The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1903-11-20
JAMAIyA'S Ny STERY
TIE FINGER OF FATE IN THe FALL
OF HER CAPITALS.

IAlSlSEs "a !EST SikaCs-A wa
of Them Vanished Utterly From OF
the Face of the Earth.
There exists in jamaica, IN the West
Indies, a universal superstition that Il
curse rests upon any town chosen to be
its capital. Since 1909, when the first
chief city WaS founded. no fewer than
three capitals have LVrn ruined i'll mys-
trriuus and tragic ways. Two have
vanished utterly from the face Of the
Garth Some Of the more SupCrstitious
of tie coIoniStS. brooding over the
strange history of their country, fear
that Kingston, the present capital, Il
city of 1o,0GO inhabitants, will share
the fate of its predecessors.
The first capital was Sevilla Nuevu
(Ncw Sevillel, otherwise called Seville
d'Gro Uhc Golden ScvillcJ. on account
Of its marvellous wealth. 1t was found
ed by Don Juan Il Esquivel and Diego,
Il son of Christopher Columbus. In a
few years il became the greatest Span
ssh city in the new world. Thither
fiocked the blue biooded but impecuni-
Gus mobiles of CASTLE, eager TO rebuild
their family fortunes at the expense Of
the poor Arawak.
Cathedrals, palaces and monasteries.
rivaling those of Spain in splendor,
were erected. The marble streets were
crowded with Gayly clad courtiers and
Indian slaves, who toiled for them ana
brought them tribute from mine and
jungle.
Then, in night. the city vanished,
and no one can tell today what hap
penCd to 1t. No survivors and no rec
ords were left behind to tell the tale.
Today one can see, buried in tropical
jungle, a mile of marble pavement and
few broken columns and arches.
Nothing else remains of the Golden
Seville, once so prosperous and SPLEEN
did. except a few contradictory ma
tive traditions. These traditions va
riously ascribe the destruction of the
city and its inhabitants to mutiny of
the oppressed Indians, an earthquake,
Il sudden visitation of millions of red
ants and an attack by French buc-
cancers. The very memory of what
was once the greatest city of the new
world has almost persisted. Even in
jamaica few people know anything
about the Golden Seville.
The Spaniards made Saint Jago de la
Vega, now called Spanish Town. their
second capital. Time and again it was
devastated by hurricane and plague,
harassed by Indian revolts or ransack-
ed by adventurous picaroons. Gradu-
ally it sank from its high estate until
now it is merely Il sGualid village.
When the English conquered the is
land they made Port Royal their real
capital though Spanish Town remain
cd for some time the official seat Of
government The emporium of the In
dies and the Spanish main, the market
for the i'll gotten gains of 10000 buc-
cancers. Port Royal soon became the
richest and wickpdest city of the new
world At the height of its splcndor
and its vice it was destroyed within
the space of two minutes by an earth
quake.
The ground opening in Several
Places at once" wrote an eyewitness
in 1862, Il few days after the catastro-
phe, Swallowed up Multitudes Of Peo-
pie together, whole Streets sinking I'M
der water with Men. Women and Chill
dren in them; and those Houses which
but Just now appeared the Fairest and
Loftiest in these Parts and might vie
with the Finest Buildings in the World
were in Il moment Sunk in the Earth,
and nothing to be seen of them; such
Crying, such Shrieking and Mourning
l never heard, nor could anything in
my opinion appear more Terrible to
the Eye of Man. Here a Company of
People Swallowed up at once; there Il
whole Street tumbling down, and in
Another Place the Trembling Earth
opening her Ravcnous Jaws, let in the
Mcrcil1Ss Sea, so that this Town is be
come Il Heap of Ruins. Several Peo-
pie were Swallowed up of the Earth,
when, the Sea breaking i'll before the
Earth could Close, they were washed
up again and Miraculous!y saved from
PeriShing. Others the Earth received
up to their Nccks, and then Closed
Death, with their Heads above Ground,
many OF which the Dogs Eat; Multi
tudcs of People Floating up and down,
having no Burial. The Burying Place
at the Palisadocs is quite Destroyed,
the Dead Bodies being washed out of
their Graves, their Tombs beat to
Pieces ANA they floating up and down;
Sf,,f
fered.
The Earth hath still fits of Shaking,
with very much Thunder and Light
ming, and dreadful Weather; yet this
had so little effect upon some People
here that III" very same Night they
were at their Old Trade of Drinking
and Swearing; breaking up Ware
houses; Pillaging and Stealing from
their Ncighbors. even while the Earth
quake lasted, and several of them were
destroyed in the very Act; and indeed
this Place has been one Of the LudeSt
in the Christian World, a sink of all
flthincSs, and mere Sodom."
Old Port Royal lies buried beneath
the sea. The present town of Port
Royal, place of no Importance except
as Il coaling station, was built after
the earthquake. fire and a landslide
having destroyed the few houses left
standing.
Kingston was not founded until the
early part # the eighteenth century,
but it has already been thrice destroy
ed by fire and several times ravaged
by hurricanes. The inhabitants nat
urally wonder what catastrophe will
happen next.
Taking and Giving.
onp,tp SoiI ulilpCnnhpI'