Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1907-01-26
KINGSTON As II MAS
Familiar View Of Jamaica and Its
Stricken Capital.
WILD LIFE IN THE Earl Y DAYS

When Kingston Was Founded-Side
Light on the People and Buildings.
S e. a. ODER. who has lived in Jamai-
ca, thus describes in the New York
Post the West Indian island and its
capital city, recently devastated by
earthquake and fire: u
One may be disapp pointed at the first
view Of Kingston as it was, for ones
imagination has been excited by reali.
ties in scenery, grandeur in mountains
and enhancing glimpses Of tropical ma
Sture as the end Of the island is rounded
and the Palisades come to view. Like
the bent arm Of boxer. or, rather, like
the raised dexter claw of the soldier
crab, the sand strip known as the Pail.
sadoes tends off the seafarer approach
ing the glorious harbor Of Port Royal
and Kingston. 1t is, or was covered
with cocoa palms, which form an adj
mirable foreground for the outspread
view beyond and behind, of far stretch
ing plain the plain of Liguanao of
majestic mountains, cloud capped and
purple hued as well as green and
golden.
One was sure to be disappointed at
first view Of the city that man had in
truded upon this scene, created by the
Almighty, for. aside from the fact that
none but an oriental city could look in
keeping with surroundings such as
these with an environment made es-.
pecially for palaces Of stone and mar
lble rather than spaltry structures of
wood Kingston per Sc was not an at
tractive place. AS an excuse for its
being perhaps it may be urged that 1T
& was not city built with intention;
that, at first makeshift settlement 1T
grew with the demands of comm cree
and took little heed as to- it's fitness as
an element in an otherwise attractive
ensemble FL Ms /. s4 :i5s
For more than 200 years, or since
that fatal day in 1892 when Port Royal
disappeared beneath the waves ships
have been sailing and steaming over
the roofs of the first townssof impor-
lance built by the English In Jamaica.
They had fought hard for the posses
sion Of that island. these sturdy British
seamen who followed after the Span
iards to the West Indies. Columbus
I had discovered It; the Spaniards had
settled it after fashion OF their own;
Penn Venables conquered and subju-
gated it in 1866. Il
The first Spanish set Element was on
the north side of the island, in or near
the Bay Of AIMS but the success
sors OF the con uistad ores had finally
established themselves ut st. ii ago de
Ia Vega, now known as Spanish Town.
They were drive en- 20 The woods. and
the English took possession. Shortly
after, followed by the buccaneers,
those brethren Of the sea- Of various
( nationalit ies. who, finding the little is.
land of Tortuga, off the north coast Of
Haiti, too small to hold them all
swarmed over to the more prosperous
Jamaica and also to the Spanish main
where the chiefest Of their depreda.
lions had been consummated There
were many of them, and they went
the way of all pirates of those times
some by the rope and others by the
sword, but one Of the greatest Of them
lived to become governor Of Jamaica
and the agent Of their extirpation.
Henry Morgan, chief among the de
generate buccaneers, was Welshman
Like another well known to song, ii
might be said, Taffy was q Welsh
man, Taffy was q thief, but he re
= formed after he had acquired vast
wealth by his piracies and the sackine
of Spanish cities, Cartagena, Porto Bel
10 and Panama, and in reward for his
services; was knighted by Charles II
of England. Then he turned upon his
fellow pirates, and for space they
knew no rest, for he hanged them. an6
The shot them, and the grewsome gal
lows tree was a familiar object on the
sandy Palisades. u ).
But while the buccaneers lived anG
before Sir Henry turned against them
what a. time they had in fair Port
Royal, at the entrance to the harbor 81
what was later the city OF Kingston
The streets Of the pirate city resound
ed with their revelries, its sands gilt
tered with the gold they had gathered
In from the Spaniards. open hogsheads
Of rum and wine stood at the corners
\ for all to partake, and woe to him who
refused. Well was that port known
far and near as the wickedest city ii
the universe as well as the richest ii
all the West Indies.
Then the end came, suddenly and
awfully. in the year Of grace 1892. Or
{ the 18th of June wicked Port Roya
4 slipped off into the sea, carrying with
L 1t vast piles Of rich merchandise
wharfs. warehouses. dwellings, 8
4 church and q portion OF the fort, along
with a great many Of the s'most un
godly people on the face Of the earth
Il Nearly 5000 houses were destroyed
and but few structures of any sort
including one Of the forts. remained
On the sands, 55 sss
That quake or landsIip whatever
II was was but the beginning of ca
lamities, for almost as many people
persisted soon after from a pestilencs