Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/798

776 loose stones, was erected in 1656, and in 1657 this was replaced by a round tower of stone. The requirements of the small garrison gradually led to houses being built, and Governor Brayne formed a naval and military depot. Thus by degrees a town sprang up, which at first was limited to the rock area of the original cay, but which gradualygradually [sic] overflowed those limits and spread along the sand which had drifted up against the rock. In 1660, at the accession of Charles II, the royal commission confirming in the office of Governor of Jamaica Colonel D'Oyley, who had been appointed under the Commonwealth, was proclaimed at Careening Point, and the town was named Port Royal, in commemoration of the event. In 1662 the stone tower, which had been enlarged and added to, was similarly renamed, and henceforward was known as Fort Charles.

At about this time the buccaneers began to frequent Port Royal, bringing there their prizes and plunder, and the prodigality and excess of these gentry drew a number of dissolute characters to the town. The buccaneers themselves formed no inconsiderable number. Morgan, the English (or, rather, Welsh) leader, had under his command, twenty-eight English vessels, carrying one hundred and eighty guns and thirteen hundred and twenty-six men, and eight French vessels with fifty-nine guns and five hundred and twenty men, and there were several other independent leaders. The wealth they brought into Port Royal was enormous. After the sack of Puerto Velo, the successful buccaneers returned to Jamaica and divided the spoil on Port Royal beach. "Two hundred and fifty thousand pieces of eight were divided among them, and plate, jewels, and rich effects were piled up beneath the eaves of the houses for want of warehouse room. This quickly changed hands, and after a few weeks of riotous debauchery the buccaneers were again poor, and clamoring to be led to sack another town. . . . Many of the inhabitants of Port Royal were literally rolling in wealth. Their tables and dinner services were of silver, and their horses were sometimes shod with plates of the same metal, loosely nailed, so as to drop off and show their contempt of riches. Vast wealth, intermingled with the sound of arms and the riot of intemperance, filled the streets."

Esquimeling, the historian of the buccaneers, who was bond-servant to the notorious Morgan, has left us a strange picture of Port Royal at that day. After narrating a successful exploit, he continues: "All these prizes they carried into Jamaica, where they safely arrived, and, according to their custom, wasted in a few days in taverns and stews all they had gotten by giving themselves to all manner of debauchery, with strumpets and wine. Such of these pirates are found who will spend two or three