formerly overspread with wood and withes when the English first settled upon it, and which grew so thick that it was impossible to walk among them without a cutlass to clear the way. This is the part which, on account of its rich soil, was afterwards filled with indigo and sugar works, the opulence of whose owners is spoken of by several writers; and though it has been called in question by some, yet it is very certain that more carriages of pleasure were at one time kept there than in all the rest of the island, Spanish Town only excepted. It is indeed almost incredible to think that vast fortunes were made here by cultivation of this simple commodity. And in describing the cultivation of Jamaica: There were formerly upwards of seventy gentlemen’s carriages kept in the parish of Vere, the vast profits of their indigo works enabled them to live in such splendour; and that part of the country for its number of houses and inhabitants, on both sides of the Rio Minho resembled a populous town. One may compare with this Rampini’s account of 1873, just one hundred years later than Long: How can we describe the unutterably bare and barren character of the scenery between the Alley and Four Paths, our half-way station on the road to Chapelton? Dusty roads, bordered with stunted logwood trees for miles; then dusty roads without the logwood trees; then a dry river course full of rough stones, which broke our buggy springs, and delayed us an hour to have them tied up with ropes and branches; then more dusty roads and logwood trees, and then dusty roads without logwood trees as before. Not a bird to be seen, not a butterfly on the wing; not a bit of colour, except a stray orchid or two, to break the drear monotony of the landscape. Rampini evidently visited Vere during a period of drought; or when he was suffering from dyspepsia. Withywood appears as Wither Wood in Blome’s map of 1671, which is copied in Long’s History as “according to a survey made in the year MDCLXX.” The name does not appear on modern maps, though it was used as late as 1728 in the Journals of the House of Assembly. The village that has arisen around the old church is now known as Alley. Remains of the old indigo works are still to be seen here and there in the cane pieces, and indigo grows as a weed. There cotton was formerly cultivated extensively. As late as 1808 Vere had some cotton plantations, while at the same time there were thirty sugar estates. Cotton is again being grown there. Vere, from 1673 to 1867, was a distinct parish of Jamaica, albeit it lost part of its area when Manchester was formed in 1814.