Hartley Neita, Contributor

Now that we are no longer measuring distances by miles, the mileposts which once told us how far we had travelled on our roads have either disappeared, and if they still remain anywhere, they are now irrelevant.

The 44th milepost on the road between Claremont and Bamboo in St Ann may still be there. I have not travelled that road for some time, so I do not know for sure. Over the years, the road has been widened and straightened and workmen might have dug it out of the roadside and thrown it away.

If it is no longer in place, a little known legend of Jamaica will have been displaced and like flesh has gone the way. This legend was often told by the late Brown's Town solicitor and businessman, H. Douglas Tucker. Up to the late 1960s, this road was unpaved. It was narrow and covered with marl and loose stones.

At the 44th milepost, the road had a slight tilt and many motor vehicles driven by strangers often slid off the road and ended up in a tree or the bank. And even after the road was asphalted, vehicles suddenly swerved at this point for no obvious reason and crashed. And the drivers always said that they felt an unseen force which tugged at the steering wheel to cause the accident.

'Donkey work'

Now this road was built by English soldiers after they conquered the island from the Spaniards some 350 years ago. It began in Spanish Town and passed through Lluidas Vale, Pedro and Bamboo and ended in Montego Bay. The estates it passed through provided slaves to "do the donkey work".

One of the slaves assigned to this work was named M'Gumbo. He was a prince in his native land, the Gold Coast, and had recently been brought to Jamaica with his teenage daughter.

She was a beauty. The soldier in charge of the work was a rough and uncouth man, and his eyes lit with lust when he saw the girl. One night she disappeared and when she returned battered and bruised the following morning, her father roared with rage and killed her. He searched for the soldier to kill him, but was shot. Father and daughter were buried at the site of the milepost.

The night they died, and for three succeeding nights, the slaves on the nearby properties lit bonfires on the top of the surrounding hills. All through the nights, they beat drums and sang memorial and mournful songs. Three days later, a boulder rolled down the hill and crushed the soldier. And none of the soldiers involved in the construction lived to see its end in Montego Bay.

Bonfires blaze

Since then, the strange accidents are said to take place where M'Gumbo and his daughter lie in their eternity. And according to the old residents who know the story, each time there is an accident at this spot, bonfires blaze in the memory of father and his daughter on the hilltops.

Fact or fiction? Truth? Or is it just a once-upon-a-time story that old people talk about in the dark and cold of the Bamboo village nights?