The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-11-10

onecGn stamps, to pay the
4 4, o, r e'a.5.'f sa as5s < /. y i
$SHss Cloth bound, 81 stamps.
and the Caribs of the Windward Islands,
went on their predatory excursions
against one another.
An English guard ship is stationed in
front of Port RoyaI-an old three decker
Haunting the broad white ensign among
three OF four gun boats and half dozen
tenders. There are batteries on the front
and batteries on the opposite shore;
| morning bugles We're ringing out inspir-
ingly, and sunbeams glinting upon gold
and silver lace and shining buttons and
accoulrements, as white coated men and
| officers passed to parade. No, it would
not be easy to take Jamaica, but all the
same it ought to belong to Uncle Samuel,
as companion piece to Cuba and Porto
Rico.
| At this entrance the channel is about
a mile wide, the open part of the lagoon
being perhaps seven miles long by as
many broad. The latter forms the mouth
of the Cobre river, the largest in Jamaica,
on which, ten miles up, stands Spanish
! Town, the original seat OF government,
established by the Spaniards soon after
| the conquest 1t was the fashion then
come down from the days Of Thucidydes
and continued to the end OF the last cen
tury-to build all important towns on
estuaries at a distance from the sea, for
greater security against pirates. The
Cobre river, running down from Spanish
Town, converted the plain through which
it flows into a swamp. The swamp is
covered with mangroye thickets, and the
mangroVes fringing the circuit of the
salt lagoon are encrusted with oysters.
/ What crowd of historic associations
haunt this place. Before the first hut
was built in Kingston, Port Royal was
the rendezvous for all the English ships
which sailed the Spanish Main for spoil
or commerce. Here, in later times,
whole fleets were gathered, to take in
stores, or to refit when shattered by en-
gagements; and here the Jolly buccaneers
sold their plumber and squandered their
i'll gotten gains in gambling and riot.
Here prizes were brought for adjudica-
ton, and pirates to be tried and hanged.
Here Nelson and Gordon ana Colling-
wood and Morgan and Drake all figured
in their time. Somehow such rollicking
cut threats do not seem like ordinary
murderers when their romantic adven-
lures and deeds of blood and lust are seen
through the glamour of two hundred
years. 1t is interesting to recall how
Morgan became dignitied and virtuous
Sir Henry" apilIar of church and State,
knighted by the crown for the services he
had rendered TO civilization.
At the sacking of Panama, you remem-
ber he got away with 175 mule-loads of
stolen treasure colossal golden key
which could not fail to unlock for him the
doors of responsibility, Having turned
his back upon his boon companions, this
red handed pirate became the most popu-
lar Governor of Jamaica and vigorous
prosecutor of petty thieves. His proto-
type is not altogether unknown to- day, in
various walks of life.
Since the day of its discovery, this reef
beset lagoon has been considered one of
the safest naval ports in the world, and
the narrow sand spit at its entrance the
key to the island. Whatever power pos
sessed puerto Real, controlled the har-
Dor and the capital of the island-'' San
Jago de la Niga,'' in the old days, re-
christened Kings Town after the great
earthquake of 1862. Thus, for many
years, Port Royal was the principal town
in jamaica if not in all the West Indies.
When the Spaniards were driven from the
island they left behind a great many
slaves. who sought shelter in the noun
tains and defied the authorities. These
bandits, much mixed with Spanish blood,
, We're nearly exterminated soon after the
English occupation; but later the rem
nant grew to be powerful and greatly dis
turbed the colony. They were "The Ma
roops," celebrated in song and story, and
the history of their desperate struggles for
freedom reads like romance. To-day
their descendants are a separate people,
and still enjoy the privileges granted to
their forefathers in consideration of their
services in suppressing an uprising of the
blacks. 1t would be hard to find a more
interesting people than the Jamaicans OF
this generation. The blacks, which swarm
Port Royal and Kingston, are like no other
negroes under the sun, yet have little
strains of the old Spanish mixture with
the Indians. The African blood, import
ed when slave labor was one of the bless
ings which white civilization thrust on the
heather, seems still to flow from an I'M