Jamaica
Jamaica names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Jamaica one of the West India Isost valuab lands
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
one of the West India Isost valuab lands, 80 or 90 miles S. of Cuba, the Britain; third in extent, and the most valuable of those belonging to Great Britain; 146 :ares, 4 miles in length E. to W., and 49 miles 904,681. broad at the widest part; area, 4,200 about 60,0 square miles; pop. (1917) 904,681. The a number capital is Kingston; pop. about 60,000. Royal or The coast is indented with a number of most consid good harbors, of which Port Royal or the versed by lo harbor of Kingston is the most considerons; the pr able. The interior is traversed by lofty ue Mountai mountains in all directions; the prin- 7,290 cipal chain, called the Blue Mountains, aving nome reaching the height of 7,270 feet. Verthquakes Jamaica is well watered, having numerbeen freque ous rivers and springs. ngs. Earthquakes of a violent character have been frequent. The climate in the districts along the ho unhealthfu coast is, in most places, exceedingly hot, but is not on the whole unhealthful dry season There are two rainy and two dry season: Among the indigenous forest trees ar ironwoody log mahogany, lignum vitæ, ironwood, logof them deliwood, braziletto, etc. The native fruits are numerous, and many of them delicious; they include the plantain, guava, kont зop, sweet ole, etc. The custard apple, pineapple, sour sop, sweet o, grape, bread sop, papaw, cashew apple, etc. The orange, lime, lemon, mango, grape, bread island. The fruit tree, and cinnamon tree have all products aro been naturalized in the island. The ento, bananas, chief cultivated vegetable products are arrow root. sugar, coffee, maize, pimento, bananas, and bananas and other fruits, ginger, arrow root. Uscks. The Sweet potatoes, plantains, and bananas troduced, and form the chief food of the blacks. The imals only tho cinchona tree has been introduced, and is spreading. Of wild animals only the agouti and monkey are numerous. Cattle-raising has become profitable. Fish abound in the sea and rivers. The gov The exports are sugar, rum, coffee, dyewoods, fruit, and pimento. The govand a legislaernment is vested in the governor, asmembers, 14 sisted by a privy council, and a legislaed or ex officio. tive council composed of 29 members, 14 elected, the others nominated or ex officio. the James and The English Church is presided over by infer indulged in a bishop, assisted by a regular staff of parochial clergy. The Baptists, Method and of thei Mark x: ists, Presbyterians, and other Protestant rging their may infer bodies are well represented, and there is mthelr warm and a considerable number of Roman Cathanerges, ably, of olics and Jews. mes was th charging Jamaica was discovered by Columbus ostles. Cle from their in 1494, in his second expedition to the New World. In half a century the Boanerges, James was cruelty of the Spanish conquerors exe tribunal apostles. terminated the natives. It was taken by claration o fragment Cromwell in 1655, and ceded to England If also a that the by the treaty of Madrid in 1670. Of hich he wa the tribunal late many Chinese and coolies have been Ce is the p declaration employed in agriculture. In 1865 a seri- AMES, the self also a ous revolt broke out among the blacks at 2 apostles which he Morant Bay, and was put down with con- Luke vi: 15 He is the siderable severity by Governor Eyre. ame was
Jamaica ja-ma'ka, the largest of the British West India Island
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ja-ma'ka, the largest of the British West India Island. It lies ninety miles south of Cuba. Length, 150 miles; breadth, fifty. A range of mountains runs from east to west. The highest peak is 7,400 feet above sea level. The name Jamaica is Indian, meaning a "Land of Springs." A limestone plateau occupying the center and west is full of fertile "cockpits" or sinkholes. One of these is ten miles in diameter. The limestone is carved and dissolved by tropical rains. Many streams find their way to the sea under ground. There are numerous limestone caverns containing Indian antiquities. The climate is tropical and equable. Frost is unknown. At sea level the temperature rarely falls below 75 deg. At Kingston the limits are 70 deg. and 88 deg. Fahrenheit. The interior is higher and cooler. The greater the height, the lower the temperature. The temperature on the plateau varies only from 67 deg. F. to 75 deg. F., a variation of nine degrees. The average rainfall is sixty-six inches. The area of the island is 4,200 square miles. There are 246,615 acres under tillage: 553,656 under pasture. The chief exports are bananas, oranges, sugar, pimento, dogwood, and cacao. Jamaica rum, ginger, and coffee are famous. Cassava and cotton are produced. Tobacco grows fairly well, but does not rival that of Cuba. In 1607 Hans Sloane visited Jamaica and collected no less than 800 plants then new to science. The island is rich in ferns. Jamaica was settled by the Spaniards in 1509. It was wrested from them in 1655 by a force sent by Cromwell, since which time it has remained in the hands of the British. The population in 1907 was reported at 830,000, of which the whites number but 16,000. The rest are negroes and mulattoes, with a few thousand coolies and Chinese. The negroes are the descendants of former slaves. The island is ruled wisely by a resident British governor and a council of twenty-nine members. The governor has a salary of $25,000 a year. Kingston, a city of 46,000 people, is the capital. There are 185 miles of railway; 683 of telegraph; and numerous telephone lines. The legal money is British, but American coins are current. There are over 700 schools with 85,000 children in attendance. There are three normal schools, as well as a number of high schools and industrial schools.
Jamaica a former town and countybugh of seat of Queen's co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a former town and countybugh of seat of Queen's co., N. Y.; since Jan. 1, 1898, a portion of the borough of Queens Be Long in Greater New York; on the Long Island The forme railroad, 10 miles E. of the former city was sett housesc of Brooklyn. The town was settled in ary War, 1656, and contains many houses dating direct des from before the Revolutionary War, some settlers. of which are occupied by direct descends large m ants of the original Dutch settlers. This veral car portion of the borough has large market garden interests, and several carriage factories. West India of Cuba
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts describe a British colony run by a governor and a mostly appointed council; Jamaica became fully independent within the Commonwealth on 6 August 1962, with an elected parliament and a governor-general standing in for the monarch. The population Collier's put at 904,681 in 1917 is now about 2.8 million, and Kingston, then a town of 46,000 to 60,000, anchors a metropolitan area of well over a million. The export list has been rewritten: sugar, pimento and dyewoods gave way after the 1950s to bauxite and alumina and, above all, to tourism, while remittances from Jamaicans abroad now rival any crop. Jamaica's global cultural weight — reggae, Bob Marley, sprinters such as Usain Bolt — would have been unimaginable to either writer, and scholars no longer accept that the Taino were simply "exterminated", since their language, place-names and DNA persist in the modern population.
Written for this edition, 2026.