Jamaica: Lowering the Union Jack

In the buccaneering days of the 17th century, Jamaica was the lustiest port of call on the Spanish Main. Out of old Port Royal, in its time the "wickedest city in Christendom," Henry Morgan and his marauding mates sailed to wreck and plunder. On their return, the pirates swaggered through the narrow streets with barrels of rum on their shoulders, harlots on their arms, daggers in their belts and ill-gotten pieces of eight in their pockets. An appalled visitor once described it as a place where "the body of a murdered man...

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