BATTLE OF SEA AND LAND 175 



caneers Port Royal was the favoured rendez- 

 vous of the pirates and freebooters that 

 scoured the Spanish Main seeking booty and 

 loot. To Port Royal they returned after their 

 voyages and in the halls and taverns held high 

 revels. Here they gathered vast stores of 

 wealth and treasures won by bloodshed and 

 destruction from far and near, until Port 

 Royal became known as the richest place in 

 the world. It was here that Sir Henry Mor- 

 gan held forth. Here he had his home, and 

 here he spent his ill-gotten gains from the sack 

 of Panama, Cartagena, Porto Bello and count- 

 less captured ships. 



It was a city of wealth, of unbridled pas- 

 sions, of vice and wild revelry, but suddenly 

 it was ended without warning; the stronghold 

 of the pirates was wiped out on June 7, 1692, 

 when Port Royal slipped into the bay and was 

 buried beneath the waves, and the power of 

 the freebooters was brought to a fitting end. 

 Of the three thousand houses but two hundred 

 remained above the sea, and of the wild, reck- 

 less inhabitants but a handful remained to tell 

 the tale. Even these were cowed, frightened 



