They were summoned by the English admiral to take the oath of allegiance
to England or to leave the island. But they declared that they could do
neither; that they were born subjects of the King of Spain, and knew no
other allegiance; and, on the other hand, that they were natives of
Jamaica, and had neither friends nor kindred elsewhere. They implored
him, therefore, not to exact an impossible oath, nor yet to turn them
adrift in the wide world. But the misfortunes of Spanish Papists were a
matter of little concern to English Puritans. They were expelled the
island, but leaving their slaves in the mountain forests of the central
ridge, they planted a seed which for generations bore bitter fruit to
their cruel enemies. These slaves became the nucleus of those formidable
Maroon communities which for generations were a terror to the island.
Their masters, having conveyed their families across to Cuba, returned
with a body of Spanish troops, hoping, in their turn, to expel the
invaders. They intrenched themselves in a natural fastness that appeared
impregnable, and an English messenger being sent to demand a surrender,
the venerable governor, Don Arnoldo Sasi, it is said, ordered him to be
shown around the fortification, that he might see that it was impossible
to take it, and then dismissed him with a handsome present. But the
English soldiers knew no such thing as an impregnable fortress; they
soon stormed the height, and, as the Spaniards were fleeing along the
cliffs, picked them off like so many crows. A few attendants hurried
down the aged governor to the sea, and conveyed him across to Cuba. And
thus perished the tranquil and happy colony of St. Jago de la Vega. The
victors took possession of the deserted town, which has finally become
the seat of government. But they changed its Popish appellation of St.
Jago de la Vega to the homely but unimpeachably Protestant name of
Spanishtown, which it still bears in popular use, although officially it
has resumed its former designation. There were two Roman Catholic
churches in the town, each of which gave the name of its patron saint to
the street on which it stood. But the Puritans would know them only as
Whitechurch street and Redchurch street--names which, I believe, still
remain, curious monuments of Puritan scrupulosity in that southern land.
Spanishtown has increased in population to about five thousand, and in
its palmy days of slaveholding prosperity exhibited doubtle