Читать книгу The Life of Sir Henry Morgan. With an account of the English settlement of the island of Jamaica онлайн

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The fortifications were so massive and well-built that they were thought to be nearly impregnable. Ships, passing in or out, were forced in following the narrow navigable channel, to come close under the guns of a strong stone fort, called "Triana" or the "Iron Castle", towering high overhead on the summit of a steep crag, with a water battery below near the water's edge. On the opposite side stood "Gloria Castle", having two tall bastions connected by a curtain of stone, fronting the channel and two others facing the land. On a high cliff, jutting out into the harbour at its further end and beyond the town, rose the fortress of "San Jeronimo", a high-walled and well-armed quadrangular redoubt.

Puerto Bello, seventy odd years before, when its defences were not nearly so strong, had baffled Francis Drake, who died in his flagship off the harbour and found a grave in the gleaming waters of the bay. It was now considered one of the best fortified ports in the Spanish provinces of America. Its normal garrison consisted of three hundred artillerists and regular infantry, but nine hundred militiamen could be quickly assembled for its reinforcement.[138]