776 THU POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



loose stones, was erected in 165G, and in 1G57 this was replaced 

 by a round tower of stone. The requirements of the small garri- 

 son gradually led to houses being built, and Governor Brayne 

 formed a naval and military depot. Thus by degrees a town 

 sprang up, which at first was limited to the rock area of the origi- 

 nal cay, but which gradualy overflowed those limits and spread 

 along the sand which had drifted up against the rock. In 1G60, 

 at the accession of Charles II, the royal commission confirming 

 in the office of Governor of Jamaica Colonel D'Oyley, who had 

 been appointed under the Commonwealth, was proclaimed at 

 Careening Point, and the town was named Port Royal, in com- 

 memoration of the event. In 1662 the stone tower, which had 

 been enlarged and added to, was similarly renamed, and hence- 

 forward was known as Fort Charles. 



At about this time the buccaneers began to frequent Port 

 Royal, bringing there their prizes and plunder, and the prodi- 

 gality and excess of these gentry drew a number of dissolute 

 characters to the town. The buccaneers themselves formed no 

 inconsiderable number. Morgan, the English (or, rather, Welsh) 

 leader, had under his command , twenty-eight English vessels, 

 carrying one hundred and eighty guns and thirteen hundred and 

 twenty-six men, and eight French vessels with fifty -nine guns and 

 five hundred and twenty men, and there were several other inde- 

 pendent leaders. The wealth they brought into Port Royal 

 was enormous. After the sack of Puerto Velo, the successful 

 buccaneers returned to Jamaica and divided the spoil on Port 

 Royal beach. " Two hundred and fifty thousand pieces of eight 

 were divided among them, and plate, jewels, and rich effects were 

 piled up beneath the eaves of the houses for want of warehouse 

 room. This quickly changed hands, and after a few weeks of 

 riotous debauchery the buccaneers were again poor, and clamor- 

 ing to be led to sack another town. . . . Many of the inhabitants 

 of Port Royal were literally rolling in wealth. Their tables and 

 dinner services were of silver, and their horses were sometimes 

 shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed, so as to drop 

 off and show their contempt of riches. Vast wealth, intermingled 

 with the sound of arms and the riot of intemperance, filled the 

 streets.'^ 



Esquimeling, the historian of the buccaneers, who was bond- 

 servant to the notorious Morgan, has left us a strange picture of 

 Port Royal at that day. After narrating a successful exploit, he 

 continues : " All these prizes they carried into Jamaica, where they 

 safely arrived, and, according to their custom, wasted in a few 

 days in taverns and stews all they had gotten by giving them- 

 selves to all manner of debauchery, with strumpets and wine. 

 Such of these pirates are found who will spend two or three thou- 



