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Jamaica as it is, 1903 cover

Jamaica as it is, 1903

Chapter 2: PREFACE.
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About This Book

The author offers a guidebook-like travelogue of a Caribbean island, blending personal impressions of tropical scenery and climate with practical notes on hotels, transport, and health. Chapters describe plantation agriculture and exports such as sugar, bananas, and cocoa, sketch local customs, religious life and race relations, and attend to social institutions including church reorganization, savings banks, and education. Historical sketches and accounts of Maroons, Obeah, and past maritime episodes appear alongside commentary on everyday life, economy, and opportunities for visitors and settlers.

PREFACE.

In presenting this work to the British public it is proposed to bring before the notice of those unacquainted with the charms of tropical scenery some of the features which tend to make one of our oldest colonies, Jamaica, a delightful winter resort.

At present, it is visited mostly by Americans, because of its easy accessibility from New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Their unanimous verdict is that there is no lovelier spot under the sun than this gem of the Antilles set in the midst of the waters of the Caribbean Sea.

The historical interest is sufficient to attract the student, while the artistic sense is constantly charmed by the exquisite colouring of the tropical seas, the delicious green of the waving cane-fields, the lofty mountains with their ofttimes mist-wreathed summits.

The illustrations of island scenery are by Dr Witney of East Street, Kingston, Jamaica.

In compiling this book the writer is indebted to the courtesy of Mr Frank Cundall, who placed the old histories of the colony, which are kept in the Jamaica Institute, at her disposal; also to the Archbishop of the West Indies for the information His Grace was good enough to give her, concerning the Disestablishment of the Church of England in Jamaica.

B. PULLEN-BURRY.