[BRYMNER] THE JAMAICA MAROONS 83 
driving them to join in the mountains those who had already taken 
shelter there. In the hands and under the control of a strong man like 
Cromwell, the troops employed in the reduction of Jamaica might have 
been kept in order, but a body of men strongly embued with levelling 
principles and impatient of the slightest control, especially refusing obedi- 
ence to the royalist d'Oyley, could only have been kept in military sub- 
jection by the determined power of the leader of the Ironsides, whom he 
disciplined into a trustworthy force. Hence the violence and scenes of 
disorder in the island, and hence, there seems little doubt, the bloody 
reprisals made by the fugitive Spaniards and negroes, who burned and 
destroyed animate and inanimate alike, whenever they had or could make 
opportunity, slaughtering without mercy every man, woman and child of 
their hated conquerors, giving no quarter to any one, no matter of what 
age or sex. 
A few trifling advantages over the Maroons were counterbalanced 
by the slaughter of soldiers and others caught straying out of bounds. 
Want of provisions and ammunition secured, in 1664, the surrender of 
part of the fugitives, but a large body held out and kept the interior of 
the country in such a state of alarm that few ventured far from the 
coast ; the whites who attempted to form settlements inland being ruth- 
lessly slaughtered. 
A proclamation offering a free pardon, 20 acres of land, and freedom 
from slavery, had little, if any, effect, and Juan de Bolas, the head man 
of the party which surrendered, was killed when in command of an ex- 
pedition for the reduction of those who held out. Under pretense of 
negotiating for peace, the hostile blacks obtained breathing time, and 
having lulled the white inhabitants into security, the slaughter began 
with greater intensity and the island was under a reign of terror for 
upwards of forty years, according to Edwards. Even counting from the 
renewal of the outbreak after 1664, this state of affairs lasted till 1738, a 
period of 74 years. In reality, the duration of the Maroon war, without 
cessation, was 82 years, for the peace of 1664 was only partial, and, so far 
as the part which held out was concerned, was only a truce, during which 
preparations were made for fresh hostilities. 
Cudjoe, the leader with whom peace was made in 1738, was a man 
who from his physical and mental qualifications obtained the chief com- 
mand over the different groups of Maroons. For years he had, by the 
skilful disposition of his forces, defied every attack, taking advantage of 
the peculiar formation of the mountain recesses and the difficult ap- 
proaches. But experience taught the white commanders how best to 
meet the tactics of the Maroons by means suited to the contest with an 
enemy who could fight and disappear with little loss, after causing great 
injury to the invading force. In 1730, two regiments of regulars were 
sent to the island as a reinforcement, corps of rangers, light auxiliary 
