or fuftained for the publick convenience, ought in reafon to be erected and fuftained at the publick charge; and undoubtedly, if the whole island is interested in what concerns the feat of government, records, and juftice, which it certainly is, there is full as much reason for a general tax to rebuild or repair the gaol as to rebuild or repair a house of refidence for the governor.. Not far from the gaol ftands the free-fchool, built and partly endowed at the expence of Peter Beckford, efq; formerly lieutenant-governor of the island, who left by will 1000/. currency; which fum was borrowed by the public, and rol. per cent intereft allowed ever fince for the purpose of better fupporting it: augmentations have alfo been made by other legacies; fo that the whole income at prefent is 190l. per annum, of which the mafter annually receives 1401. and the furplus is lodged in the hands of the treasurer, fubject to fuch uses as the governors (confifting of the whole legiflative body of the island, the judges of the fupreme court, and the rector of this parish for the time being) may think fit to direct. This foundation was incorporated by an act of affembly, and defigned for the inftruction of a certain number of boys, the offspring of poor parents, in reading, writing, grammar, arithmetic, and other mechanical and practical knowledge. It has generally from twenty-five to thirty poor boys; and, if it was well regulated, it might prove an useful feminary; fuch an education being fufficient to qualify the boys for a variety of profitable employments in the ifland; but it may be pronounced of this, as of many other charities of the like kind, that as yet it has ill-anfwered the intent of its founder. Near the fchool is the fhambles or market-house, where the butchers meat flaughtered in this town is by law appointed to be fold. It is under the direction of an officer, who receives a yearly ftipend as clerk of the market. His bufinefs is, first, to fee that the meat expofed to fale is found and fit for ufe; and, if he finds it otherwife, he is to cause it to be immediately burnt. He is likewife to prove all the fcales and weights ufed here and in the different fhops within the town; and, on dif covering any fraud or deficiency, he may levy the penalty impofed by law. He has a power too of arbitration in all disputes that may, happen between buyer and feller relative to weighing of meats and other

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other goods. There is a further power likewise vested in him of more importance than all the reft; which is, to fee that no butcher exacts more for his meat than the prices fettled by law; but this part of his duty has never of late years been complied with. The common prices of most kinds of meat fold here are now generally double what the law has allowed; and little notice is taken of it. The market for butchers meat begins at day-break, and is ufually over by eight o'clock in the morning. The Jews have a butcher of their own, who flaughters and diffects in the Mofaic manner; the fecret of which feems chiefly to confift in his choice of the fattest, finest subjects. The hofpital is a small distance from the market-place. It was founded by the charitable legacies and do. nations of well-disposed persons, and calculated for the reception of tranfient poor perfons; who are lodged, cloathed, fed, and properly taken care of: and a gentleman of the faculty is paid an annual falary by the public, for attending their fick, and furnishing them with fuitable medicines. The barracks for the regular troops are fituated in the Southern quarter of the town, on an airy, healthful spot. The front is a lofty brick-building, of two stories. Behind it is a fpacious fquare court, furrounded with shed-rooms: they are capable of holding three hundred men; but, the accommodations defigned for the officers having proved extremely improper for the purpose, the men are too much left without a due controul, most of their principal officers having lodgings provided for them at fome distance in the town; fo that, for want of their residence in the barracks, the privates have often committed riots, and other mifdemeanors at night, in the neighbourhood. Yet there is a very commodious unoccupied space adjoining, where proper apartments might be built for the officers; in confequence of which, the discipline of these troops would be much better kept up, and a final stop put to fuch enormities. Their hofpital ftands on the Eaft fide of the town, near the river, in a very ill-judged fituation; for the fupport of which building, and neceffaries for their fick, the affembly makes every year an ample provifion. Near it is the powder magazine belonging to the town; built of brick, and capable of holding fifty barrels; this is conftantly guarded by a centinel. Juft across the river, a fmall distance from

VOL. II.

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this

this place, is a look-out, called Beacon hill, which had formerly a staff and colours raised upon it, for the purpose of giving alarm. As there is a very extenfive view from the fummit, commanding the harbour of Port Royal, and the Eastern ship-channel, in the offing, this appears the most proper fcite for erecting a fortress, if one fhould ever be thought neceffary for better defending the town. At prefent, here is neither fort nor battery; all its defence confifts in fourteen or fifteen fmall brafs field-pieces, honey-combed with age, and committed to the care of a captain, a lieutenant, and a company of matroffes, all of the militia; who flash a little powder from this train of artillery, to announce the royal birth-day, and a few other joyous occafions [e]. Befides thefe, are two or three companies of regulars, and five or fix of horfe and foot militia, a medley of Chriftians, Jews, Pagans, Negroes, and Mulattoes. The Jews, who are numerous here, have a convenient burialground walled in, at fome diftance out of the town; and a fynagogue in the Eastern quarter, not far from the river: this place of worship has several well-adapted ornaments. Here they affemble, and read a portion of the Law and the Prophets every fabbath-day. They observe most of their antient feasts and fafts; and marry, circumcife, and bury, according to the custom of their fore-fathers. Some of them are good men, and do many benevolent actions to Gentiles as well as their own fraternity; but much the greater part of them (I fear) are very felfish and tricking, fraudulent in their tråde, and rigid in their tranfactions, not only with Chriftians, but with one another. Of the houfes erected by the Spaniards before the English conqueft, upwards of fifty are ftill remaining, very little the worfe for time or weather. We are not informed of the particular time when they were built. The town was twice taken; first, by Sir Anthony Shirley in 1592; and afterwards by colonel Jackson, about the year 1638; but history does not men

[] It deferves the attention of the legiflature, whether their procuring a new train of fieldpieces, of moderate fize, and a company of skilful European matroffes, would not be of the utmost importance to the defence of the island. Whoever has read the progress made in Hindoftan, by a handful of European troops, cannot but be aftonished at the victories they gained against fuch unequal numbers, and folely by the right management of their artillery. A fmall body of men, with fuch a bulwark, may refift all the efforts of fifty times their number, who have no artillery: and it is no lefs ferviceable in an open plain, than in defending a pafs.

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tion that they destroyed the houses. It is pretty certain they ought to be regarded as antient, as it is now near one hundred and twenty years fince the invafion under Venables. Their duration for fo long a time in defiance of earthquakes and hurricanes, fome of which, fince the English fettled here, have been fo violent as to demolish several more modern buildings, is a demonstrative proof of the Spanish fagacity, and affords an useful leffon to the English inhabitants; for although thefe houses are inconveniently fmall, yet this can be no objection to the method of structure, fince it would be eafy to enlarge the plan, by lengthening the front,, or by building three fides of a fquare after the Eastern manner, which allows fufficient range for a great variety of apartments. The Spaniards had to guard against the sudden concuffion of earthquakes, the impetuofity of hurricanes, the drift of the heavy periodical rains, and the heat of the fun. We find their houfes excellently well contrived to answer these different purposes; with the further merit, that the materials of which they are built were cautiously prepared in such a manner as to become extremely durable. A certain number of pofts of the hardest timber, generally lignum vitæ, brazilletto, or fuftick, of about eighteen feet in length, and fix to eight inches diameter, being firft well-feafoned and hardened in fmoak, were fixed at proper diftances to the depth of two or three feet in the ground; then a wall of brick, inclosing these pofts, was carried up with very strong mortar to the plate, which was pinned with wooden spikes to the tops of the posts. The main rafters were fmall, but, being of the like hard wood, and perfectly well-seasoned, were fufficiently ftrong: these were likewife pinned upon each other, and at their angle of interfection at top formed a crutch, to receive the ridge-pole. The fmaller rafters were of the leffer ebony trees, ftript of their bark, hardened in fmoak, notched at bottom, and being placed at the distance of about eighteen inches from each other, were pinned to the plate. Athwart these fmall rafters, a ftratum of the wild cane (arundo Indica Bambu fpecies), previously fmoaked, was tied on by way of wattling, with ftraps made of the bark of the mohoe or mangrove trees. Upon thefe wattles, fome mortar was laid, to the thickness of about four inches; and the whole covered with large -pantiles,

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pantiles, well bedded in. The thickness of these roofs, from the outward shell or tile-covering, to the ceiling within, was about eight or ten inches. A canopy of fo folid a texture was certainly well contrived to shelter the inhabitants from the difagreeable effects of a vertical fun; and accordingly it is found by experience, that these old Spanish houses are much cooler than our modern ones, covered with shingles (or flips of wood half an inch thick, formed like flates), which are not only very fubject to be split in nailing, and fo create leaks, but are not folid enough to exclude the fun's impreffion, nor lie fo compact as to prevent a spray from being driven in by the wind in heavy showers, which occafions a moist and unwholesome atmosphere within doors. Befides, these shingled tenements are very hot in the day-time, and cool at night; whereas the Spanish houses preferve a more equal temperament of air by day and by night. Their materials preferve them greatly from accidents by fire; and, confidering their stability, they seem to be the cheapest and best-contrived kind of buildings for this island. It is plain, therefore, that the English, in neglecting these useful models, and establishing no manufacture of tiles, but erecting lofty houses after the models in the mothercountry, and importing an immenfe quantity of North-American shingles every year for covering new roofs, and repairing old ones, confult neither their perfonal fecurity, their convenience, their health, nor the faving of a moft unneceffary expence [ƒ].

The chief error the Spaniards committed in their buildings was the placing their ground-floors too low: these were nearly on a level with the furface of the earth out of doors, or at most raised only a few inches higher. Some of their houses in the town have, indeed, acquired a raised foundation in the courfe of time; for, the torrents of rain having gradually washed and hollowed the streets

[f] It is remarked by Ulloa, that the walls of Caxamarca (an Indian town in Peru), and of feveral houses in the neighbouring vallies, although built on the very fuperficies of the earth without any foundation, have withstood those violent earthquakes which overthrew the more folid buildings of Lima, and other large towns, erected by the Spaniards. Experience inftructed the natives, that, in parts fo liable to earthquakes, it was improper to dig a foundation in order to ftrengthen the walls. He mentions it as a tradition, that, when the newly-conquered Indians faw the Spaniards fink foundations for their lofty buildings, they laughed, and told them, "they were "digging their own graves:" intimating, that earthquakes would bury them under the ruins of their houses; a prophecy which has been moft fatally verified in the fequel.