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The pirates, or buccaneers as they were called at the time, hid out on the island of Hispaniola (today Haiti and Dominican Republic) where they could live free from any government or laws. The island had been abandoned by the Spanish after the 1590s because the indigenous population had been destroyed by disease and transporting slaves to the island became too costly; also, the gold deposits on the island had been exhausted and so the Spanish abandoned the island and moved to the mainland of Central America where there were both more Indians and gold. So the spot where Colombus had first landed – Hispaniola - was left abandoned almost a century after he had arrived. The Spanish left behind cattle on the island which reproduced rapidly and this made the island a popular spot for runaways and criminals – they had a food source and something to trade. Morgan became the leader of this rag-tag group of men on Hispaniola. San Andres and Old Providence, under Morgan’s leadership, would become important outposts in his and the pirates raids on Spanish America. But Morgan wasn’t the first person to arrive on the islands of San Andres and Old Providence; other Europeans had arrived on the islands in the 1630s. They were Puritans and they sailed to Old Providence on a ship called the Seaflower. This was the other Puritan colony that most people don’t know about; of course, the other, and more famous, was the Massachusetts Bay Colony whose founders came over on the Mayflower the sister ship of the Seaflower. The Puritans were forced off the islands by the Spanish, but the islands were recaptured by Morgan – many of the Puritans would eventually leave the islands and settle in the U.S. or in the Bocas del Toro region of Panama. Morgan was
certainly no Puritan and he used the islands as an outpost to intimidate
the Spanish: he raided Gran Grenada, Nicaragua in 1663; Portobello, Panama
in 1666; and his most daring raid, Panama City in 1671. San Andres and
Old Providence were the islands he fell back to after his raids and where
he planned and commenced many of his operations. The British, through Morgan,
were slowly intimidating the Spanish and the Spanish popualtion on the
Caribbean coast started to pull back to their Pacific strongholds. Eventually
the Caribbean coast would become a British sphere of influence: the Mosquito
Kingdom was an informal part of the British Empire, and the mahogany colony
of British Honduras (Belize) was the only formal colony the British ever
established in Central America. Some historians, notably the British historian
Niall Ferguson, consider Morgan and men like him to be the real founders
of the British Empire because they stayed in the region and invested after
their conquests – Morgan would become deputy governor of Jamaica and a
large landowner in the colony; he would never return to Wales. But more
importantly, men like Morgan set an example and a pattern that many British
subjects would continue for four centuries: grabbing land and then, slowly
at first, carving out a colony in the name of Great Britain, though never
wanting to return to Great Britain to make a life. What I find interesting
about that analysis is that if it is correct then the most distant and
remote part of the British Empire – the western Caribbean and Central America
– an area the British never really were able to colonize and control because
of the great distance from Great Britain and the proximity of the U.S.,
would be the place where the greatest Empire in the world began, an Empire
that at its height controlled 25% of the world’s people.
Men like Morgan disappeared from the Caribbean after the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick which ended the War of the Grand Alliance and committed the British to a policy of stopping piracy in the Caribbean. The British slowly pulled back from the Central American coast and the western Caribbean after 1783 when it signed a treaty with Spain; under the treaty almost 3,000 British subjects left the Central American Caribbean coast and western Caribbean; they fell back to the British naval strongholds of Jamaica and St. Lucia. San Andres and Old Providence were awarded to Spain in 1786 and were integrated into the Audencia of Panama and then, in 1822, like Panama, they became part of Colombia. To San Andres Before I arrived in San Andres I asked friends in Panama if they had ever been to the island and what it was like and what I should look out for. Everyone said the same thing: “Johnny Cay, Johnny Cay, Johnny Cay, you need to go to Johnny Cay”. Johnny Cay is a small cay off the coast of San Andres; it is only a short boat ride away; there is a beautiful beach on Johnny Cay and it’s a fun place to spend the day. Another friend told me he had visited the island in the 1960s and while on the island had stayed right next to a small villa where Marlon Brando was staying for the weekend. Brando was filming the movie Burn in Colombia and had taken a break from the shoot to visit San Andres. Another friend told me the island had been made a free-zone by the Colombia dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla in the 1950s and that Pinilla had encouraged mainland Colombians to immigrate to the island as a way of securing it for Colombia. Many Colombians emigrated to San Andres as a way of escaping the violence in Colombia. I was told that the family to know in San Andres was the Archbalds. My friend also told me that because of the heavy migration, the island had become overpopulated and that there was now a shortage of freshwater on the island as well as land. In addition to the advice I received from friends, I had read that Nicaragua had an historic claim to the island, but that no one on the island wanted to be part of Nicaragua. The Protestant inhabitants wanted to be free from the Colombians and wanted to develop closer ties with the British and Jamaicans. Most of the Protestants on the island had grown up with an English education and English customs. The British had no interest in pursuing a closer relationship. The Catholic Colombians on the island wanted the island to stay tied to Colombia: they were given preferential treatment and jobs because of their religion. I also read that there was thought to be oil in the waters near San Andres and that the oil might be located in either Colombian or Nicaraguan waters: the Colombians had increased their naval presence on San Andres just in case. The U.S. had a claim on some small islands nearby and the Colombians allowed the DEA to use the island as a place to track drug shipments through the Caribbean. In other words, the politics on this small island were hot. We arrived in San Andres from Panama on Copa Airlines, the Panamanian national airline which has direct flights to San Andres. Copa is a good airline; a few years ago it went into a partnership with the American-based airline Contential and this has greatly improved its quality of service. In fact, Copa is Contential’s official partner in Latin America. The flight from Panama is exactly one hour on a clean and very new jet. There was a group of American tourists from Texas on the plane who were flirting with the Panamanian hostesses and stewards. They were up for anything it seemed after having spent six days rolling around in Panama’s nightlife. There was a group of evangelical Christians on the plane who were from Texas as well; they were coming to preach to the local Protestants. They were both young and old and talked as though they had traveled extensively in Latin America winning converts. We went through customs quickly; wires hung from the ceiling to the computers at customs and the air conditioning was very good. There was a Muslim woman waiting just outside the baggage claim area; I would find out later that there is a mosque on San Andres. We caught a cab to our hotel: the cab was a very big 1980s-style American luxury car shaped like a box with all the electric windows busted and stained crimson valor seats; wires hung down from behind the radio and the smell of cigarettes and the sight of black burn marks on a crimson plastic dashboard fatigued the senses. The driver was sweating profusely and sweat dripped from his permed long curly hair onto his arms; he didn’t want to chit-chat too much with me. The ride took only three quick minutes. We stayed at a hotel run by the Decameron group. The hotel was old and didn’t have freshwater but rather saltwater in the pipes: this detail had not been part of the colorful brochure we looked at when planning the trip. We also found
out that the island was “dry” as they were having elections to choose the
new governor in two days and so no one could drink; the hotel staff encouraged
us to run off to the spirits shop to buy a bottle after we arrived. We
did. We were there to celebrate a birthday so the inability to get drinks
- the hotel was all-inclusive - dampened things. The beaches were nice,
but there are too many people on the island. I learned later that the island
has the highest population density in the whole Caribbean.
In the early evening we went to a seafood restaurant that was colorful and looked like it was going to be great fun. We sat at the back of the restaurant and hoped to sit down and enjoy the water and the sound of the ocean, when suddenly a violin kicked up and started playing, but only in short bursts. The playing went on all through dinner at this strange tempo. The violin player played, then stopped and looked at his violin and then went back to playing – he did this for at least an hour and a half. When the bill came the price was about double to triple of what it should have been and so the tightness came in; we were able to get a few beers with dinner but they had cost way too much, possibly due to the ban on alcohol. We walked back towards the hotel along the beach and that’s when I saw the evangelical preacher up on a small stage talking about Jesus and God and saving souls. The evangelical preacher was dressed in what he thought was a colorful “native costume”; it was powdered blue with a kind of tie dye-esque pattern; the shirt and pants matched and he was very big and with a beard. His sermon was translated into a very high-pitched and excitable form of Spanish: cartoonish sounding Spanish. Immediately in front of the stage on which the preacher was giving his sermon were American friends of the preacher; they looked out into the crowd and encouraged people to step forth and be saved. But it didn’t look like anyone was all that interested; they looked with long faces and silently sat back and listened. When we arrived to the room we turned on the television. An evangelical Christian station from Nashville, Tennessee was playing. We caught just the end of the program and noticed that Jesus Christ was in the credits that rolled up the screen. The next day we visited some of the other hotels on the island. Marazul and San Luis were also part of the Decameron chain. Both were find, but nothing exceptional and we sat around the pool at both hotels and enjoyed the sunshine. We drove past a road sign that said Orange Hill. I liked the name and liked the way the town was perched on a small hill; not going there was the only thing I regretted about the trip. The people on the beach in front of San Luis were fun and affable: the sun is very hot on San Andres. Saturday night there was absolutely nothing to drink. We noticed the second evening that the evangelical Christians were preaching again on the street in the same way at the same place as the night before. They were now huttled together like an American football team and twitching and repeating phrases. There was really nothing to do: everything on the island was closed because of the elections. We headed back to the hotel and the next day we went to the very sweaty airport and checked in and flew back to Panama. That’s really all I have to say about San Andres Island. Other articles by the author:
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Lost
Valley Of Panama ~ 
