The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-15
ROMANCE N WAR.

correspondents in southern waters arr
too busy with the stern realities which
confront them to pay much heed tt
beauties which under other circum'
stances might inspire them to dainty
bits Of descriptive writing.
To illustrate my point, l shall quote
from a dispatch dated from Kingston
jamaica, which reached New York last
week. For two days. writes this
correspondent. our dispatch BOAT has
been lying here in the beautiful har-
Dor OF Kingston, Under the clear blue
water a few fathoms beneath her keeI
sleeps the sunken city of Port Royal.
Not a stones throw from our boat a
red buoy marks the spot where the old
city's cathedral sank and where the
spire still reaches up nearly to the
surface
That was all. That was the only ref
erence to a subject rich in historical
lore n the possibilities of unwritten
nan How little is known of the
mysterious city beneath the waves of
Kingston harbor, a city which at once
suggests the hidden wonders of abled
Atlantis, which Jules Verne has de-
scribed with such a wealth of imagery
in his Twenty Thousand Leagues I'm
der the Sea-" But Atlantis was prob
ably a myth, while Port Royal is not.
nj traveller who visits the capital
of Jamaica should pray for clear wealth.
err, without wind. When the water OF
the harbor is ruft,ed by breezes the hid
den city is obscured from view. But
on a cloudless, still day, when the sur
face of the sea is perfectly smooth,
the ruins of the phantom city may be
plainly seen even 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 thar of the tinny inhabitants Of
the sea. Occasionally glimpses can be
had of the ruins of other buildings
buildings which for more than two GEN.
turtles nave kept their CHASTITY secrets
and will keep them until the end of
time.
Down there, in that peaceful depth,
lie the bones of three thousand men,
women and children, carried down into
the sea with their homes on that awful
June day in 1892. An earthquake, sud
denly and without warning, smOte the
profligate city of Port Royal, which slid
into the sea. The waters opened and
swallowed it up, and there, beneath the
silent waves, was hidden the wicked
ness and debauchery of a community
described by historians as being al
most without parallel.
The survivors said it was the VEN
geance of God, and likened it to the de-
struction 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 it's time it has dwindled into insig-
nificance, until now it s a most wretch
ed place, used only as a naval station.
Disaster after disaster has Overtaken it.
After the earthquake the town was
rebuilt, only to be completely Destroy
ed by fire in 1903. On August 20, 1922, it
was swept into the sea by a hurricane.
1t was once more reconstructed, but
again, in 1915, it was reduced to ashes,
and as recently 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 a narrow strip of land ex-
tending out into the sea, which ac-
counts for it's 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 sea when the
earthquake came.
Previous to that fateful seventh day
of June, 1922, Port Royal lac been known
as 1.-The finest town in the West Indies,
and the richest spot in the world" 1t
was, as it now it, a British colony, but
there was little either in it's govern
ment or its customs, of British NOR
atty. We are told that it was a place
of luxurious de~bauchery: that in their
excuses the %cOlonists rivalled the prof
ligates 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 liter
ally rolling in wealth and splendor.
'chanalian revels 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 ele-
ments sounded in the ears Of the
needless jewellers. The earth opened
in great assures, and closed again like
h jaws of a mighty trap. And in
closing it gripped many of it's victims
in the middle, leaving their hands
sliding, grinding noise, as the city.
built upon its foundation of sand, sank
into the caressing embrace Of the sea,
which forever closed upon it's wicked
ness and will forever keep it's dread Sc
.crets.
The shock came close on to midday.
The air was hot and sultry. The sky
was without a cloud. A great stiffness
seemed to hover over the city, and
then, without warning, the earth
trembled. Men Inc 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 1928, Rev. George Wilson Bridges
quotes from a letter written by one
of the survivors-a rector-two or three