784 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



presumably Fort Carlisle, but that he had been unable to enter it, 

 it being entirely overgrown with coral, which had imbedded the 

 guns in the embrasures as firmly as if they had been fixed in 

 solid masonry. It was probably at this time that one of the bells 

 of the old church, which is now in the Museum of the Jamaica 

 Institute, was recovered. 



At Green Bay, opposite Port Royal, concealed in dense bush, is 

 the tomb of Lewis Galdy, a member of the Assembly of Port Royal, 

 who fell into one of the crater-like pits caused by the subsidence 

 of the sand, and was washed out again by the water gushing up 

 from beneath. The inscription, which is rapidly becoming illegi- 

 ble, is as follows : " Here lies the body of Lewis Galdy, Esquire, 

 who departed this life at Port Royal, the 22d of December, 1736, 

 aged eighty years. He was born at Montpellier, in France, but 

 left that country for his religion, and came to settle in this island ; 

 where he was swallowed up in the great earthquake in the year 

 1693 ; and, by the Providence of God, was, by another shock, 

 thrown into the sea, and miraculously saved by swimming, until 

 a boat took him up. He lived many years after in great reputation, 

 beloved by all who knew him, and much lamented at his death." 



As we have said, owing to the action of the tides and currents, 

 the sand has again accumulated round the nucleus of rock at Port 

 Royal, which presents, physically, much the same appearance as 

 it did before the earthquake ; and, notwithstanding the lesson of 

 the past, the surface is again crowded with buildings. But what 

 has happened once may at any time happen again; shocks of 

 earthquake frequently occur in Jamaica, and it only requires one 

 of sufficient violence to bring upon the new town the fate which 

 overtook the old. Let us hope, however, that it will not occur. 



Among the marked characteristics of the Melanesians, as described in Dr. R. H. 

 Codrington's book about them, is the universal prevalence of secret societies, like 

 the Duk-dnk of New Britain, the Matarabala of Florida Island, the Quatu of the 

 New Hebrides, and the Tamate of the Banks Islands, which celebrated certain 

 mysteries and peculiar dances, kept secret from the uninitiated and from women 

 and girls, but having nothing religious, obscene, or idolatrous about them. The 

 Banks Islands are considered by Dr. Codrington the cliief seat of these societies, 

 •which are there called " The Ghosts." All these Tamate associations have as their 

 particular badge a leaf or flower. The lodge or secret resort of the Tamate is the 

 salagoro, established in some secluded place, generally amid lofty trees, in the 

 neighborhood of every considerable village or group of villages. The whole place 

 is set apart, not sacred, by sufficient authority, and no woman or uninitiated per- 

 son would tliink of approaching it ; yet foreigners are admitted without difficulty. 

 These Tamate liave survived the introduction of Christianity. All belief in the 

 supernatural character of the associations has long since disappeared, but the 

 societies occupied so important a place in the social arrangements of the people 

 that they have held their ground as clubs. 



