Enslaved African inspires Jamaica’s first tourist resort and botanical gardens at Bath

TONI-ANN SINGH in her capacity as Miss World Jamaica might have brought some attention to the district of Bath (where she lived for a while), located in the eastern parish of St Thomas; but it was Jacob, the run-away enslaved African who inadvertently brought the world to Bath, St Thomas, over 300 years before the world knew of Singh’s existence.

In the later 1600s, Jacob had resided on Stanton Estate (owned by Colonel Stanton), where he was treated inhumanely. His body was covered with canker and ulcers, perhaps acquired through whipping and skin infections. He left the plantation to hide in the Sulphur River gorge, located on Stanton’s land.

There, he found a pool of hot water in which he would regularly soak his body. The hot water had been seeping from rocks above a stream that travelled south. Over time the sores were healed as unbeknownst to him, the water had healing properties.

Jacob took the risk and returned to Colonel Stanton to tell of his serendipity, and that was the beginning of a long period of the region being a popular place for the gentry and other people of influence. The hot water was much sought after by Europeans who had all sorts of ailments.

In 1699, Colonel Stanton sold the springs and the adjoining 1,130 acres of land to the Government for £400, and by the 1720s the springs had become popular with ailing people from all over Jamaica, and Europe.

Amenities, such as a hospital and hot water baths, residences, and lodgings subsequently sprang up, giving rise to the establishment of the town of Bath on the bank of the Plantain Garden River, half a mile to the south of the springs, to which people suffering from gout, rheumatism, stomach problems, fever, skin disorders, etc, would turn for help.

Bath evolved into a social hotspot, a resort for the rich and famous, a scene of festivities and merriment, and even the notorious Henry Morgan, it is said, visited. Port Royal, for all its debauchery and charm, didn’t have the paradisical appeal that Bath had.

One source says, “Bath also became a buccaneer weekend playground for the likes of Captain Sir Henry Morgan and his gambling cohorts, who, in amorous indulgence, visited bath whenever in Jamaica … Bath was a necessity where ladies and gentlemen of the wealthy and elite got the opportunity to partake in the splendour, as well as the general overindulgence in food and drinks.”

And in 1779 Bath Botanical Gardens were established on one hectare of land after the original gardens in Gordon Town, St Andrew, were abandoned. Many exotic plants from Asia and other parts of the world were planted in Jamaica, first in this garden. It’s now regarded as the second oldest botanical garden in the Western Hemisphere, the oldest being in St Kitts, and a number of rare plants are still thriving in this over-200-year-old sanctuary.

Most of the trees have died, however. The property was prone to frequent flooding by the Sulphur River, coupled with insufficient nutrients in the soil. In 1862, many of the trees were removed to Castleton, in St Mary, where a new garden was established.

Bath Botanical Gardens have survived many more floods and weathered a few storms. The remaining trees, a few of which are found only in these gardens, are still grand and elegant, more so the royal palms, reaching way into the St Thomas sky, fanning the clouds with their ancient fronds.

To get to the fountains from Kingston you have to turn left at the entrance to the gardens. Many people walk along a hillside to get to the Sulphur River into which the hot water flows. At the foot of the hill there is the Bath Fountain Hotel and Spa that offers a variety of therapeutic services.

The glory days of Bath are long gone, but the hot water – containing calcium, magnesium, sodium, sulphate, bicarbonate, silicate and chloride – still flows. And the pilgrimage has no end in sight. The waters directly from the rocks are forever scorching and soothing. The young, old and in-between, residents and visitors, the healthy and the ailing are still benefitting from what the determined Jacob happened upon several centuries again.