As an example, let me mention the experience of a friend of mine who, finding that little Samana in Santo Domingo produced the largest and finest pineapples in the world and that luscious navel oranges were a drug on the market there at fifty cents a barrel, thought to establish a tiny fruit business of his own. Samples were sent to the leading commission fruit merchants in the States and to the big fancy-fruit and grocery houses, and one and all declared the fruit exceptional, and marketable at high prices, and stated that, coming as it did in midwinter, it would be in great demand. But one and all regretfully stated that they could not handle it, could not touch it, for if they did they would be boycotted and blacklisted by the Fruit Company!
Jamaica may have prospered through the banana industry, fostered and built up by the Fruit Company, but already there is dire complaint among the planters, in regard to the treatment they are getting. The prosperity built upon such a basis will be no more lasting, of no more benefit than the affluence the island once obtained from the buccaneers, and sooner or later the Jamaicans will wake up to find they have sold their birthright for a mess of pottage. [[274]]
CHAPTER XVI
JAMAICA AND ITS PIRATE GOVERNOR
Kingston, the successor of Port Royal, is so well known and has so often been described that little need be said of it. It is not particularly attractive; it has no outstanding architectural beauties and no great historical interest, and is an unbearably hot and glaring town. Since the great earthquake and fire of 1907 it has been even less attractive than before, for many of its ruined buildings have never been rebuilt, tumble-down walls, blackened timbers, and weed-filled spaces are seen on every hand, reminding one of unsightly ulcers on an otherwise healthy body.
But as the chief port and largest city, as well as the capital of the island, Kingston is of importance, and is a busy, bustling little place with huge docks, a wealth of shipping, innumerable shops, and at least one first-class hotel, the Myrtle Bank, which is, of course, run by the Fruit Company.
Compared with other Caribbean ports, Kingston is modern, and owing to repeated catastrophes in the way of fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes there [[275]]is little of the original town left and there is nothing foreign, quaint, or Old-Worldly about it. But within easy access are many very attractive and interesting points. There are the Hope and Castleton Gardens, the Blue Mountains, and countless charming spots in the hills. Jamaica can boast innumerable excellent automobile roads, and well-equipped railway trains are ready to carry visitors across the island to the huge Hotel Titchfield at Port Antonio (also the Fruit Company’s), to Anotta Bay, Montego Bay, et cetera, while delightful short trips may be taken by motor-car to Gordon Town, Newcastle, Old Harbour, and Spanish Town, all of which may also be reached by trolley-cars if desired.
At the foot of the Blue Mountains—which always seem to have a sort of lure, like the mysterious mountains of childhood’s fairy tales—is the Constant Springs Hotel, amid charming surroundings. Gordon Town, beside the Hope River and nearly one thousand feet above the sea, is a favorite place of residence, while Newcastle, nearly four thousand feet in the air and in the midst of magnificent mountain scenery, looks superciliously from its heights upon Kingston on its green plain bounded by the sea and the lofty hills, with the thin golden strip of sand connecting the mainland with Port [[276]]Royal like (as one enthusiast has put it) the eye at the tip of a peacock’s feather.
In point of scenery Jamaica has nothing to be ashamed of, for while the island cannot boast active volcanoes, mountain-crater lakes, geysers, or some of the other features of the smaller Antilles, it possesses several magnificent cataracts. The most noted is Roaring River Falls, a beautiful cascade one hundred and fifty feet in height and two hundred feet wide, a roaring, tumbling cataract in a wonderful setting of luxuriant tropical jungle.