Newport daily independent., 1913-09-22

Spanish days will be woefully dis appointed by the town as it now Is. Romance, commerce, everything att tractive has fled long ago from that place and Porto Bello is nothing but dirty, immoral little village. full of low cantinas, slatternly natives and mangy CUTS. At each side of the town is the ruin of a Spanish fort. its picturesqueness marred by fisher mems nets and the local washing hung up to dry.
 Thus the work of man has decayed, but Nature is as kind as ever to Porto Bello. It's bottle-shapod har- bor is one of the prettiest to be found, with promontories guarding the entrance, beautiful hills on both sides and entrancing little rivers meandering down from the moun- tains and through the jungle into it's upper end. One hill opposite the town boasts the remains of three un- usually interesting Spanish forts. One Is at the waters edge. another severa. hundred yards up the slope. and these two were once connected by covered stone stairway the ruins of which still provide the easiest. means of ascending. On the sum- init of the hill is the third fort, mighty square tower surrounded by a deep moat. The walls are almost intact but the roof has fallen in and the fortress is full of trees and shrub bery.
 With these three forts, two others protecting the harbor entrance, the two at the ends of the town and an- other just above 1t, Porto Bello might we'll seem to have been impregnable. yet 1t was taken twice by the Eng fish. Sir Francis Drake planned to capture it in 1896, but just as his ships were about to begin the attack Drake died and was buried in the mouth of the harbor Dispirited by the loss of their leader, the English sailed away, but Capt. William Parker took up the project in 1902. With two ships he got past the first forts at night and after a desperate fight captured and sacked the city, carry ing off 10000 ducts worth of plunder.
 The second taking of Porto Bello was the first notable exploit of Henry Morgan, the famous buccaneer, as an independent commander of a fleet. Sailing into what is now Colon har- bor, he took his men up a river in landed at n nIa0a called V,4. terra Longa Lemos and marching through tho jungle, attacked the city from the rear. First capturing the castle abovo the town, he shut the garrison in one room and blew them and the fort to pieces with gunpow- der. The governor. the citizens and the rest of the soldiers, surprised and terror.stricken, were soon driven into one of the other forts and for hours they bravely withstood the assaults of the buccaneers until, as Esquemel- ing tells us, Captain Morgan began to despair of the whole success of the enterprise. Finally he had a number of ladders made and forced the priests and nuns whom he had cap tured to set them up against the walls. Many of these poor creatures were killed by the defenders. but at last the ladders were placed and the buccaneers swarmed up them carrying fireballs and pots of powder which they kindled and hurled among the Spaniards. The garrison surrendered at discretion, but the gallant governor defended himself so obstinately that the English were forced to kill him. Morgan remained in Porto Bello sev-' eral weeks, plundering the place and torturing the citizens to induce them to reveal the hiding places of their riches.
 Though an important place in the transshipment of gold from the west coast of South America, Porto Beiio never was a large town. but for sew eral weeks each year 1t was very populous. This was at the time of the annual fair. when the galleons from Spain were in the harbor wait ing for the mule trains to bring the gold from Panama. Then merchants and adventurers from all that part or the world gathered in the village and trade was brisk in the big building now called the custom house. whose ruined walls still are standing. MeT- drinking and fighting divld- ed the time until the ealleons set saib for Spain with their golden careoee.