In the month of April of the year 1659 in the beautiful Bay of Kingston Jamaica, specifically in the newly founded city of Port Royal, everything was going normally according to the dynamics of that city, it was sunny radiant, a soft and pleasant sea breeze, the song of the birds that fluttered in the Port, there was an important movement of large and small boats that entered and left the Bay, its streets full of very active people from high and low strata, which were mixed according to their needs, there was a lot of prosperity in it despite its short date of foundation in 1656, it had a military fort and 200 buildings around it between houses, shops, taverns and warehouses.
The previous year (1655)) it was invaded on the orders of Oliver Cromwell, an English military and political leader who turned England into a republic. With this action the Anglo-Spanish War (1655 - 1661) began. It is necessary to consider and at the same time ask the question: Why in such a short time this city had achieved such prosperity? The answer to it would be full of intrigue, deception, violence and all kinds of low instincts. Port Royal was a nest of dreaded pirates (which were the inspiration for countless books, stories and famous films). Among them Henry Morgan, who in his predator had, attacked looting and burned the cities of Panama Portobelo and Maracaibo, later He became the governor of the island, in the year 1674, the same fate ran all the Spanish and French vessels that plowed the Caribbean waters, all these riches, products of looting, were brought to this city, all commercial operations were done with coins Instead of the usual exchanges, orgies, crime and all kinds of evil, they were part of his daily routine, most of his men engaged in piracy and his women in prostitution, his bad reputation was such that in the year 1660 was already known as the "Sodom of the new world". It was the morning of July 7, 1692, everything was going normally, the merchants in the streets, the bustle in the many taverns, people walking through the streets with their bottles of wine in hand, women on the street corners offering their attributes. , ships arriving and leaving the port. Shortly before noon, at that precise moment ...
The earth began to shake violently, under the feet of its residents a crunching noise was heard that gave the impression of a mill grinding the bowels of the earth, the broken glass of the windows will scatter, the horses ran in terror, the people stumbled and were thrown to the ground, the sky suddenly darkened, it was one of the most terrible earthquakes in history that occurred in the waters of the Caribbean. The sea began to shake violently, suddenly a gigantic wave (tsunami) ran through the city from one end to the other which a troop of runaway horses devastated everything in their path, and it was a devastating scene, half of its population perished.
In this tragedy a third of the city was under water, the rest was with significant damage, some commentators of this event believe that the hand of God devastated that city. In 1704 a fire destroyed what was left of it, in In the following years the efforts to rebuild it were frustrated by the impact of numerous hurricanes, on January 14, 1907 an earthquake similar to the one in 1692 destroyed part of what was left of the old city. Today Port Royal is a small town with Less than 3000 inhabitants without commercial or political relevance, however its ancient fame attracts more visitors every year. It is a coincidence for some and not for others, the truth of this city is that all its questioned activities ceased forever.