‘The strategic importance of the Euphrates valley railway’ [‎24] (169/204)

24
ness does not take place, incessant tippling is quite
capable of sowing the seeds of bilious derangement,
and then when anything like an epidemic breaks out,
there are hundreds of men whose constitutions are
ready prepared to receive the disease. Ot course,
the climate generally of the. West Indies gets the
blame, which should be divided between an unhealthy
locality and intemperate habits. ere the capital ol
the island removed to Mandeville, 2500 teet al )0 \c
the sea, which has a climate in June and J uly not
hotter than an English summer, and in winter not
unlike some parts of the south of Italy, it is very
improbable that Europeans would find Jamaica
unhealthy. Mandeville has a sufficient rainfall, is
situated in delicious scenery on a plateau of rolling
uplands, is nearly in the centre of the island, and in
easy communication with Kingston. A railway
already runs twenty-six miles of the way, and will
very shortly be prolonged to Porus, eight or nine
miles from Mandeville. A\ hen that is completed, a
railway journey oi forty miles, and eight miles of a
o-ood road, would constitute the whole difficulty ol
access to the capital from the principal port.
Though some of the Government offices are being
removed to Kingston, Spanish Town is now the
nominal capital. It is even worse fitted than King
ston to be the metropolis. It is situated in a plain a
few miles inland, where it loses much of the sea breeze,
and on the edge of a morass. Surely while the seat
of Government is being changed, it would be far
better to remove it to Mandeville at once. In a few