Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/806

784 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 illegible, 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.

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 chief 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 person would think of approaching it; yet foreigners are admitted without difficulty. These Tamate have 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.