detect incipient disease, and studying
with ardour and intelligent attention the varied phenomena of
tropical maladies. Four years thus passed profitably away, and they
would have been as pleasant as profitable, but for one circumstance.
The existence of slavery and its concomitant horrors appears to have
made a deep impression on Jackson's mind, and, at last, to have
produced in him such sentiments of disgust and abhorrence, that he
resolved on quitting the island altogether, and, as the phrase is,
trying his luck in North America, where the revolutionary war was
then raging. This resolution--due perhaps, as much to his love of
travel as to the motive assigned--was not altogether unfortunate,
for shortly after his departure, October 3, 1780, Savana-la-Mar was
totally destroyed, and the surrounding country for a considerable
distance desolated, by a terrible hurricane and sweeping inroad of
the sea, in which Dr King, his family and partner, together with
numbers of others, unhappily perished.

The law of Jamaica forbade any one to leave the island without
having given previous notice of his intention, or having obtained
the bond of some respectable person as security for such debts as he
might have outstanding. Jackson, when he embarked for America, had
no debts whatever, and was, moreover, ignorant of the law, with
whose requirements therefore he did not comply. Nor did he become
aware of his mistake until, when off the easternmost point of the
island, the master of the vessel approached him and said: 'We are
now, sir, off Point-Morant; you will therefore have the goodness to
favour me with your security-bond. It is a mere legal form, but we
are obliged to respect it.' Finding this 'legal form' had not been
complied with, the master then, in spite of Jackson's protestations
and entreaties, set him on shore, and the vessel continued on her
voyage. What was to be done? Almost penniless, landed on a part of
the coast where he knew not a soul, Jackson well-nigh gave himself
up to despair. There was a vessel for New York loading, it was true,
at Lucea; but Lucea was 150 miles distant, on the westernmost side
of the island, and not to be reached by sea, whilst our adventurer's
purse would not suffer him to hire a horse. No choice was left him
but to walk, and that in a country where the exigencies of the
climate make pedestrianism perilous in the extreme to the white man.
Having reached Kingston, which was in the neighbour