MARCH 16.
I reached Spanish Town in time to dine with the chief justice
(Mr. Jackson), and intended to remain there two or three days
longer ; but the next morning my landlady just hinted that " she
thought it right to let me know, that to be sure there was a
gentleman unwell in the house ; but she supposed that I should
not care about it : however, if I particularly
disliked the neighbourhood of a sick person, she would procure me
lodgings." I asked " what was the complaint?" "Oh ! he was
a little sick, that was all." To which I only could answer, that " in that
case I hoped he would get better," and thought no more about
it. However, when I went to visit the governor, I found that
this "little sickness" of my landlady's was neither more nor less
than the yellow fewver, of which the gentleman in question was
now dying, of which a lady had died only two days before, and
of which another European, newly arrived, had fallen ill in this
very same hotel only a fortnight before, and had died, after
throwing himself out of an upper window in a fit of delirium.
Under all these circumstances I thought it to the full as prudent
not to prolong my stay; and accordingly, on Wednesday the
18th, I resumed my journey homewards, by the north side of the
island, the road which I had travelled two years ago. I have
nothing to add to my former account of it, except that there
need not be better inns anywhere than the Wellington Hotel at
Rio Bueno, and Judy James's at Montego Bay. Indeed, all
the inns upon this road are excellent, with the solitary exception
of the Blackheath Tavern, which I stopped at by mistake. At
this most miserable of all inns that ever entrapped an unwary
traveller, there was literally nothing to be procured for love or
money : no corn for the horses; no wine without sending six
miles for it ; no food but a miserable starved fowl, so tough that
the very negroes could not eat it; and a couple of eggs, one of
which was addled : there was but one pair of sheets in the whole
house, and neither candles, nor oranges, nor pepper, nor vinegar,
nor bread, nor even so much as sugar, white or brown. Yams
there were, which prevented my servants from going to bed
quite famished, and I contented myself with the far-fetched bottle
of wine and the solitary egg, which I ate by the light of a lamp
filled with stinking oil. The one pair of sheets I seized upon as
my own share, and my servants made themselves as good beds
as they could upon the floor with great-coats and travelling
mantles.
