the crown colonies - Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative

THE ATLANTIC 63
It has not always been known as Jamaica, however.
When Columbus first discovered it in 1494, he called
it Saint Jago, or Santiago, following the usual custom.
It was so called when the Spaniards took possession in
1509 and when the old capital, Sant Iago de la Vega,
now Spanish Town, was founded fourteen years later .
The early years of Spanish rule in Jamaica were
unhappy ones. The peaceful and gentle Arawak
Indians, the original inhabitants, were annihilated by
enforced slavery and transportation. Yet this did not
mean that the Spaniards remained in peaceful possession
of their colony. In 1596 the English admiral, Sir
Anthony Shirley, made a successful attack, plundered
the city, and left it a burning ruin. However, he did
not follow up his advantage and attempt to hold the
island. In 1635 occurred another English raid under
Colonel Jackson; but the Spaniards still clung to
Jamaica for another twenty years. Then, in 1655, came
the great English onslaught, inspired by Cromwell and
led by Admiral Penn and Admiral Venables, which
wrested the island from Spain and raised a flag, which
has never since been lowered by an enemy.
The British regime in Jamaica was not long in getting
under way. After half-a-dozen years of military
control, during which all the Spaniards were expelled,
a constitutional government on the English pattern was
set up. Colonel D'Oyley was Governor-in-Chief, with
the old Spanish title of Captain-General of the West
Indies. When the Spanish masters were driven OUI,
their frightened slaves took to the mountains of the
interior, where they have often proved a source of trouble
and anxiety. Their descendants are still there and are
known to-day as the Maroons.
The middle of the seventeenth century was the day