THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF PORT ROYAL, j-jj 



sand pieces of eight in one night, not leaving themselves, perad- 

 venture, a good shirt to wear on their backs in the morning. . . . 

 My own master would buy on like occasions a whole pipe of wine, 

 and, placing it in the streets, would force every one that passed by 

 to drink with him, threatening also to pistol them in case they 

 would not do it. At other times he would do the same with bar- 

 rels of ale or beer. And very often, with both his hands, he would 

 throw these liquors about the streets and wet the cloaths of such 

 as walked by, without regarding whether he spoiled their apparel 

 or not, were they men or women." 



To Port Royal, consequently, flocked thousands of people, all 

 anxious to profit by the wild extravagance of the buccaneers, and 

 new houses sprang up until all the available space was covered. 

 Then rows of palisades were driven a few feet into the sand at 

 the water's edge, sand was brought from a distance and banked 

 up behind them, and houses built on the foundation thus made. 

 As the demand for greater space increased, such encroachments 

 became more common, until the greater portion of the town was 

 built upon made ground, which was merely kept in position by a 

 succession of rows of stakes or palisades, and which any severe 

 shock of earthquake would inevitably shake down. And this was 

 done, not on a flat beach shelving gradually through shallow into 

 deep water, but on the brink of a harbor so deep that the largest 

 ships of the day could lie close in shore, sometimes even with their 

 yards projecting over the roofs of the houses. It was simply 

 courting destruction. 



However, we are anticipating, for the end was not yet. The 

 buccaneers continued to frequent Port Royal, in spite of orders 

 sent out by the British ministers to the Governor of Jamaica to 

 restrain their excesses, and the plunder of Maracaibo, Panama, 

 and scores of less important places was brought into the town. 

 The buccaneers were in fact the masters of the situation, for the 

 Jamaica government had no force with which it could compel 

 respect for its orders — that is to say, if it gave any orders, for 

 there are good reasons for supposing that everybody was disposed 

 to connive at a system by which everybody profited. At last, 

 however, the remonstrances of the court of Spain took effect : in 

 1672 all commissions and letters-of -marque that had been granted 

 to buccaneers were revoked, and Port Royal ceased to be their 

 chief resort, though for the next two or three years occasional 

 prizes were brought in by stealth. With the departure of the 

 buccaneers the town declined ; and when Sir Hans Sloane visited 

 it in 1687, although it contained some two thousand houses, the 

 population was only between three and four thousand. The bulk 

 of the inhabitants had no doubt followed the fortunes of the buc- 

 caneers, but the town was still the largest and most populous in 



