inhabitants from Port Royal, this town was founded in the year The buildings here are much fuperior to thofe of Spanish Town. The houses are mostly of brick, raised two to three ftories, conveniently difpofed, and in general well-furnished; their roofs are all fhingled; the fronts of most of them are shaded with a piazza below, and a covered gallery above. The foil upon which the: town is built is in fome parts gravelly; in others, a brick mould, intermixed with gravel; and the West part, bordering on a falina, partakes of fea-fand and ooze. From the harbour to the foot of Liguanea mountains is an eafy, gradual afcent, of about four miles and ་ 1 and a half. The town, being thus fituated on a dry foil, is not incommoded by the lodgement of water in the heaviest rains; and it is thoroughly ventilated by the daily fea-breeze. But, although the flope prevents any water from ftagnating in the town, it is attended with one great inconvenience; for it admits an eafy paffage to vaft torrents, which collect in the gullies at fome diftance towards the mountains after a heavy rain, and fometimes ruth with fo much impetuofity down the principal streets, as to make them almost impaffable by wheel-carriages, and caufe a fhoal-water at the wharfs, depofiting accumulations of rubbish and mud: by which means, the navigation of the harbour may, in procefs of time, be obstructed; for even now the channel is greatly contracted, an entire street having been built on the foil thus gained upon the. harbour fince the town was firft laid out. Some have proposed to remedy this inconvenience by cutting a large trench East and West above the town, to intercept thefe floods, and conduct them into fmaller cuts, on each fide of it, quite to the harbour; by which method, the water, having a greater length of current, and not flowing fo rapidly, might depofite its foil by the way, and thus neither annoy the streets, nor fill up the harbour. But it may be objected to this project, that, if any stagnant water, or a quantity of mud, should remain in these drains, the effluvia arising from them might affect the health of the inhabitants, and fo become productive of a worse injury than what it was calculated to prevent. The remarks before-made, respecting the modern method of covering roofs in Spanish Town, are equally applicable to Kingfton. The danger from fire is very manifeft. It is true, that accidents of the fort have rarely occurred in this town, the kitchens being detached buildings. But it is ftill liable to fuch a calamity from malice, as well as neglect or cafualty; and the fate of Port Royal, of Bridge Town in Barbadoes, and St. John's in Antigua, fhould ferve as horrible examples. To guard against fuch ravages, in fome degree, here are wells and pumps in every principal street, conveniently placed, and conftantly kept in good order; and in the court-house are fire-engines and leathern buckets. The ready affiftance of feamen from the fhips, which lie very near the town, would doubtless contribute much towards preferving it in fuch events; events; and the various openings formed by the streets and lanes may be likewife confidered as a further fafeguard against a total conflagration. A project was once in agitation for bringing a part of Hope River into the town, and forming a refervoir in fome commodious place at the upper end, from which a certain number of conduits should be laid to fupply the principal streets. This scheme was faid to be extremely practicable, and not expenfive. A want of unanimity prevented its being carried into execution. But there is no doubt it would prove of eminent benefit, in fupplying the inhabitants with a wholesome water for their common ufe; for the well-water here is in general bad; a few only are fed by fubterraneous drains from the Hope, or fome other of the mountainous ftreams; the rest are brackish, impregnated with a muriatic falt, if not with some mineral.. They increase thirst, instead of flaking it; caufe a dry febrile heat, and fometimes a dyfentery in habits not much accustomed to them. At the bottom of the town, near the water-fide, is the market place, which is plentifully supplied with butchers meat, poultry, fish, fruits, and vegetables of all forts, Here are found not only a great variety of American, but also of European, vegetables; fuch as pease, beans, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, French beans, artichokes, potatoes, carrots, turnips, radishes, celery, onions, &c. Thefe are brought from the Liguanea mountains, and are all excellent in their kind. Here are likewife strawberries, not inferior to the production of our English gardens; grapes and melons in the utmost perfection; mulberries, figs, and apples, exceedingly good, but in general gathered before they are thoroughly ripe. In fhort, the most luxurious epicure cannot fail of meeting here with fufficient in quantity, variety, and excellence, for the gratification of his appetite the whole year round. The prices are but little different from thofe of Spanish Town; but, where they disagree, they are more reasonable at Kingston, the supplies being more regular, and the market better superintended by the magistracy. The beef is chiefly from the pastures of Pedro's, in St. Anne; the mutton, from the Salt-pan lands, in St. Catharine; what they draw from the penns in St Andrew's parish being very indifferent meat. The fupplying of grafs for the horses kept in this town is a very profitable article to those settlements bordering VOL. IL Р on on the harbour and the mouth of Rio Cobre, which are fit for no other production than the Scotch grafs: this is every day brought to the town by water, and fold in fmall bundles, a certain number for a ryal. Some of the grass-planters have made upwards of 1500 l per annum by this commodity. Wood is likewise another article of profit, though not fo confiderable. Near the market-place ftands the original court-house, which is a mean, inconvenient building, and now difufed as a feat of judicature, being fixed in the noifieft part of the town. A building erected for a free-fchool, fituated in the upper diftrict of the town, being found more airy and commodious, is now made use of for holding the quarterly affizecourt for this county. The parade is a large, handfome fquare ; on the North-Weft fide of it are barracks of brick for the troops quartered here; a very well-defigned and convenient logement for two hundred men and their officers. The front, which contains apartments for the officers, makes a good appearance. The foldiers barrack ftands detached behind, in a fquare court walled round; in which are proper offices; and at one angle a powder magazine belonging to the town. On the South fide of the parade is the church; a large, elegant building, of four aifles, which has a fine organ, a tower and fpire, with a large clock. The tower is well-constructed, and a very great ornament to the town. The rector's ftipend, as fixed by law, is only 250; but the furplicefees are fo large, that his income is fuppofed at least one thousand pounds per annum, Jamaica currency. The county gaol, a hofpital for tranfient fick and poor (who are fupported by an annual grant of affembly of 300.), and the free-fchool, have nothing remarkable in their ftructure. The land appropriated for the gaol was a plat of two hundred feet by one hundred and fifty; but only about fixty by fifty were inclosed a few years ago. It had only one apartment for lodging debtors, evidences, and criminals; and that of no larger extent than fifteen by fourteen feet. The walls, which enclosed it on the South-Eaft and Weft, having neither windows nor gratings, fo effectually excluded the air, that this place of confinement was rendered extremely unhealthy; and the distempers among the prisoners became a matter of ferious concern. In 1761, upon a representation of the state of it, the affembly made pro3 vifion vifion for enlarging and rendering it more airy. The number of Whites usually shut up here is about ten; and of Negroes about one hundred. This was formerly the habitation of that ingenious and learned mathematician, Mr. Macfarlane, who built and fitted it up as an observatory; little fufpecting perhaps at the time, that it would be converted into a receptacle for unfortunate perfons, who are here precluded from almost every other amusement than that of star-gazing. The streets are all wide and regular, the houses many of them extremely elegant, and kept very clean, confidering these circumstances, and that the foil on which they stand is perfectly dry. It is natural to fuppofe, that the air is healthy; at least there appears not hitherto any local caufe affignable why it fhould be otherwise; nevertheless, it is certain, that Kingston has been accused of being an unwholesome spot. Sir Hans Sloane, indeed, obferves, that in his time, at some plantations bordering upon this bay of Liguanea, many white perfons died, as he believed, by the ill air; fome of these fettlements lying in bottoms, or low fituations, contiguous to marshes near the harbour; and, on the other hand, that plantations, feated high, were very healthy, and their inhabitants not fickly. The land Weftward from the town, and confining on the harbour, is, for four or five miles, very low and flat, interfperfed with lagoons, and in many places fubject to be overflown by the falt-water. The hofpital of Greenwich, fituated little more than a mile from the town, upon part of this low land, is remarkable for a bad air, and the mortality which always prevailed there. The effects of its unhealthy fituation were, that, when a patient was fent thither with only a gentle or intermitting fever, this mild difpofition was apt to be changed into either a malignant fever, a bloody flux, or fome other mortal diftemper. It was obferved, that the yellow Weft-Indian fever often reigned there, attended with the most profuse evacuations of blood, by vomiting, stools, and even by every pore of the body: when no fuch fymptoms diftreffed those patients whose cases had been fimilar, and who were permitted to remain in their fhips. The recovery of patients in that hofpital was observed to be very tedious and uncertain: the leaft indifcretion or irregularity brought on a relapse. After a flux had |