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A short drive or ferry ride from downtown Kingston, PORT ROYAL captures the early colonial spirit better than any other place in Jamaica. Originally a tiny island, this little fishing village is now joined to the mainland by the Palisadoes , a series of small cays that silted together over hundreds of years and, with a bit of human assistance, now form a roadway and a natural breakwater for Kingston's harbour. After wresting Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the British turned the island into a battle station , with five separate forts and a palisade at the north to defend against attackers coming over the cays. As added protection, they encouraged the buccaneers who had for decades been pillaging the area to sign up as privateers in the service of the king. Merchants took advantage of the city's great location to buy and sell slaves, export sugar and logwood, and import bricks and supplies for the growing population. The privateers wreaked havoc on the ships of Spain, and the fabulous profits of trade and plunder brought others to service the town's needs; brothels, taverns and gambling houses proliferated, and by the late seventeenth century, the population had swollen to six thousand. The huge earthquake that struck the city on June 7, 1692, dumped sixty percent of Port Royal into the sea, killing two thousand people in seconds; within a week, a thousand more had died. Most of the remaining population fled for Kingston; almost all who remained later died or deserted when a massive fire swept the island in 1703. Despite the destruction, Port Royal continued to serve as the country's naval headquarters until the advent of steam ships saw the British Navy close its dockyard in 1905. Though Port Royal still retains its naval traditions as home to the JDF naval wing and the Jamaican coast guard, it's a far less exotic place today, a small and tidy fishing village, proud of its very low crime rate and happy to serve up some of the tastiest fresh fish you'll find anywhere in Jamaica.
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