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Show LETTER VII. JAMAICA. Fluslling, L. I. Sixt!t month (June) 8th, 1840. Mv DEAR FRIEND, Our second visit to Santa Cruz afforded us an opportunity of uniting with twenty or more of the boarders there-individuals with whom we had form· ed a highly agreeable acquaintance-in chartering the ship Whitmore, Captain B. Watlington. It was agreed that the rest of the company should leave Santa Cruz, in the course of the Third month, (March) and after a cruize among some other islands, call for us at Jamaica, and convey us, by Havana, to the United States. For ourselves, we set sail, on the 18th of the Second month, (February) in our little brigantine, intending to land at J aquemel, a port of the southern coast of Hayti, on our way to Jamaica. Our kind friends, the planters of Santa Cruz, loaded us with pre· sents of oranges, shaddocks, syrup, new sugar, &c. for our use during the voyage, and heartfelt was our mutual expression of good wishes, on our departure from the . island. We now had the delightful trade wind directly in our favor. Our course lay along the southern shore JAMAICA . 89 uf Porto Rico, which extends ninr.ty miles in length. This coast presented to the eye no peculiar aspect of interest or beauty. The mountains to the south of the island are low, and we hardly perceived a speck of cultivation. That much of the interior is well cultivated and of great luxuriance, we arc well aware, and melancholy in the extreme is the fact, that the negw population of the island is constantly increasing by fresh importations. We afterwards learned from our friends in the Whitmore, who called on thci~ way to Jamaica, at the port of St. John's, that the slaver "Hound," under American colors, landed nearly four hundred negroes in its vicinity, the day before their arrival. Some of the company visited them, and found them in a miserably emaciated condition. We left the south-western extremity of Porto Rico at nightfall one evening, and at daybreak were in sight of the low island of Mona. The next morning we found ourselves within a mile or two of the coast of Hayti ; and were surprised to discover how much we had over-run our calculation of longitude, when, in the course of the dav, we saw the dome·like rock of Alto Velo, a small is.land at its southernmost point, rising before our view. Here it was that Columbus and his sailors amused themselves in days of old, with killing the "sea wolves." Our course was now directed to the north-west, past another remarkable rock, called Los Frayles. This rock is composed of a row of vertical pillars, which, bv a fertile imagination, might easily be clothed with s~ckcloth, and depicted as "Friars." We were glad to pass by such dangerous brethren before sunset, and were desirous, if |