Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Part One: Early Jamaican Creole -- Introduction -- 1. The Colonial Crucible -- 2. Source Materials -- 3. Reconstructing the Sound System -- 4. Morphosyntax and Lexicon -- 5. Language Variation -- 6. Implications of the Data -- Part Two Data and Commentary -- 7. The Late Seventeenth Century -- Text 1. Sir Hans Sloane, A Voyage to . . . the Islands Madera, Barbados, . . . and Jamaica -- A. Angolan Chant -- B. Koromanti Chant -- 8. The Eighteenth Century -- Text 2. The Importance of Jamaica to Great Britain Consider'd in a Letter to a Gentleman -- Early Fragment -- Text 3. A Short Journey in the West Indies -- A. An Old Man of the Late Eighteenth Century -- B. White Creole Child -- Text 4. J. B. Moreton, West India Customs and Manners -- Song: Hipsaw! My Deaa! -- 9. The Early Nineteenth Century -- Text 5. Captain Hugh Crow, Memoirs -- Song Made by the People of Colour in Jamaica on Captain Hugh Crow -- Text 6. Walter Jekyll, Jamaican Song and Story -- Brother Annancy and Brother Death -- Text 7. Montgomery -- or, The West Indian Adventure -- The Slave and the New Buckera -- Text 8. Matthew G. Lewis, Journal of a West India Proprietor -- A. Eerie -- B. Song at Cornwall Estate -- Text 9. Song. "Quaco Sam" -- Text 10. Cynric R. Williams, A Tour through the Island of Jamaica in the Year 1823 -- A. Sermon at a Funeral -- B. Song. Hi! De Buckra, Hi! -- Text 11. Marly, or a Planter's Life in Jamaica -- A. Kirstening -- B. Sermon -- C. Song: "The Woodpecka" -- Text 12. Michael Scott, Tom Cringle's Log -- A. A Black Sailor -- B. The Black Pilot -- Text 13. [Bernard Martin Senior], Jamaica as It Was, as It Is, and as It May Be -- Arguing with Massa -- Text 14. James M. Phillippo, Jamaica: Its Past and Present State -- A. Letter from John Duglass -- B. Letter from Richard Bullock -- C. A Deacon's Prayer.

Text 15. Richard Robert Madden, A Twelvemonth Residence in the West Indies -- A. The Language of Flattery -- B. Mathew's Oration -- Text 16. James Williams, Narrative of the Cruel Treatment . . . of a Negro Apprentice -- An Apprentice's Testimony -- 10. The Later Nineteenth Century -- Text 17. Henry G. Murray, Manners and Customs of the Country a Generation Ago -- Mudfish and Watchman -- Text 18. [Henry G. Murray], in "Creole Folklore from Jamaica" -- A. The Origin of Woman -- B. Song. Oh! What Do My Buddy, O! -- Text 19. William George Hamley, Captain Clutterbuck's Champagne -- A. A Black Sailor's Yarn -- B. A Brown Nurse -- Text 20. Captain Mayne Reid, The Maroon -- A. The Myal Man and the Parlormaid -- B. The Myal Man and the Jew -- Text 21. Thomas Russell, The Etymology of Jamaica Grammar -- Text 22. C[harles] Rampini, Letters from Jamaica -- Love Letters -- Text 23. Mary Pamela Milne-Home, Mamma's Black Nurse Stories -- Anansi and Alligator -- Text 24. Cumina Chant: "Tange Lange Jeni" -- Cumina Chant -- The Odamttens' Glosses -- Vincent Odamtten's Verse Translation -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.