A marble statue of Queen Victoria stands in the public Square, and bears the inscription—
VICTORIA
of Great Britain and Ireland
Queen
Empress of India
and of Jamaica Supreme Lady
1837-1901.
We did not go to see the United Fruit Company’s plantation of bananas, oranges and pines, but I believe it well repays a visit, so does the Cayman sugar estate, where some of the best rum is made.
We preferred to take a drive up the Rio Cobre of about nine miles. This is really beautiful; the road winds along the course of the river, and the luxuriant growth on either bank is simply wonderful to a person fresh from home and new to tropical scenery. Huge banana-trees, enormous clumps of bamboo, meet one at every turn in the road. We extracted a good deal of information from our driver, although we could not always understand him. Bare-legged women with skirts tucked up passed us with the inevitable yam-laden basket on their heads, crowned with the hat which was to cover the woolly hair of the lady when she set down her load; one or two begged for quatties, an old Spanish word still used and representing one penny halfpenny in our money. It is not often the natives beg of you, although they will turn round and tell you how much they love you! We had a delightful but very hot day, and did not get back till quite late in the evening. There was one more event which I have to record before closing these pages for a time on Jamaica. This was the opening of a new wing added during the last year to the hotel.
Tourists, apparently, are beginning to make this island into a favourite winter resort, the consequence being that increased accommodation was needed. Elder, Dempster and Co., who own the hotel, were celebrating the event by giving a garden-party. Their agent, Mr Haggart, had arrived. The Governor was expected, and people were arriving in crowds, making a gay picture of the lawns in front of the hotel, where a West Indian band from one of the regiments was playing. It was nearly five o’clock when the gubernatorial party arrived. Their Excellencies were conducted over the new part of the building, afterwards to the new golf links, upon which Sir Augustus played the first round. The most important part of the programme consisted in his speech, in which he formally opened the new wing. He spoke ably, and congratulated the Company on their enterprising spirit, and hoped a new tide of success was about to float the island into a more prosperous condition. Her ladyship stood close by, as he spoke; so did the venerable, but tuft-hunting Delicia, so did the industrious Russian journalist, taking notes the while, but I looked in vain for persons of importance supporting their chief. I wondered where the influential residents, the representatives of the mercantile world, and government officials had betaken themselves to, and enquired of a well-known lady in Kingston the reason of their absence. It was the old story: they preferred to stay away. One felt sorry that things were so. However, the afternoon was very enjoyable. The hotel provided refreshments in the most generous and handsome way. Everyone present could only hope that Jamaica in the near future may be as flourishing as the most sanguine of her boomers could desire.
CHAPTER IX
THE ROYAL MAIL COMPANY—THE “MUMPISH MELANCHOLY” OF JAMAICA
It was on the 2nd of December, 1902, that I left Kingston for my trip to some of the islands in the Caribbean Sea, in company with a couple of fellow-passengers who had journeyed out with me from England in the Port Antonio. In answer to my enquiries, the only feasible thing, apparently, to do was to travel by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as far as Trinidad, there to be trans-shipped into a smaller steamer of that Company, which takes cargo and distributes the English mails fortnightly, in connection with the outcoming steamers from Southampton as far as the Danish island of St Thomas. To my disappointment, I learnt that I should have to return by the same route to Jamaica, instead of making a circuit and visiting Porto Rico, as I had hoped to do.
No regular communication exists between St Thomas and Jamaica excepting that of the Royal Mail Company, although I might have accomplished what I desired had I remained on at St Thomas, and taken the first chance steamer, sloop, or schooner, bound for Porto Rico, and so on to Jamaica. But I felt this was too indefinite and scarcely good enough, St Thomas being neither very remarkable nor possessing good accommodation. As it turned out, I was not sorry to revisit most of the islands, especially those of Martinique and St Vincent, Dominica and St Lucia, the two latter being by far the most beautiful; and I was glad to have a chance of seeing the volcanoes twice over to impress my memory with their awe-inspiring and fearful aspect.