Arriving in Jamaica, he in 1774 became assistant to an eminent
general practitioner at Savana-la-Mar, Dr King, who was also in
medical charge of a detachment of the first battalion of the 60th
regiment. This latter he consigned to Jackson's care; and well
worthy of the trust did our young adventurer, though but twenty-four
years of age, approve himself--visiting three or four times a day
the quarters of the troops to detect incipient disease, and studying
with ardour and intelligent attention the varied phenomena of
tropical maladies. Four years thus passed profitably away, and they
would have been as pleasant as profitable, but for one circumstance.
The existence of slavery and its concomitant horrors appears to have
made a deep impression on Jackson's mind, and, at last, to have
produced in him such sentiments of disgust and abhorrence, that he
resolved on quitting the island altogether, and, as the phrase is,
trying his luck in North America, where the revolutionary war was
then raging. This resolution--due perhaps, as much to his love of
travel as to the motive assigned--was not altogether unfortunate,
for shortly after his departure, October 3, 1780, Savana-la-Mar was
totally destroyed, and the surrounding country for a considerable
distance desolated, by a terrible hurricane and sweeping inroad of
the sea, in which Dr King, his family and partner, together with
numbers of others, unhappily perished.
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