Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-03-07
THE PIRATES CAPITAL.
The Terrible Fate That Befell One of the
Wiekedest Cities In the World


wiekedest Cities In the World.
From the Boston Herald.
When the Spaniards were driven from
Jamaica they left behind them a number of
slaves, who sought shelter in the mountains
ard defied the authorities. These bandits were
nearly exterminated soon after the English &C.
cupation. but the remnant later grew to be
powerful and greatly troubled the colony They
are known rs the Maroons, and the story Of
their desperate struggles for freedom of the
privileges wrung from the whites. and Of their
assistance in suppressing the rising Of the
blacks in 1855 reads like romance. Six hum
dred OF these troublesome marauders were
transported to Nova Scotia. The descendants
OF the ancient Naroons are even to this day a
separate people and still enjoy the privileges
granted to their ancestors.
Pirates and their bloodthirsty deeds have fur
nished 80 often the plot and theme for the
melodramatist and the dime novelist that one
hesitates to write about them in sober earnest
But they were no myths in jamaica, and no
account of Jamaicas past. however brief can
omit reference 70 the part they played in its
history. especially as the most dreadful calam-
ity that ever visited the island is connected
with them.
The jamaican pirates generally sought to
throw over their marau1ing and pillaging ex-
petitions the sanction of legal authority by OBJ
tanning letters of marque. but they were never
tneless, pirates. pure and simple. One chief
after another secured tine Spanish main, cap
turing vessels, usually Spanish. on the high
seas, and when the ocean did not offer enough
10 satisfy his cupidity and love of adventure
attacked cities and towns having waste with
hre and sword aud committing horrible barbar-
ities and eruelties- Nothing sacred to these
human devils and We; they were tolerated for
many years by the Jamaican authorities. The
Island prohted by their expeditions and the
last half OF the seventeenth century witnessed
prosperity as great As it was wicked and de-
mOraliZing.
| Port ROYAL was the capital OF the pirate en-
pire and the Marooners filed IL with wealth
and de5aUchery. There they maintained in
seml-barbaric state their great establishments
lhey lived like men who. with the wealth of
princes, did not know when they might die.
ana who had no fear of God or man Imaoi-
4 nation can hardly picture the character of the
Popnlace OF that little city under the sun or
the he within its walls. To il came the reck-
less. the desPerate. the men most skilled in viii
4 lalny. With them they brought the spoils of
richly laden Spanish gaIleons bound home with
/ silver and gold. the ransoms of cities and whole
! provinces, and fleets of merchant vessels
/ ;reighted with rich stGifs from ali the markcts
Of the world All this and more was po,,reI
into Port Royal and was spent with a layish-
ness and extravaganza that is possible oniy
with treasure bought at 30 sligh. cost as that
J OF human life.
| Nothing seemed lacking to make it the wick
! paw pA c<sA IN ..tt tnf NtilSttuc6 OF the
Lord apparently passed il by. But il was only
for season. One day the earth opened and in
two minutes the city, it's palaces and its novels
lay at the bottom OF the sea- Thousands of the
inhabitants persisted with their ILL gotten gains,
and the unburied dead. floating In the harbor
/ or heaped upon the land under a tropical sun,
bred a horrible pestilence that carried of thou
sands OF those who escaped the earthquake.
Today the waters OF the bay hide from sight
the ancient city. Was ever retributive justice
| more terrible or complete?
Romantic aad exciting as were the lives OF
| all these buccaneers, that of Henry Morgan,
the greatest OF the freebooters was the most
SO. From n white slave in the Barbados,
| where ne had been sold into servitude, he be-
came: hrs', the most daring and successful Of
the pirates and later q knight, and, as lieu
tenant governor Of Jamaica. the ruler Of that
| island At the sacking Of Panama he obtained
| 10 mule loads of treasure. The governor who
gave him his commission was recalled for that
act, but Morgan was knighsed and, az Sir
henry, turned his back upon his former COM
panions and made most popular governor Of
the colony.