The revenues of the island are perpetual and annual. The former were imposed by the revenue law of 1782 ; they amount to about 12,00/. per annum ; the latter are oc casional grants of the legislature. The principal taxes consist of a duty on riegrues imported ; an excise on rum, &c. a poll tax on slaves and stock ; and a rate on rents and wheel carriages. The revenue generally amounts to about 300,000/. Jamaica currency.
There arc nineteen beneficed clergymen in the island, each of whom receives 420/. per annum, subject to a de duction of 10 per cent for a widows' fund. Besides this stipend, there are surplus fees, which in Kingston, Spanish Town, and St Andrews, arc very great ; the last has also considerable glebe lands annexed to the living.
All white males, from the age of fifteen to sixty, are obliged by law to provide themselves with their own ac coutrements, and to enlist either in the cavalry or infantry of the militia.
Besides the Spanish and Portuguese coins, which are current in the island. there is a small sifter coin called a bit, of the value of 73d. currency. One hundred pounds sterling amounts to one hundred and Potty pounds currency.
Jamaica was discovered by Columbus 111.1494 ; in 1509, it received a Spanish colony from Hispaniola ; in 1655. all the establishments were abandoned, except St Jago de la Vega. This year it was conquered by the English under Penn and Venables. The first British colonists were 5000
soldiers, disbanded from the parliamentary army. These were soon followed by 1500 royalists. Till the restoration, the government was entirely military. On the surrender of the island to the English, the negro slaves of the Span iards fled to the mountains; their descendants, called Ma roons, committed great depredations till 1738, when a treaty was concluded with them, by which their freedom was secured, and 1500 acres of land granted to them. They remained peaceable till the year 1795. when a new :Maroon war broke out ; at first they were rather success ful, but at last, by a more vigorous system of hostilities, and the introduction of bloodhounds from Cuba, with which they were threatened, though not actually attacked, they were driven to the mountains, and ultimately obliged to submit, on condition that their lives were spared. Soon afterwards, 600 of them were conveyed to Nova Scotia, where lands were granted to them.
See Beckford's Descriptive ?iccount of Jamaica; Edwards' History of the West Indies, 2d edit. vol. i. Dallas' History of Me Maroon War ; Renny's.Uirtory of Jamaica; Tuckey's Maritime Geogrcphy, vol. iv. ; and Parliamentary Reports and Papers on the West Indies, 1807 and 1815. (a. s.) 1.\.\llllC VERSE. See Pnosonv.