1756:

Starting at Plantain Garden River, to the southeast, there is a shore road north and west to Port Antonio and on to Annotto Bay. This is evidently the survival of the Indian Trail followed by Don Diego Mendez when he went in search of food for the 212 men marooned in Don Christopher’ Cove, St. Anne’s. No road shows through the Blue Mountains. From Annotto Bay this shore road turns inwardly, exactly as it does today, to Port Maria and inland to Oracabessa. From Anotto Bay a road is shown back to Spanish Town by St. Thomas in the Vale. From Plantain Garden River inland, cutting off Morant Point, the road follows the shore to Port Morant with a connecting road to Bath and the Hot Springs ending at Hot Springs. There are various roads out of Kingston. The map is by Richard Jones, Engineer, and well executed for that date.

One road out of Kingston goes toward Annotto Bay but not to it. Then there is a main road to Spanish Town with a fork to Annotto Bay and a left fork to Mount Diablo, Shaw Park and St. Anne’s Bay, and still a middle fork between them and Oracabessa. The shore road ends at Oracabessa and does not take up on the north shore until you reach Shaw Park where it goes on to St. Anne’s Bay, Seville and so to Martha Brae and to Montego Bay. There is a separate road from Spanish Town to Passage Fort where four houses and five warehouses are shown, as well as five wharves. There is a main road from Kingston to Spanish Town and a main road continuing west from Spanish Town to Old Harbour, forking at Clarendon Park. The south road goes to Alligator along the shore. There is apparently no such road today. From Alligator Pond a road goes directly north to the Maroon settlement, meeting the other road forking from Clarendon which itself forks at a Savannah, the north branch joining the Alligator Pond road and the south branch forking round back to Black River to join the Alligator Pond road again with a branch north to the forks, south of the Maroon settlement.

From Black River the shore road goes to Savannah La Mar and on to Lucie and so on to Montego Bay. Just east of Savannah La Mar is a straight road as it is today to Montego Bay. There are no through roads to Martha Brae, nor to the head of Montego River, nor does any road show from Martha Brae up the Martha Brae River. There is no road whatever through the Queen’s Valley from any direction, nor is there any road to Bluefields from Martha Brae, as shows on some earlier maps. The main feature of this map is the fact that there is a shore road practically encircling the Island, or even between Milk River and Alligator Pond.

1780:

On a map published in Madrid in 1780, by D. Tomas Lopez, Royal Geographer of Spain, this shore road above described is practically continuous until one reaches the west side of Black River and a road goes directly north and west to Black River and on to Bluefields. There is apparently no general change in these roads except that the road from Kingston to the north has three branches - one going to Annotto Bay, one going to Oracabessa, and one going to Shaw Park and on to Seville. From Savannah La Mar there are three roads, all going finally to Lucie and the one going straight to Barnet Town on Montego Bay. However, Savannah La Mar is noted as being alias Oristan which is very interesting, no Oristan being noted on Bluefields Bay. On this map there are only two roads from Kingston into the Blue Mountain Region, both dead ends.

1775:

From a larger map of Jamaica, dated 1775, by Thomas Jefferys, the shore road around the island is practically the same but there is a new road out of Kingston, directly north into Little White River, east of Buff Bay, and there is a road also connecting the Kingston and Bath road in St. Thomas in the East through the Blue Mountains to Nanny Town and Port Antonio. There is also shown a road from Bath directly joining this last road north of the Blue Peak. Today this road above Bath is merely a trail. It could never have been anything more than a trail.

This map also shows the old Spanish Road as far as Spaniard’s House, and two roads out of Montego Bay to the east, both returning to the north shore. Then there is a road from Montego to Furrys Town and Trelawny Town and from Trelawny Town back to Martha Brae. From Furrys Town there are two roads forking south, one going to Accompongs Town to join many other roads in the Nassau Mountains and in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

As this map was published five years before the Spanish map, it shows that the Spanish map was taken from very much older information.  The road from Spanish Town directly into Ocho Rios is shown with several branches, one of which finally reaches the coast in three branches – one to Rio Nuevo, one to Salt Gutt and one to Port Maria. Salt Gutt is just west of Oracabessa. This Jefferys map practically shows all the island roads up to 1775.

Last Updated on 06/02/1999 By David Bromfield dbromfield@ucsd.edu RETURN