156 THE MAROONS. 



tured and killed. The English were furious. A Maroon 

 hunt was got up, but not with much effect. Seven _or eight 

 dead negroes are said to have been all that the British had 

 to show for it, whilst the main body of Maroons, escaping 

 under the direction of a leader of some talent, and named 

 Juan de Bolas, maintained their ground so well that, when it 

 came to negotiation, they obtained pardon and freedom. A 

 large party, however, would not condescend to treat with the 

 British government at all. Retiring to the mountains, they 

 held their ground; and to this party was first applied the 

 special designation of Maroons why, nobody seems to have 

 been able satisfactorily to explain. 



According to Mr. Long, the word signifies among Spanish 

 Americans hog-hunters ; and as the woods of Jamaica abound 

 with wild pigs a favourite food with runaway negroes herein 

 may be found the explanation. The French encyclopedists, 

 however, under the word marron, gave another etymology. 

 Marron, the writer there explains, is the name given in the 

 Mauritius to runaway negroes, being derived from the Span- 

 ish word simaranj which signifies an ape. As the runaway 

 slaves retired to the wild woods, the abode of monkeys, so the 

 encyclopaedist writer explains that the Spaniards classed them 

 with the monkeyish race. 



The Maroons must have well maintained their independ- 

 ence for the next seven years, when we find that, in 1663, 

 the Lieutenant-governor of Jamaica, Sir Charles Lyttelton, 

 and his council issued a proclamation, offering a full pardon, 

 twenty acres of land each, and freedom from all manner of 

 slavery, to such of them as should surrender. Tempting pro- 

 posals, certainly, for such as liked them; but the Maroons 

 liked them not. They held their own hunting-grounds the 

 woods and were content. Far from settlements, they took 

 care that none should come near, by killing every pioneer of 

 advance who was rash enough to make that experiment. 

 Meantime the governor having made friends with Juan de 



