partially abandoned to sixty-three; the value of which two hundred
and thirty-one estates was assessed, in 1841, at £1,655,140, or
nearly eight millions and a half of dollars. Within the same period,
two hundred and twenty-three coffee-plantations have been totally,
and twenty partially abandoned, the assessed value of which was, in
1841, £500,000, or two millions and a half of dollars; and of
cattle-pens, (grazing-farms,) one hundred and twenty-two have been
totally, and ten partially abandoned, the value of which was a
million and a half of dollars. The aggregate value of these six
hundred and six estates, which have been thus ruined and abandoned in
the island of Jamaica, within the last seven or eight years, amounted
by the regular assessments, ten years since, to the sum of nearly two
and a half millions of pounds sterling, or twelve and a half million
of dollars."

As a necessary consequence of this, "there is little heard of," says
Dr. King, "but ruin."[16] "In many districts," he adds--

"The marks of decay abound. Neglected fields, crumbling houses,
fragmentary fences, noiseless machinery--these are common sights, and
soon become familiar to observation. I sometimes rode for miles in
succession over fertile ground which used to be cultivated, and which
is now lying waste. So rapidly has cultivation retrograded, and the
wild luxuriance of nature replaced the conveniences of art, that
parties still inhabiting these desolated districts, have sometimes,
in the strong language of a speaker at Kingston, 'to seek about the
bush to find the entrance into their houses.'

"The towns present a spectacle not less gloomy. A great part of
Kingston was destroyed, some years ago, by an extensive