The Democratic advocate., 1898-07-09
Port Royal.
From the New York World.

gentle muses. wing CneT ulSSnI peloIe IHc
deafening roar of cannon and the rattle
of musketry The newspaper correspond
ents in Southern waters are too busy with
the stern realities which confront them to
pay much heed to beauties which, under
other circumstances, might inspire them
to dainty bits of descriptive writing.
TO illustrate my point | shall quote from
despatch dated from Kingston, Jamaica,
which reached New York last week ''For
two days, writes this correspondent, ''our
despatch boat has been lying here in the
beautiful harbor Of Kingston. Under the
clear blue water few fathoms beneath
her keel sleeps the sunken city of Port
Royal. Not a stones throw from our
boat red buoy swings and rocks in the
moonlight 1t marks the spot where the
old city's cathedral sank and where the
spire still reaches up nearly to the sur
face. -
That was all. That was the only refer
ence to a subject rich in historical lore and
the possibilities of unwritten romance.
How little is known of the mysterious city
beneath the waves of the Kingston harbor,
a city which at once suggests the hidden
wonders of tabled Atlantis, which Jules
Verne has described with such a wealth of
imagery in his Twenty Thousand Leagues
Under the Sea But Atlantic was prob
ably myth, while Port Royal is not.
The traveller who visits the capital of
Jamaica should pray for clear weather,
without wind. When the water of the
harbor is ruffied by breezes the hidden city
is obscured from view But on cloud
less, still day, when the surface Of the sea
is perfectly smooth the ruins of the phan
tom city may be plainly seen in the depths
of the transparent water.
The spire of the old cathedral is the
most prominent object In the clear water
you can see the fishes, lazily swimming in
and out among the ruined turrets, more
suggestive of owls and bats than Of the
fnny inhabitants of the sea. Occasionally
olmpses can be had of the ruins of other
buildings buildings which for more than
two centuries have kept their ghastly Sc
crets, and will keep them until the end of
time.
Down there, in that peaceful depth, lie
the bones of 5000 men, women and chill
dren. carried down into the sea with their
homes on that awful June day in 1892.
An earthquake, suddenly and without
warning, smote the profigate city of Port
Royal which slid into the sea. The wat
ers opened and swallowed it up, and there,
beneath the silent waves, was hidden the
wickedness and debauchery of Il commu
uity described by historians as being al
most without parallel.
The survivors said it was the vengeance
of God, and likened it to the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah And in very
truth the history of the city seems to show
the unceasing wrath Of divine power.
From the richest city of its time it has
dwindled into insi9nifcance, until now it
is most wretched place, used only as
naval station. Disaster after disaster has
overtaken it.
After the earthquake the town was re-
built, only to be completely destroyed by
fire in 1903. On August, 1922, it was
swept into the sea by hurricane. Itwas
once more reconstructed, but again, in
1915. it was reducedtO ashes, and as re-
Gently as 1880 it was visited by another
hurricane Every disaster was attended
by great loss of life
The city Of Port Royal was originally
built upon IA narrow strip Of land extend
ing out into the sea, which accounts for
its strange disappearance at the time Of
the earthquake. Like the house of the
foolish man of Biblical lore, which was
builded upon the sand, it literally slid into
the water when the earthquake shock
came.
Previous to that fateful 9TH day of June,
1892, Port Royal had been known as ''the
finest town in the West Indies, and the
richest spot in the world. 1t was, as it
now is, British colony, but there was
little, either in its government or its Gus
toms. of British morality We are told
that it was a place of luxurious debauch-
cry; that in their excesses the colonists
rivalled the profigates of ancient Rome.
Buccaneering and piracy were recog-
nized industries. The treasure ships Of
Spain were legitimate prey The riches
of Mexico and Peru were levied upon, and
the people of Jamaica were literally roll
ing in wealth and splendor. Vice and de-
bauchery held sway Bacchanalian reyels,
which might put to shame the dwellers in
the Orient, were Of nightly occurrence
There was no virtue.
And like the crack of doom came the
earthquake, The thunder of the elements
sounded in the ears of the needless revel-
lers. The earth opened in great assures.
and closed again like the jaws of mighty
trap. And in closing it gripped many of
its victims in the middle, leaving their
hands above ground. Then came the aw-
full sliding, grinding noise as the city, built
upon its foundation of sand, sank into the
caressing embrace of the sea, which forever
closed upon its wickedness and will forever
keep its dread secrets.
The shock came close on to midday
The air was hot and sultry. The sky was
without cloud. A great stiffness seemed
to hover over the city, and then, without
warning, the earth trembled. Men and
women left their houses and ran into the
streets, only to meet death in the bowels
of the earth or in the hidden recesses of
the sea.
In his "Annals of Jamaica, published
in 1923, Rev. George Wilson Bridges
quotes from letter written by one of the
survivors, rector-two Or three days af-
ter the disaster, which is, in part, as fol-
lows
''After had been at church reading.
which | did every day since 1 was rectsr
of this place, to keep up some show of re-
ligion, and was gone to place hard by
the church where the MERCHANTS meet. and
where the President off the Council was,