The original article appears without illustrations in The Graphic’s usual three-columns of fine print; these images appear on a single page 22 pages later. — George P. Landow
Kingston Harbor. Click on images to enlarge them.
THESE engravings are especially interesting at the present time because Jamaica, in common with our other West India Colonies, is in the throes of a very important crisis. In the good old days, - the days, let us say, when “Tom Cringle's Log” was written the United Kingdom got its supply of sugar from the West Indies, and practically from nowhere else. Our uncompromising free trade theories have in this respect wrought an astonishing revolution, The bulk of our present sugar supply comes from foreign countries —much of it of recent years from the beetroot product of Northern Europe; while the West India Islands, which—despite all the complaints of decaying trade—have during the last thirty years tripled their exports of tropical produce, have found a market elsewhere. Yes, the unnatural old Mother-Country rode her Free Trade hobby so vigorously that she gave them the go-by, but they found a fresh set of customers in the United States and Canada. Thither go the bulk of their sugar and rum, chiefly in exchange for bread-stuffs, salt fish, and lumber.
Recently, however, the American Government has been negotiating a convention with the Spanish Government for the reciprocal remission of customs duties, and the West Indies feel that unless they can make a treaty of a similar character, Cuba and Porto Rico will drive them to the wall. Prices are low enough now in all conscience, but if the Spanish islands get the monopoly of supplying Brother Jonathan with rum and sugar, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, and all our other lovely islands run no small peril of sinking into the condition of the Negro Republic of Hayti.
Negotiations are now proceeding between our Minister at Washington and the American Government with a view of settling this question. One thing is certain: unless we mean to abandon the Queen's sovereignty over the islands, we cannot allow a duty to be imposed on British imports while American imports are set free. Both must be freed, or neither; and, in the former case, the necessary expenses of the Government in the West India Islands will have to be raised by some plan of internal taxation.
Meanwhile, those who would like to study the West India Question practically, and who can afford the time and cost, cannot do better than take a run out there, and dodge the British winter.
Left: Up in the Blue Mountain. Right: King Street, Kingston.
Jamaica is a most lovely and fertile island, and its mountainous surface affords every variety of climate. Kingston, the capital, apparently relies for its defence more on its sunken reefs and intricate channels than on its antiquated forts. Traces of the disastrous fire of 1882 are still visible in Kingston. Here some pleasant days may be spent. The tramcar, running from King Street towards the Governor's residence, is an agreeable refuge for the sight-seer from the dust and glare of the streets. Mounted on a sure-footed steed, the visitor can explore the innumerable bridle-paths which lead up to the lovely gorges of the Blue Mountains, where many of the Kingston people have their summer bungalows, 3,000 or 4,000 feel above the sea. On the lower slopes are to be found mango, plantain, and banana trees surrounding the numerous white-washed cabins, where Sambo lives in a state of lazy independence. Higher up are the comparatively newly-established coffee and cinchona plantations.
Left: Interior of a Sugar-Boiling House. Right: .
On some sugar estates good modern machinery and methods have been introduced; but, as a rule, the island is in this respect somewhat behindhand. There are too many absentee landlords.
–Our engravings are from photographs by Mr. Herbert Green Spearing. [534]
[You may use the images above without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the Hathi Trust and the New York Public Library Library and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one. — George P. Landow]
Bibliography
“Sugar Culture in Jamaica.” The Graphic 30 (22 November 1884): 534, 556. Hathi Trust online version of a copy in the New York Public Library.
Last modified 29 July 2021