The Maroon

Volume One, Chapter I.

A JAMAICA SUGAR ESTATE.

A sugar estate, and one of the finest in the "land of springs," is that
of "Mount Welcome."

It is situated about ten miles from Montego Bay, in a broad valley,
between two rounded ridges. These ridges, after running parallel for
more than a mile, and gradually increasing in elevation, at length
converge with an inward sweep--at their point of convergence, rising
abruptly into a stupendous hill, that fairly merits the name which it
bears upon the estate--_the "mountain_."

Both the ridges are wooded almost down to their bases; the woods, which
consist of shining pimento trees, ending on each side in groves and
island copses, pleasantly interspersed over a park-like greensward.

The "great house" or "buff" of the estate stands under the foot of the
mountain, just at the point of union between the two ridges--where a
natural table or platform, elevated several feet above the level of the
valley, had offered a tempting site to the builder.

In architectural style it is not very different from other houses of its
kind, the well-known planter's dwelling of the West Indies. One
storey--the lower one, of course--is of strong stone mason-work; the
second and only other being simply a wooden "frame" roofed with
"shingles."

The side and end walls of this second story cannot with propriety be
termed walls: since most part of them are occupied by a continuous line
of Venetian shutters--the "jalousies" of Jamaica.

These impart a singular cage-like appearance to the house, at the same
time contributing to its coolness--a quality of primary importance in a
tropical climate.