The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-15
FArE's FINGER IN JAMAICA.
Fall of Her Capitals-Mystery and Tragedy in the History of
 Ruined Cities.
New York Mall and Express.

New York Mall and Express.
 The hurricane which recently swept Ja-
 maica, in the British West Indies, re. wives a superstition that a curse rests up-
 on any town chosen to be its capital. Since 1909. when the first chief city was found | ed, no fewer than three capitals have | been ruined in mysterious and gic
 ways. Two have vanished utterly from
 the face of the earth. Some of the more
 over the strange history of their country. fear that Kingston |. the present capital. a city of 7O.0oo inhabitants win share the fate of its predecessors.
 The first capital was Savilla Neuva, (New Seville) otherwise called Seville D'Oro, (the Golden Seville,) on account of it's marvellous wealth. It was founded by Don Juan D'Esauivel. and Diego, a son of Christopher Columbus. Tn a few years 1t became the greatest Spanish city in the New World. Thither fiocled the blue blooded but impecunious nobles of Cas- tile, eager to rebuild their family for tunes at the expense of the poor Arawak: thither, too. went cowled monks and som bre Inquisitors, to save the Arawak'a soul.
 Cathedrals. palaces and T1lonasteries, rivalling those of Spain in splendor, were erected. The marble streets were crowded with gayly clad courtiers and Indian slaves, who toiled for them and brought them tribute from mine and Jungle.
 Then, in a night, the city vanished, and no one can tell today. what happened to 1t. No survivors and no records were left behind to tell the tale. Today one can see, buried in tropical jungle, a mile of marble pavement and a few broken col umns and arches Nothing else remains of the Golden Seville, once so prosperous and splendid, except a few contradictory native traditions. These traditions vart- ously ascribe thes destruction of the city and its inhabitants to a mutiny of the oppressed Indians, an earthquake. a sud den visitation of millions of red ants and an attack by French buccaneers The very memory of what was once the great est city of tho New World has almost perished. Even in Jam0ica 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 1t was devastated by hurricane and plague. har- rassed by Indian revolts or ransacked by adventurous picaroons. Gradually 1t sank from its high estate until now 1t Is merely a squalid village.
 When the English conquered the island they made Port Royal their real capital. though Spanish Town remained for some time the official seat of government. The emporium of the Indies and the Spanish main. the market for the ill-gotten gains of 10000 buccaneers, Port Royal soon be- came the richest and wickedest city of the New World. At the height of its splen- dor and It's vice 1t was destroyed within tho space of two minutes by an earth quake.
 The ground opening in several places at once." wrote an eyewitness in 1892. few days after the catastrophe, "swal- lowed up Multitudes of People together. whole Streets sinking under water with Men, Women and Children in them; and those Houses which but just now appear ed the Fairest and Loftiest- in these Parts. and might vie with the Finest