Much nearer Kingston is the Cane River Fall, in whose deep gorge the air is deliciously cool even on the hottest days. At the upper end of the cañon the falls plunge over a lofty ledge into a deep bowl of rock rimmed with giant ferns, and here one may pass behind the veil of water to a cave famed in Jamaica’s history.
Within this cavern, so tradition says, once dwelt a desperate and notorious brigand known as Three-fingered Jack. For a long time the triple-fingered outlaw had things pretty much his own way. He was a sort of tropical Jesse James, in fact, and piled up a comfortable little fortune in his lair back of the falls. But at last he “met his meta,” as the blacks say, and was killed in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict with a Maroon. In order to prove [[277]]his victory the Maroon amputated the outlaw’s hand with the three digits and brought the gruesome trophy to the authorities, who, as a reward for having destroyed the bandit, settled one hundred dollars a year for life on the Maroon. No doubt the half-savage black was sorry that every cascade did not hide the den of an outlaw, for fighting was the favorite pastime of the Maroons, and to put an end to a man in a good scrap must have seemed a very easy way of earning a handsome annuity.
Another natural wonder which the Jamaicans boast of is the Stone or Natural Bridge across the Rio de Oro, where the cañon walls, through which the stream flows, meet in an arch sixty feet above the water and are capped by an enormous slab of rock.
Perhaps the nearest and most worth-while point of interest is the old capital of the island, Spanish Town. Owing to Jamaica’s having been so long a colony of Spain there are many Spanish names remaining there, and the memory of the old Dons’ ownership is kept fresh by Rio Cobre, Rio Nuevo, Rio de Oro, Sabana la Mar, and so on. But—probably because the euphonious Spanish names were too difficult for Anglo-Saxon tongues—certain places have had their original names so [[278]]twisted or altered that they are scarcely recognizable. Thus Bog Walk is merely a corruption of Boca de Agua, and has no connection with either a bog or walking; and the once stately Santiago de la Vega has been dubbed Spanish Town for so long that no one remembers its real name.
Aside from its name, Spanish Town has nothing Castilian about it. One may seek in vain for crumbling battlements and quaint lantern-like sentry-boxes, massive buildings with arched portals leading to flower-filled patios, embrasured windows with iron grilles or jutting balconies. It is, instead, more like a country village in England, or an old colonial town in New England, with white-painted, green-shuttered houses, grass-lined street and lanes, neat gardens, and a sleepy, quiet air as though it thoroughly enjoyed the delightful occupation of dozing in the sun beside the Rio Cobre with not a worry in the world.
But, after the fashion of every self-respecting Spanish city, it boasts a plaza (which is rather more like a village green) with an open market flanked by the old buildings of the days when it was the capital. On one side is the old House of Assembly. Across the drowsy street is the King’s House, of red brick with white trimmings, like the [[279]]typical court-house of a New England village. Near by is the Rodney Monument, and beyond, on the outskirts of the town, is the sole remaining relic of Spanish occupancy,—the oldest church in Jamaica and paradoxically called the English Cathedral. Mellow with age, the bricks have faded to a soft coral pink. Above—no doubt erected by the British, for the Dons were not given to such things—rises a lofty white steeple. Within, the old church is literally floored with tombs, in which rest the bones of many of the most notable personages of Jamaica’s past. Some of the tombs are beautifully wrought works of art by Bacon; others are ornate with escutcheons and coats of arms, and not a few are exceedingly quaint and amusing. For example, we may read upon the slab that marks the grave of an officer who came to take the island from the Dons, along with Penn and Venables, that the occupant of the tomb “died amid great applause,” while another, we are informed, “came to an untimely end by just cause.” After reading that epitaph one feels very much as one does after being asked, “How old is Ann?” or “Why does a mouse?” and one is inordinately curious to know what that “just cause” might have been. [[280]]
And speaking of that young officer who “died amid great applause,” a word or two about that remarkable pair with whom he threw his lot, Penn and Venables, may be of interest. Oddly enough, the two warriors who took Jamaica from Spain and turned it over to Britain are always referred to as though they had been partners in some business enterprise,—“Penn and Venables,”—and never as Admiral Penn and General Venables. Why such an ill-assorted pair were selected by Cromwell to undertake the conquest of the West Indies will ever remain a mystery. Venables was an ardent fisherman, who much preferred writing essays on the sportsmanlike taking of trout and salmon to fighting, and in spare moments he wrote a book known as “The Experienced Angler.” No doubt he was an experienced angler, but he was neither an experienced nor a brave warrior. In the first brush with the Spaniards at Santo Domingo he was disgracefully repulsed by a handful of negro and Spanish irregulars, although he had seven thousand men under him. And when the strangely assorted pair of commanders reached Jamaica the angler-general declined to land his troops until all fighting was over; and according to the historian, “he continued to walk the deck, wrapped in his cloak with his hat over his eyes looking as if he had [[281]]been studying physic more than the general of an army.”
In sharp contrast to this curious warrior was Penn, a jolly, rotund, blond man who looked far more like a good-natured village parson than a tough old sea-dog, but who nevertheless showed his mettle and proved himself a worthy upholder of Britain’s traditions of the sea. Attacking the old Passage Fort at Jamaica with a small party of his sailors in a tiny galley, the cherubic-faced Penn led the assault in person and, storming the defenses, at one stroke took Jamaica. As a reward for his success he was promptly arrested and thrown into prison in the Tower on his arrival in England, the charge being that he had returned without leave; and as a companion in his troubles the morose and faint-hearted Venables was incarcerated along with him. Penn was soon released, however, leaving his erstwhile partner to his meditations on angling and other matters and no doubt pacing back and forth in his narrow cell much as he had done on his ship off Jamaica.
Another hero of Jamaica, whose body lies in the old Parish Church at Kingston, is Admiral John Benbow. Above his grave is a black stone slab bearing a coat of arms and the following inscription: [[282]]
Here lyeth Interred the
Body of John Benbow
Esq Admiral of the White
A true Pattern of English
Courage who Lost his life
In Defence of His Queene
And Country November ye 4th
1702 In the 52nd year of
His Age by a wound of his Legg
Receuid in an Engagement
with Monsr Du Casse Being
Much Lamented.