The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1904-01-01

pened TO 1t. No survivors and no rec
ords were left behind to tell the tale.
Today one can ssee, buried in tropical
jungle, mile of marble pavement and
a few broken columns and arches.
Nothing else remains of the Golden
Seville, once so prosperous and splen-
did, except a few contradictory ma
tive traditions These traditions va
rlously ascribe the destruction of the
city and its inhabitants to a mudny of
the oppressed Indians, an earthquake,
a 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 perished. 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 1t is merely a squalid village.
When the English conquered the is
land they made Port Royal their real
capital, though Spanish Town remain
ed 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 wickedest city of the new
world. At the height of its splendor
and its vice ii was destroyed within
the 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 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 moment Sunk in the Earth,
and nothing to be seen of them; such
Crying. such Shrieking and Mourning
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 a
whole Street tnmbling down, and in
Another Place the Trembling Earth
opening her Rayenous Jaws. let in the
Merciless Sea. so that this Town is be-
come a Heap Of Ruins. Several Peo-
pie were Swallowed up of the Earth,
when, the Sea breaking in before the
Earth could Close, they were washed
up again and Miraculously saved from
Perishing. Others the Earth received
up TO their Necks, and then Closed
upon them and squeezed them to
| Death, with their Heads above Ground,
many of which the Dogs Eat; Multi
tudes of People Floating up and down,
having no Burial The Burying Place
Mt the Palisades is quite Destroyed
the Dead Bodies being washed out OF
| their Graves. their Tombs beat to
Pieces and they floating up and down;
| il is sad to think how we have Suf-
/ 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 the very same Night they
were at their Old Trade of Drinking
and Swearing; breaking up Ware
houses; Pillaging and Stealing from
! their Neighbors. 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
I'm the Christian World, n sink of all
filthiness. and a mere Sodom."
Old Port Royal lies buried beneath
the sea. The present town of Port
Royal, place of no Importance except
as a eoaling station, was built after
the earthquake, n fire and landslide
having destroyed the few houses left
| standing.
Kingston was not founded until the
early part OF the eighteenth century,
but II has already been thrice destroy
| ed by fire and several times ravaged
by hurricanes. The inhabitants nat.
urally wonder what catastrophe will
| happen next