Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1930-07-26

hunters, they were fugitive slaves,
often but newly brought from Africa.
For one hundred and forty-one years
they resisted all efforts at subjugation
and forced the government to make
terms with them and grant them
what was practically independence.
In their struggle for freedom, the
Maroons had a handicap that few,
if any, of the great heroic groups of
history, like the Spartans, the Swiss,
the Scotch Highlanders, or the
American ColoniStS, encountered.
They had to capture from the enemy
the weapons with which they fought.
Wholly illiterate, living in the noun
tains, there was no other way to OBJ
tain arms and ammunition.
All they knew of the manufacture
of arms was the making of bullets,
and even then they were forced to
capture the lead.
CudjOe Ugly and Misshapen
OF their many leaders, the greatest
was Captain Cudjoe, a wholly I'M
taught Coromantee, ragged, barefoot
ed into whose stumpy and unshapely
frame there burned the fire of almost
Inc Ihaustible energy and in whose
bullet heat there resided all the quail
ties of a great commander. He de-
feated the English in every encount-
er and there is good reason to believe
that had he been better able to get
supplies, he would have driven them
from the island like another Dessa-
lines.
Origin OF the Maroons
The incidents leading up to Cap
tain Cudjoe are briefly these:
When the English took Jamaica
from the Spaniards, the latter es-
capped to Cuba, leaving their slaves
behind. These slaves fled to the
high mountains and tangled forests
in the interior. Here they were re-
inforced by the runaway slaves of
the English.
A good many of these fugitives
were Coromantees, one of the most
war-like of all peoples. Spurning the
tanning influence of the religion of
the white man, they held to the wor-
ship of their own god, Obi. Later,
the jamaican shareholders we're
forced to bar their Importation.
At first they roved in bands, de-
scending on the English settlements
when they needed clothes and ammu-
milton, plundering and killing in true
Highlander fashion and dashing back
to their mountain Businesses, almost
before the alarm could be given.
Head Sent to Governor
Their greatest chief at this period
was st. Juan de Bolas. But after
eight years of warfare, he finally
made terms with the British and was
given large sum of money and
much land.
The others held out, rejecting all
offers. To each had been promised
a sum of money and 20 acres of land.
But were they not already in poses
sion of some of the finest land OF the
island? Besides, they felt that the
word Of the Shareholder could not be
trusted. Once yield and it was only
a matter of time when they would be
slaves again. 1t may be added that
they had abundant cause for mis-
trust.
Finally st. Juan da Bolas was in
duced to lead an expedition against
them, but his forces were cut to
pieces, and his own head sent as a
present to the governor.
After this, the Maroons became
more aggressive. 1t seemed that
nothing could be done to prevent
their attacks. Mixing with the slaves
in the markets and other places, they
would learn all the movements OF the
masters and the best time to strike.
Descending in the dead Of night,
and sometimes even in daylight, on
a plantation or a small town, they