The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-03-12
THE PIRATES, CAPITAL
The Terrible Fate that BefeIl One of
the Wfckedest Cities I'm the World.

The Terrible Fate that BefeII One of
the Wfckedest Cities I'm the World.
When the Spaniards were driven from Jamaica
they left behind them a number of slaves. who
sought shelter in the mountains and defied the an
thorities. These bandits were nearly exterm;
mated soon after the English occupation, but the
remnant later grew to be powerful and greatly
troubled the colony. They are known as the Ma
rooms. and the story of their desperate struggles
Tor freedom. of the privileges wrung from the
Whites and of their assistance in suppressine tho
rising OF the blacks in 1865. reads like a romance.
Six hundred of these troublesome marauders wera
transported to Nova Scotia. The descendants of
the ancient Maroons are even to this dav soma.
rate people, and still enjoy the privileges granted
to their ancestors.
Pirates and their bloodthirsty deeds have fur.
nshed so often the plot and theme for the meIo.
dramatist and the dime novelist that one hest
tates to write about them in sober earnest Rr+
they were no myths in Jamaica and no account
of Jamaica's past however br eff, can omit q ref
erence to the part they played in its history espe
cially as the most dreadful calam NV that ever
visited the island is connected with them.
The Jamaican pirates generally sought to throw
over their marauding and pillaging expeditions
the sanction of legal authority by obtain ing letters
OF marque, but they were. nevertheless, pirates.
pure and simple One chief after another scoured
the Spanish main. capturing vessels, usually
Spanish on the high seas. and when the ocean did
not offer enough to satisfy his cupidity and love of
adventure. attacked cities and towns, having
waste with fire and sword. and committing hor.
rible barbaritles and cruelties Nothing was sacred
TO these human devils. and yet they were toler-
ated for many years by the Jamaican authorities.
The island profited by their expeditions and the
last half of the seventeenth century witnessed q
prosperity as great as it was wicked and democrat
izing.
Port Royal was the capital of the pirate empire,
and the Marooners filed it with wealth and de-
bauchery. There they maintained in seminar
baric state their great establishments They lived
like men who. with the wealth of princes, did not
know when they might die. and who had no fear
OF God or man. Imagination hardly picture
the character of the populace of that little CITY
under the sun, the life within its walls. To it
came the reckless. the desperate, the men most
skilled in villainy With them they brought the
spoils of richly laden Spanish galleons bound home
with silver and gold the ransoms of cities and
whole provinces. and fleets of merchant vessels
freighted with rich stuffs from all the markets of
| the world. All this, and more was poured into
Port Royal. and was spent with lavishness and
extravaganza that is possible only with treasure
bought at so slight cost as that of human life
Nothing seemed lacking to make it the wicked.
est place on earth: yet the vengence of the Lord
apparently passed it by. But it was only for a
season. One day the earth opened and in two
minutes the city. its palaces and its novels lay at
the bottom of the sea. Thousands of the inhabit
ants persisted with their i'll gotten gains, and the
unburied dead floating in the harbor or heaped
upon the land under tropical sun, bred hor-
rible pestilence that carried off thousands of
those who escaped the earthquake. To-day the
waters of the bay hide from sight the ancient CITY,
Was ever retrbutive justice more terrible or com.
plete?
Romantic and exciting as were the lives of all
these buccaneers. that of Henry Morgan, the
greatest of the freebooters was the most So From
white slave in the Barbados where he had been
sold into servitude. he became. first. the most
daring and successful of the pirates. and later a
knight and as Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica
the ruler of that island. At the sacking of Pan
anna he obtained IT'S mule loads of treasure The
Governor who gave him his commission was re-
called for that act. but Morgan was knighted and.
as Sir Henry. turned his back upon his former
companions and made a most popular Governor
OF the cOlOny.-BOstOn Herald.