The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1899-07-06
MAROONS OF JAMAICA
SLAVES LEFT TO FIGHT ENGLISH
iNTERLOPERS.
Legacy from the Spaniaris Imprcg-
nablc Strengthens in the Mountain
Fastncs They Have Finally Be-
come Allies and Friends of Whites.

The Maroons of Jamaica are an in
teresting people. Though coming of
the same race as the other negroes.
they look down on the latter and hold
them in contempt, their theory being
that Maroons were never slaves to the
English. When the Spaniards finally
quilted Jamaica, after IA guerilla war
fare that lasted for three years, they
left behind them certain number of
their slaves, to whom they gave liberty
on the understanding that the black
men would wage unceaslng war against
the English interiopers. These free
slaves retreated to the mountains,
where they secured positions inacccSs-
iblc to the English soldiers, and. with
willing fidelity to the oath given to
their Spanish masters they were in the
habit of snllying forth. killing, when
possible. the new arrivals, destroying
or carrying off their property. When
such raids became unbearably agrees
sive. expeditions were organized and
bodies of troops and militia We're sent
to reduce the Maroons to order. These
expeditions are known in Jamaica his
tory as the Maroon wars, which con-
tinued with more or less frequency for
over a century. Meantime, the Ma
rooms We're daily increasing in numbers
by the addition of runaway slaves, who
must have been numerous, for ii was
calculated, at one time. that in the
towns alone of Jamaica 10000 runaway
slaves were living. successfully Guiding
all attempts made to apprehend them,
There is no record as to how many
took refuge with the Maroons, but the
number must have been considerable,
and largely consisted of Coromantees.
The Coromantees were tribe so fierce
and turbulent that after disastrous eX-
perience of the difficulty and risk of
attempting to turn Coromantees into
satisfactory investments in the island,
the Jamaica legislature in slavery
days passed law forbidding the i'm
portation of any more of the tribe.
The Treawney town Maroons. the
chief offenders, being banished to Nova
Scotia after their subsection by blood
hounds, the inhabitants of other
Maroon settlements We're left I'M
disturbed and their descendants
still remain in Jamaica. Their
privileges have been respected, and
they have proved themselves faith
full allies and friends of the white peo-
pie of the island. In slavery days they
received a reward for every runaway
slave brought back by them. Their
zeal in obtaining such reward was I'M
tagging, rendering them objects of
dread to the slaves and keeping up the
link that bound them to the white peo-
pie. A visit to a Maroon settlement,
even at the present day, is an interest
ing experience. There is one Maroon
settlement-that of Moore town. on the
northern slope of the John Grow noun
tains-to which there is road practic-
able for wheeled vehicles; the other
settlements can only be gained by
bride paths which wind through wood
and bush, Skirting steep dcclivities,
thickly clothed with the luxuriant TO-
liage of the tropics, the path now de-
scending into shady glade, now
fringed with the stately cabbage palm
or beautiful with clumps of magnifi-
cent tree ferns.-North American Re
view.