Excerpt from The British Empire in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. 2: Its Progress and Expansion at Home and Abroad; Comprising a Description and History of the British Colonies and Dependencies
The natives whom Columbus found in possession of Jamaica were not Caribs, but "Indians" of a milder type, and the ornaments which they wore proved that they had access to gold and silver in some abundance, the source of which has always been a mystery. In 1509 a first Spanish settlement was made, under the leadership of Esquimel. Some faint traces remain of the first Spanish capital, called Sevilla Nueva, or New Seville, and afterwards entitled Sevilla del Oro, or Golden Seville, from the great amount of gold displayed by the natives in their dress. During the 16th century the Spaniards indulged in their habitual cruelty towards the natives. The records of the island reek with bloodshed, and, in the course of the first half of the 17th century, during which Jamaica remained under Spanish rule, the aborigines had become almost extinct.
It is well known that the British conquest of the island is due to the energetic foreign policy of Cromwell. That great ruler made war on Spain probably from mixed motives. The foe of Armada days still posed, in her decline, as the great Catholic Power, and the Catholics were the one exception to Cromwell's rule of religious tolerance. The Catholic power was also the trade monopolist beyond Atlantic waters, and a British ruler, jealous for the rising commerce of his country, would not tamely regard the exclusion of her trade-ships from the West Indian seas.
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