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210 Flight to Freedom
and other places in which they made weapons, and that the hinterland was so
rich in metals and saltpetre that it provided them with everything they
needed for their defence (Carneiro 1946, 45). 29 Lemba, a celebrated Maroon
leader in the Dominican Republic in the mid-sixteenth century, on one occasion
took as booty iron, steel and an enslaved blacksmith (Esteban Deive
1989, 50). A Maroon settlement in Suriname in 1765 was said to have a complete
forge (De Groot 1977, 524).
What is certain is that the colonial forces almost invariably held an important
and sometimes a decisive advantage over the Maroons in terms of
weaponry. The leader of a military expedition against some Maroons in
Santiago de Cuba in 1830 expressed the view that the palenque would be
almost invulnerable if the Maroons possessed sufficient firearms to defend it
(Franco 1979, 46). What the Maroons lacked in military equipment they
often made good through their skilful use of the terrain, with which they
became very familiar, and their commitment to maintaining their freedom.