THE MAROONS. 155 



Jamaica. Who, then, are the Maroons ? Negroes, certainly ; 

 the multiplicity of captains specified in the treaty, as well 

 as the grotesque names borne by those captains, prove that 

 much. Very strange the circumstances must have been to 

 have permitted a band of negroes in the highlands of Jamaica 

 to have settled themselves down in the heydey of slavery, to 

 have bid defiance to soldiers and bloodhounds, to have worsted 

 the king's troops again and again, finally to have brought 

 about terms of compromise, and the signature of a treaty of 

 friendship couched in such language as we have just tran- 

 scribed. 



The origin of the Maroons was in this wise : Jamaica was 

 conquered from the Spaniards during the protectorate of 

 Cromwell, in the year 1655, by an armament under the com- 

 mand of Admiral Penn and General Yenables. Before the 

 attack the Spaniards are said to have possessed about 1,500 

 enslaved negroes, most of whom, on the surrender of their 

 masters, retreated to the mountains, whence they made fre- 

 quent excursions to harass the English. * Those blacks will 

 prove a thorn in the sides of the English,' wrote Major-gen- 

 eral Sedgewick, one of the British officers, to Secretary Thur- 

 loe in 1650. 'They give no quarter to my men/ he further 

 wrote, f destroying them remorselessly.' Well might the 

 major-general have thus testified. Hardly a week passed 

 without the murder of one or more of his soldiers. 6 They 

 have no moral sense,' wrote he, l and not understanding what 

 the laws and customs of civil nations mean, we know not how 

 to capitulate or treat with any of them. But be assured they 

 must either be destroyed or brought in upon some terms or 

 other.' He wrote the truth; what he predicted soon came 

 to pass. 



Towards the latter end of the same year the British army 

 gained some trifling advantages over the Maroons, who soon 

 proved, by retaliation, the snake was scotched, not killed. 

 Forty soldiers having wandered from head-quarters were cap- 



