Page:A Picturesque Tour of the Island of Jamaica.djvu/30

 of its splendour. In 1692 it contained upwards of three thousand five hundred inhabitants; the greater number of the houses were of brick several stories in height, founded close to the very brink of the water, on a loose bank of land. The fort, which mounted sixty pieces of cannon, and the rest of the houses, were built on the rocky part of the peninsula. On the 7th of June 1692, between eleven and twelve o’clock at noon, began that terrible earthquake, which in two minutes produced such a scene of devastation. All the principal streets which were next the water sunk at once, with the people in them; a high rolling sea followed, closing immediately over them. Not less than sixteen hundred were thus swallowed up. Some of the streets were laid several fathoms under water, and it stood so high as the upper rooms of those that remained. It is computed that about two thousand whites and negroes perished; the harbour had all the appearance of agitation as in a storm; and the huge waves rolled with such violence, as to snap the cables of the ships, drive some from the anchors, and overset others.

But the great advantage of the situation again attracted inhabitants, and by degrees, as the popular fears subsided, the town increased in buildings and inhabitants (though far short of its former state) till 1703, when it was destroyed a second time, by fire. This ruinous accident caused another desertion to Kingston, which thus began to thrive by the decline of her elder sister. Port Royal was at this period reduced to a very low ebb, yet it was not wholly abandoned; it possessed some little trade, and was the favourite resort of the seamen belonging to the men of war and privateers. But what the earthquake and conflagration had spared was nearly demolished by a violent hurricane, which happened on the 28th August 1722. It began at eight in the morning, and lasted fourteen hours. Port Royal, as a place of defence, is deservedly valued. The ships, in advancing towards the harbour, must necessarily pass between shoals and rocks, through a difficult channel, in some parts extremely narrow; and are inevitably exposed to a severe fire, without the possibility of bringing their guns to bear. Ahead they have a battery of twelve guns, mostly forty-two pounders, called the twelve apostles, built on a point of Salt-pan hill (above the range of an enemy’s shot), which would rake them the whole way, until they tacked to steer up the harbour; they are then exposed to the fire of this battery on one side, to that of the fort on the other, and in front to the battery of Fort Augusta. The harbour is about one mile and three quarters in breadth, but widens further on. The view is taken from Windsor Farm, the residence of Thomas Higson, Esq., and embraces a part of the city of Kingston, the harbour, Port Royal, and the mountains of St. Catherine.