of myrtle which attains a height of 30 feet and a trunk diameter, at the base, of some 3 feet. The bark is smooth and shiny and the leaves a deep green. The allspice are the fruits, picked when full, but not ripe. A boy shinnies up the tree, breaks off the small branches bearing the clusters of fruit, and throws them to the ground. He thereby prunes the tree and assures its bearing the following year. The native women pick the berries from the branches and carry them to drying floors called barbecues, which are paved and exposed to the sun. They are periodically raked, so that every side of the berry gets its share of the sun. From six to ten days are required to cure the allspice for market or export.

AMONG THE ISLAND'S HIGHLANDS The highlands of the island are indeed regions of delight. At Malvern, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, one finds, at 2,500 feet above sea level, refuge from the heat of the plains and a region where the thermometer seldom goes above eighty, even at midday.

A drive across the island from Kings

ton to St. Anns Bay carries one through Spanish Town and along the celebrated Bog Walk, across the beautiful Mount Diabolo, atop whose summit is a good hotel, at an elevation of 2,300 feet. A fairer view could hardly greet the eye anywhere than from its broad veranda, where, on a bright day, with a glass, one may see Cuba far away to the north, and Kingston and the Panamaward reaches of the Caribbean to the south.

TO THOSE WHO LOVE NATURE

Beyond, one descends through a region of grazing pens, as the Jamaicans denominate their ranches, down past Moneague, where a very comfortable little hotel is situated and the view much like the Scotch Highlands, to Ocho Rios, with the last part of the trip through Fern Gully, a deep ravine several miles in length, the entire distance banked with as many varieties of remarkable ferns as the heart of the most blasé traveler could wish (see page 25).

Jamaica also boasts of a railroad, if you please a government road that admits 200 miles of track. The first of its lines was operated in 1845, being then but 15 miles in length. Between the capital, Kingston, and the northwestern land's end of the island, Montego Bay, there is a daily train each way, except Sunday, while from Kingston to Port Antonio there dashes one each weekday and two on the Sabbath. The visitor who prefers railway travel to automobile will not be displeased, for the routes traverse areas of picturesque beauty and at times reach mountain heights of nearly 1,700 feet (see map, page 4).

The fascination of a tour around and across Jamaica cannot be overpictured. The ever-changing character of the scenery, the wide diversity of the types of agriculture, the charm of the legends associated with the communities en route, the richness of the historical lore of times when men who bore a more or less class relation to the evolution of our own history-all join hands in peopling every hour with healthful interest.