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In 1494 on May 4, Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Jamaica. This was on his second voyage to the
New World, which was afterwards called America. Columbus annexed the island in the name of his master and
mistress. the King and Queen of Spain. But it was not occupied until Juan de Esquivel came from Santo Domingo
in 1509. and for 146 years Jamaica remained a Spanish colony.

Jamaica was then inhabited by a gentle race of people called the Arawaks or Tainos. They had probably come
from the country now known as Guyana, where Arawak Indians are still to be found. They were short people,
rather stout, with straight black hair and flattish noses; they were copper-coloured. They lived in huts shaped
like those of the peasants of Jamaica. They slept in hammocks. They made rough seats of wood, and spears
tipped with stone, or with the teeth of sharks. They did not have the bow and arrow. The men were skilful
fishermen, and caught fish and turtle to eat. They made their cooking vessels out of clay, and burnt them
in fire till they became hard. The women grew cassava, corn and sweet potatoes for food. Cotton grew wild in
the island, and they twisted the fibre into cloth, strips of which they wore around their waists. They also
wore strings of beads and shells.

But the Spaniards made slaves of them and put them to difficult tasks. The Spaniards treated the Arawaks so
harshly that in about fifty years all of them were dead. They had numbered fully sixty thousand. The
Spaniards got slaves from Africa to take their place.

The Spaniards first settled on that part of the northern coast of Jamaica which is now known as the parish
of St. Ann. There they built a town called Sevilla Nueva, or New Seville. Afterwards they moved to the
southern part of the island and built the town of St. Jago de la Vega (St. James of the Plain), which is
still called Spanish Town. The island was given to the Columbus family as a personal estate in 1540, but
they did nothing to develop it. The Spanish colony in Jamaica was never a very large or a very flourishing one.

In 1655 on May 10, a body of English sailors and soldiers landed at Passage Fort, in Kingston harbour, and
marched towards Spanish Town. They were commanded by Admiral Penn and General Venables, who had been sent by
Oliver Cromwell to capture the island of Hispaniola. Penn and Venables failed to take the city of Santo
Domingo and sailed on to Jamaica. On May 11, the Spaniards surrendered. They were allowed a few days to
leave the island. Some of them went to Cuba, but others secretly went to the northside of Jamaica.

In the month of October, General Sedgwicke arrived from England and took charge of the colony. Many of the
English sailors and soldiers, and the people who came with Sedgwicke, died from the fevers of the country and
the hard food and water they consumed. Sedgwicke himself died shortly after his arrival, and General Brayne was
sent out to manage the affairs of the colony. He expected he would be attacked by the Spaniards of Cuba, and so
he fortified the positions occupied by the English. General Brayne died in 1656, and General Doyley, an officer
of the army, became Governor.

In 1657 Don Cristobal Arnaldo de Ysassi led strong guerrilla forces in the interior. He had been appointed the
last Spanish Governor of Jamaica. Two expeditions from Cuba came to the north coast to help him. General Doyley
attacked both times by sailing around the island from Kingston. He defeated Ysassi near Ocho Rios in 1657 and
at Rio Nuevo in 1658, the last named being the biggest battle ever fought in Jamaica. Ysassi continued to hold
out until 1660, when the defection of Maroon allies made his cause hopeless, and he and his followers escaped
to Cuba in canoes.

In 1661 a Commission arrived from England formally appointing Doyley as Governor of Jamaica, and commanding
him to establish a Council to assist him in the government of the colony. This Council was to be elected by
the colonists.

In 1662 Lord Windsor arrived as Governor of Jamaica. He brought with him a Royal Proclamation declaring that
all children born of English subjects in Jamaica should be regarded as free citizens of England. Lord Windsor
retired from the Government of Jamaica within the year, and Sir Charles Lyttleton became Deputy Governor. There
were then 4,205 persons in Jamaica. Santiago de Cuba was captured and looted by Admiral Myngs.

In 1663 an expedition sailed from Jamaica to attack the Spanish town of Campeche, in Central America.
After some misfortunes, this effort succeeded, and much booty and many ships were taken by the English. In
the same year we first hear of the English trying to suppress the Maroons. These were descendants of former
slaves of the Spanish. They escaped to the mountains and forests in the interior, where they lived a wild,
free life and, it was rumoured, murdered every white person they came across. An expedition was sent against
them under Juan de Bolas, a former Maroon who had aided the English. The soldiers were defeated. Peace was
patched up shortly afterwards between the Maroons and the English, but it did not last for long.

In 1664 the first House of Assembly was called together. It consisted of twenty members elected by the people.
It met at Spanish Town and passed 45 laws for the government of the colony.

Sir Thomas Modyford arrived from Barbados with a thousand settlers. He was a Barbadian planter and had once
governed Barbados before he was sent to Jamaica as Governor. He helped and protected the English buccaneers
under Henry Morgan who had moved to Port Royal from Tortuga. The ships and the plunder they brought vastly
enriched Port Royal. Modyford encouraged agriculture, especially the cultivation of cocoa and the sugar-cane.
During this time a large number of slaves were brought from Africa to Jamaica. However, the slave trade with
Jamaica had commenced before this date.

In 1673 there were 17,272 persons in Jamaica. In that year Sir Henry Morgan became Lieutenant-Governor.

In 1674 Lord Vaughan arrived as Governor. The next year 1,200 settlers from Surinam came to Jamaica and started
sugar planting.

In 1677 Lord Vaughan left Jamaica, and Sir Henry Morgan once more became Lieutenant-Governor. He was again
Lieutenant-Governor in 1680. This was the same Henry Morgan who, in 1668, attacked Porto Bello on the Isthmus
of Panama, and plundered it. In 1671, leading a body of buccaneers from Jamaica, he attacked and captured the
old city of Panama, plundered it and burnt it to the ground.

In 1678 the Earl of Carlisle arrived as Governor. He brought with him instructions that before any laws were
passed by the House of Assembly, a draft of them should be submitted to the King for his alterations or
approval. Before this, the House of Assembly had first passed laws, and then sent them to England for the
King's approval. The House strongly protested against this change, which would have reduced its power and
authority very much. After a long struggle, the English Government yielded, and the old system was continued.

In 1687 the Duke of Albemarle as Governor. With him came Sir Hans Sloane as his physician. Sir Hans Sloane
wrote two large volumes on Jamaica. Albemarle favoured Sir Henry Morgan, who died in 1688 and was buried with
honours at Port Royal.

In 1690 the Earl of Inchiquin arrived as Governor. During this year a rebellion of the slaves took place at
Chapelton in Clarendon. It was suppressed, and the ringleaders were executed. Some of the slaves, however,
escaped to the mountains, where they joined the Maroons.

In 1692 Sir William Beeston became Governor of Jamaica.

On June 7, the great Port Royal earthquake occurred. Port Royal was then the chief city in Jamaica, famous for
its riches. The House of Assembly met there. The buccaneers took their prizes there. The houses were
substantially built of stone. The inhabitants lived a wild, reckless life, and Port Royal was described as
one of the wickedest places on earth.

At about 20 minutes to 12, on the forenoon of June, the 7, the inhabitants of the town were startled by a noise
like thunder, which seemed to come from the north. Immediately the earth began to shake, and then the walls of
the houses fell on every side. There were three shocks. The first was not very severe; the last was the worst.
A considerable portion of the city sank beneath the sea. The sea receded, then rushed back with terrible force,
sweeping over the land and drowning hundreds of persons. Thousands perished. Minor shocks occurred all that day
and for several days afterwards. The earthquake was felt all over the island; great landslides occurred and some
springs disappeared. The dead bodies of the people floated in harbour and rotted on the land. Port Royal was
almost completely ruined. Its surviving inhabitants endeavored to restore what was left of it to its former
importance, but in 1704, a fire broke out in one of its warehouses and destroyed every building except the
forts.