The Royal Mail Steamers of the British and African Steam Navigation Co., conjointly with the steamers of the African Steam Ship Co., sail from Liverpool three times a week for the Canary Islands and the West Coast of Africa, and from Hamburg and Rotterdam weekly. [Illustration: Sailboat in harbor] [Illustration: R.M.S. PORT ROYAL. Imperial Direct West India Mail Service, Ltd.] CHAPTER IV. IMPERIAL DIRECT WEST INDIA MAIL SERVICE, LIMITED. For years the Island of Jamaica, the Pearl of the Antilles, had been decadent, its planters cast down and despairing because it was impossible, owing to the heavily subsidized continental beet sugar, to grow cane sugar at a profit. And, although physicians in the United States were sending their patients to seek renewed health and energy “from the balmy breezes laden with health giving ozone which blow over the island,” British Life Insurance offices placed a black mark against Jamaica, and demanded an additional premium from their policy holders for permission to visit its shores. But the dark commercial cloud is passing, and the island has entered upon an era of prosperity which bids fair to be greater and more permanent than even the golden days of the sugar planter. It is an open secret that for this the Jamaicans are indebted in great measure to the enterprise of Messrs. Elder, Dempster and Co., who have practically created the demand in Great Britain for Jamaica grown fruits, and who have established a service of swift steamers, specially built for the trade. This Line of steamers, which is known as the Imperial Direct West India Mail Service although only established in the first year of the present century, has already achieved a remarkable success. In addition to bringing to England over 50,000 bunches of bananas per month, as well as other West Indian fruits, tobacco, coffee, sugar, rum, and other varieties of tropical produce, the steamers carry a large and increasing number of passengers each voyage between Great Britain and the colony. The home port of the steamers is Avonmouth, near Bristol, from which a fortnightly sailing is maintained throughout the year to Kingston (Jamaica), but it is probable that the service will soon be increased to a weekly one. In recognition of the invaluable services rendered by these steamers both to the Empire and to the colony, their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales paid a visit of inspection to the R.M.S. PORT ROYAL, at Avonmouth, on the 5th March, 1902.