The City of Kingston

Very much the Island's capital, the city of Kingston dominates Jamaica politically, commercially and culturally. Its estimated 700,000 inhabitants represent almost a third of the entire population. Relentless expansion has long since outstripped the government capacity to supply employment, housing or adequate public utilities and still it grows: a noisy, sprawling, polluted and vigorous metropolis. From steamy plain to balmy hills, from gospel tent to cathedral, hovel to high-rise it is, like all cities, a place of stark contrasts: goats browse along the concrete pavements, pushcarts jostle crissers (late model cars) along the traffic choked streets and sidewalk vendors sprout beside ostentatious shopping plazas.

Repeatedly devastated by fire, flood, earthquake and hurricane, not to mention real estate developers and urban planners, Kingston is a city with very little visible history but its long and colourful past has been well documented. It began in 1692 as a refuge for the survivors of the earthquake that devastated Port Royal, killing 2,000 persons and plunging two thirds of the city beneath the sea. The initial refugee camp was on the seafront at a place shown on the map as colonel Barry's hog craw. Barry's. Within 7 weeks of the earthquake the government had purchased 200 acres from an absentee proprietor, Sir William Beeston, and was casting lots for the sale of building sites. Among the first regulations of the settlement was a ruling that each man could purchase only one lot on the seafront and no more land than he had owned in Port Royal. In addition there was an order prohibiting exorbitant ferry charges between the sunken city and the mainland.

Sir William Beeston returned to the island soon afterwards as governor and fortuitously discovered that the sale of this land to the government had not been legal, so the lots had to be purchased individually from him. He also acquired by dubious means the shoal water fronting Harbour Street thus greatly increasing the value of his holding there. When the governor's wheeling and dealing came to light there was a public outcry, and Kingston was born amidst a government scandal, the first

of many through the years.

In the beginning the refugees, crowded into tents on Colonel Barry's hog Crawle, were tormented by mosquitoes and fevers and more than 2,000 died. The survivors hankered to return

to Port Royal so for a long time no substantial buildings were erected, only huts built with boughs, but by the end of the

eighteenth century there were more than 3,000 fine brick houses in the city.

Kingston's excellent natural harbour fostered trade and the naval wars of the eighteenth century brought traffic and prosperity. The carousing for which Port Royal had been notorious continued here amongst a population noted for their excessive eating and drinking. Most of the duty collected was paid on Madeira wine, while the slaves and poorer classes made do

with a rum concoction called kill-devil .

As a centre of commerce and fashion, Kingston rapidly out-distanced the somnolent official capital in Spanish Town and in 1755 the governor passed an act transferring the government offices to Kingston. The decision caused controversy, with those against it arguing that life in Kingston would be destructive of the morals of Assemblymen. The next governor rescinded the Act.

Kingston continued to grow despite calamities: a devastating hurricane in 1784, a huge fire in 1843, a cholera epidemic in 1850 and another fire in 1862. In 1872 the capital was once again transferred to Kingston and this time it remained.

In 1907 an earthquake destroyed most of the city and killed 800 people. A visiting circus was encamped on the Racecourse and many of the survivors found temporary shelter under the big top . This earthquake accounts for the lack of historic

buildings and for Jamaicas strict building code. After the quake an ordinance prohibited the erection of buildings higher than 60 feet. The first to exceed this height were the three storey public buildings on King Street. Constructed of reinforced concrete, they were considered at the time the last word in progressive architecture.

Originally the city had been laid out in a compact square enclosed by North Street, West Street, East Street and the sea. Over the years it absorbed the peripheral villages and pens spreading across the Liguanea plain and into the foothills of

the Blue Mountains, in the process consuming some of the best agricultural land in the island.

In 1923 the local government bodies of the parishes of Kingston and adjacent St Andrew were amalgamated to form the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation. Kingston has always had a history of energetic municipal elections. Here began the tradition of burying unsuccessful political candidates in a mock funeral procession complete with coffin and joyful mourners. The custom continues but the tempo and temperature of national elections have escalated considerably. Unfortunately political rallies can no longer be neutralized by the simple ploy of singing the national anthem just as the main speaker is due to appear.

Kingston's schizophrenia began quite recently. In the old days true Kingstonians boasted of being born beneath the clock of Kingston Parish Church. Today the well-to-do live uptown while the poorer classes live below the bridge (Torrington Bridge) in politically polarized ghettoes nicknamed Southside, Rema, Jungle and Lizard Town where it is never safe to stray too far away from home. But it is here that the creativity of the Jamaican peaks: Kingston ghettoes produced Reggae, Bob Marley and the current musical phenomenon of Dancehall.

During the 1960s the city expanded north and the once famous Knutsford Racetrack became New Kingston. With the development of New Kingston and a string of uptown shopping plazas the former commercial and shopping centres of King Street and Harbour Street became neglected and shabby. As

an antidote to decay the government created the Kingston Waterfront Redevelopment Company to reclaim, redesign and upgrade 95 acres along the waterfront. The project produced a nucleus of wide landscaped boulevards and multi-storey buildings which include the Bank of Jamaica, Scotia Bank Centre, the Jamaica Conference Centre, and Kingston Mall. Casualties of the redevelopment process were the once famous Myrtle Bank Hotel, the picturesque finger piers jutting out from Port Royal Street, and historic Victoria Market, scene of traditional Sunday and Christmas markets for over a hundred years.

In the 1980s another redevelopment program was undertaken by governments Urban Development Company. The massive project, assisted by a loan from the Inter American Development Bank comprised traffic rationalization and

redevelopment of the market area south and west of the Parade, refurbishing the four main markets (Jubilee, Queens, Redemption Ground and Coronation) and building 6 additional markets. You will have already discovered that Jamaica is a nation of shopkeepers, vendors and higglers . It is estimated that at peak periods close to 15,000 vendors use this area and

as much as J$25 million may change hands over a weekend. Because so many vendors and shoppers come in from the rural and suburban areas, the transport centre is a key component of the redevelopment plan.

The Kingston Restoration Company, created in the mid-1980s with U.S.. $6.8 million seed money from USAID, is an attempt to cure downtowns inner city . To spark conservation of the decaying downtown areas, KRC distributes grants towards the restoration of strategic buildings; to create employment it acquires and renovates derelict buildings and then leases them out for light industry. To defuse the time-bomb of poverty it sponsors social programs.

Kingston commands the seventh largest natural harbour in the world and sits athwart major shipping lanes: import, export and transhipment are big business here. The Port Authority of Jamaica administers extensive and modern shipping facilities at Port Bustamante which include 11 lateral berths built by two private companies Western Terminals Ltd. and Kingston Wharves Ltd. The port area is a hive of activity and all too frequently the source of hair-raising reports alleging intrigue, corruption and smuggling. Kingston harbour is now so severely polluted by sewage, industrial effluent and oil spills that it has been called the cess-pit of the Caribbean. To date no serious attempt has been made to rehabilitate the marine environment although the problem was designated critical some twenty years ago by UWI scientists.

Adjacent to the port, the Kingston Free-Zone offers tax havens and excise exemption for export businesses and employs a large workforce mostly in garment factories. There are three other Free-Zone areas in the island, one of them close by on Marcus Garvey Drive.

Behind the port, the industrial section is home of some

long established and prestigious firms like J. Wray & Nephew, distillers of Appleton rum, Desnoes and Geddes, brewers of Red Stripe beer, and Estate Industries, makers of Tia Maria Coffee Liqueur.

PLACES OF INTEREST DOWNTOWN

PARADE at the top of King Street was subjected to a major facelift in the late 1980s with the addition of paved walkways,

a fountain, baptismal pool and elaborate lights. Aesthetes bemoaned the preponderance of steel and concrete and conservationists decried the destruction of most of the original trees including some rare species. In the days when it was a parade ground for the British Military it was also used for public floggings and hangings. Among those who met their fate here were the freed slave Pio who was paid to assassinate Simon Bolivar but mistakenly killed his friend instead, and two leaders of a St Mary slave revolt who were hung up in iron frames and left to starve to death. The park in the centre, formerly called Victoria Park was renamed St William Grant Park after an early labour leader, a forerunner and then colleague of Alexander Bustamante. Always a public forum, Parade has witnessed

innumerable crowds, meetings, and political speeches. Here

in quaint juxtaposition are statues of a diverse trio: Norman Manley, Bustamante, and Queen Victoria.

North of Parade, the WARD THEATRE was built after the 1907 earthquake on the site of the

municipal Theatre Royal. It was a gift to the city from Col. Charles Ward, Custos and rum magnate. Recently refurbished it has excellent acoustics. It is the venue for

the annual LTM pantomime.

The pre-Christmas Ward

Season of Excellence presents

internationally acclaimed

companies and artistes.

BRAMWELL BOOTH head-

quarters of the Salvation Army was built in 1933 an austere structure true to the claim that The Army never spends money on building unless it is absolutely necessary . The Salvation Army has many branches throughout the island and an impressive record of work amongst the underprivileged.

KINGSTON PARISH CHURCH south of Parade was destroyed by the 1907 earthquake and rebuilt. Among its treasures is a memorial by the famous sculptor John Bacon to the gallant Admiral Benbow who died in Port Royal of wounds received in a naval battle. (Deserted by two of his captains and with his leg mutilated by chain shot he continued to fight and chase the French fleet). The clock tower was erected as a memorial to those killed in the First World War. The bell dates from 1715.

COKE CHAPEL east of Parade was the cradle of Methodism in Jamaica. It replaced a smaller church known as Parade Chapel which was founded in 1789 by Rev Thomas Coke, a pioneer missionary. Like other adversaries of slavery, the early Methodists were persecuted by the establishment but in

1841 the House of Assembly contributed towards the erection

of Coke Chapel.

THE PEARNELL CHARLES ARCADE. Scratch a Jamaican and you will find a higgler. This local name for a sidewalk or market vendor derives from the archaic verb to higgle to dispute terms or haggle a necessary first step when making

a purchase here. Higglers, selling anything from fruits and cigarettes to imported Italian shoes are ubiquitous. Their preferred location is the sidewalk and once crowded the pavements of King Street so thickly that they impeded entrance to the stores. This was solved in the mid 1980s by building a market with tiny cage-like stalls and ordering the street vendors to re-locate. They went reluctantly. Located between Queen and South streets, the building was christened Pearnell Charles Arcade after the then Minister of Local Government who is also an honorary Chieftain of Nigeria.

SOLAS MARKET (officially called Jubilee) spills into the streets just west of the Parade. Bustling and vibrant it inspired the Jamaican folk song Come we go down a Solas Market, Come we go buy banana .

The CRAFTS MARKET on the waterfront west of Victoria Pier offers a wide selection of straw goods and souvenirs.

The state-of-the-art facilities at TUFF GONG RECORDING STUDIO at 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, part of the Bob Marley Empire, are used by established and aspiring stars.

The seafront along OCEAN BOULEVARD with a bracing sea breeze and grassy esplanade is an interesting place to watch the world go by and sample a roots snack, but beware of pickpockets and other assorted hustlers. At the foot of King Street an imposing statue dedicated to the working people of Jamaica and called Negro Aroused is the work of the late Mrs. Edna Manley, wife of National Hero the Rt Excellent Norman Manley and mother of former Prime Minister Michael Manley. The Port Royal Ferry leaves from here.

At the NATIONAL GALLERY in the Kingston Mall the permanent collection includes works of Edna Manley, John Dunkley, Albert Huie, Kapo and other noted Jamaican artists. The annual National Exhibition mounted every December continues through the spring. In the foyer is a statue of Bob Marley by Jamaican sculptor Christopher Gonzalez. Intended for public display in a proposed Celebrity park, the symbolic concept of Bob so enraged his rootsy fans that it had to be hurriedly removed to its present sanctuary. The replacement by Alvin Marriott a lifelike facsimile of Bob plus guitar looms on Arthur Wint park opposite the National Stadium. This was not the first time that Gonzalez proved too unsettling for the average person: a Christ figure commissioned for a Catholic church was rejected because his manhood was too clearly visible under the loincloth. The Christ found a home with collector A.D. Scott at the Olympia Gallery on Hope Road.

The mini COIN MUSEUM at the Bank of Jamaica building on Ocean Boulevard has an interesting display of money through the ages and the only gold Arawak artifact so far discovered in Jamaica a Zemi discovered and donated by Archaeologist Dr James Lee.

In front of the Bank of Jamaica towers a monolithic likeness of a former Minister of Finance, the late N.N. Crab Nethersole who got the nickname from his curious sidling gait. This statue also caused a furor when it was erected because the original likeness, distorted by the scale, produced a caricature of a well-liked man.

THE JAMAICA CONFERENCE CENTRE on Ocean Boulevard was opened by HRH Queen Elizabeth in 1983. The fact that Jamaica had been named as the headquarters of the Seabed Authority of the International Law of the Sea may have had something to do with the lavish scale on which it was developed: five fully equipped conference rooms with adjacent caucus rooms, spacious lounges, a restaurant and office wing. It is impressive but underutilized.

The headquarters of the INSTITUTE OF JAMAICA on East Street offers permanent and visiting exhibitions, libraries and reading rooms and a lecture hall. The scope of the West Indian Reference Library makes it one of the most important collections of English Language West Indiana in the world. Much of the material is microfilmed and it is possible to peruse Jamaican newspapers dating back to the eighteenth century. The IOJ also publishes a quarterly review with fascinating articles on Jamaican culture and history, although financial constraints make its publication a little less frequently than quarterly, but nonetheless it is well worth picking up a copy if you come across it.

DUKE STREET, still the most fashionable address for legal firms, boasts some sumptuous modern office blocks and several interesting places.

ST ANDREW S SCOTS KIRK, an arresting octagonal building, was founded in 1813 by a group of Scottish merchants; it took 6 years and 12,000 pounds sterling to complete and an early critic sniffed that it was built principally with Episcopalians money and half filled on Sundays . It survived the 1907 earthquake and an attempt in the 1950s to sell and relocate uptown. In 1965 the Presbyterian and Congregational churches merged to form the United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Scots Kirk has always been noted for excellent music and its choir, the St Andrew Singers.

Both houses of parliament meet at GORDON HOUSE named for National Hero George William Gordon. The layout and ceremonial is similar to the British parliament. The House of Representatives has 60 members. Each session is opened by the entrance of the Marshal bearing the traditional symbol of authority, the Mace. The Speaker, in gown and wig, presides. The Senate meets in the same chamber at a different time. It is composed of 21 members appointed by the government and 8 by the opposition. The numbers are significant, because any amendment of the Constitution must be approved by two thirds of the senate and therefore requires a measure of consensus.

HEADQUARTERS HOUSE is now the headquarters of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, an entity that struggles on an inadequate budget to preserve some of the islands historical assets. The house was built in 1755 on a wager. Thomas Hibbert and three cronies agreed to see who could build the finest house and thus impress a certain beautiful lady. History does not relate who won the bet, or the lady. Thomas Hibbert never married and his wish to be buried in the garden here with the least expense consistent with decency was not granted as he died and was buried at his country estate Agualta Vale in St Mary. An interesting feature of Hibbert House as it was originally called, is the crows nest on the roof from which Mr. Hibbert could scan the harbour for his ships or signal friends in other parts of town. The house was purchased by the government and used first as a military headquarters and residence of the Commanding Officer and then as a meeting place of the House of Assembly. It was here that George William Gordon confronted those who accused him of fomenting the Morant Bay Rebellion. Two days later he was arrested, taken by warship to Morant Bay, tried by a kangaroo court and hanged alongside Paul Bogle.

Gordon, a former member of the House of Assembly was a prominent coloured businessman, a lay preacher and fearless champion of the poor, and a National Hero of modern Jamaica.

The imposing JEWISH SYNAGOGUE of the United Congregation of Israelites on Duke St was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1907 destroyed the temple serving the merged congregation of Sephardic and Ashkenazi groups. The contribution of the Jewish community to the development of the island has been significant and starts with Columbus, whose family were Marronites (Jews converted to Christianity). Politically, the Jews were excluded from voting until 1833 but 17 years later 25% of the members of the House of Assembly were Jewish and they have continued as a force in commerce and politics to this day.

NORTH STREET is the home of the GLEANER CO. LTD publishers of the islands leading daily newspaper The Daily Gleaner, also the Sunday Gleaner, Overseas Gleaner, the evening tabloid the STAR, the Tourist Guide and Childrens Own. The Gleaner was founded in 1834 by two brothers, Jacob and Joshua DeCordova, and started life as DeCordova's Advertiser. Operations at the plant are now fully computerized. Tours are available on request. The Gleaner, having survived for over 160 years, is considered a Jamaican institution. To date, competing dailies have all folded after a few years. The most recent casualty, the Jamaica Record, was succeeded in 1992 by the Jamaica Herald. The daily tabloid Observer is the latest addition to the press.

Beside the Gleaner at 3 North St is the headquarters of THE MISSIONARY BROTHERS OF THE POOR, a Catholic Religious order founded 13 years ago by Father Richard Ho Lung, once known as the Reggae Priest and now better known as the Ghetto Priest. The Brothers also founded Faith Centre on Laws St, Jacob's Well on Hanover St, Good Shepherd on Tower St and The Lord's House on High Holborn St where they care for the sick and destitute in a family atmosphere. They also run two missions in India and one in the Phillipines.

A branch of Mother Theresa's Sisters of Charity is on Gold St.

The mosque-like Roman Catholic HOLY TRINITY CATHEDRAL on North St and South Camp Road replaced the Holy Trinity Church destroyed by the 1907 earthquake. There is a letter extant signed by prominent merchants urgently requesting the Bishop to reconsider the North Street site because it was too far out in the country . The Cathedral, built in massive Spanish Moorish style with dome and four minarets was consecrated in 1911. Pope John Paul said mass here in April 1993. Prelate of the Cathedral is Archbishop Edgerton Clarke The Cathedral is reputed to have the finest pipe organ in the Caribbean. Beside it is ST GEORGE S COLLEGE for boys, originally founded by the Jesuits in 1850 and established on this site in 1913.

Kingston College on the other side of North Street is a high school for boys founded by the late Percival Gibson, the first Black Jamaican to become Bishop of the local Anglican church.

NATIONAL HEROES PARK, originally a municipal racetrack and then the George VI Memorial Park, is still known as Racecourse. The largest remaining greenspace it frequently accommodates football and cricket matches. National Heroes Norman Manley, Alexander Bustamante and Marcus Garvey are buried here beside neo-abstract concrete monuments. There are also a memorial to Paul Bogle and a bust of General Antoneo Maceo, the hero of Cuba's independence struggle. At the junction of South and East Racecourse is a statue of the South American liberator Simon Bolivar who spent months of exile here during which he wrote the famous Jamaica Letter and survived an assassination attempt. The Ministries of Education and Finance flank the park and a mango tree covered in closely written scrolls of cardboard is the home of an eccentric street person called Wesley Salmon. From this vantage point he has been awaiting the Second Coming for over 15 years. A pavement on the lower west of the park is usually occupied by vendors specializing in boiled crabs and roast corn.

WOLMERS SCHOOL, with separate establishments for boys and girls of Marescaux Road, was founded in 1729 by a bequest from a benevolent goldsmith John Wolmer. At first, coloured and Jewish children were excluded but the ban was lifted long ago. An early advertisement for students noted that Wolmer's graduates were expected to fill with dignity and reputation the eminent and important professions in society . Past students Sir Florizel Glasspole (Former Governor General), Edward Seaga (Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Mnister) and the Hon. Hector Wynter (former editor of the Gleaner) are among many who fulfilled these expectations.

MICO TRAINING COLLEGE, next on Marescaux Road, is the largest teacher training institution in the Caribbean and one of the oldest in the world. In 1670 a young Englishman chose to forego a 1,000 pound sterling dowry rather than marry any of Lady Mico's nieces. The bequest was therefore invested for charitable purposes. Used initially for ransoming Christian captives from Barbary pirates it was later used to establish teacher training colleges throughout the West Indies. Of these Mico, built in 1834 in Kingston, is the sole survivor.

CROSS ROADS is where uptown begins and traffic jams, shoppers and pedestrians swirl around the clock tower. There is a post office, a market, and the once famous CARIB cinema.

UP PARK CAMP headquarters of the British military force since the eighteenth century is now the home of the Jamaica Defence Force. Established when the island became independent in 1962 the J.D.F. replaced the West India Regiment. There are two battalions of regular soldiers and a National Reserve. There are also a Support and Service battalion, the Airwing and the Coast Guard. All J.D.F. officers receive training overseas, many at the British military academy Sandhurst. Up Park Camp stretches over 200 acres with living quarters, parade grounds,

an airfield, administrative offices, two military cemeteries, the Garrison Church, and an interesting small Military Museum displaying weapons, medals, and uniforms. The excellent Jamaica Military Band performs at state occasions and is

much in demand for private functions. The current Chief of Staff of the J.D.F. is Rear Admiral Peter Brady of the Coast Guard.

One noted ex-J.D.F officer is Col Trevor MacMillan currently a tough and crusading Commissioner of Police. Another is ex-Airwing Lt Tal Stokes, executive of Helitours Ltd and helmsman of Jamaica's Bobsled team. At the 1988 Winter Olympics, the advent of a bobsled team from Jamaica caused a mild sensation, though they crashed on the final run. Their story inspired the hit film Cool Runnings and Jamaica has continued its Winter Olympic sliding .

The notorious GUN COURT and South Camp Rehabilitation Centre are situated by Up Park Camp. Created by the Manley government in 1972 in an effort to reduce gun crime, the gun court was conspicuously sited, on the theory that dramatizing harsh punishment would act as a deterrent to potential criminals. The Gun Court Act mandating indefinite detention for anyone convicted of possession of an unlicensed gun was amended but the court remains.

ST ANDREW PARISH LIBRARY on tree-lined Tom Redcam Avenue has an adult and a children's library, a reference department, reading rooms and space for exhibitions. This is also the headquarters of the Jamaica Library Service, an extensive network covering the whole island and comprising Parish Libraries, Branch Libraries, Book Centres and Bookmobiles. The Library Service was established in 1948, a joint effort of the British Council and the government. It is now funded entirely by the government and administered by a board appointed by the Minister of Education.

Beside it THE LITTLE THEATRE was built during the 1960s. The Little Theatre Movement founded by the late Greta Fowler was financed by the proceeds of the LTM's annual pantomime and by donations from business firms and Friends of the Little Theatre . A sliding scale of rental fees allows for concessionary rates for schools and community groups because the objective of the LTM is to reinvest all earnings in the development of Jamaican theatre. The rehearsal room is in constant use, mostly by school-groups. In 1968 the LTM founded the island's first drama school which was later transferred to the Cultural Training Centre (see below). The Little Theatre was the cradle of the internationally acclaimed Jamaican Folk Singers and the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica. Annual events here include the NDTC's Season of Dance, and a musical presentation by Father Ho Lung and Friends,

THE CULTURAL TRAINING CENTRE on Arthur Wint Drive comprises Schools of Art, Drama, Dance and Music, all administered by the Institute of Jamaica.

The NATIONAL STADIUM on Arthur Wint Drive was completed in time for the Jamaica Independence celebrations in 1962 and the first event held here was the 9th Central American Games. The stadium can accommodate 40,000 spectators and has facilities for all major field and track sports. Peripheral

facilities include changing rooms, offices, broadcasting booths and restaurants. Attached are an aquatic centre, tennis courts, cricket pitch and grandstand. The adjacent NATIONAL ARENA

is used for trade shows, cultural exhibitions, political party conferences, religious crusades, and beauty contests. Pope John Paul officiated at a mass here on his visit in April 1993.

NEW KINGSTON

The uptown capital is bordered by Oxford Road, Old Hope Road, Trafalgar Road and Holborn Road and bisected by Knutsford Boulevard. A busy centre with tiers of concrete housing hotels, banks, embassies, offices, restaurants, it is almost deserted on weekends. The towering Pegasus hotel operated by the British Trust House Forte group teems with life: it offers banquet rooms, boutiques, a huge swimming pool, mini-theatre, three restaurants and a very low key businessman's facility known as The Knutsford Club. The Wyndham, owned by NCB (the island's largest bank) and leased to the Wyndham Hotel group of Texas vies for the title of most popular business hotel with similar facilities.

The Liguanea Club, a private members club and relic of the colonial days with tennis and squash courts, a restaurant of repute and accommodation, is open only to members and their guests but temporary memberships can be arranged. Liguanea, having sold its golf course now administers the 18 hole Caymanas Golf Club about 10 miles out of town.

Plans for a multi-million, multi-storey office cum cultural centre on New Kingston's last remaining green space beside Liguanea are currently the subject of much controversy.

The NEW KINGSTON SHOPPING CENTRE off Dominica Drive is a circular mall of manageable size. The blue and silver ISLAND LIFE MALL on St. Lucia Avenue has shops, boutiques and the CHELSEA ART GALLERY.

New Kingston restaurants include, at one end of the scale, Norma's (pricey but worth it) and at the other The Hot Pot (Jamaican Cuisine at reasonable rates).

Entertainment: THE BARN, a small theatre off Oxford Road is the place to see indigenous plays like those of Trevor (Smile Orange) Rhone and Ginger (Higglers) Knight.

GODFATHERS and MIRAGE are trendy discos.

PLACES OF INTEREST UPTOWN

Vale Royal

This is the residence of the Prime Minister. Formerly the

residence of the British Colonial Secretary it was built in the eighteenth century by one of the richest planters in the West Indies, Simon Taylor.

Along Hope Road

DEVON HOUSE is the most elegant surviving nineteenth century mansion. Set in spacious tree-shaded grounds it is elegantly furnished in 1860s style with genuine antiques and some made-in-Jamaica reproductions. The house was built in 1881

by George Steibel, a Black shipwright's apprentice and builder's foreman who sought and found his fortune in a Venezuelan goldmine. Returning to Jamaica as a millionaire he built Devon House, then crashed society, becoming first a Justice of the Peace and then Custos of St Andrew. A notable feature of the house is the way in which the Georgian style was adapted to tropical conditions with wide expanses of windows and cooling jalousies.

Eating/Drinking/Shopping/Relaxation options at Devon house include: The Grogge Shop and The Devonshire restaurant in the former stables and carriage house. Both open on to

a courtyard shaded by a giant Mango Tree. This is the place to go on Friday nights when stars like Ernie Smith perform.

The I Scream kiosk in the front garden serves a delicious

variety of local ice-cream flavours: soursop, coconut, guava, rum-and-raisin. The Coffee Terrace on the back veranda has Blue Mountain coffee, sandwiches and pastries. Shops flanking the courtyard below offer everything Jamaican from ice-cream and home-made bread through craft and antique reproductions. Cut flowers and plants are sold in a booth beside the parking lot.

North of Devon House is JAMAICA HOUSE, built in the 1960s as the residence of the Prime Mnister, but now used solely as

his office. An unexpected adjunct is the Jamaica House Basic School founded by a former Prime Minister's wife, Mrs Beverley Anderson Manley (now a popular radio personality on KLAS FM's Breakfast Club).

KINGS HOUSE is the official residence of the Governor General, Sir Howard Cooke and Lady Cooke. It was built as the residence of the Lord Bishop of Jamaica, then bought from the Church in 1871 for 6,000 pounds sterling to be used as the residence of the Governor. V.I.P.s entertained here have included Prince Albert and Prince George (later George V), the Duke and Duchess of York (later George VI and his Queen), HRH Princess Margaret and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Two valuable pieces at King's House are the full length portraits of King George III and Queen Charlotte by the famous artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. (George III was the least stable of Royals, of whom the Whig parliamentarian Charles

Fox said: The King was observed in Windsor park engaged in conversation with a tree. But that's not the worst of it, the tree was getting the best of the argument.) Poor King George and his Queen have witnessed many a state banquet as they look down from the walls of the dining room, and many lighthearted occasions such as Meet the People Tea parties. Care to have tea at King's House? Ask about the Meet the People Program at the Jamaica Tourist Board. (Tel: 929-9213 9)

THE BOB MARLEY MUSEUM at 56 Hope Road is a must for

all reggae fans. SOVEREIGN CENTRE at Liguanea is Jamaica's biggest and most Americanized shopping Mall with a Food Court, restaurants and two cinemas. CAMPION COLLEGE at 108 Hope Road is an outstanding co-educational school, a Roman Catholic institution. JAMAICA COLLEGE at 189 Hope Road is a renowned boys school. Past pupils include National Hero Rt. Excellent Norman Manley and his son former Prime Minister Michael Manley.

HOPE GARDENS stretches over 100 acres below the foothills of the Blue Mountains. The spacious layout features lawns, flowering trees, flower beds, ornamental ponds and green houses all of which have deteriorated inexorably over the past two decades.

A small, formerly sad zoo is in the process of transformation thanks to the Friends of the Zoo and funding from World Wildlife Fund, the National Wildlife Foundation and the Environmental Fund of Jamaica. There are plans for an eco-park on the hillside which is scheduled for reafforestatation. Zoo curator Rheema Kerr is a wildlife biologist and energetic den mother of the WECAN club for junior naturalists. COCONUT PARK, beside the zoo is a small amusement park.

THE COLLEGE OF ARTS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (C.A.S.T.), founded in 1963 offers diploma courses in Science, Engineering, Building, Commerce, Management and Teacher Training. A number of benefactors including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, U.S.A., West Germany, the World Bank, Organization of American States and the United Nations Development Program have contributed to its steady growth.

On its twenty-fifth anniversary Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth unveiled a plaque in a new auditorium and HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh planted a mahogany tree in the grounds. C.A.S.T.'s green Principal, Dr Alfred Sangster, introduced a Solar Energy Institute and promotes reafforestation.

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, wedged between Long Mountain and the Hope River, spreads over 635 acres of the former sugar states of Mona and Papine. The stone aqueduct that used to provide water power for both factories is a campus landmark. The University began in 1948 with 33 medical students. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1949 as the University College affiliated to the University of London. The first Chancellor was HRH Princess Alice of Athlone (since deceased) who proved a tireless fundraiser. It achieved full University status and the power to grant its own degrees in 1962.

UWI, a survivor of the abortive attempt to establish a political Federation of the British West Indian colonies, is a regional institution serving and supported by Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, Antigua, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia, Dominica, St Vincent, Grenada and British Honduras.

Mona is the largest campus and administrative headquarters. There is a campus at St Augustine in Trinidad and another at Cave Hill in Barbados. Degrees are offered in Arts and General Studies, Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. CARIMAC in the faculty of Arts offers diploma courses in Mass Communications. Research institutions, special projects and research units located at Mona include the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Trade Union Education Unit, the Advanced Nursing Education Unit, and the Sickle Cell Research Program. A small nuclear facility installed in the Science Faculty by the Atomic Agency of Canada Ltd. is used for research in geology, medicine, agriculture and marine investigations.

The University Hospital on campus is a teaching hospital with 500 beds. The Tony Thwaites Wing, built by subscription, is a private wing with state-of-the-art facilities. The Mona Library contains over 300,000 books and periodicals with branch libraries for Medicine and Natural Science. In the Library of the Norman Manley Law School, the Norman Manley Room displays memorabilia of the National Hero and famous advocate his desk, chair, diaries, medals, athletic trophies and photographs.

Interesting buildings on campus include the Chapel (built with cut stone salvaged from an old sugar works at Gayle in Trelawney), the Creative Arts Centre and the Department of Psychiatry, both recipients of the Governor General's Award for Architecture.

A bio-technology pilot project supervised by the Botany Department purifies the UWI sewage and recycles the water to produce phenomenal rice yields. The Geology Dept has a mini-museum in which you can see Jamaican fossils over 60 million years old including a 7 foot shell. The Norman Manley Law School and Sustainable Development Department are also well worth a visit.

During the Second World War, the British government used Mona to house evacuees from the islands of Malta and Gibraltar and also as a prisoner-of-war camp. The temporary wooden buildings were put to use in the initial days of the University

and some are still in use today.

Half Way Tree

Opinions differ as to why the crossroads at the bottom of Hope road is called Half Way Tree. One source claims that it was because of a large Cotton Tree under which travellers would rest on their journey from the city to the hills and pens further afield. Another that the spot marked the halfway point between the two military barracks at Port Henderson and Newcastle. One of the earliest official accounts of this landmark recounts how a group of Royalists beneath the tree accosted passers by and forced them to drink a toast to King James extremely destabilizing behavior since the colony was then ruled by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.

The Half Way Tree Clock was erected in 1913 in memorial

to King Edward VII and occasionally tells the right time. The junction around it is usually clogged with vehicles. In the midst of the traffic mayhem an attractively restored pink and white colonial building is an outlet for Tastee Patties.The old Half Way Tree Court House is being restored by the Jamaica Historical Buildings Trust as well as the adjacent St Andrew Parish Church one of the oldest and most affluent in the island.

Shopping plazas stretch along both sides of Constant Spring Road which is one-way down from West King's House Road to the Clock.

Immaculate Conception High School at 152 Constant Spring Road is a leading girls school run by Franciscan Sisters.

CONSTANT SPRING GOLF CLUB has an 18 hole championship golf course, tennis, squash and badminton courts, a swimming pool, bar and snack bar. Members and their friends only, but bonafide visitors to the island may apply for temporary membership.

MANOR CENTRE of Constant Spring Road, just before the traffic lights and the market, is another Miami-style shopping centre. MANOR PARK PLAZA is on the Right after the lights. Beyond here residential areas fan out over Red Hills and Stony Hill. There are excellent panoramic views over the city from these areas, especially at night. Long Lane leads you to the village of Stony Hill and the Junction route which follows the Wag Water River past Castleton Gardens to the north coast.

Tour 1

Exploring St Thomas

Harbour View, east of Palisadoes is a large dormitory suburb with schools, churches, a drive-in cinema and an energetic Community Environment Resource Centre led by Public Health officer Selvin Masters. They have been trying for a long time to take over the non-functioning government sewage plant and turn it into a model facility capable of recycling water.

The Donald Quarrie school here is named after one of Jamaica s Olympic champions. As you proceed east, the dry Hope River gully and scarred foothills on your left dramatically illustrate the peril of deforestation. Presently you may glimpse L the Yallahs pipeline which supplies water to the Mona Reservoir.

Cable Hut R has a pleasant sheltered beach and is usually deserted during the week. There are a few seaside clubs on your R as you proceed to NINE MILES and then BULL BAY. Near ELEVEN MILES a small bridge crosses the CHALKY RIVER which in dry seasons is nothing more than a stony riverbed. On the hills L of the road is the Rastafarian commune of the Rt Hon Prince Emmanuel Charles Edward. An extremely bad road leads through an impoverished settlement to his flag bedecked, gaily painted hillside encampment. The aged Prince Emmanuel (100 years or more) is affectionately knows as Bubba to his followers, and has spent most of his long life seeking United Nations recognition and repatriation to Africa for all Rastafarians. His followers, who regard him as the Black Christ, wear robes and turbans and subsist partially by making brooms and walking all over the island to sell them. They are peaceable and interesting people, but do not attempt to visit them unescorted because the surrounding area is not considered safe.

From the high road above COW BAY, you can get a fine view of the city and harbour. In defiance of a No-dumping sign the slope below the road is littered with years of garbage. L of the road there is a monument and plaque commemorating Jack Mansong, better known as Three Fingered Jack, a bandit who patrolled the nearby hills and valleys and fought, often singlehandedly, a war of terror against the English soldiers and planters who held the slave colony. A chivalrous outlaw who never harmed a woman or child, he was finally ambushed and killed by a Maroon bounty hunter who pickled his head and three fingered hand in rum and took them to Spanish Town to claim his reward. In his lifetime he was the subject of many songs, stories and even a London play.

In dry weather, the YALLAHS RIVER is little more than a haphazard trickle in a wide, boulder strewn gully. In rainy seasons it becomes a raging torrent and when this makes the main road fording impassable motorists must detour L up towards a bridge below the village of Easington. Three miles above here, at Mount Sinai, a plaque tells the story of JUDGEMENT CLIFF where a huge landslip occurred in 1692 during an earthquake. The mountain fell into the river burying an entire plantation and the owner who, legend insists, was extraordinarily evil. The face of Judgement Cliff, 1,000 feet high is visible across the river, but covered now in vegetation.

You can return to the coast road at POOR MANS CORNER by crossing the river below Easington where two stone towers beside the iron bridge are all that is left of the suspension bridge erected in 1826.

The fertile Yallahs river valley stretches 22 miles up into the Blue Mountains. Above LLANDEWEY the Yallahs Pipeline taps the Yallahs and Negro rivers to supply water to Kingston. Deforestation, causing unpredictable river flows and flooding have made the multi-million project less productive than anticipated and small farmers in the valley complain that the scheme impacts their water supply.

If you skip this detour and cross the Yallahs fording on the main road you may be struck by the dry, dusty moonscape of the river mouth. Sometimes the fording itself is destroyed by the floods and you must pick your way through the riverbed in the wake of more adventurous motorists. Beyond the crossroads village of Yallahs are the Salt Ponds: two huge shallow pans of briny water separated from the sea by narrow spits of land. The legend is that two brothers quarrelled so fiercely over their inheritance that the land in question sank below sea-level. The ponds sometimes have a bright red colour caused by bacteria that thrive during times of drought. The big pond has a maximum depth of 14 feet and is 10 times saltier than the ocean. The smaller pond has a maximum depth of 4 feet, is less saline than the ocean on the surface, but of equal salinity three feet below.

A seventeenth century owner claimed that the ponds yielded 10,000 bushels of salt annually. On occasion, they also emitted an overpowering stench. This was so bad in October 1902 that it affected Kingston and prompted investigations. It was discovered that the smell was caused by a high concentration of hydrogen sulphide in the big pond which was manufactured by a specie of bacteria which multiplies in rain water. Channels were dug to connect this pond to the smaller one and to the sea and the problem has not recurred. Few fish can tolerate the unusual conditions in the ponds but the water teems with micro-organisms that fascinate scientists. Among these are certain archae-bacteria which were among the first form of life on earth. Currently a UWI pilot project is producing Artemia (microscopic brine shrimp) in the ponds. They can be used as food for aquarium fish. The local people collect rock salt from the shores of the ponds during the dry months of February through April. A rough road leads from the village 2.6 miles along the outer edge of the small pond. From here it is a long walk along the beach to an old signal tower, built in the late 1770s when Port Royal was an important naval base.

At PROSPECT PEN, just beyond the small pond and L of the main road is the JAMINTEL EARTH STATION which is linked to the Intelsat satellite, and through it to the rest of the world. The large dish antenna has been operating since 1971. It is a standard A type Intelsat station, is 30 metres in diameter, weighs 326 tons, and can function in winds up to 55 miles per hour. In the event of hurricanes it can be pointed to Zenith and locked and is designed to withstand winds up to 200 miles per hour in this position. It provides telephone/fax, telex, telegraph and television links and has the capacity for 960 circuits. The smaller dish, 12 metres in diameter, now serves as a standby. The station also has its own standby power plant. The road up to the earth station provides a panoramic view of the coast and Salt ponds. You will pass a blunt tower of stone, an eighteenth century kiln in which limestone was burnt to produce lime for building.

Back on the main road, about a mile from here and just beyond a cutting, turn R and follow the old road to a deserted shingle beach on the outer edge of the Salt Ponds. Like many beaches and all riverbeds in St Thomas it has some interesting stones: multicoloured and jewel bright when wet. A short distance from here at a district known as GREENWALL cliffs plunge to the sea and the water swirls over and around flat topped monoliths: a stunning view but not if you are afraid of heights. The approach to this view is opposite a small white concrete house with HOMEBOYS painted on the wall. This is current dancehall slang to describe an extremely fashionable, smart, successful and desirable man.

L. of a crossroads and less than a quarter mile from there is a small building and signs advertising RANZA ACCOUNTING SERVICES and employment agency. If it is a weekend, ask for Joe Corniffe, a practitioner of Alternative Tourism and very knowledgeable about camping facilities, bed and breakfast lodgings, local beaches and hikes, etc.

The beach at ROZELLE is eroded and somewhat dilapidated. A waterfall gushes onto the main road providing an open air shower bath for all. The Ethiopian Coptic Church owns a large estate nearby at WHITE HORSES. Development here stopped with the imprisonment in Miami of American Coptic leaders including the flamboyant Brother Louv. The sect claims that the smoking of marijuana is an aid to meditation, an integral part of their sacrament and their constitutional right. The U.S. government claimed that the church was a cover for drug trafficking. There was a Coptic temple on the farm and also a complex of ancient mule and water mills. The place is now deserted. Roadside vendors in White Horses offer Honey, Irish Moss, ackees, naseberries and mangoes for sale. The village perches on a blunt promontory above chalky cliffs visible from miles away.

The Bustamante Bridge, the longest in the island, crosses the wide stony channel of the MORANT RIVER. On the outskirts of MORANT BAY is the Goodyear tyre factory. Their large sports ground borders the main road providing the chance to see football or cricket in season as you drive by.

MORANT BAY, was the scene of the Morant Bay Rebellion. In the year 1865 drought, poor crops, irregular employment and low wages had reduced the labouring class to abject poverty and their suffering was exacerbated by the harshness of the planters and magistrates. The flashpoint of their bloody protest was the unfair arrest of a poor man the day before. Paul Bogle, a farmer and Baptist preacher, led a march from the village of STONY GUT to the Morant Bay Courthouse where he confronted the Custos and other officials. The encounter became stormy, the militia fired upon the crowd and in the ensuing riot 28 persons were killed including the unpopular Custos. Bogle's men burnt down the Courthouse and freed prisoners before retreating. Rioting spread over the countryside. The governor called out the troops. Retribution was swift and terrible. George William Gordon, a coloured ex-member of the House of Assembly and champion of the poor, was arrested in Kingston and brought by boat to Morant Bay where he was tried and executed along with Bogle and 600 other persons. One thousand huts were burned and thousands of men and women flogged.

Next year, a Royal Commission found that the disturbances had their origin in a planned resistance to lawful authority but punishment was excessive, punishment by death unnecessarily frequent, floggings reckless and at Bath, positively barbarous. Today both Bogle and Gordon are considered martyrs for justice and liberty and have been made Jamaican National Heroes.

The broad main street outside the Morant Bay Courthouse forms a mini town square over which the powerful figure of Paul Bogle looms. The bronze statue is the work of the Hon. Edna Manley, wife and mother, respectively, of Norman Manley and Michael Manley. During the week the courthouse is busy with litigants, while friends and relatives sit on a shady wall below. To the west is Christ Church, a photogenic red brick Anglican Church, part of it dating from the seventeenth century. To the east is a railed memorial commemorating those who died in the World War I.

The courthouse was rebuilt shortly after the rebellion and now houses the local government offices. Behind these the MORANT BAY FORT dating from 1758 still has three large cannons on elaborate cast-iron carriages. Excavations behind the courthouse in 1965 unearthed the skeletons of 78 victims of summary justice. These were re-interred in a mass grave below the embrasure of the fort and a memorial erected: In remembrance of Paul Bogle, George William Gordon and the 437 Jamaican martyrs of October 1865 who fell because they loved Freedom. In gratitude from the generations who now witness that they did not die in vain . The tiny park is reasonably well kept and cooled by the sea breeze.

Exit north via George St and East Queen St to the hairpin bend onto Hope Road where you will find Caravan Jerk Pork, reputed to be excellent. This highly spiced Maroon dish complemented with hard dough bread makes a hearty and sustaining travellers lunch.

MORANT BAY VILLAS in a landscaped garden overlooking the ocean has rooms and self catering suites, a large clean restaurant and bar, airy dining room with good food and reasonable prices

Leaving town via Wharf Road you find R Chef Restaurant which serves good local food at reasonable prices in clean surroundings.

L. of the road is the PRINCESS MARGARET HOSPITAL, opened by the Queen's lively younger sister in long by-gone days.

LYSSONS public beach provides good swimming but the facilities are in sad disrepair. Beside it is a beach cottage owned by the University of the West Indies.

As you leave Lyssons, opposite the Forever Supermarket a sign points R to GOLDEN SHORE BEACH HOTEL, a nice surprise. This has a variety of tastefully appointed rooms, a simple restaurant (you can watch your food being cooked) and its own long beach with sand that, in certain lights and after a few drinks could well look golden.

Back on the main road at RETREAT an interestingly named hostelry is GOLDFINGER s a very substantial concrete villa with a sign inviting you to Step inside and check it out. There are also several cottages along the PROSPECT and RETREAT beaches that can be rented.

PORT MORANT perches on a deep, wide inlet fringed by fishing beaches and swamp with a village that stretches inland. From the eastern approach you can see the remains of the old United Fruit Co. wharf at BOWDEN, disused for many years. Beside it is a new private marina built by the owners of the local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. This is the site of an annual Marlin Tournament and other boating activities. Beyond here, at Old Pera a new wharf is under construction and scheduled to export gypsum and bananas in the near future. Near the head of the bay, oysters are being grown on bamboo rafts. Among the bars along the swampy seaside road is the TOTAL EXPERIENCE CORNER belonging to genial fisherman and ex-policeman Silbert Harrison.

Along the road to Bowden wharf there is a fossiliferous rockface containing mollusc fossils that are three million years old. This is the most publicized fossil bed in the island but not the most interesting. Fossil beds in Clarendon and St James have fossils up to 60 million years old. The road to OLD PERA is bad but if you are feeling adventurous you can pursue it and discover beyond the canefields an entrancing but lonely shoreline pro-tected by a necklace of rocky cays. East of the village on a slight hill is a ruined windmill built in 1780, a legacy of King Sugar.

Rejoin the main road to Port Antonio and drive towards GOLDEN GROVE between plantings of coconuts and bananas. Just before the village of STOKES HALL turn R and proceed a short distance along an unpaved road to the remains of STOKES HALL known locally as Great House. This impressive ruin may be the oldest structure in Jamaica and was built in the latter half of the seventeenth century. In 1656 old Luke Stokes, Governor of Nevis, obediently heeded Cromwell s call to populate the newest British colony and migrated to Jamaica bringing all his family and 1,000 settlers. Within a few months Stokes, his wife and two thirds of the immigrants fell sick and died, but his three young sons, all under the age of fifteen, survived and eventually prospered. One of them built Stokes Hall. It was as much a fort as a dwelling with towering thick walls punctuated with loopholes through which shotguns could be fired. The ruin is set on the crest of a hill and surrounded by dense cultivations which obscure the fine view north to the mountains and south west across the plain to the cane fields and factory of Duckenfield.

To the extreme west below Holland Bay is the MORANT POINT LIGHTHOUSE fashioned in London in 1841 from a cast iron tube 100 feet high. It is of considerable interest to historians of industrial technology but proceed with the utmost care if you decide to visit here the road is unreliable and the terrain swampy.

Turn north and drive through banana fields with fruit swathed in blue plastic on your way to BATH FOUNTAIN & MINERAL SPA. (Eastern Banana Co. Ltd., a partnership between the government and Jamaica Banana Producers Ltd, has 2319 acres under hi-tech banana cultivation. After a lot of teething pains, arising from experimental tissue-culture planting material supplied by United Fruit Co. Ltd., not to mention Hurricane Gilbert, Eastern Banana has established itself as the largest exporter of bananas on the island.)

Bath spa is well worth a visit. Legend agrees that the

miraculous springs were discovered by a slave but there is

argument as to whether he was a leper or a runaway with an ulcer on his leg. In any event the waters wrought a complete cure and soon afterwards people started flocking to the Bath of St Thomas the Apostle, seeking relief from numerous ailments including bellyache and venereal disease, all capillary obstructions and diseases of the breast proceeding from weakness or want of proper glandular secretions . . . consumption and nervous spasms . . . not to mention . . . rheumatism and depraved appetite.

By 1699 the government had appointed a board to oversee the administration of the baths for the sick and infirm. Accomm-odation was built near the springs and 30 slaves purchased to maintain the road and cultivate vegetables for the inmates. The town developed and a hospital was built. It had baths and a resident doctor who was required to treat poor people free. Subsequently the guest house at Bath became a popular resort. Some of the fashionable patrons even claimed that the waters were intoxicating while others judiciously mixed them with rum and lime (just in case they were not). Unfortunately factions developed in the smart set, political quarrels disrupted the atmosphere at Bath, patronage declined and the place fell into disrepair. Since then the guest house has experienced many ups and downs. Currently it is operated by the Ministry of Tourism under the management of cheerful Mrs Shirley Jones. The small hotel upstairs the baths is clean and spacious, has a large dining room, balcony overlooking the river and a friendly ghost or ghosts, known as duppies in Jamaica. (Doors slam, footsteps patter, the smell of a strong cigar sometimes wafts through the rooms although there is no one in sight, and the strong smell of coffee has been known to issue from the empty kitchen.)

The tiled baths big enough for two are fed with hot and cold taps from two different springs. The after effect is a feeling of complete relaxation. The waters are said to be especially good for arthritis and skin problems. The baths are open to hotel guests 24 hours and to the public during the day. Many guests take a brief hike upstream to splash in open air mineral springs, and there is one just five minutes away where the hot water gushes from a rock.

To find the spa, drive to the centre of the mini-town, turn R opposite the Botanical Gardens and travel a short distance up a winding mountain road.

The BATH BOTANICAL GARDENS, established in 1779, were the first in Jamaica. A nursery here provided the first plant of several imported species including breadfruit, otaheite apple, cinnamon and croton.

The hills above Bath are the natural habitat of HOMERUS PAPILLIO, the giant Swallowtail Butterfly indigenous to Jamaica and now threatened with extinction. There is fine for capturing this butterfly. A UWI project aimed at conserving the butterflies dwindling habitat and a possible captive breeding program is headed by etymologist Dr Eric Garroway.

Return to Morant Bay (just 6.5 miles away) by crossing the Plantain Garden river, the longest in St Thomas. The bank below the bridge is a popular place for baptisms. A detour from Morant Bay into a broad and fertile valley will take you past Serge Island, a large dairy farm with milk processing plant and into the foothills of the Blue Mountains, where a hiking trail to the Peak begins at Cedar Valley.

Returning to Kingston along the coast road you can turn R

at Eleven Miles for a rugged detour via NEWSTEAD and CANE RIVER to PAPINE. The CANE RIVER FALLS a favourite haunt

of the legendary Three Fingered Jack occur in a deep rocky chasm. To view them you must leave your car, clamber under the bridge and proceed downstream for a short distance.

This route provides an unusual view of the city with a spectrum of buildings from the shabby houses of AUGUST TOWN through the U.W.I. campus to the elegant residences on JACK S HILL and SKYLINE DRIVE.

AUGUST TOWN was the headquarters of Prophet Bedward. He started his career as a cult leader who effected miraculous cures by dipping people in the nearby Hope River. Bedward, famous in the early 1900s, was a charismatic preacher who collected a huge islandwide following. He was at first ignored, then abhorred by the establishment, and ridiculed by some who immortalized him in the folk song Slide Mongoose. One verse: Mongoose go eena Bedward kitchen; Tief out one of him righteous chicken refers to a Don Juan who lured away one of the prophet s supposedly virginal followers. Bedward announced the date and time that the world would end and a large crowd of believers gathered at August Town confidently expecting to be gathered to heaven with him. They waited in vain. On a subsequent occasion he announced that he would fly to heaven and attempted to do so but fell out of a tree and broke his leg. He died in Bellevue, the mental asylum, deserted by all but a few faithful women who keep the faith until this day.

On the edge of the U.W.I. complex is a CHESHIRE VILLAGE designed to accommodate handicapped persons and facilitate their leading a normal life. After World War II several of these villages were established worldwide through the efforts of British War Hero the late Leonard Cheshire. Several of the villagers are employed at the nearby Polio Rehabilitation workshop where fine craft items are produced.

Tour 2

From Kingston into the hills

Kingston is one of the few cities in the world where you can

go from sea-level to mountain peak in less than an hour. The mountains rise to 7000 feet from the coastal plain in less than 10 miles. A gradient almost without parallel anywhere else in the world. There are five optional ways to scale the heights:

1. JACKS HILL

From Hope Road, turn on to East Kings House Road and R on to Barbican Road and then L at the Texaco gas station up Jacks Hill Road. A winding 20 minutes drive takes you to a junction by FOXY S EARTH CENTRE and a fire hydrant painted in Rasta colours. Foxy s, operated by SENSE ADVENTURES is an environmental learning centre with a snack bar featuring Red Stripe, Rum Punch, Blue Mountain Coffee, and local pastries. Downhill on Peters Rock Road brings you to MAYA LODGE, headquarters of Sense Adventures. Environment-friendly Maya offers comfortable timber cabins and campsites on a forested hillside surrounded by 5 streams, an excellent restaurant and bar, clean washrooms, outdoor barbeque, eco-tourism information kits including topo maps, a small library and interesting guides like organic farmer Willie Graham and young Sir Clifford Bogle. Sense Adventures offers customized eco tours planned by Peter Bentley, a Jamaican who knows the island like the back of his hand. Both Bentley and his partner Ann Adams are involved in community based environmental efforts like Project Grow (reforestation) and the creation of the Jack Hill s volunteer fire corps to combat the annual scourge of hillside fires.

Jacks Hill s active and responsible Community Council has attracted grants from U.S. AID, C.I.D.A., and the new Environ-mental Foundation of Jamaica for self-help and environmental projects. Current President of the Jacks Hill Council is Douglas Aiken, owner of IVOR's. From Foxy s corner follow the signs to Ivor great house, a small, very elegant guest house set in an old-fashioned garden and situated on a ridge with a 360 degree view encompassing the Blue Mountains, Kingston, the Hellshire Hills and the plains of St Catherine and Clarendon. Ivor s small restaurant spills onto a terrace shaded by a mango tree and thoughtfully provided with an antique brass telescope for making the most of view. This is the perfect place for sundowner drinks. Meal reservations must be made in advance. Hostess Helen Aiken describes the cuisine as International with a Jamaican flavour , and interprets the dress code of Casual elegance as jackets and ties not necessary.

You can return to the city via Skyline Drive, a panoramic but unpredictable route that drops you out on the Gordon Town road. Turn L for more mountains or R for the busy suburb of Papine, near the University of the West Indies.

2. NEWCASTLE and HOLYWELL

The road follows the HOPE RIVER valley passing L behind a high wall the celebrated BLUE MOUNTAIN INN to a junction at The Cooperage. The name is literal: there was once a workshop here that produced barrels for the export of rum. The coopers, rowdy Irish labourers, were quartered a few miles up the hill at a place that came to be known as IRISH TOWN. Turn L along the narrow road that winds along the hillside above the Mammee River. Across the gorge you can see the imposing backsides of mansions along Skyline Drive. In the valley you may glimpse a small Disneyworld castle that used to be the Little Glyndebourne Theatre. Built by the late opera singer Roma Presano and her architect son the open ampitheatre has a magnificent setting and fine acoustics but was seldom used.

One of the many fine houses along this road is Bellencita, the last home of National Hero, the Rt. Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante and is still occupied by his widow Lady B. Their idyll began when Ms. Gladys Longbridge applied for a job as one of Busta s secretaries and quickly became his most valuable political aide. Lady B. remains a power in the Jamaica Labour Party. Bamboo Lodge, now a private home and hidden from the road was settled in 1730 as Cottage Farm and may have been the first coffee plantation on the island. The great house subsequently became a naval recuperation station. Admiral Lord Nelson, then a 20 year old officer on the grig HMS Badger came here suffering from fever and dysentery and was nursed by Couba Cornwallis, a beautiful quadroon, noted healer and herbalist and mistress of then Governor, the Earl of Cornwallis.

IRISH TOWN, a sprinkling of homes and a bar or two is barely discernible. Turn L up an unpredictable road to STRAWBERRY HILL where Island Records impresario Chris Blackwell has created an unique small hotel. Timber frame cottages set on pillars encircling the hill, restaurant and pub crowning the small plateau, a grotto swimming pool and extravagant gardens were well underway as we went to press. Blackwell, whose planter family went from riches to rags, recouped the family fortunes in a big way as an insightful music promoter who discovered and marketed Bob Marley.

CRAIGHTON is a 45 acre coffee farm owned by the Ueshima Company of Japan. High quality Blue Mountain coffee is prized in Japan where it is blended with lowland beans to improve the flavour. About 90% of Jamaica s annual coffee production is exported to Japan. Craighton Hall, built in 1805 has been meticulously restored. It was once a favourite haunt of Governors Sir John Peter Grant (circa 1866) and Sir Henry Blake (circa 1880). Tours of the house and farm can be arranged. Among the portraits on view is one of the late chairman of Ueshima Company, Tadao Ueshima, a benevolent magnate who was particularly fond of Jamaica, reggae, and Blue Mountain coffee. MOUNT EDGE CAFE, about 4 miles past Irish Town, clings to the hillside R of the road. It has a great view, good food and drink and a very entertaining host called Michael D. Fox who can also arrange river hiking, and mountain bike rentals. Other options include: Bed and Breakfast, herbal remedies, and a monthly Full Moon Frolic featuring drinks, drumming and buffet dinner prepared by Fox himself.

NEWCASTLE, almost 4,000 feet up is only 13 miles but all of 3/4 of an hour from the city a steep, narrow and tortuous climb. If your driver wants to admire the scenery without plunging into it, it is best to select a safe lay-by, park, and get out. The air is fragrant and the banksides beautiful with trees, ferns, ground orchids, delicate wildflowers, and a profusion of ginger lilies. Your first glimpse of Newcastle is likely to be the white tombstones of a military graveyard. The military camp which clambers up the hillside from 3,500 to 4,500 feet was established in 1841 by Major General Sir William Gomm shortly after he had quelled a Christmas riot in Kingston which, records say, was caused by the determination of the people to celebrate with music and drumming which at the time was against the law . It was hoped that the troops which were ravaged by Yellow Fever would regain their health in the cool hills.

Newcastle is now a Jamaica Defence Force rest station and training camp where the motto No obstacle too difficult, no task too great is inculcated. The main road bisects the parade ground on Major General Sir William Gomm square, so you are liable to meet anything from a company in full dress uniform getting its picture taken to raw recruits drilling like clockwork soldiers. A recent concession to tourism is Gomm s souvenir and Coffee Shop. Crests of regiments previously stationed here adorn the high retaining wall. Above here are several sturdy cottages which can be rented, at extremely modest rates from the JDF, and a store where you can purchase supplies.

The GAP CAFE 4,200 feet above sea level is equidistant from the city and BUFF BAY, 21 miles in both directions. It is noted for pastries and excellent Blue Mountain Coffee and has fine views down the valley and across to HOLYWELL. The house, set in a small garden was built in the 1930s, originally as a way station for buggy traffic bound for the north coast. The late Sir Donald Sangster, a former Prime Minister of Jamaica used to stay here when planning his budget speeches and Ian Fleming is said to have written the first James Bond book here. Just across from the Cafe is the start of the Fairy Glade hiking trail to ST CATHERINE S PEAK and the JDF camp at Newcastle.

HOLYWELL NATIONAL PARK is a forest reserve where you are cautioned to Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints. The Blue Mountain/John Crow Mountain National Park project maintains a ranger station here (flying a Jamaican Flag) where you can get information. This is an extensive park, always cool and frequently shrouded in mists. A wide variety of vegetation includes some rare species. There are picnic sites, barbeques, and some log cabins which can be rented. Hiking trails originating here include the Shelter trail to the north-east, north to MOODIES GAP, north-west to the WAG WATER VALLEY, and south-west to the Mammee River.

3. DOWN THE VALLEY TO BUFF BAY

Just beyond Holywell, heading north is HARDWAR GAP and the other side of the mountain: 17 winding scenic miles down to BUFF BAY. At SECTION a road leads R to SILVER HILL GAP, CLYDESDALE NATIONAL PARK, PINE GROVE and MAVIS BANK.

A few miles further down the Buff Bay route, SPRING HILL is the start of the Blue Mountain Downhill Bicycle Tour you never have to pedal! The all-inclusive tour includes brunch, an introduction to rural Jamaica, lunch, and a swim at a hidden waterfall.

The Buff Bay River valley is coffee country: there are a few large farms and hundreds of small plots. Unfortunately, the drive to increase coffee production and foreign exchange earnings has led to considerable deforestation, erosion, and contamination of water sources all aided and abetted by the Coffee Industry Development Company, a government agency. Even forest reserves have been sacrificed to coffee. The coffee farmers here all belong to the Portland Blue Mountain Coffee Co-operative Society which advances crop loans and purchases the coffee for resale to the government. The road winds against the hill, the Buff Bay river far below in the valley. You will meet very little traffic. Even in this remote district there is the usual large quota of churches, including a Quaker mission at GREENHILL. The road crosses the river at SILVER HILL above MULLET HALL, and there are mountainous boulders in the river bed below the narrow bridge. Between the villages of BALCARRES and TRANQUILLITY, there are two suspension bridges spanning the river and an unusual three tiered waterfall R of the road. From Tranquillity a road corkscrews eastwards up to BANGOR RIDGE, where there is more coffee and banksides with wild raspberries.

This alternative to the Junction route from Kingston to Port Antonio is slower but fascinating. It was first promoted by Sir Henry Blake, Governor of Jamaica 1889-1898, the first government official to recognize the island s potential as a tourist destination.

4. MAVIS BANK & BLUE MOUNTAIN PEAK

From Papine the road follows the Hope River into the hills. At The Cooperage, take the right fork to GORDON TOWN. By the Peyton Place saloon and the Police Station turn R over the river. The narrow road hugs the mountain providing breathtaking views and heart-stopping moments when minibuses come dashing round the corner heading straight for you. Don t panic, they usually manage to avoid collision. Just remember to keep well to your left and use your horn. Already the air is cool and bracing, the multi-coloured mountains swathed in mist, scarred by forest fires but still partially covered with stands of Caribbean Pine.

Five miles from Gordon Town is WORLDS END home of Sangster s liqueurs. The hillside distillery has recently been expanded to satisfy a growing international demand, but still retains a charming Heath Robinsonish atmosphere. Free factory tours are available and you can sample the liqueurs sitting on a small paved patio, complete with an ancient cannon and a fine view of Newcastle. Personable sales manager Carolyn Ritch presides in a tempting gift shop where you can purchase liqueurs of Wild Orange, Ortanique, Blue Mountain Coffee, Ginger, and a coffee/orange blend called Forget Me Not. Sangster s Coconut Rum and Gold Rum Cream are international gold medal winners, the latter touted locally as an aphrodisiac. Their latest product, Conquering Lion, is 111% proof white rum the strongest in the world.

At a cross roads with signpost announcing GUAVA RIDGE a road leads uphill R towards FLAMSTEAD. A sign at the first fork R points you to Paraiso an idyllic private home offering Bed & Breakfast and then to the field headquarters of the Blue Mountain/John Crow Mountain National Park. Here you can get information and advice about exploring the mountains and the names of reliable guides trained by the Protected Areas Resource Conservation (PARC).

Higher up the ridge Flamstead once occupied by Lord Nelson is now the U.W.I. rest house. NOMDMI a mountain retreat built by National Hero Norman Manley is now the home of his son, former Prime Minister Michael Manley and Glynis, his fifth wife. Manley, still greatly in demand as a lecturer and consultant has discovered, he says, that There is life after politics.

Two miles straight ahead from the Guava Ridge signpost is the MAVIS BANK CENTRAL COFFEE factory, part-owned by Keble Munn a former Minister of Agriculture and descendant

of one of Jamaica s National Heroes, the Rt. Excellent George William Gordon. The factory produces genuine Blue Mountain coffee prized by gourmets as the most aromatic and flavourful in the world. The pulpery is supplied by numerous coffee farmers throughout the mountains and processes cherry ripe coffee to green bean stage. Some of this is sold to the Coffee Industry Board for export. The rest is roasted, vacuum packed and marketed under the Mavis Bank and Jablum labels. The Jablum company includes Japanese shareholders. One of the most important functions at the factory is coffee tasting. This is done by rapidly drawing coffee into the mouth along with a gulp of air the idea being to coat the taste buds with a fine mist rather like an aerosol spray. Factory tours are available by appointment.

At the Guava Ridge junction turn L for PINE GROVE a small hotel and coffee farm owned by lawyer and radio talk-show host Ronnie Thwaites and his wife Marcia, who runs the farm and is responsible for the lovely garden. There is a spacious, cedar panelled restaurant (famed for Marcia s sweet potato pudding) and the Blue Mountain Bar facing the Peak. Unfortunately a view which could be spectacular is marred by the towering telephone antenna which serves the area. On the wall is a framed advertisement from the Daily Gleaner of April 10, 1897 asking What s the matter with Blue Mountain Coffee . . . ? Why it s alright, only hard to get. It s the best in the world: 5 lb bag 6 shillings, 10 lbs bag 12 shillings and 20 lb bags 24 shillings. Today s price is considerably more than that. Tours to the Peak can be arranged at Pine Grove and may include a brief over-night stop at Abbey Green, a cottage at the foot of the trail. Starting the climb at 2:30am means you can be at the

summit in time for sunrise.

A small organic farm at MIDDLEMIST above Pine

Grove produces fresh herbs and specialty vegetables for hotels. The farmers, Pam O Gorman, Audrey Cooper, and Joan Tucker are three of Jamaica s leading musicians.

From Pine Grove, head to CONTENT GAP. From here a short but fairly strenuous walk will take you to CHARLOTTENBURGH, a small coffee farm owned by the Bitter family.

When the farm was established by T. Samuel Kuckhalm in 1781 it was noted for growing peaches, apples and vegetables in high perfection . In the mid 1800s the mahogany panelled great house became the mountain retreat of the Anglican Bishop. It is furnished with antiques (including claw-foot baths) and has a garden full of agapanthus lilies. There is no access

by car, so supplies are toted in by Winsome and Warren, two donkeys. Tours of the house, farm and garden are available: a guide will meet you at Content Gap and a bamboo walking stick is provided for the trek. You will lunch in the garden overlooking the city and meet friendly Jamaicans like housekeeper Miss Ella, farm manager Gladstone Morgan, hiking trail branches left and takes you down to Gordon Town.

From Content Gap you can continue on to ST PETERS and SILVER HILL. At the Silver Hill Gap, dwells Brother Wolfe, a mystic shopkeeper who sells vegetables and excellent coffee beans. The road to Clydesdale is not enticing but the scenery lures you on. CHESTERVALE was formerly a government vocational training camp. The new owners plan an eco-tourism development.

At CLYDESDALE NATIONAL PARK there is a forestry plantation and small nursery. There are two cottages that can be rented, and hostel type accommodation in an old coffee factory. The waterwheels and aqueduct are still in intact.

Beyond Clydesdale, it is a rough jeep drive or a 2 hour hike to CINCHONA BOTANICAL GARDEN at an elevation of over 5,000 feet. The garden, the air, and the views compensate for the torture of getting there. The house overlooks a small formal garden a variety of trees tower above lilies, ferns, rhododendrons and ground orchids. You can see north to St John s Peak, (6,332 ft), east to High Peak (6,812 ft) and Blue Mountain Peak (7,402 ft) south to the little village of Wesphalia and the valleys of the Yallahs, Clyde and Green rivers and southwest to the city. Cinchona was established in 1868 as a plantation of Assam tea and cinchona trees, whose bark was used to produce quinine for the treatment of malaria fever. The project was not profitable and the place was subsequently transformed into an English Garden with a variety of imported trees, flowers and vegetables including cork, oak, rubber, eucalyptus, tree ferns, cypress, pecan, and peach.

The road from Clydesdale continues to TOP MOUNTAIN, and then to HALL S DELIGHT at 4000 ft., then down to 1500 feet where you cross the YALLAHS river and enter MAVIS BANK. At the crossroads beside the church you can enquire about hiking guides, or about renting mules or a jeep. This is the starting point for three hiking trails including two routes to the Peak via the PENLYNE CASTLE.

MAVIS BANK, just a mile or two below the Mavis Bank Central Coffee Factory, is more easily reached from Guava Ridge. From here you can tackle the mountains in St Thomas if you have access to a spunky vehicle or better still a four wheel drive. At the crossroads by the church turn R and proceed towards Mahogany Vale, passing a large Secondary Vocational School. At the bottom of a steep valley you turn L to ford the Yallahs river. The high footbridge here is a good vantage point for picture taking. The road to HAGLEY GAP is narrow and more than usually prone to landslides, but kept in some sort of shape by the efforts of local residents and the Blue Mountain/John Crow Mountain National Park Project.

The HAGLEY GAP square is probably as close as you can get, without a four-wheel drive, to the start of the Blue Mountain Peak trail. Accommodations en route to the peak include: WHITFIELD HALL (7 miles from the Peak) is a coffee farm. The house overlooks a lawn with picnic tables and can sleep up to 30 persons. Also available are meals, cooking facilities, bed linen and campsites. WILDFLOWER LODGE, is a small hostel offering meals. ABBEY GREEN has two self catering cottages with cook and helper.

You are almost there when you get to PORTLAND GAP, a rest stop with a PARC Ranger Station, water, a bunkhouse that can sleep 30, campsites and wild fuschias. There is shelter four walls and a roof at the Peak. The climb to the Peak reveals extensive deforestation including the loss of primary forest. Land has been cleared for cultivation on precipitous slopes as high as 5000 ft. C.I.D.Co (Coffee Industry Development Company) and F.I.D.Co. (Forestry Industry Development Co.), both government agencies, were allocated former forest reserves for planting coffee. Other culprits are private coffee farmers, timber pirates, charcoal burners, squatters and ganja growers. The PARC project is hoping to reverse this trend by education and involving local residents in agro-forestry.

5. INTO ST THOMAS.

The tiny HAGLEY GAP post office, with swirling mists and gossiping mountain matrons is a photographer s gem. Proceed down hill and ford the NEGRO RIVER where villagers may be doing their wash. You are now driving along the side of the mountain to another fording. In summer the banksides are littered with fallen mangoes. The next village WOBURN LODGE has a picturesque little Anglican church and has benefited from a Rotary International program to establish self-help projects in rural villages. After leaving Woburn Lawn, you begin driving along a spur of the mountains and within a mile you come to a promontory which offers a spectacular view. Take a minute or two to try and trace the route you have just traversed and marvel at your own skill and daring, then try to plan the next move.

Turning L at the BETHEL GAP junction will take you to the postcard pretty village of CEDAR VALLEY nestled beside the Negro River. From here you can follow the Negro River valley via SERGE ISLAND, where there is a large dairy farm and milk factory, down to the coast near MORANT BAY. Or you can return to Bethel Gap and turn R for WILSON S GAP a fine place for a picnic with a panoramic view of the St Thomas

coast and Palisadoes. From here the road descends steeply to Richmond Vale where you turn R and drive above the Negro River Valley and then cross the Shooting River where it joins the Yallahs at Ramble near the start of the Yallahs pipeline. Drive down the valley to Llandewey (you know you re there when you pass the Wild West Tavern) and then turn R for Cambridge Hill and then to the coast. The vegetation is now dry and scrubby and there are views R of Kingston and Palisadoes. You will emerge at ELEVEN MILE opposite the Twice as Nice Lounge. Turn R for Kingston.

Tour 3

Historic Spanish Town

(on the way to the North Coast)

Getting to SPANISH TOWN, 13 miles from the city is quick and easy as long as you do not attempt it in rush hour. From uptown take the Washington Boulevard, from downtown take the Marcus Garvey Drive and Spanish Town Rd; both lead to the Nelson Mandela Highway. The land both sides of the dual carriage way belongs to Caymanas Estate and produces cane and livestock and is fast being gobbled up by the expansion of the city. Signs point L to CAYMANAS RACETRACK and R to CAYMANAS GOLF and COUNTRY CLUB. L of the roundabout 5.8 miles from the city, the Jose Marti School was a gift of the Cuban government and built by Cuban workers using a Cuban prefabricated technique. Take the R fork to visit the WHITE MARL ARAWAK MUSEUM and Spanish Town.

Spanish Town, founded in 1534 is the oldest continuously occupied city in the Western Hemisphere. It became the capital of Jamaica when the Spaniards abandoned Sevilla la Nueva on the inhospitable north coast and moved to the fat and fertile plains of the south. They called the new town St Jago de la Vega. Today the Spanish period is recalled in street names: White Church St where they built the Church of the White Cross, Red Church St where they built the Church of the Red Cross and Monk St where there was a monastery. In 1640 a British buccaneer who plundered the Spanish settlement described it as a faire town consisting of 400 or 500 houses built for ye most part with canes overcast with mortar . . . beautified with 5 or 6 stately churches and chapels and one monastery of Franciscan friars . . . situated upon a delectable and spacious plaine.

In 1655 a British expedition landed a few miles south at Passage Fort and proceeded to capture the city and the island with very little resistance from the Spaniards who packed up their valuables and sailed to Cuba. In a short time all the adobe buildings they left behind had been destroyed or replaced.

The square in Spanish Town was the heart of the island for over three centuries. Now it is a quiet backwater that can provide a free ride in a time machine. The Historical Foundation of Spanish Town has created a fascinating walking tour that includes all the historical highlights, a market stop and a visit to an old time tailor shop and a traditional Jamaican home. The tour, led by trained local guides, starts at CASA DE LA VEGA on Barrett Street a meticulously restored building with brick foundations dating back to the eighteenth century and with traces of earlier occupation. For information telephone 984-9684.

Under the leadership of local residents like historian Deryck Roberts, researcher Terence Goldson, and archaeologists Dr and Mrs Parent, the SPANISH TOWN HISTORICAL FOUNDATION has identified stratagems and some funding to assist with the conservation and restoration of what has been described as the best Georgian square on earth.

The northern face of the square is dominated by the RODNEY MEMORIAL. In 1782 Admiral Lord Rodney saved Jamaica from invasion by defeating the combined Spanish and French fleets at the Battle of the Saints in the Eastern Caribbean and dispatching half the invasion force of 6,000 men to a watery grave. The grateful Jamaicans voted three thousand pounds sterling to erect a statue in his honour but the final cost escalated to thirty thousand, nine hundred and eighteen pounds. The statue, by the famous English sculptor John Bacon, portrays Rodney in the garb of a Roman emperor with the story of the battle depicted in heraldic symbols on the pediment. The cannon on either side were taken from the French flagship and bear the motto of French King Louis XIV. When the capital moved to Kingston the statue was transferred there also. Shortly afterwards, enraged citizens of Spanish Town attempted to kidnap it. Subsequently Rodney was sent home to Spanish Town but, thanks to the fracas, minus one hand.

Behind the monument are the NATIONAL ARCHIVES. Among the documents preserved here is the will of Sir Henry Morgan who, while presiding at King s House, complained bitterly that each session of the House of Assembly cost him a thousand pounds since governors were expected to keep open house for the members. This and other source material can be perused at your leisure in the CLINTON BLACK ROOM named for the late Government archivist Clinton Black, author of The Story of Jamaica.

The Island Records Office is located here also, with information on all births, deaths and marriages. Currently the Mormon church is co-operating with the government by microfilming all records up to the present day. The practical advantages for the Jamaican government are obvious but some local residents find the Mormons obsession with family histories rather sinister.

OLD KING S HOUSE on the western side of the square, was the residence of colonial governors for over a hundred years. The first governors occupied a building that had been the Spanish Hall of Audience and complained bitterly about its crudeness. King s House was built in 1773 and described by a contemporary as the noblest and best edifice of the kind either in North America or any of the British colonies in the West Indies. In 1838 the proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery was read from the steps here and the same day a hearse containing shackles and leg irons was paraded through the town before these symbols of slavery were buried a ceremony that was repeated all over the island.

Among many interesting residents of King s House was a sprightly American lady the wife of General George Nugent, governor from 1801 to 1805. Her impressions of social and

political life are recorded in Lady Nugent s Journal. In 1925 a fire destroyed King s House, and the town itself was only saved by some quick-witted gentlemen who removed the stock of inbond rum from the adjoining stables. The colonnaded portico and facade are all that remain of the once magnificent building.

In the former stables of Old King s House, the FOLK MUSEUM displays tools and household artifacts tracing Jamaica s workaday history. You may also inspect the ruins of the brick mansion, including the remains of Lady Nugent s bathtub. In the centre of the square there is a formal garden shaded by Silver Palms.

To the east, the old HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY now houses the Mayor s parlour and the offices of the St Catherine parish council. These brick walls have resounded to many a stormy debate. There was an occasion in 1710 when the Speaker, attempting to adjourn a rowdy session was forced at sword point to continue. His father, Colonel Peter Beckford, lately governor of the island, hearing shouts of murder rushed to the rescue only to fall on the steps and die a few minutes afterwards.

South of the square the former Courthouse with its domed Clock Tower was the victim of a fire in 1986. Plans to restore it may materialize in the not too distant future. This was originally the site of the Spaniards Church of the White Cross, which was believed to be connected to the Monastery on Monk Street by an underground passage.

Close to the square, on Barracks Street is the massive old MILITARY BARRACKS. It was erected in 1791 to house both soldiers and officers and there are only three buildings of this type in the world. A large underground passage has been

discovered here, but its origin and purpose remains to be authenticated.

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST JAMES, on Red Church St., was the first Anglican Cathedral outside of England. It was built

on the ruins of the Spaniards Church of the Red Cross, which was razed by Cromwell s soldiers. The first Anglican building was destroyed by hurricane in 1712 and was rebuilt in 1714. In 1843 it was named the Cathedral of the Jamaican Diocese of the Anglican Church. A high, cool brick building in the shape of a cross, it is filled with interesting memorials including tombs of former governors (including Sir Thomas Modyford, Henry Morgan s friend), and even of a prisoner of war a U.S. naval officer named George Washington Reed who died in 1813, much beloved by his captors. There is a pleasant rather unkempt garden which ends incongruously at a tall brick wall topped by barbed wire and enclosing the St Catherine District Prison, the largest in the island. The juxtaposition is a reminder of a former British tradition which placed houses of correction under the shadow and influence of large churches.

The St Catherine District prison, built a century ago, is now vastly overcrowded. Up until recently it housed the highest number of Death Row inmates in the world. This changed in November 1993 when the Judicial Committee of the (U.K.) Privy Council reviewed the case of Earl Pratt and Ivan Morgan and ruled that excessive delay

prior to execution was cruel and inhuman treatment. The result was commutation of the death sentence for Pratt and Morgan and a recommendation for commutation of the sentences of over 100 other convicts all of whom had been on death row for longer than five years.

Other buildings of historical interest include the PHILLIPO BAPTIST CHURCH on the corner of William and French Sts which was founded in 1827 by James Phillippo, a missionary who campaigned fearlessly for the abolition of slavery. A fine Georgian building at the entrance to the town is being put to good use as a government clinic. It is believed that it was formerly the residence of the Provost Marshal.

Opposite here and somewhat hidden from the main road,

the IRON BRIDGE spanning the Rio Cobre was cast in England and erected here in 1801. It was the first of its kind in the New World and is still used by pedestrians.

TO THE NORTHCOAST VIA BOG WALK

In Spanish Town you are less than 50 miles from the north coast via a scenic route through the BOG WALK GORGE and over MOUNT DIABLO.

At the roundabout west of the town, an interesting detour

via Guanaboa Vale leads you L to the MOUNTAIN RIVER CAVE . Further along the same road is WORTHY PARK a sugar estate and factory and the subject of an interesting book, A Jamaican Sugar Estate by Robert Clarke, a member of the family that has owned the estate for more than a century.

The route straight ahead to the northcoast follows the RIO COBRE crossing it via the FLAT BRIDGE. The sides of the river gorge tower upwards: bare rocks miraculously covered with luxuriant vegetation. Heavy rains make the river rise to

dangerous levels and sometimes cause the closure of this

route. The alternative routes are from Kingston via Red Hills

and Rock Hall to Sligoville then Bog Walk or from Spanish Town via Sligoville to Bog Walk.

The Bog Walk by-pass is thronged with citrus vendors. The highway also by-passes the little town of LINSTEAD with a market immortalized in the folk song Carry mi ackee go a Linstead Market .

Next you pass on your R the entrance to Jamalcan s alumina refinery. Past the small town of EWARTON the road starts a steep tortuous climb over Mount Diablo with occasional houses, churches, small shops and fruit stalls clinging to the mountain side. At Mount Rosser the cut-stone fortress L of the road was built by a celebrated naturopath (obeahman to the locals) now deceased. His balmyard famous for healing bush baths and unusual remedies used to attract patients from all over the island and from overseas.

Further on is one of the most spectacular vistas in the island: Alcan s red mud lake in a valley R of the road. Framed by feathery bamboos and cradled in blue hills it proves that pollution can be decorative. The red mud is a by-product of the alumina making process; fortunately, the same company has now pioneered a dry-stacking method to dispose of it. More importantly, physicist Dr Arun Wugh has demonstrated that the mud can be used to produce bricks, tiles and other building materials. It remains for his research to be put to practical use.

The climb levels off then descends to FAITHS PEN where, thanks to road improvements, the former traffic hazard and colourful conglomeration of snack shacks has been replaced by a neat line of stalls plus adequate parking protected by a chain link fence. The rootsy fun of this pit stop has evaporated, but you can still get the same roast corn, roast yam and saltfish, cow cod soup, mannish water and other local delicacies. A popular stop for Jamaican travellers.

Descending now to MONEAGUE there is a vista R over the valley and MONEAGUE LAKE, an ephemeral lake which rises and fluctuates in size or disappears according to the level of the underground water table. There is a superstition that the lake stays up until it has claimed a life. It has been up now for many years. Campsites and fishing are available here.

The campus of the MONEAGUE TEACHER S TRAINING COLLEGE, founded in 1958, centres around the erstwhile Moneague Hotel which was built in 1891 by Governor Sir Henry Blake. Determined to develop tourism, Sir Henry arranged an international exhibition and had 6 hotels constructed to house the expected influx of visitors. It enjoyed brief popularity with affluent Kingstonians in days when the cool hills were considered more alluring than the beach.

The JAMAICA DEFENCE FORCE maintains a large training camp in Moneague

R of the highway. From here the road winds downhill through the pleasant village of WALKERS WOOD and FERN GULLY to OCHO RIOS.

Tour 4

To the Hellshire Hills

(from the City)

Just 14 miles and 20 minutes from the city lie the HELLSHIRE HILLS, a huge expanse of low hills, white sand beaches, limestone caves, salt ponds, scrub and cactus, much of it still untouched despite the encroachment of housing estates. A comprehensive plan for 27,000 acres here included low, middle and upper income housing, schools, medical facilities churches, light industry and tourist resorts. The development, administered by the government Urban Development Company was launched in 1965 and has created the beginnings of a twin city. Unfortunately the vast majority of the residents work in Kingston so traffic and transportation problems were horrendous even before the launching in 1991 of the Greater Portmore scheme which aims to provide another 15,000 dwellings.

The wilder regions of the Hellshire Hills still harbour wild hogs and it was a pig hunter who three years ago discovered by accident, that the Jamaica Iguana still exists here. No longer classified as extinct, it is now considered the rarest lizard in the world. A conservation project headed by UWI naturalist Dr Peter Vogel is underway. The undeveloped hills are also one of the few places where another endangered species the Jamaican Coney survives. This small nocturnal creature was hunted as food by the Arawaks and the Maroons.

Travel to Hellshire from downtown Kingston. Turn L off Marcus Garvey Drive, skirting the Kingston Freezone and crossing the causeway. To your R across the Hunts Bay lagoon lies Caymanas Park Racetrack and the mouth of the Rio Cobre at Passage Fort. This was the seaport for the ancient capital of Spanish Town and the place where the British force landed to capture the island in 1655. It is now the site of Jamworld entertainment centre.

Midway along the causeway there is a fishing beach to your right, and a collection of shacks selling fresh fish. Most of the fish comes from far outside the harbour. Periodic oil spills and pollution in the harbour and Hunts Bay have all but destroyed the marine environment here.

After leaving the causeway, historic Fort Augusta on your L is a women s prison which invariably harbours several pseudo tourists, convicted as drug runners. PORTMORE sprawling in front of you is a middle income dormitory suburb. The road to Port Henderson is lined with restaurants, clubs and guest houses the character of which can be deduced from names like Happy Times , Moments , La Roose etc. Jolly s is a popular place for seafood, especially on Tuesday evenings.

The almost derelict multi-storey building looming under a small hill is all that remains of the attempt to create a tourism resort here. It started life as the Forum Hotel, later it became the Adventure Inn, and was finally bought by the government who have failed to put it to any use at all.

PORT HENDERSON was a fashionable resort during the last century and a favourite place of at least one governor s wife, Lady Nugent. She was fond of driving here from Spanish Town before breakfast . One of its attractions, an icy mineral spa, disappeared after a severe hurricane. The PORT HENDERSON BEACH PARK, previously enjoyed by racehorses from nearby stables at Caymanas racetrack has been recently leased to a group headed by PNP politician Dr Jepthah Ford. Refurbished and expanded it is now a rootsy playground for city dwellers. Ask for directions to RODNEY s LOOKOUT and the ruins of a residence belonging to Admiral George Rodney, the naval hero who saved Jamaica from a French invasion. Rodney s Lookout, formerly called Grasspiece Lookout, is about a quarter of a mile beyond the ruins and affords a magnificent view of the Kingston harbour. Getting there involves a steep hike but there is a safe place to park your car near the JDF camp at Green Bay.

To reach Hellshire Hills, turn R beneath the low hill and then L and L again driving behind the hill through scrub and wetland and passing R a portion of the Greater Portmore scheme with some weird and wonderful additions to the rather dismal basic units.

PLACES OF INTEREST IN HELLSHIRE;

FORT CLARENCE BEACH: Follow the sign L of the first roundabout. Fort Clarence is very popular with Kingstonians of all walks of life and offers at weekends a fascinating glimpse of Jamaica at play. It is also a frequent venue for music shows and body building contests. In addition to sea, sand, and surf there are changing rooms, lifeguards, security, picnic grounds, a restaurant and bar, and snack shacks where you can sample

fry fish n bammy and a local specialty called festival ( a scrumptious fried dumpling with a trace of sugar). The name Fort Clarence derives from a small fort on the headland nearby, another of the string of forts all around the coast that were essential to the defence of the island during the eighteenth century.

The shallow GREAT SALT POND south of Fort Clarence is connected to the ocean. A favourite fishing ground of the Arawaks it still harbours snook, calipoeva mullet, mangrove snapper, stingray, shrimp and some alligators. The marine environment off Hellshire is already showing signs of stress and there were fears that sewage from the huge housing development of Greater Portmore would impact the wetlands and salt ponds and compound pollution of the marine environment. So the developers, West Indies Home Contractors employed UWI scientists to design an environment-friendly system that would require little maintenance: the result is huge maturation ponds visible on your R and constructed wetlands for final polishing of the effluent. Their boast is that water emerging from this system is potable.

For HELLSHIRE (or the Fisherman s ) BEACH, turn L at the next roundabout and follow your nose. A collection of shacks and parked cars will confirm that you re there. A number of fisherfolk live here and the fish and festival served from their rickety stalls is excellent. The boats come in from sea at about 11 am and sell the fish right on the beach. There is safe and enjoyable swimming in the northern part of the bay which is shallow and protected by a small reef. Very popular with Jamaicans of all walks of life, it has a carefree, egalitarian ambiance.

TWO SISTERS CAVE is worth a visit. After the Hellshire roundabout continue L up and over the hill until you come to a rather faded sign. The entrance to the cave is in semi-desert surroundings overlooking Kingston harbour. The caves are separated by tons of fallen rocks and accessed by sturdy wooden staircases that lead down below sea-level to caves filled with brackish fossil water . They are estimated to be 200,000 years old and represent the final stage of a geological process called limestone cavern collapse.

From the observation platforms you can immerse yourself in eerie stillness and shimmering reflections and brood upon the gentle extinct race who left behind a rock carving to guard the spirits in the cave. A lone petroglyph (rock carving) is on the wall of the smaller cave, encased in a wooden frame. It represents an Arawak face, though 1000 years of humidity and erosion have made this somewhat difficult to recognize. Ironically, the roof of the larger cave has two rock extrusions that resemble human faces. The water here is crystal blue and the cave is inhabited by tiny swallows. Caretaker of the Two Sisters, Ronald Greaves, is helpful and knowledgeable.

Tour 5

Historic Port Royal

An interesting and inexpensive

way to visit PORT ROYAL is to take the ferry across the harbour. Two round trips per day leave from

the waterfront pier beside Ocean Boulevard. The journey takes about 30 minutes and offers a fine view of the city with its misty blue backdrop of mountains. Most of your fellow travellers will be Port Royal residents returning from shopping trips and burdened with everything from crates of beer and bunches of bananas to lengths of steel. The ferry docks at a jetty beside the largest fishing beach and just a stone s throw from the tiny town square . Everything of interest including Morgans Harbour Hotel is within walking distance.

Originally Port Royal was a large offshore cay used by Arawak fishermen. The Spanish careened their ships here, hence its first name: Cayo de Carena. The cay was connected to the mainland by a submerged ridge, which, accumulating silt and gravel over the years gradually became a strip of land, a natural causeway now known as The Palisadoes.

In the seventeenth century, the Brethren of the Coast (pirates and buccaneers bearing letters of marque from the English) found Port Royal an ideal base; so did merchants engaged in legal or illegal maritime commerce. During the seventeenth century Port Royal grew to be a city of 8,000 persons with fine brick houses (some of them four stories high), piped water, beer gardens, and prisons. It was one of the richest cities in the known world and reputedly the most wicked and debauched. A contemporary report says that it was customary for the buccaneers to spend between two and three thousand pieces of eight on one night s revelry. Port Royal s foremost citizen was Sir Henry Morgan. One of his boldest exploits, the sacking of Panama City, took place when England and Spain were technically at peace. For this Morgan was arrested, taken to England and imprisoned in the Tower of London. At his trial he was acquitted, subsequently knighted and then sent back to Jamaica as Governor. He later died in Port Royal despite the ministrations of his Jamaican folkdoctor.

On June 7, 1692 judgement came to Port Royal when a massive earthquake mangled the city, plunging two thirds of it beneath the sea, killing 2000 persons and destroying most of the ships in the harbour. Most of the survivors sought refuge across the harbour, and thus began the city of Kingston. What was left of Port Royal later became an important British Naval station, but the town never regained its former prosperity. Disaster dogged it: a fire in 1703, hurricanes in 1721, 1726 and 1744, another disastrous fire in 1815, and an earthquake in 1907. In modern times, the hurricane of 1951 left only 10 out of 260 modern buildings standing. After this, the government rebuilt the town supervised by a statutory body known as the Brotherhood of Port Royal . Today it is little more than a

fishing village with perennial (unrealized) plans to restore it

as a cultural centre and tourist attraction.

Port Royal remains a historical treasure chest with most of its archaeological riches still buried in the sand or beneath the sea. Because of its legendary wealth it has attracted many wrackers , looters or modern buccaneers. It has also been the site of scientific marine archaeological explorations. The first by Edward Link of the National Geographic Society recovered many artifacts. Another in 1960 by a commercial treasure salvager produced very little. In 1965 and 1968 marine archaeologist Robert Marx, commissioned by the government, excavated and mapped more than two acres of the sunken city discovering markets, taverns, three ships, dwellings, a cistern and numerous artifacts. More recently the Institute of Nautical Archaeology of Texas has been co-operating with the government in more exploration. Land excavations at the Port Royal Dockyard revealed another section of the old city including a buried church and a long-boat but due to lack of funds this dig was

put on hold. Over the years a wealth of artifacts have been recovered but strangely, considering that the site was once reputed to be the richest city in the world, no gold or precious stones have surfaced.

PLACES OF INTEREST

ST PETER S CHURCH was rebuilt in 1725 -under the direction of lucky Lewis Galdy after three previous churches had been destroyed by earthquake and fire. Galdy s tombstone in the church yard tells his story: Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy who departed this life at Port Royal on December 22, 1739 aged 80. He was born at Montpelier in France but left that country for his religion and came to settle in this island where he was swallowed up in the Great Earthquake in the year 1692 and by the providence of God was by another shock thrown into the sea and miraculously saved by swimming until a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation. Beloved by all and much lamented at his Death . It does not add that he was buried across the harbour at Green Bay but that his remains were removed to St Peter s so H.M. Queen Elizabeth could view his tomb on the occasion of her visit in 1953. Buried beside Galdy are the remains of three children discovered under a sunken wall by marine archaeologists.

St Peter s decorative organ loft displays the skill of eight- eenth century craftsmen and its walls are thick with poignant memorials of sailors who died of yellow fever or in battle including one to a bold adventurous youth William Stapleton Esq. a Lieutenant of the HMS Sphinx, who in attempting to fire a cannon was so terribly wounded with its bursting that he expired a few hours afterwards on the 8th of May 1754. Legend claims that the church s resplendent communion silver was the gift of Sir Henry Morgan.

FORT CHARLES is one of six forts that guarded the town. Built in 1655 right after the English had captured the island it was first named Fort Cromwell after the Lord Protector but when the monarchy was restored the name was changed to Fort Charles for Charles II. Originally the fort was almost completely surrounded by water and the metal rings in the front wall were once used for mooring ships which sailed into Chocolata Hole, now a parking lot. The anchors at the entrance were salvaged from the sea and are from eighteenth century men-of-war. In the 1692 earthquake the fort sank 3.5 feet into the ground and was rebuilt as it stands today. It became a key garrison during the naval wars of the eighteenth century. By 1765, 104 guns were mounted here. Famous admirals who flew their flags here at one time or another were: Benbow, Vernon, Rodney and Parker. Admiral Lord Nelson, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, served here as a young officer and was in command of the batteries for three to four weeks in 1779. Shortly afterwards, as post-captain of the HMS Hinchinbrooke, he left for Nicaragua where he contracted both fever and dysentery; returning to Jamaica he was nursed back to health by Couba Cornwallis, a beautiful quadroon, famous herbalist, and mistress of the island s Governor. A marble plaque on the wall of the fort says: In this place dwelt Horatio Nelson. You who tread his footprints remember his glory. You can do just that by walking along Nelson s Quarterdeck where he would have kept watch for enemy vessels. Outside the fort, near the water s edge are the remains of the Victoria and Albert Battery built c1890 and its erstwhile artillery store the Giddy House which was tilted to its present 45 degree angle by the 1907 earthquake. The same quake sunk the battery and cannons 10 feet below the surface but one of the massive guns was retrieved and restored. The small museum and gift shop inside Fort Charles are open on weekdays.

Adjacent to Fort Charles is H.M.J.S. Cagway, headquarters of the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard. The name derives from the Spanish Caguaya, the original name of the adjacent passage. The coast guard has 5 patrol vessels, the largest being H.M.J.S. Paul Bogle.

THE NAVAL HOSPITAL west of the town centre houses the National Museum of History and Archaeology, a conservation laboratory and storerooms. The original naval hospital built in 1942 to treat the many cases of fever was sited above a part of the old city that had sunk in shoal water. It was destroyed by fire and replaced in 1817 by a two-storey structure of cast iron and brick prefabricated in Bradford, England and designed to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. It has stood the test of time and after the 1951 hurricane flattened the town, served as a refuge for most of the population. It is now used as a storehouse for innumerable artifacts recovered from the sea. The small museum is currently closed, but there are plans to re-open it soon. Salvaged artifacts include: A large collection of pewter, some William and Mary spoons and a syringe, probably for bloodletting. Numerous clay pipes (thousands have been found) attest to the fact that the buccaneers were inveterate smokers. There are also onion bottles, medicine bottles, porringers, a puncheon spigot, part of a copper still and a watch with hands stopped at some minutes to noon the time the 1692 earthquake struck. A collection of ceramics from all over the world include wig curlers, a Delft chamber pot, and a grey stoneware jar from Thailand which may date back to the late sixteenth century. The most valuable piece on display is a late Ming blanc de chine porcelaine statuette labelled as the Madonna and child. The child s head is missing but it is otherwise flawless. Some experts query the identification and believe it depicts Kwan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of Mercy. A collection of coins salvaged by Robert Marx is on display at the Museum at the Bank of Jamaica downtown.

Places to eat

GLORIA S in town facing the harbour and GLORIA s on the beach facing the ocean are famous for seafood. In town, patrons sit on the veranda outside the office of the Port Royal Brother-hood. Adjacent is BUCCANEER INN and across the road, on the fishing beach, is the idiosyncratic FISHERMAN S CABIN, run by ex-patriate Scotsman, Charles Cameron.

PORT ROYAL BY ROAD

From Kingston, take the Windward Road passing the Flour Mills and Shell installation to Rockfort. Just west of the old fort and the Caribbean Cement Co factory is L ROCKFORT MINERAL BATH with two slightly saline mineral springs feeding a large public swimming pool with a continuous flow and excellent private facilities which include double baths, jacuzzis, and

party pools that can accommodate up to 8 persons. There

is also a pool for handicapped persons. Snacks and drinks are available. The Bath is leased to and operated by a subsidiary of the Caribbean Cement Co.

The fort beside it was last activated in 1865 when an invasion of rioters from Morant Bay was feared but never materialized.

The CARIBBEAN CEMENT COMPANY L and R of the road was recently upgraded with the help of a Japanese loan. It is the only cement factory in the island and dominates the construction sector. It produces cement from limestone mined in the hills above and has in the past been a source of considerable pollution which mostly affected residents of Harbour View. The dust problem was addressed and is now more or less under control.

Circle the HARBOUR VIEW roundabout and turn along the Palisadoes road, passing R the Jamaica Gypsum Company. A short distance from here an entrance road leads L to Gunboat Beach, an abandoned beach park where the water is too poll-uted to swim and R to the Jamaica Maritime Training Institute, a training school for Caribbean seamen which was established with help from the Norwegian government. Continue R for

the Royal Jamaica Yacht Club, a private members club which welcomes bonafide members of other yacht clubs.

At the next roundabout turn R for the airport. Opposite the roundabout you can park on the slope L overlooking the eastern shoreline, the open sea and the mountains of St Thomas. Do not attempt to swim, the water is deep and there are dangerous currents. The beach is made of smooth stones and the sea breeze is bracing,

As you head towards Port Royal between cactus scrub and mangroves you pass L the PLUMB POINT LIGHTHOUSE, a concrete pillar marking the spot where the first coconut tree was planted in 1869 and then R an old naval cemetery. Another marker erected by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust shows the location of Fort Rupert submerged in a mangrove fringed lagoon on the east of the road. It was built in 1660 with an octagonal redoubt of 6 guns. Henry Morgan is credited with its erection.

MORGANS HARBOUR HOTEL & MARINA, just before you enter Port Royal is a member of the Swiss International Hotels chain. The rooms are comfortable and very spacious. There is

a freshwater swimming pool in the garden and an ocean swimming pool at the water s edge. A circular bar fronts the boardwalk of the marina from where you can see Hangman s Cay, otherwise called Rackham s Cay where pirate Calico Jack Rackham met his fate. The 1692 disco is located in an

eighteenth century pitch storehouse and there is a small

aviary in the courtyard.

Boat trips to Lime Cay can

be arranged here, at the old Naval Dockyard next door, or at the fishing beach in town. The small coral cay has white sand beaches

and clear water.