HALL CAINE, W. Ralph. The Cruise of Port Kingston. London, Collier & Co., 1908.
8vo. Original maroon ribbed cloth, lettered and decorated in gilt, top edge gilt; pp. xxxi, 351, portrait-frontispiece in sepia photogravure, one further photogravure portrait, two colour plates, numerous black and white plates, mostly after photographs, folding map of Alligator Shooting Ground; two corners with slight bumps, offsetting from endpapers to beginning and end; otherwisae a very attractive copy.
First edition of a thorough and extensive monograph on Jamaica. The author was a member of a visiting party composed of British politcians, investors, 'capitalists', and land owners. The result is one of the first books really trying to understand Obeahism, Voodo, and how the African population organized themselves after the abolition of slavery, which is described in detail, as well as the devastating earthquake of 1907. There is as well a section on the East Indian population in the West Indies, sugar and cotton production.
#2115699