Description
This publication is about the history of the second smallest parish of the island of Jamaica. From the heights of the Dolphin Head Mountains to a coastlne of coves, white sandy beaches and luxury hotels, its blue-green landscape of plains and valleys dotted with historic landmarks, tells a fascinating story. Lucea, the parish capital, originally called Santa Lucia by the Spaniards, lies beside a picturesque horseshoe harbour ,which was once a busy port whose main exports were bananas and the famous Lucea yam. It was in Lucea that Captain William Bligh had his headquarters for four years, prior to his two missions to the South Seas to obtain the prized breadfruit and other rare plants , then unknown in the Western Hemisphere. A brilliant cartographer, Bligh drew a map of the Lucea Harbour (1784). There are twenty chapters . in the publication. The first begins with a brief description of what the area was like in Amerindian times when the Taino people were inhabitants of Jamaica.. .In the remaining chapters, the reader is then taken through three centuries of British colonial rule; through slavery , Emancipation. in the 19th century, anf finally in the 20th century, to Adult Suffrage in 1944 and Independence in 1962. Of special interest is the photograph of the civic reception in the Lucea town centre (1966) when large crowds turned out to greet Her Royal Highness - Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.