I50 J A Ai A 1 P,, 4. 



water, brought la boats from the river Cobre ; and another i:> paid 

 100/. annually, tor giving a dinner. to the committee of the le- 

 giilature, who come hither to view tlie ilate of tli^is fortrefs. Some- 

 times they have obtained a partial exemption from certain taxes ; anc^, 

 confidering the veneration and companion due to the town on ac- 

 count of its antient grandeur and prefent poverty, there feems to 

 be jull: ground for thefe elecmofynary benefadlions. Tlie air of the 

 town has been ahvays efteemed remarkably healthfuh It is open 

 to a free ventilation ; and the wind is correded by paffing in every 

 direction over the fca-water. In the middle of the day it is gene- 

 rally very hot ; for the heat of tl;e air is greatly augmented by the 

 fand, which retains it like a balneum marlos. But rain rarely falls 

 here. The clouds from the land have a quick drift out to fea, 

 after being blown over the Blue Mountains ; and thofe that ap- 

 proach from the lea generally follow the mountainous ridge.s and 

 thus are drawn away from this quarter. The inhabitants in ge- 

 neral live to a great age ; and many convalefcents repair hither from 

 ■other parts of the ifland, to recruit their emaciated bodies v.'ith the 

 purity of -this atmofphcre, and a regular courfe of turtle-diet, 

 which is cooked here in the highell: perfedlion. The civil govern- 

 ment of the town is, like the others, under the difpenfation of a 

 cujios^ or chief magiftrate, and his affiflants, with other pcace-of- 

 ticers. It has alfo a quarter- fellion of the peace, and court of 

 common-pleas, and mufters a fmall corps of militia. The rec- 

 tor's flipend is z^oL per annum ; and, all perquifites included, does 

 riiot amount to more than about 300/. as 1 am informed. 



Port Royal, as a place of defence, is defervedly valued. The 

 fliips, in advancing towards the harbour, muft necelliirily pafs, be- 

 tween fhoals and rocks, tlirough a difficult channel, in fome parts 

 extremely narrow ; and are inevitably expofcd to a fevere fire, with- 

 out poflibility of bringing their guns to bear. A-head they have 

 a battery of twelve guns, moftly forty-two pounders, called the 

 Twelve Apoftles, built on a point of Saltpan Hill (above the range 

 of an enemy's lliot), which would rake them the whole way, till 

 they tacked to Ihmd up the harbour : they are then expofed to the 

 fire of this battery on one fide, to the fire of the fort on the other, 



and 



