JAISAITA, aboriginally Xaymaca, or land of wood and wafer, one of the West India islands, and by far the most important of those belonging to Great Britain is about 90 m. to the s. of Cuba, and stretches in n. lat. between 17° 40' and 18° 30', and in w. long. between 76' 15' and 78' 25'. Area, 6,400 sq.m. (rather more than that of Yorkshire); greatest length. 150 m. ; greatest breadth, 50 miles. It is traversed from e. to w. by a heavily-timbered ridge, called the Blue mountains, which rises to about 7,000 feet. Front this range, at least 70 streams descend to the n. and s. shores, but owning to the shortness and declivityof their courses they are not navigable, with the exception of one, the Black river, which affords, for s,mall craft, a passage into the interior for 30 miles. Excellent harbors are everywhere to be found. But incomparably the best of these is formed by a deep and capacious basin in the s.e. quarter of the island, which washes the most spacious and fertile of the plains between the hill-country and the coast. Around this inlet, and within a few miles of each other, are all the considerable centers of population, Port Royal, Kingston, and Spanish Town.
The climate varies considerably—the torrid belt of the coast gradually passing into the temperate region of the central heights. The latter is said to be remarkably favor able to longevity; and, after having long been a retreat for the residents themselves, it has lately beun to attract invalids frontthe United States. To contrast two positions—. the one near Kingston harbor, and the other at the intermediate elevation of 4.000 ft. their annual means are stated to be respectively 81° F. and 68° F. Earthquakes have occasionally occurred. one of them, in 1692, having almost overwhelmed Port Royal.
In 1861 the total population amounted to 378,433, of whom 13,816 were whites, and the remainder half-breeds or blacks. At the last. census, that of 1871, the total popnla lion was 506,154. of whom only 13,101 were whites. thus appears that in the pre ceding ten years there had been a falling off in the white population; while the blacks, or colored men, had rapidly increased. On the productiveness and trade of the island, the emancipation of the slaves in 1834 had an unfavorable effect. But even previously to the new order of things, the commercial crops had been steadily decreasing. To take
by itself the grand staple of sugar, the last 3 years of the slave-trade, 1805-7, had averaged fully 144,000 hogsheads; the four years before the commencement of the abolition of slavery, 1831-34, under 91.000; the four years of gradual abolition. 1835— 38, nearly 70,000; the first four years of perfect freedom, 1839-42, less than 42,000. That a revival of trade has set in appears from the last returns, according to which the values of sugar exported were, in 1869. £443,078; in 1870, £491,616; and in 1871, £592, 163. In 1871 the chief exports were in value as follows: sugar, £592,163; rum. £271, 267; coffee, £147,562; logwood, £115,423; while the chief imports were flour. £125.500, and salt fish, £92,801. In 1875 the total imports of Jamaica were valued at £1,760 600, and its exports at 21,410,000. In 1860 the revenue amounted to £262,239, and the expenditure to £255,239. In 1875 the revenue amounted to £591,000; the expenditure to £586,000..
Jamaica was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage, in 1994, and was taken possession of by the Spaniards in 1509. So great was the inhumanity of the con-' querors, that 50 years after the Spanish invasion of the island the native population is said to have entirely disappeared. On May 3„ 1655, a British expedition sent out Oliver Cromwell, under admirals Penn and Venables, assailed and captured the island; which was formally ceded to England by the treaty of Madrid in 1670. Under English rule, the chief events in the history of the island were. in 1795, the rebellion of the Maroons, a community of runaway slaves, who had obtained a tract of land ou the side of the island; in a negro insurrection; and on Aug. 1, 1834, the of the slaves. The last event was followed by ill-judged concessions of representative and constitutional rights to the newly-liberated blacks. The experiment proved a The blacks considered it a grievance that offices in the magistracy were not more fro-I quently conferred on them. They wished to suppress coolie immigration, which tended to keep down wages. They sought to obtain land without rent, and the more violent even suggested the expulsion cf the whole white population of the island. .