Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-26
MARKED By FATE
From the Chicago Tribune.


According to popular superstition. a hoo
doc hangs over any city which may chance
to be selected as the capital Of the Island
| Of jamaica And there seems to be some
ground for the belief that fate owes a
grudge and IL busily engaged in paying 1t
| against such municipalities. Since 1903.
when the first chief city was founded, no
fewer than three capitals have been ruined
| In mysterious and tragic ways Two have
vanished utterly from the face Of the earth.
Some Of the more superstitious Of the col
onists. brooding over the strange history OF
their country. fear that Kingston. the pres
ent capital. a city Of 10000 Inhabitants.
will share the fate Of its predecessors.
The first capital was Seville Nueva CNew
Seville). otherwise called Seville D'Oro 0he
Gus wealth. 1t was founded by Don Juan
D Esquivel and Diego. a son OF Christie
pher Columbus. In q few years 1t became
ths greatest Spanish city in the new world.
Thither flocked the blue-blooded but impe-
cunious mobiles Of CASTLE. eager to build
their family fortunes at the expense OF the
poor Arawak.
Splendor Vanishes in a Night.
Cathedrals, palaces and monasteries. RI
valing those in Spain in splendor, were
erected. The marble streets were crowded
with gayly clad courtiers and Indian slaves.
who toiled for them and brought them trib
ute from mine and jungle.
Then in a night the city vanished and no
ons can tell today what happened to 1t. No
survivors and no records were left behind
t. tell the tale. Today one can see buried
in tropical jungle mile of marble pave
ment and a few broken columns and arches.
Nothing else remains Of the golden Seville.
once SO prosperous and splendid, except q
few contradictory native traditions These
traditions variously ascribe the destruc-
ton OF the city and Its inhabitants to
mutiny Of the oppressed Indians. an earth
quake, sudden visitation of millions OF
red ants and an attack by French bucca-
neers. The very memory of what was once
thu greatest city of the new world has al
most persisted. Even In Jamaica few peo-
pie know anything about the golden Sc
vile.
The Spanards made st. Jago de la Vega,
now called Spanish Town, their second cap
ital. Time and again 1t was devastated
by hurricane and plague, harassed by In
dian revolts or ransacked by adventurous
picaroons. Gradually 1t sank from its high
estate, until now it is merely a squald viii
lage.
British No More Fortunate.
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
main, the market for the ill-gotten gains of
10000 buccaneers. Port Royal soon became
the richest and wickedest city of the new
world. At the height of its splendor and
its vice it was destroyed within the space
of two minutes by earthquake.
1.-THE ground opening in several places at
once" wrote an eyewitness in 1852, a few
days after the catastrophe, SWALLOWED up
multitudes of people together, whole streets
sinking under water with men, women and
children in them: and those houses which
but just now appeared the fairest and lofti-
est in these parts and might vie with the
finest buildings in the world were In mo-
ment sunk in the earth and nothing to be
seen of them Such crying, such shriek1ng
and mourning l never heard, nor could any
thing in my opinion appear more terrible
to the eye of man. Here a company of peo-
pie swallowed up at once; there a whole
street tumbling down, and in another place
the trembling earth opening her ravenous
Jaws let in the merciless sea, so that this
town is become heap of ruins.
The Merciless Earthquake.
Several people 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 perish
ing. 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 ate;
multitudes Of people floating up and down
having no burial The burying place at the
Palisades is quite destroyed the dead bod
les being washed out of their graves, their
tombs beat to pieces and they floating up
and down; it is sad to think how we have
suffered.
1.-The earth hath still fits Of shaking. with
very much thunder and lightning and dread
full weather: yet this had little effect
upon some people here that the very same
night they were at their old trade of drink
ing and swearing; breaking up warehouses,
pllaging and stealing from their neighbors.
even while the earthquake lasted, and sew
eral of them were destroyed in the very
act, and indeed this place has been one OF
the lewdest in the Christian world, a sink
of all tilthiness and mere Sodom.''
Old Port Royal lies buried beneath the
sea. The present town OF Port Royal,
place of no Importance except as a 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 of the eighteenth century, but 1t has
already been thrice destroyed by fire and
several times ravaged by hurricanes. The
inhabitants naturally wonder what catas-
trophe will happen next