Passage , Passage . situated on the Mouth of the River , six miles distant from St. Jago by Land , and about two Leagues from Port-Royal by Sea . 'T is the greatest Passage in the whole Island , from whence it took its Name ; and those who go from Port-Royal to St. Jago , land here . The whole Town doth not contain above Thirty or Forty Houses ; some whereof are for Storage , and the rest are inhabited by Alehouse-keepers , and those who keep Horses and Hackney-Coaches for the convenience of such as go from thence to St. Jago , or any Plantation thereabouts .

When the Spaniards enjoyed the Place , there were divers other Towns Other Towns . which are now of no account ; the Chief whereof , are ,

Sevilla , Sevilla . situated on the North-part of the Island , and beautified with a Collegiate Church ; the chief Governor whereof bore the Title of Abbot .

Mellila Mellila . already mentioned .

Orista , Orista . situated upon the South-Seas , in which Seas there are many Rocks , amongst their Banks some Isles ; as , Servavilla , Quitosvena , and Serrana , where Augustin Pedro Serrana lost his Vessel , and saved only himself ; and here in a lonesom and solitary condition spent three years without any company ; after which , another Mariner , who was likewise shipwrackt upon that Coast , and saved none but himself , bore him company for four years longer .

But although there areas yet no more Towns in Jamaica , yet there are divers Villages or Parishes which are well inhabited by the Englsh , in every one whereof , they have very good Plantations well-situated , and furnished with all things necessary ; especially all the Southern part , from Point Morant in the East , to Point Negrillo in the West , and so far as the Ridge or Chain of Mountains that runs along the middle of the Isle . Nor are its Northern parts , especially near the Sea , without Inhabitants , who have seated themselves in good Plantations ; and although they are not here so thick as on the South-side , yet they do of late very much increase and augment the number both of Persons and Plantations .

The whole Island is divided into fourteen Parishes , It s Division and Number of Inhabitants . Divisions , or Precincts ; which are , for the satisfaction of the Reader , all set forth in the Map , and the several Places throughout the whole Island where the English have made any Settlements , marked and distinguished by Cyphers .

The Names of the Parishes on the South-side , are as follow ;

Port Royal , St. Katherines , St. John's , St. Andrew's , St. David's , St. Thomas , Clarendon ; in which seven Parishes , there are according to the best computation , about five thousand Families , and about forty five thousand Inhabitants .

On the North-side are ,

St. George's , St. Maries , St. Annes , and St. Jame's .

On the East-side , is

St. Elizabeth , and two Parishes more near adjoyning to it , the one on the East , and the other on the North of it ; all which likewise begin to grow very populous , and are supposed to contain near six thousand Inhabitants : And the great Encouragement of gaining Riches , doth every year cause abundance of People to quit their Concerns at Barbados , and other of our American Plantations , to come and inhabit here ; so that in a little time it will , in all probability , within a few years become the richest , and the most populous , and potent Plantation in all the West-Indies .

But besides these Inhabitants of the fourteen Precincts , there are reckoned to belong to Jamaica four thousand Privateers , Sloop and Boat-men , that ply up and down about the Isle , who are all stout , resolute , fighting Men ; which they have sufficiently demonstrated in their late Exploits , and desperate Attempts upon the Spaniards in Panama , and other Parts in the South-Seas .

This Isle abounds with many excellent Commodities ; as , It s Product .

SVGARS , which are so good , that they out-sell those that are made in Barbados five shillings per Cent. There are near an hundred of these Sugar-Works , which produced every year above two hundred thousand weight of Sugar : These Sugar-Works are likewise continually increasing every year , and new are always going up .

CACAO , whereof we make Chocolate , is , by reason of the natural aptness of the Ground to produce and bear it , the most beneficial and staple Commodity of the Island ; there being near an hundred Cacao-Walks , besides abundance of young ones newly planted and growing up , and others that are still planting ; so that it will in time become the most noted place for that Commodity in the World ; which will redound to the great advantage of the Planters , in regard it is so much used by us and other neighbouring Nations , especially the Spaniards , who use such vast quantities of it , they alone are enough to take off all that the Island produces ; so that there is no fear that it will ever prove a Drug , and lie upon their hands .

INDICO , which the Isle produces in great abundance , and very good , there being already above eighty Indico-Works , which produce above sixty thousand weight of Indico per annum ; which Works do likewise very much increase every year .

COTTON is another of their Products , which is very fine , and is therefore preferred by all that deal in that Commodity , before that which grows in any of the Caribby Islands .

TOBACCO , which is here indifferent good , being accounted much better than that which grows at Barbadoes , but other Commodities proving more beneficial to the Islanders , there is not much of it planted , only what serves for their own spending .

TORTOISE-SHELLS , which are in so much esteem with us in England for several curious Works , and therefore find as ready a vent as any Commodity whatsoever that is brought us from beyond the Seas . There are abundance of them taken on this Coast , there being a further end in the taking them , besides the Merchandizing of the Shells , for their Flesh are excellent Meat .

HIDES , great quantities , whereof have been yearly made there , and are found to be very large and good .

WOODS for the use of Dyers , whereof there are great variety , as Fustick , Red-Wood , &c. Here is likewise Cedar , Mathogency , Brasilletto , Lignum Vitae , Ebony , Granadilla , and divers other excellent sweet smelling and curious Woods , fit for the choicest Works , whose Names are yet unknown , and so indeed are their excellencies ; however , great quantities of 'em are continually exported thence , and great profit made of them .

SALT is another of the Products of this Island , which might be made here in great quantities , there being already three very large Salt-Ponds , containing near Four thousand Acres of ground , and there was made , in one Year , about Ten thousand Bushels ; and the manager of it , Captain John Noye , affirmed , That he could as well have made so many Tun , if they had had vent for it . But , at present , they make little more than what is spent in the Island . Nor is it altogether void of other Salts , there having been good quantities of Nitre found in divers places in the Isle .

GINGER , grows better there , than it doth in many other of the Caribby Islands , which hath occasioned the planting great quantities of it .

COD-PEPPER likewise , which is a Spice very much used in all the West-Indies , grows in great plenty there ; and so doth

PIEMENTO , or a certain Spice which is better known by name of Jamaica-Pepper , very aromatical , and of a curious flavor , having the exact taste both of Cinamon and Cloves , with a complicated mixtute of divers other sweet and curious Spices . This Spice the Island doth naturally produce ; for it grows wild upon the mountainous parts of it ; some whereof are plantable , and others so stony , that are unplantable ; but both are generally covered with excellent Timber and great abundancy of Fruit and Spice-trees . The Spaniards , when they enjoyed the place , set a high value upon this Spice , and exported it as a very choice Commodity , as indeed it is ; and the English finding so good a vent for it , intend to imitate them therein , and begin now to bring it into their Plantations , which will in time turn them to great account .

DRVGS , which this Island produces in great abundance , as , Guiacum , China-roots , Sarsaparilla , Cassia-Fistula , Tamerinds , Vinello's and Achiots or Anetto , which is like to prove a good Commodity . There are also divers sorts of

GVMS and Roots wherewith experienced Planters cure divers Wounds , Ulcers and other Maladies ; as , Aloes , Benjamin , and the like : And by the report of an intelligent Physician , who made it his business to enquire and search after such things , there is likewise Cyperas , Contrayerva , Adjunctum nigrum , Cucumis agrestis , Sumach , Acacia , Misleto , with many other Drugs , Balsams and Gums , whose Names and Virtues are not known or remembred . However the Planters begin every year to be better and better acquainted with their Nature and Use , and endeavour to encrease them , in order to their supplying England with them .

COCHANEIL is likewise produced by a Plant that grows in this Isle ; but the English , being as yet not very well skill'd in husbanding of it , and the East-winds , and many other things being enemies to its growth , its product is not very considerable .

These , and the like Commodities are the Product of this Island , which the English have already , and will in a little time improve to that degree , that it will quickly become the best and the richest Plantation that they ever were or are like to be Masters of ; especially if they should find out the Copper Mines , which the Spaniards say to be in this Island , with some whereof they affirm the Bells that hung in the great Church at St. Jago to be cast . And the Silver Mines , which may probably be here as well as in Cuba and the Main Continent , since the Spaniards affirm they found one behind the Mountains , on the West of Cagway .

But before I pass from this Discourse , of the Product of Jamaica , I shall give you an account of the manner of managing a Cacao Walk , in regard it is the Chief Commodity of the Island , with a particular calculation of the change in Planting , and the profits that arise from it , as it was lately estimated by a very judicious and understanding person , and one who hath given great incouragement to divers of the Planters there .

When a person , who intends to settle at Jamaica , arrives , Of a Cocao Walk . after he hath taken a view of the Country , his first work must be to take up Six hundred Acres of Land , which must be chosen in a good place , that so the Land may be proper to produce the Nut ; which Grant , for the Patent and Surveying , will cost Ten Pounds . Having taken up his Land , he must provide himself of three Negro Men , and as many Women ; which , at Twenty Pounds per head , will come to an Hundred and twenty Pounds ; with four White Servants , which , with their Passage and Diet for a Year , will cost him about Eighty Pounds ; with Twenty Axes , and the like number of Bills and Hoes , which will cost him about Five Pounds ; and with an Overseer , to look after his Servants and keep them to their work , whose Wages and Diet , at Forty Shillings a Month , will cost him Twenty four Pounds : All which , with Eighteen Pounds , which the Provisions for his Six Negro Servants , will , at Four Pence per day , each of them cost him for the first six Months , till his own Plantation is capable of maintaining them , is Two hundred fifty seven Pounds , Five Shillings .

When this is done , his next business is to set his Servants to work , whose first imployment must be to cut down the Wood , and clear a convenient place , whereon to build fitting Houses for their Lodging ; which , if they begin with March , they will have effected by the middle of that Month : After which , he must set them to felling the Timber , grubbing up the Roots , and clearing a piece of Ground , of four Acres , whereon to plant Potatoes ; all which planting , and all , with the help of his Servants , will be easily effected by the middle of April . And then his best way is to set them to prepare more Ground , which he may plant with Plantane-Trees , and other things , ( which he thinks he shall first want , for the enabling his Plantation to subsist of its self ) till the beginning of February , which compleats the Year . In which time they may , with ease , prepare and plant about one or two and twenty Acres , and the Plantation will be able to live of its self , for they will now be full of Potatoes and Corn , and within two Months of the new Year with Plantanes , which , together with his stock of Hoggs and Fowls will sufficiently furnish him with Provisions for his Servants .

To improve this Ground , and plant the Cacao-Walk , he must , about the beginning of the next March , provide himself with five Negro men more , and as many Women , which will come to Two hundred pounds more : And that Month he must imploy all the hands he has in planting Cacao-Trees between all the Rows of Plantanes , which , by this time are grown to be six foot high , and , by the beginning of June , he will have , besides much other work done , the whole twenty one Acres , which were planted the year before with Cacao-Trees , which , in less than four years , will begin to bear Cods , and , in five years , produce compleat Crops , each Acre affording yearly to the Planter a Thousand Weight of Cacao-Nuts , which is there worth about four Pounds per cent . so that the twenty one Acres , which are already planted and come to perfection , are worth Eight hundred and forty Pounds per Annum . And the whole Expence , together with Forty two Pounds fifteen Shillings more , allowed for gathering and housing them , amounts but to Five hundred Pounds , so that the profit will be very considerable .

All the Work , already mentioned , will be performed in fifteen Months , and the remaining time , till the Cacaoes come to perfection , which will be somewhat better than four year , he may imploy in increasing the Walk , building convenient Houses , and making of Gardens for pleasure : Or , if the smalness of his Stock will not permit him to forbear his Money till the Cacaoes come to bear compleatly , he may fall to planting Ginger , Indico , or some such kind of Commodity for present profit .

And according to this Calculation the planting of a smaller or a larger Walk may be effected .

There is in this Island a greater plenty of Cattel Their Cattel . than in most of the English Plantations in America . Horses so much abound there , that one of the better sort may be bought for six or seven Pounds . Their Cows are very large , and so numerous , that notwithstanding there have been great numbers of them killed every year , yet the number of them seems not to be lessened . Asnegroes and Mules , both wild and tame , in great abundance , which are found to be very serviceable to the Inhabitants . Their Sheep are likewise very large and tall , the Flesh whereof is very good , but the Wool long , hairy , and little worth . They have great plenty of Goats , which thrive and increase there exceedingly , the Country being found very fit for them . Hoggs they have likewise in exceeding great plenty , as well wild in the Mountains , as tame in the Plantations ; the Flesh whereof is far better tasted , more nourishing , and much easier to be digested , than those of Europe ; which is the reason why it is so much eaten in this , and indeed in all the other Islands throughout all the West Indies . They have also plenty of Rabbits , but no Hare nor Deer in all the Island .

Jamaica very much abounds both in its Rivers , Their Fish . Bays , Roads , and Creeks , with great variety of excellent Fish , the great abundance whereof very much contributes to the feeding of the Inhabitants , and others who frequent the Island . 'T is true , indeed , they have none of those sorts common to us , but such vast variety of those appropriated to the Indies , that it would be too tedious to repeat their Names , were they known or remembred .

The principal sort of those Fish , is the Tortoise , which are taken in such plenty about twenty or thirty Leagues to the Leeward of Port Nigril , near the Isles of Camavos , that great store of Ships from divers of the Caribby Islands resort thither to victual and load therewith , its Flesh being reputed the wholsomest and best Provision in all the West-Indies .

There are in Jamaica great store of tame Hens , Turkies , some ●eese and Ducks , but of Wild Fowl Their Fowl . such plenty , that it is almost incredible , viz. Ducks , Teal , Wigeon , Geese , Turkies , Pigeons , Guinea Hens , Plover , Flemingo's , Snipes , Parots , Paracheto's , with abundance more , whose Names are not yet known .

There are in Jamaica very few obnoxious Beasts , and scarce any venomous things , either Animal or Vegetable . Animals and Vegetables . The most considerable of all the obnoxious Creatures which infest this Isle , is the Alligator , a very voracious Creature , which in many of their Rivers and Land-Ponds , lives by preying upon such Beasts and Fowls as come thither to drink , which they catch and kill with the more ease and facility , by lying stretch'd forth upon the brinks of the Rivers , like a piece of dry Wood , which in that posture they very much resemble , so that the innocent creatures approach the fatal place without the least dread of so cruel an entertainment as they meet withal from that remorsless adversary . They are ten , fifteen , and some twenty foot long , having four Feet , or rather Fins , wherewith they both walk and swim ; they move forward with great swiftness and strength , but are not able to turn without much tediousness and trouble ; their Back and Sides are so covered with Scales , that they are impenetrable and scarcely to be killed , unless the weapon pierce their Eye or Belly , notwithstanding which they are rarely known to set upon a Man . They breed like a Fowl , by Eggs no bigger than those of a Turk●y , which , having laid in the Sand , not far from the Water , she leaves the Sun-beams to hatch , without ever looking after them more : And the young ones , so soon as ever they have broke the shell , naturally creep into the water , and shift for themselves , by preying upon such things as they are able to master .