Jamaica is administered by a Governor. assisted by a privy council. appointed by the Crown. and a legislative council consisting in 1900 of fifteen members nominated by the Governor, and fifteen eleete'l by limited suffrage. All financial meas ures must receive the approval of the Governor before they are submitted to the consideration of the Legislature. The Governor has the right to increase the number of nominated mem bers in order to insure a majority in favor of any measure which he may consider important.
For administrative purposes the island is divided into fifteen parishes, administered by local hoards. Administratively attached to Jamaica are the Turks, Caicos, and Cayman islands, and Slorant and Pedro("ays. Justice is administered bya high court. circuit courts, and by resident magistrates in the parishes. The revenue and expenditure of the colony for 1901 amounted, respectively, to 1:7(10,38(1 (0,700,0:18) and Ofi:1,fifi2 (0,715,979), About 50 per cent. of the revenue is derived from customs duties. The public debt, including the debts guaranteed by the colony, amounted in 1901 to E3,702.30 ($18.015.698), with an annual ser vice of £221.323 ($1,076,958). The roads of the island are under the control of the Government, which also owns and operates the railways. The in 1901 was 185. The military forces of the island numbered, in 1900, 1739 regular officers and men and about 650 militia. There are numerous fortifications, and thirteen ships of the Royal Navy are maintained at the North American and \Vest India naval station.
The population of Jamaica, fi:39,521 in 1891, was composed as follows: 488,624 black; 121,955 colored or half-breed ; 14,692 white; 10,116 East Indians; 481 Chinese; and the remainder un classified. The Maroons, the descendants of fugi tive are few in number, and do not mix with the other inhabitants of the island. The negroes are engaged principally in agriculture, and are to some extent peasant. proprietors. The colored population is represented largely in the trades and professions, while the Chinese are chiefly shop-keepe•s. Education is optional and to some extent supported by the Government. In 1901 the island had 720 elementary schools (against 962 in 1895), with an average attend ance of 47,441. Higher education is afforded by the University College and High School at near Kingston. Cambridge local exam inatitins have been held on the island since 1882. Capital, Kingston (q. V. ) .
Jamaica was discovered by Columbus during his second voyage in Slay, 1494, and was taken possession of by the Spaniards in 1509. The Mike of Governor held by the descendants of Columbus till the extinction of the line. Under Spanish rule the native population rapidly dwindled away, and before the middle of the seventeenth century had become extinct. In Slay, 1655, a British expedition under Admirals Penn and Venables captured the island, and 1reat. Britain was confirmed in the possession of
it, by the Treaty of Madrid in 1670. The sugar industry, which had its inception in 1673, soon developed into great and the demand for plantation labor led to the importa tion of negro slaves. Between 1700 and 1786 more than 600.000 negroes were brought into the island. Many of them escaped to the forests of the interior, where they led a life of semi-brigandage, anti threatened seriously the prosperity of the settlements on the coast. A fierce contest was parried on with them from 1715 to 1738. and they were not subdued com pletely till 1796. A negro insurrection in 1831 hastened the approach of emancipation, which had been agitated for a long time in England. In 1833 an emancipation aet was passed, pro viding for the total extinction of slavery after August 1. 1838. and awarding the sum of $29, 987.000 (f6,161.927) as compensation to the owners of the liberated slaves, who numbered 309,33S. The effects of emancipation on the economic condition of the country were dis astrous at The freedmen abandoned the plantations in large numbers and took possession of the unoccupied lands in the interior. Labor to take their place cook! be obtained only with great difficulty, and bitter feelings of hostility between whites and blacks resulted. In October, 1865, the negroes at Port dorant, in the eastern part of the island, rose in resistance to the process of the courts; martial law was declared by Governor Eyre, and the insurrection was speedily put down, with excessive cruelty. as was maintained by the or with commend able firmness, as was asserted by a Government commission sent out to investigate the affair. As a result of the social conflicts the old parlia mentary government of Jamaica was abolished in December, 1866, and the island was reduced to the grade of a Crown colony. Representative government was in 1884.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Edwards, History of the West Bibliography. Edwards, History of the West Indies (5th ed., London. 1819) ; Gosse, A Nat uralist in Jamaica (ib., 1551) ; Sawkino, Geology of Jamaica (ib., 1.869): Gardner, History of Jamaica (ib., 1874); Philippi, Climate of Jamaica (ib., 1876) ; Eden, The Island of Jamaica (ib., 1880) ; Ree 'Nouvelle geographic univer mdle, vol. xvii. (London, 1888) ; Cundall, Biblio theca- Jam-aicensis (Kingston, 1895) ; Porter, Fiscal and Economic Condition of the Island of Jamaica (Washington, 1899) ; Livingstone, Black Jamaica: A Study in Evolution (London, 1899) ; Fiske, History of the West Indies (New York, 1899); Hill, The Geology and Physical Geog raphy of Jamaica (Cambridge, Mass., 1899); Cundall, Studies in Jamaica History (London, 1900) ; Handbook of Jamaica (London, an nually).